Matt Hollingsworth

@matthollingsworth.bsky.social

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Neurodivergent dude, color artist for Marvel, DC, and Image comics, noob prose writer, and brewer.

www.matthollingsworth.com
writing:
Interzone: https://interzone.press/iz-299/
Moonlit Path: https://tinyurl.com/5f76pws3

Posts Replies Media

Snippet from my story "When I Was the Red Baron" in the attached image. It appears in Interzone 299. Buy the issue here: shop.interzone.press/b/6iXIM

Review of my story: ‘When I Was the Red Baron’ by Matt Hollingsworth feels like a Stephen King story. It has a strong narrative voice... and it ends with a narrative punch that is satisfyingly horrific. supernova.reviews/2024/07/13/i...

Detail from a shot taken at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh recently.

A page from Guardians of the Galaxy Annual. Written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, drawn by Kev Walker, and colored by me. Marvel. 2024. #comics #comicsart #colors #colorart #guardiansofthegalaxy #marvel www.marvel.com/comics/issue...

For people following my color experimentation with Clip Studio Paint, here's the latest. I think I worked out a solution that gets Affinity Photo to 90% of what PS gets when it converts to CMYK. The 3 images are from PS, then Affinity Photo, then Clip Studio Paint. I'll explain what I did. 1/many

So, the results from both Affinity and CSP were improved. The solution is to change your working profile to Adobe RGB. Most other apps default to sRGB. For CSP, go to preferences, color conversion,a nd choose Adobe RGB for the RGB profile. See attached. For Affinity go to settings, color.

For anyone following the thread about outputting color from Clip Studio Paint, after messing with it a lot today, it seems the color output from Affinity is only better if the file originated in Photoshop. If from CSP, the color is better coming straight out of CSP. See attachment. PS-AFF-CSP.

Reply to

Bertine van Hövell

First image shows where and how I converted the image using my ICC profile in Krita. Second image shows PS CMYK on the left, then CSP, then Krita on the right. Third image shows PS on the left, Krita on the right. Krita did some damage to the colors during conversion. No offense intended.

Reply to

Matt Hollingsworth

In this comparison, CSP beats Affinity for CMYK conversion. PS on the left, then Affinity Photo, then CSP on the right. The page originated in CSP and was entirely painted in CSP. The oranges in the explosions are more vivid from CSP, but PS still beats CSP CMYK conversion.

Reply to

Matt Hollingsworth

So, for this one, the file was flattened, but left in RGB, then converted to CMYK in PS on left, Affinity in the middle, and CSP on the right. Again, Affinity is very close to PS, while CSP CMYK output deadens the yellow-orange-red colors. It seems to me, that Affinity Photo is worth a look.

To "soft proof," which means to preview in CMYK, in Affinity Photo, go to layer/new adjustment layer/soft proof. Then select your ICC profile and "relative colorimetric." So, if you want to do any adjustments before outputting, you should preview in CMYK for accurate color.

Reply to

Matt Hollingsworth

Now let's compare a page from Seven to Eternity, drawn by Jerome Opeña and colored by me in Photoshop. Same order, so PS on the left, then Affinity Photo, and CSP on the right. Opened with all layers intact, incudling adjustment layers, etc. This is what it looks like while still in RGB.

Here's the CMYK conversion. PS on left, Affinity in the middle, CSP on the right. And, wow. Look what Affinity did with the greens and blue-greens. Looks decent, but that wasn't the intention when I was coloring it. And look how much CSP dulled the yellow-orange-red colors.

Reply to

Matt Hollingsworth

Here's that same page I was posting before. On the left, is CMYK conversion done in Photoshop. In the middle, it's from Affinity Photo, and on the right, Clip Studio Paint. This is using that same ICC profile I showed you how to use. I used the eyedropper tool with a 31x31 average to sample color.

Reply to

Matt Hollingsworth

In some tests, PS and Affinity output looked the same. But in this one, Affinity and Clip Studio look closer. This is a page I colored today in CSP. On the left is output from PS, in the middle is Affinity, on the right is CSP. Check out the explosions in panels one and four, and the reds in P2.

Reply to

Matt Hollingsworth

So, how do you do it if you don't want to use Adobe apps? Affinity Photo, that's how. In the attached image, I've flattened everything but the lineart and converted this to CMYK in Affinity Photo. Now, go to select/selection from layer intensity. That will select your lineart. Now we'll trap.

Now, in Affinity, INVERT your selection first, but doing shift/command/I, then go to select/grow/shrink. Probably -2px is good. On the upper right, you'll see your colors. Choose CMYK from the dropdown menu so your sliders are CMYK. Now put 67/57/56 for your CMY values. Select your background layer.

Now choose edit/fill with primary color to fill in that backing color, shrunk down two pixels.

Reply to

Matt Hollingsworth

Here's a page drawn by Elsa Charretier, and colored by me, for Love Everlasting. The first image is the page output from CSP, in CMYK, as viewed inside Photoshop to check the colors. The second image is the RGB document inside CSP with the color preview turned on.

Now, here's the same page with the CMYK output from Photoshop on the left, and from CSP on the right. If you're coloring in CSP, you might prefer what you have from CSP, but this page was colored in PS, so my intention was the first, more saturated image.

Image comparisons all use the same exact ICC profile. Now, let's check out what Affinity does with the color. In Affinity Photo, go to Document/Convert Format/ICC Profile. For color format, choose CMYK/8. Scroll and find your ICC profile, and for rendering intent, choose Relative Colorimetric.

Then go to file/export. For Advanced/Pixel format, choose CMYK 8-bit. And make sure your ICC profile is selected. Hit EXPORT.

Here's a comparison. On the left, output from PS, in the middle from Affinity, on the right, from Clip Studio Paint. All blacks are the same: 67%C, 57%M, 56%Y, 100%K, for a total of 280% ink, as in the ICC profile. All three hit that mark. But check out the color variation.

Reply to

Matt Hollingsworth

If you want to create that ICC profile yourself, follow these steps. Marvel should be the same, but with 300% total ink. In PS, go to edit/color settings. Match what I have in the attached images. Under "working spaces/CMYK" choose "custom CMYK". In that pop up, for ink colors choose SWOP (Coated)

Match the other settigns, so dot gain standard 20%, separation type UCR, black ink limit to 100%, total ink limit to 280%. Then, hit okay. Then, under that worksing spaces area and CMYK where you just adjusted that, choose "save CMYK." See attached screencap. This will save out an ICC profile.

Clip Studio Paint tip of the day: To make D the hotkey to get black and white as your FG and BG colors, or to change that hotkey, go to Shortcut Settings/Options/Drawing color and scroll down. You'll see "Switch main color to black and sub color to white." Change shortcut, and you're good to go.

CMYK output tests. Used SC paper ECI, which is 270% total ink, 100% black, UCR color. I am NOT saying this is correct to use for printed comics. I'm just testing things to compare output. On the left in each image is Photoshop, in the middle is Clip Studio Paint, then Affinity Photo on right. 1/2-3

Reply to

Jamie McKelvie

From Wytches. Same file. On the right, CMYK layers. On the left, that's what the RGB layers did with the same file. And on the left, that's even after flattening and converting to CMYK. PS just can't do the math for color modes on layers in CMYK, imho. Spatters are linear dodge and subtract.

Reply to

Jamie McKelvie

Used that today. When I exported to PS, it acted differently. See that red arrow pointing at that icon. It imported with some layer blend effects. If I use the same color with a regular Linear Dodge layer, it doesn't look the same. And it actually looked better in PS than CSP. More impactful color.

Precious Metal #2, set in the same world as our Eisner-winning series Little Bird. Written by Darcy Van Poelgeest, drawn by Ian Bertram & colored by me in Corel Painter and Photoshop. In stores July 10th. @imagecomics.bsky.social imagecomics.com/comics/relea... #preciousmetal #comics #colorart