Udemy – A Pro's Guide to Digital Comic Book Coloring

What you'll learn
Learn everything from the very basics of layering to finishing pages with special effects.
Understand color theory as it applies to comic art.
Master the art of storytelling as you learn about plane separation, strategic rendering, and the importance of value and contrast in your pages.
Learn effective techniques for adding color to line art in different styles from traditional lasso "cut and grad" style and more.
Learn which layer modes work best for different effects.
Learn tips on portfolio building, finding work as a colorist, and collaborating with other creators.
Save time with tons of tips, tricks, and shortcuts that are critical to working in production of comic art.
Students will be more confident in their coloring abilities and have a solid understanding of what color in comics really is.
Students will understand how pro colorists think about color in comics and sequential art.

Requirements
Photoshop is used throughout this course. These techniques can generally be applied to other apps such as Clip Studio in most cases.
Graphics tablet (strongly recommended). Coloring is possible with a mouse, but it's harder.
The provided Tool Presets for brushes, lasso and bucket settings require Photoshop CS6 or higher, but I also provide the manual settings if you use an older version of Photoshop. There are no presets for older versions or other applications.
Be ready to learn a lot!

Description
The Pro's Guide to Digital Comic Book Coloring will not only teach you how to color in comics, but also how to think as a storyteller. It will teach you new skills or expand on your knowledge of sequential comic book coloring.

This course is the result of everything I had learn the hard way! My name is K. Michael Russell, and I've been published in over 70 comics as a colorist for companies like DC Comics, Image Comics, IDW, Top Cow, Oni Press, and more. I've taught thousands of students worldwide about digital art. Coloring can be a fun hobby, a part-time side hustle, or even a career. It all depends on the work you put in.

This course will take you through my entire process for coloring in Photoshop from the very basics of layer setup through special effects and post-coloring printing prep. There's a focus on learning the skills to make your pages read properly, leading the reader's eye to the important aspects, and being a storyteller throughout.

Enroll, and you’ll gain instant access to the entire course. Each lesson is easy to follow, step by step, and in real-time. There are 1000's of tutorials out there, but most show different methods that aren't related. These lessons build on each other - a real coloring curriculum and the most comprehensive available anywhere.

Here’s what you get!

You’ll get access to over six hours of real-time, easy-to-follow video lessons on a wide variety of topics in the order I'd recommend learning them:

The course starts with the basics. Setting up your workspace, installing my presets for brushes and tool settings, so you don't have to fiddle with settings. The presets require Photoshop CS6 or higher. If you have an older version of Photoshop, I also offer how to setup the tools manually.

Next you’ll learn how how to setup your line art and layers. There are many ways to do this, but I will show what I feel works best.

We'll go in-depth into all the major tools - lasso, magic wand, brushes, etc. They provide more functionality than most people think!

The basics of color theory are covered along with instructions for overcoming challenges unique to color in comics.

We'll cover the most important aspect of coloring, storytelling, with concepts such as separating planes (background from midground and foreground,) strategic rendering, value and contrast, etc).

I'll review several rendering styles that work on a variety of art styles.

We'll go through a full splash page together in five parts.

I'll also go over the basics of brush modes, creating special effects, multiple light sources, adjustment layers, textures, and more!

I'll show you how I prep pages for printing, build a portfolio, and I'll even tell my story about how I broke into comics!

What else will you get?

Lifetime access to course materials
Understanding of professional colorists think.
Downloadable Photoshop Tool Presets (CS6+ required), Photoshop Actions
A selection of professionally-drawn line art from some penciller friends of mine and projects I've worked on.
All of this... right here in one place. So stop wandering around the internet trying to figure this stuff out on your own! I hope to see you inside! :)

KMR

NOTE: This course could be viewed as version 2.0 of my previous coloring course on Udemy (Learn to color with Photoshop). There is some overlap in the content, but the videos here are all new with more detailed lessons and even more new and expanded techniques.

Who this course is for:
Beginner comic colorists looking to learn the entire process from start to finish all in one place..
Students looking to break into comics as a colorist.
Students looking to understand why storytelling is the most important thing in comic coloring.
Anyone who thinks that colorists just need to add color, light, and shadow to the line art.
Students who want to learn a professional's workflow.