Working for Wildstorm and Top Cow, from colorist to art director, Richard Isanove
has commanded respect and appreciation from many in the comic industry.

Q: First, I'd like to know how you ended up a computer colorist. (I'd love a long story about what lead you to your first coloring job!)
Richard Isanove: Well, I came from France to the USA as an exchange student and after I graduated, I decided to stay a little bit and try to get a job. A friend of mine from school had been an intern at Homage Studio in San Diego during the Summer just before Marc Silvestri decided to separate Top Cow from Wildstorm and move to Los Angeles.

I went to Santa Monica and met with Brian Haberlin who was running the color department at the time. He liked my portfolio which was mostly of paintings and drawings, I had a very basic knowledge of Photoshop but they let me stay and watch and learn from the other colorists.

There was Brian, Tyson Wrengler and Ashby Manson. At the time, they were only doing 2 books: Cyber Force and Stryke Force so it was pretty calm and people would come in when they felt like it and work as they wanted. I used to spend a week on a page, trying to get it right. A few months later Jonathan D. Smith joined us, then Steve Firchow, and later Dean White.

Those were incredibly fun times: we all liked working at night and we would spend the whole time chatting and working, talking with the pencilers and the inkers, playing Video games and listening to music until the break of day. Then, a year after I started, Brian haberlin decided to go and work for Todd [McFarlane] on Spawn. They offered me Brian's old job and I became Art Director of the Color department. By now we had 4 more regular books: Weapon Zero, Witchblade, Ripclaw, the Darkness. Add on to that the Cyber Force special origins issues, The Marvel crossovers, the pinup books, etc... It had become a pretty busy place but I still tried to keep the number of colorists to a minimum just so it was still possible to supervise the overall quality. I also became pretty good friend with with Brandon Peterson after collaborating on the one shot "Misery". I computer-colored "Spawn/Witchblade" and then "Arcanum", while still supervising the other books. After a year and a half of working 20 hours a day, 7 days a week, without vacations or Week- Ends, I decided to take it easy and start explore new horizons.

I'm now freelancing for about everybody from DC to Marvel, and every company in-between. I work from home mostly by mail and through the Internet, and still spend most of the time on the phone with my friends from the Top Cow days. And we still help each other when the deadlines are getting too hard to meet.

Q: What classes had you taken that helped you become a good colorist?
Richard Isanove: I actually spent a lot of time in school: I went to an art high school in France, then I spent three years at the Fine art university where I decided I didn't want to be an art teacher so I went to study at the Ecole Nationnale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. There, I specialized in film, video and animation for four Years. After graduation, I went to the California Institute of the Arts, the animation School, created by Disney.

As for the most useful classes, of course, the color theory courses came in pretty handy, but it's mostly the drawing and painting that taught me shading, lighting and how to play with contrast and shadows. A photo class can also be useful to learn how to stage a dramatic light.

Q: A penciler needs to know perspective, anatomy and storytelling, an inker needs to know depth and shadow, what must a colorist know?
Richard Isanove: You need to know your anatomy to be able to complement the work of the penciler, understand the storytelling, depth and shadow to be able to enhance every aspect of the drawing. In this job, everybody relies on the others so the best penciler is the one that knows what to leave open for the colorist while still indicating strong light sources, a good inker will add depth and textures, so as a colorist you have to be able to look at the page and understand what the artist is trying to do. There is much more than just coloring within the lines, you have to really put yourself in the head of the penciler and inker, recognize what they are aiming for, and try to take it a step further. So, in conclusion, the better understanding of every aspect of the work you have, the better you're going to be able to do your part.

Q: Are there any books you know of that can be helpful? (Anything from software instructional manuals to books about painting?)
Richard Isanove: Well, we work with photoshop, so I guess any tutorial would be useful, but once again, you will find the information you need in painting and drawing manuals.

Q: What would you like to say to all the pencilers and inkers as advice that would make your job easier?
Richard Isanove: One thing: use your light sources wisely. Make sure that your lights are coherent, don't overdo it with the secondary lights. Always try to be as simple and effective as possible. If you look at the old extreme studio books, everything is lit by at least three light sources of different colors. It's ugly, impossible to read, impossible to color. They think that people are gonna like it because it's all shiny and bright. If you look at the greatest painters like [Frank] Frazetta, they use one dramatic light and maybe a secondary to help push the contrast.

Q: Who's your favorite colorist?
Richard Isanove: The guys I worked with: I like Brian Haberlin's and Tyson Wrengler's synthetic and effective approach, JD Smith and Liquid! for their understanding of the comic book color vocabulary, Ashby Manson for his love and knowledge of color theory and Steve Firchow for the subtlety of his color choices.

Q: What are the most commonly repeated mistakes you see new colorists doing?
Richard Isanove: Poor knowledge of the lighting technique and believing that the computer does the work. They use filters and special effects without trying to incorporate them in the art. like pasting a cloud or a fire special effect instead of creating one on their own. It take the personality out of the art and it makes them slaves to the technology instead of using it for their own sake. You have to control your tool, and that's all the computer is, and not let it control you.

Q: Is all coloring done on computer nowadays? Are the "freehand" days gone?
Richard Isanove: I'm afraid that except for the fully-painted books like "Kingdom Come", every mainstream book nowadays is colored on computer.

Q: Is there a demand for more colorists, or is the market currently too small to employ everybody, like the case seems to be with writers and artists?
Richard Isanove: It is a shrinking market for everyone, it's not too small, but you can never be sure whether your book is going to be canceled or if the company you're working for is going to go under any time.

Q: Do you color any non-comic stuff?
Richard Isanove: I still paint, and once in a while people ask me to do book covers, pinups, illustrations or ads. But, most of my work is comicbook related.

Q: How long does it take for you to color a page?
Richard Isanove: Depending on the complexity of the page and how familiar I am with the artist, it can take between from 2 to 24 hours. The average is between 6 and 8 hours

Q: What equipment do you use -- from computer to scanner, and which program(s)?
Richard Isanove: I have a PC Pentium Pro 300 MHz Dual processor with 256 Megs of RAM. I have 21 inch Viewsonic Monitor, An Epson Stylus printer, and a crappy Plustech Scanner that I almost never use since clients usually e-mail me the scanned pages. Also very important is the Wacom graphic tablet. I exclusively work on Photoshop.

Q: This question I'd like you to elaborate on as much possible: "Describe how you color a page step by step." Step one being: You just got the page to color in your hand.
Please try to not use too many technical words, beginners must be able to follow your steps, with all the layer-switching and brushes.

Richard Isanove:

Q: After the coloring is done, will the printing affect how dark/light it'll turn out in the comic. What can you do to make sure your finished piece ends up as intended?
Richard Isanove: Nothing, there is nothing to do. The printing will go one way or another, sometimes too dark or too light, to pink or too blue, etc... you get used to it and hope for the best. All you can do is aim for an average. If the book is ahead of schedule, the printer will send you a proof so you can make some adjustments, but books are always late.

Q: Lastly, we'll do a "Points to remember when coloring" section. I'll list a mess of objects, and you tell me what one needs to be aware of.

~FIN~