To Ref or Not to Ref…

So Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds Issue 5 (FCLW) comes out this week and that got me thinking about reference.  If you have ever seen an issue of Legion of Three Worlds (or anything George Perez has ever done for that matter) you know what an incredibly talented guy George is but, he does love the characters.  This series has been a challenge solely based on the amount of characters per page.  Now I know it must take George forever to research and draw (& the inker too) but as a colorist you get the job of making sure everyone’s belt, eyes, shoes, inside stripe on the left thigh, etc is correct.  (This also comes into play when we do something like Transformers–we got hate mail for getting Optimus Primes’ inside knee parts the wrong color, but that’s another story.)  One spread for FCLW #5 had 101 characters on it, let me repeat that 101, that’s a lot of eyes, hair, boots, gloves, etc.

Which brings me to my point, should the flatters be given reference and excepted to use it on a book like this?

(If you are color savvy skip this paragraph, if not read on…)

For those that don’t know, there are many steps to getting a page colored.  The first step is the flats.  Think coloring book and crayola’s, you get black & white line art and your job is to fill in all the spaces with color.  Every single space must be filled in and there are rules about which colors can be repeated and why.  I’m not trying to sell you on anything {subtle plug here} but we cover flatting in Hi-Fi Color for Comics if you are curious.

Now, Mr. Perez (& Geoff Johns who does the plots) had to look up all the reference to get the people right.  As colorists we get a list of people that are on the page and then we get to look most of them up too.  We do get help from editors and George himself but it is our job to see that the colors are correct.

So when we hand a flatter a 2-page spread with 101 characters and say “by the way this book is hot so we’ll need this finished by tomorrow” should we expect them to use the ref provided to make sure the boots, etc are correct before sending us the completed flat?  I am usually the one who gathers all that ref and gives it to the colorist, since I have it I usually give it to the flatter as well.  For this book I’ve started giving them the list of characters too so they at least have a chance of finding them on the page.

My way of thinking is that it’s easier to flat with ref, you don’t spend 10 minutes trying to decide what colors to use, which colors you haven’t used yet, etc.  Also, some of the older costumes are pretty much one or two colors–that’s it–thanks to the old way things were colored you didn’t get much choice or detail.  So, as the flatter, if you start breaking down stripes & gloves you may actually be making more work for yourself.

On the other side of the argument is the fact that flatters don’t get paid enough to worry about looking up the ref.  I agree, I don’t expect you to look up anything–I’ll provide it for you (except maybe Supes & Bats I mean come on even my mom knows those without looking!)  I also try to pay a bit extra for pages like the FCLW page–I mean 101 characters is crazy for anyone to do but, you do have to realize we don’t get paid anymore.  (John, one of our long-time flatters, thought it would be great to be paid per character on FCLW.  I told him that was a brilliant idea and that I would pass that along to DC. )  Also, as I said sometimes you end up making more work for yourself instead of just making the dude all green or whatever.

This comes up in another way in books like Flash Rebirth (which comes out next week I think) with all it’s lightening and effects.  Some flatters get all excited and make rainbows out of all those streaks–really they are about 2 colors, you just have to figure out which is which.

So I guess, I see both sides but I will probably continue to provide ref if I have it and hope that people follow it.

On a whole different note, incase you live in some small, far-off part of the world and didn’t realize it… San Diego Comic-Con starts today.  Hi-Fi will be there in full force, signing, presenting, sitting on panels, doing portfolio reviews, and partying.  Let’s face it I’m in it for that last one.  Not only do you get to see TONS of cool and amazing stuff at Con but you also get to hob-nob with the bigwigs or just friends you’ve met along the way.  There are parties every night and most of them are open to anyone so look around (or listen around) and we hope to see you there.

If you are curious, our full schedule (except the parties) can be found on this site as well as http://www.hifidesign.com We will be posting up random photos on the Hi-Fi site so you can feel like your there but without the smell and the crowd.

Next week: Con wrap up ‘cause I’ll be too tired for anything else!

Kristy Miller

VP, Development

Hi-Fi colour design