Color Choices

Cartoons are generally colorful for lots of reasons. Most often it’s because they are directed at children (note the bright packaging designs of candies that will catch a child’s eye at the checkout counter) and color means fun, or just because bright colors match the mood of the artwork.

Almost immediately after I created my first small website and began displayed some of my cartoons, I was surprised at the number of emails specifically commenting on the bright colors.

When I start out to create a cartoon and begin to draw it in my head, I generally have a good idea of what the final color scheme will probably be. As much of my work is displayed and used on the web, I try to confine myself to a web safe palette, leaning toward the primary colors (red, yellow and blue) as much as possible. Even within these three colors, I will tend to use the brighter shades when I have a choice. With those self-imposed guidelines, I’m practically guaranteed a cartoon that looks cheery and fun.

In addition to my primary color choices, I take great pains to avoid using black and grays, except of course, in the line art portion of the cartoon. Because black can be so overpowering and kill the life of the cartoon, I avoid using it if at all possible and substitute a dark red or green instead. For example, usually my cartoon car tires are shades of dark blue-green. It works because it close enough in value to black and people will easily accept oddball coloring in cartoons.

As I begin to color, I start by first adding any colors that are specifically required such as skin tones, or clothes that need to match previous drawings, or colors that a client may have asked for. Once those specific colors are laid down, I have a basis for a relationship with the other colors, so I can move on and make those choices.

Keeping with any one color range can be useful in certain situations, but if you’re not careful it can make the cartoon visually tiring. Unless I’m after a particular look and feel, if I find myself adding too much of one color, say red, I’ll search for places to add yellow as an offset and balance out the image, and give the viewer’s eye a place to ‘rest’. Along that line of thinking, it’s important to watch for colors that create ‘vibration’ when placed together. For example, red surrounded by blue of a similar value can cause eyestrain, and in the case of text, be very difficult to read.