Thoughts on Colors:

Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise Treasury Edition, Marvel Comics. Nominated for a 2024 Eisner.

Mixed media colors produced via digital and sewing techniques.

For years the language of colors has enraptured me. 

How does one color innocence? Confusion? Comfort? Awe?

Consider the feeling of colors. The salmon pink glow of a sunset. The vermilion red of a smoldering fire. The yellow-stained sclera of an aged scholar. The tender bright green of an unfurled leaf.

Abstract, and often uncontemplated by the conscious mind, colors speak volumes for themselves in art. And yet, how we perceive them is, arguably, the most subjective and relative aspect of any given work. 

In comics, specifically, colors can either support a singular, cohesive narrative, or, they can evoke a subtextual counter-narrative that creates tension through a separate dialogue.

To understand the effect of colors is to understand the complexity of emotions, the science of light and vision, and the psychology of perception. 

At its best, color theory focuses on the relationship and interaction between colors, rather than the mode of each color as it operates independently from the context of the entire palette in any given composition. For example, it goes beyond the surface of simply knowing which colors are complementary, to the understanding of what effect complementary colors have in application and why/when they should be used in art and design practices. The key is to grasp the interaction and interdependence of colors, in addition to the symbolic nature of each individual hue.