Okay, Gerry Turnbull asked that I start a thread where I give him some pointers on one of his colouring jobs. I'm making this preface so people don't think I'm just picking on him

I thought I'd start with this Avengers piece, 'cause there are some great things about it and some things that could use some tweaking.

First off, just let me state that I'm not going to talk about the modeling specifically (unless Gerry decides to ask for some advice on that as well), mostly 'cause this is almost completely done in flat colours. So, it's a good place to just talk about colour theory and storytelling.

I really like how the far background, the stuff in the left-hand corner, is mostly made up of cool colours (shifted toward blue), and also is much less saturated than all the foreground images. This really creates a lot of depth in the image, pulling the characters and the action into the foreground and making them stand out!

This is definitely the kind of thing you should keep up with, making it a bit more consistant in all your work. Specifically the part about making the background less saturated. You can have a background shifting to warm colours, as long as the foreground shifts to cool, but making the foreground less saturated and lighter than the background rarely works.

For the sky itself, I probably would have gone with an even lighter blue, putting it even further behind the buildings. But, really, this part works very well

Next, we move on to the middle-ground. The brown building works very well, being a much warmer colour than the far background. These two planes separate very well. And, the fact that most of the building is pretty much the same colour, it makes it simpler than the foreground characters, which pushes the characters even further forward, aiding in the storytelling.

The only real criticism about the building is the shade of blue used for the windows. That blue is so similar to the blue of the sky in the background that it almost looks as though there are holes punched into the building, so that you aren't looking at the interior of the building or reflections on the windows, but behind the building instead. A better choice would be a light yellow or orange, something warm to pull it into the same plane as the building, and light to keep it from being pulled all the way into the plane as the characters. There could easily be a yellow/orange light source or something similar behind the viewer causing that reflected colour. Another option would be to use another shade of brown or warm grey, but darker than the building. This would look like the shaded interior of the rooms the windows face out of. Just don't make it hugely darker.

Now we get onto the main characters.

Okay, I'll make one note on modeling, but it is a simple one:
If you are going to go the route of almost nonexistant-modeling, like here, you are probably best to carry it all the way through. That is, there should probably be no modeling on Scarlet Witch, Vision, and Iron Man's boot-jets. Those all stand out more because they look out of place rather than because of any faults in the modeling itself.

Alright, back to the colouring. Nice, candy-style comic book colours, nice and bright and saturated. This works really well here, pulling the characters away from the muted backgrounds.

I've circled the Vision, because he really stands out to me. With his phasing powers, I've always found it best if his colours were muted while phasing, to really bring home the fact that he is moving through the building, not just stuck in it. If the colours you use were about half the value you've got them at right now, they would probably work better for the character.

About the speed lines behind the Beast and the (unfinished, presumably )Yellowjacket.

The colour inside those lines tends to work best if it is lighter than the background. This works to emphasize the idea that the characters are moving through space, and that the speed lines aren't just random debris following them. Sure, you can do all kinds of fancy tricks regarding colour holding the lines or putting in gradients in the line areas, but really just making that colour the same as the background only about half as dark/saturated will work just fine.

Energy effects.

I've circled Yellowjackets blast and the Scarlet Witch's hex effects, because there are problems with both of them.

With Yellowjacket, the problem is that he is bright yellow, he is shooting a bright yellow beam, and the beam is hitting Count Nefaria's bright yellow cape thingie. This is creating an odd pattern for the viewer, a strange yellow shape rather than three distinct pieces. You are better off making the beam white, or, better yet, light yellow (white would begin to merge with the Count's shoulder). Actually, a nice rich orange colour would work very well, still keeping with the basic colour scheme.

I'm not sure if Yellowjacket's beams are always done as yellow in the comics - like most character's energy weapons, I'm pretty sure they've changed colour depending on the colourist. Storytelling and character separation always trumps adherence to past colouring, actually - if, for example, Spider-Man and Daredevil are standing in such a way that the reds on their costumes overlap, one of them should have a slightly darker red, or one where the red has shifted to pink or orange, anything do differentiate the characters.

With the Scarlet Witch, that dark purple colour is a tricky one to work with - even though it is very saturated, it easily blends in with muted colours around it. A better choice would probably been a lighter purple, shifted toward red/pink.

Overlapping the same colour.

Okay, I've circled where Iron Man's boots overlap the Scarlet Witch's cloak (and I should have done the same thing with Cap's boot).

I think the best choice overall would be to simply make the inside of the Witch's cload a darker red colour, thereby easily solving both problems.

A note about Iron Man - generally, he works really well if there is a thin line of white along all of his edges - this adds to the idea of reflecting metal, and helps separate him from any backgrounds.

The foreground, er..., ground.

I like the grey/purple ground here. It separates very well from everything else without jumping out like the characters.

I keep harping on the word 'separation'. That is a vital concern in colouring, and one of the reason why coloured comics sell better and are more popular overall than black and white ones. With good colouring, even mediocre inking works better, conveying the storytelling much more clearly. It can save pages that seem to be a blurry mess and turn them into something at least passable.

Unfortunately, bad colouring can ruin even an excellent page, turning what had been elegant lineart into a muddied, confusing mess.

So the key word for colouring is 'separation'.

And, no, I'm not dumping your colouring into the 'bad colouring' department And I'm not dumping this artwork into the 'mediocre' department, either, just to be clear

I hope these notes have been some help - I'm sorry that I don't have the time to do a snazzy Ian-version colouring of this image, but I really don't think it needs it anyway

Any questions, please feel free to ask.

I really appreciate you sharing tips like this, Ian. It truly helps out a bunch.

Fantastic, thanks Ian.Having had absolutely no art training whatsoever, its excellent to get advice from a professional.The Avengers piece as you guessed is unfinished, the whole right hand side,Beast,Nefaria and yellowjacket the windows etc are incomplete.Modelling does pose me problems, i much prefer the classic flat colouring style, but most images demand/require some modelling.I think my modelling attempts can be quite cack handed, but hopefuly im getting there? I find myself agonising sometimes about colour choices, and sometimes do half a dozen versions before settling on one that works for me.Scarlet Witch's Hex was about the fifth colour i tried!
If you have the time, ill listen to all the advice you can give.
And please dont pull any punches, id like to learn as much as possible!

This was fascinating and the analysis, intuitive.
Do either of you guys believe a PhotoShop2 program in the hands of the innocent
could provide saturations and separations of this caliber? I'm starting with it. Still
muddling through the first thousand or so 'BAD drawings' but you are right about color
and it's something the web-comics we make could use.

When you say PhotoShop 2, are you referring to CS2, Photoshop Elements 2, or Photoshop 2.0?

The program itself isn't what makes this work - although, granted, there are few programs as useful or versatile for colouring than Photoshop - rather, it's the skill and patience of the person using it.