In this post I will be talking about the difference between coloring and rendering a drawing. Most of my examples are traditionally drawn but there is a shading demo at the end if you want to see a quick demo done in GIMP

Note: When I say render I am referring to the drawing realm only, I am not talking about rendering a picture by cutting it out using a program or 3D rendering.


Okey so, lets get started!

If I was going to ask you what is the difference between rendering and coloring what would you say? This might be an obvious answer for some or maybe even most people but to be honest I never thought about it until a few days ago when I was working on a picture. Well today I'm going to give you that answer, and even if you already know what I'm about to say please stay with me, I might say something new to think about, you never know!


If I was going to put simply the difference between rendering and coloring I'd say this:


Coloring = Colored "in the lines", or put color in the areas they belong.
Rendering = Making the image really pop, by adding shading and details so it looks more polished and professional.

Like this:



There is another key difference between coloring and rendering. If you color, obviously you need to use color to define the area, but rendering you do not need to use color to shade your sketch or pen drawings. If you use hatching, cross hatching and other types of ways to shade using patterns you are not coloring but making lines, yet you can still make something look three-dimensional.



Look at this drawing for example, the first image is pencil, the second is pen (Pardon the low quality images). As you can tell there is no media being used to color in the areas to make everything look defined, it's all rendered color-free.




Here are a few other ink/pen drawings, these don't have any color but they are fully rendered.




The truth of the matter is you do not need color to render pictures, you need color to bring another dimension of life to a picture. You can make photo realistic images without color, but there is something about color that makes an image look truly alive. Using color properly can make it look as if a person has blood running through their veins and life in their eyes, and flowers look so alive the scent is almost in the air. Color adds to be magic but it's not needed for the magic to begin.


Here's a picture I rendered first in pen but then I colored with watercolor. See how the color makes the character seem more alive? Now, I'm not a professional colorist but I think the results are still nice.
Where the shading is, there are pen lines, they might not be as bold but they are there.





There are different levels of rendering, you have the illustration above which is done in light coloring. Then you have this illustration where much more time was taken, more types of media are used and all the rest. The pen outline was rendered nicely, but the color made it alive.




You can still color and have amazing art. If you have ever watched Looney Tunes the characters themselves never had shading unless it added to a scene (like lightning or something dramatic) but they still looked alive somehow, even though they did not look "real" in the sense of visual realism. Part of that was of course the genius that was the late Mel Blanc but still voice acting aside, the expressions and visual appeal of the animation made them look alive. Or even Steam Boat Willie, The first official Disney cartoon, though maybe not the most advanced it still looked good even for it's age. No color, bad sound but it still was appealing.

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I'll end this with a little video, it's a shading demo me taking one flower and going from simply color to a more advanced rendering. It's done in GIMP but the principles still apply. I hope this was an enjoyable article, and thank you for reading!





God Bless,

~Moko

Very interesting...now if only I could actually draw!

Oh tish tosh! You probably could do fine if you gave yourself the chance.