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Advanced Digital Comic Coloring Concepts & Techniques (Udemy.com)

Take your coloring skills to the next level in this follow up to "A Pro's Guide." This is not a beginner course.

Created by: Kurt Michael Russell

Last updated January 2020

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What you will learn

  • Students will have a solid understanding of rendering different surfaces.
  • Student will understand how best to use blending modes and adjustment layers and masks.

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Course Description

Advanced Digital Comic Coloring Concepts & Techniques is the follow-up to my course "A Pro's Guide to Comic Book Coloring." This course will teach you new skills and further expand on your knowledge of sequential comic book coloring in Photoshop, and is not designed for beginners to coloring.

My name is K. Michael Russell, and I've been published in over 70 comics as a colorist for companies like DC Comics, Image Comics, IDW, Top Cow, Oni Press, and more. I've taught thousands of students worldwide about how to think as a colorist. Coloring can be a fun hobby, a part-time side hustle, or even a career. It all depends on the work you put in. 

This course covers a wealth a material on a variety of subjects with lots of practical examples. "There are as many ways to color as there are colorists," a colorist friend of mine said recently. Here, I'll show you a few different methods for layering, lighting and shading techniques, how to color different surfaces like glass, metal, hair, and skin. 

I'll cover some of the quirks of color theory and color relativity and explain why color can be so scary! I'll teach you how to take advantage of Photoshop's adjustment layers, masks, and color modes to get a great final product.

Enroll, and you’ll gain instant access to the entire course. Each lesson is easy to follow, step by step, and in real-time. There are 1000's of tutorials out there, but most show different methods that aren't related. These lessons build on each other - a real coloring curriculum and the most comprehensive available anywhere.

Here’s what you get!

You’ll get access to over six hours of real-time, easy-to-follow video lessons on a wide variety of topics. 

  • The course starts with going over a few different layering and rendering techniques. There are a lot of ways to color in Photoshop. 

  • You'll learn about how to think in three dimensions instead of just two! I'll cover my techniques for coloring a variety of surfaces and special effects techniques. 

  • We'll go in-depth on choosing colors, minimal palettes, color blending, and color psychology. 

  • The basics of color theory are covered along with instructions for overcoming challenges unique to color in comics. 

  • We'll cover more of the most important aspect of coloring - storytelling... along with lessons on why realism can be a bad thing!

  • I'll teach you my thought process on matching coloring styles with line art styles as well as more details on blending modes. 

  • We'll go through rendering with adjustment layers - a new technique for this course, RGB vs CMYK, and color corrections. 

  • I'll provide tips on getting faster and teach you lots of shortcuts and things that will save you time - which is crucial in a production environment like comics. 

  • I'll also go over my thoughts on hardware and software, and industry FAQ on rates and professional expectations.

What else will you get?

  • Lifetime access to course materials

  • A deeper understanding of sequential coloring.

  • Downloadable Photoshop Tool Presets (CS6+ required), Photoshop Actions

  • A selection of professionally-drawn line art from some penciller friends of mine and projects I've worked on.

  • A big collection of pre-flatted pages from actual projects.

  • Full-issue breakdowns where I'll explain my thought process on coloring a project. 

All of this... right here in one place. So stop wandering around the internet trying to figure this stuff out on your own! I hope to see you inside! :)

KMR

NOTE: This course is not a beginner course. If you do not have some familiarity with Photoshop tools and coloring basics, please check out my other coloring course - "A Pro's Guide to Digital Comic Book Coloring." 

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Instructor Details

Kurt Michael Russell

Hi! I have been working professionally as a comic book colorist since 2011 and teaching digital coloring online on YouTube since 2013.

I learned about coloring the hard way early on, and I do my best to make sure that no one else has to take the same route I did! I'm still always learning new things and try to bring you guys along with me.

As of 2020, I've colored over a hundred books for publishers such as DC, Image, Vault, Dynamite, Chaos, Top Cow, IDW, Oni, and many others.


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Reviews

4.9

272 ratings on Udemy

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By Marcos Azzarello on 1/17/2025

This tutorial is my new all-time Favorite Coloring Guide. Kurt went over topics that I've had issues with for a long time, boiled them down, and made them easy to understand. I would highly recommend this course!

By Chance Hess on 10/16/2023

Fantastic coloring course! I'd honestly recommend this for any digital artist, regardless of interest in comics. This course does a fantastic job of tackling some detail-specifics of coloring that really give artwork that professional shine. I bought access to this course forever ago and I wish I had watched it sooner, especially the lectures on how lighting works. Brilliant class!

By Mario Dela cruz on 11/10/2022

It's an amazing course and the teacher Michael explain very well every concept, as I had not found any other course before, I think after this course I'm gonna get much more quality in my art and I'm gonna fallow the teacher Michael at every network he has, he is an amazing art teacher.

By Jose Luis Vasconcelos Baila Mendes on 4/23/2022

It is necessary to wait for the last lessons to understand the value of this course, introduction lessons are only for us to interiorize and understand how difficult are the subjects, probably if i had more knowledge and a better English i would apreciate more the first lessons. But I would like to congratulate Kurt, he knows what is doing, and he gives very important tips, and he is e really good teacher. If you want to improve your knowledge on coloring books this is the teacher that you have to attend.

By Nicholas Bramah on 3/12/2022

Excellent Examples, straightforward and easy to understand tutorials, and all the information is tailored to be as widely applicable as possible. In short, a perfect course for any digital artist, 2D or 3D that needs to understand exactly how to work with colour in a professional setting.

By Charles Thompson on 3/16/2020

I especially liked the critiques in the bonus sections. They gave me a sense of what a colorist does. Good coverage of masks in making color adjustments; will use that in photo editing. Also like the idea of using flat color layers to isolate areas of a photo.

By Carl Rossouw on 9/17/2019

Well I came here knowing that some lessons may not work for my as I do not have photoshop at this point but other than that I found this course to be very educational and well explained. He was clear and easy to follow while providing useful information

By Andrew Yeager on 5/9/2019

I finished this course a few months ago, except for the walkthroughs at the end. I just watched them and found them equally as informative and enjoyable. I've referred to lessons in this course many times since I finished it because the instruction is spot-on. It's well-organized by subject and that makes it easy to refer to something if I'm stuck in my work.

By Ira Camp on 2/16/2019

I have been an artist since I was a toddler. I collected comic books before starting kindergarten. I have studied comic book artist for decades. I have drawn comic and inked them on bristle board and colored them with watercolor dyes. Michael's earlier course on coloring comics using Adobe Photoshop has changed the way I will produce comics from now on. I learned about flatting and other powerful coloring techniques. In this advanced course, I learned how to reinforce the storytelling by using different color concepts and strategies. Michael gave great explanations on using the layer's blend modes, adjustment layers, and masks for different light effects. For me, the most useful part of Michael's course was the critique of his earlier work. That's when a lot of the earlier concepts he discussed earlier hit home. Michael's course is densely packed with information. I suggest that you go through this course multiple times to absorb all of the info. I know I will.

By James R. Cole on 1/24/2019

This was a very informative course. KMR is a very good teacher, and has many useful and interesting videos on YouTube. This Udemy course, and his companion beginner course, are both very much more expansive and comprehensive than the free YouTube content. It covers coloring of comics in a very in-depth way, and is very applicable in the real world. I have already incorporated many of these techniques in my own artwork, and am very grateful to have been granted access to this knowledge from this outstanding teacher. I would recommend both of these courses without hesitation.

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Overall Score : 98 / 100