A colorist's job is to complement the work of the pencil and ink artists, enhancing the mood they've created without distracting the reader with jarring colors and visual effects. While computer software gives a colorist an abundance of colors and effects to realize his vision, he has to resist the temptation of going overboard with the tools at his disposal. Editors expect colorists to understand color theory, knowing which colors complement and contrast against each other, and how to use their palettes to establish the mood for a scene. A visually dazzling display would be appropriate for an action scene in Green Lantern, where the hero's ability to create energy constructs with his ring lends itself to visual spectacle, but the same approach would be inappropriate for a typical Batman adventure, where a muted color scheme would more properly accentuate the story's darker tone.
Separators at printing companies only used cyan, magenta and yellow ink in gradients of 25, 50 or 100 percent to create the colors used in newsprint comics, limiting colorists to a 64-color palette. Colorists painted photocopied artwork with watercolor dyes to create a color guide, adding alphanumeric codes representing the combination of each ink to use. Subtle shades were difficult to achieve with this process. Marvel Comics' Hulk was originally gray, but the separation process often made him look more sickly than menacing. Since shades of green were easier to reproduce, the Hulk became an emerald behemoth in his second issue.
Professional colorists have a variety of software packages to choose from, each offering an array of virtual brushes, from traditional paintbrushes to airbrushes. They also provide an array of pre-packaged effects, enabling a colorist to apply filters or saturation to his finished work, or add touches to the art such as a metallic gleam from a belt buckle. A colorist works from a digitally scanned image of the line art, and begins his work by flattening the images on the page, separating the overall art into discreet forms to be individually colored. The colorist will use the pencil and ink art as a guide to determine the image's light source, which helps determine the color shades he'll use on each part of the image. Artists may include notes to the colorist with the scanned artwork to indicate specific colors or effects they want in the finished product.
Editors may elect to use traditionally painted art to provide color for special mini-series and one-shot projects. A painter typically begins by pencilling the layout for the finished page himself, or using a collaborator's pencilled artwork as the basis for his canvas. Once the page layout is complete, a painter can use a variety of mediums and techniques, from watercolors to airbrushing, to create the finished artwork for publication.