The new project I'm working on, the Spaceman Jax comic book, is a comic that we (Curio & Co.) will be presenting at SDCC 2014. It will look like the silver age comic from, size, colors and paper quality. Since the 60's is the time period that we are going for, I've had to do some research on the coloring process and the tools of that time, so that I can better obtain the desired look and feel for the product.
Back then the coloring palette was quite limited. Comic book colorist used a 64 color palette obtained by over imposing Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow using a combination of 0%, 25%, 50%, and 100% of each color and the 4th plate of 100% K (Black).
If you are interested there's a better summarized description of the process here: http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/sgrais/comics_color.htm
When I started doing the research I was looking for a photoshop palette that would meet the silver age coloring palet, but it seemed that it wasn't out there or I wasn't able to tell google exactly what I was looking for. So, I generated a Photoshop Swatch Pallet with these 64 colors plus 100% black, and is available here:
To add the color pallet go to the Swatches pallet on the top right of the pallet click and select "Reset Swatches…" or "Load Swatches…" or "Replace Swatches…" and navigate to where you've stored the pallet file you downloaded. The file should have the ".aco" extension so if your downloaded file didn't self extract you'll need to unzip it. As an aside If you are using this pallet, and planing to go to press with the file, I would suggest you work in a CMYK Color Mode, it makes things much easier specially for the use of 100% black.
Well, I hope that this file will be helpful for those of you who are creating images with a specific nostalgic feeling. Have Fun!
UPDATE:
Here is an other link to Comic Artists Direct that expelling the coloring process quite well. http://www.comicartistsdirect.com/articles/coloring.html
UPDATE:
Here is an other link to Comic Artists Direct that expelling the coloring process quite well. http://www.comicartistsdirect.com/articles/coloring.html
