Gedo Senki (Tales from Earthsea)

13th January 2006

Number 17 - The Scales Fell from My Eyes About "Colour"

Yesterday, because the head of the ink and paint division Ms Yasuda is on holiday, I spent two hours with the two people she had left in charge, staring at a monitor and making groaning noises as the colours we were looking for refused to appear.

Although we tried to go by Ms Yasuda's standards, this was incredibly hard.

Today I thought I'd write about the complex depths of colour selection. Ms. Yasuda often says "Colour selection is not just deciding on the colours, it's deciding what the things themselves are".

When we were deciding on colours for the characters, the first thing that Ms. Yasuda asked me was what materials their clothing was made from. The main character Arren's cloak is made from silk appropriate to his status as a prince. The cloak of the Archmage Ged, who wandered around the world, is woven from sturdy wool. Depending on whether the material is silk, or wool, or say cotton, the task goes beyond just simply choosing different colours - you need to select a colour whose colouring is appropriate for the material.

In other words, choosing colours involves choosing the material properties of objects, but goes beyond that to involve the image of the character themselves. The scales really fell from my eyes here.

Then, once the colour is decided, it is not just a matter of painting it in. Next it is necessary to think about the circumstances it is applied in.

Even if a colour is decided on in its normal state, the number of scenes where it can be used that way is not so great. Depending on morning, noon or night, or fine cloudy or rainy weather, the colours of everything there look different. Concretely speaking, even for the same night, the darkness of a moonlit night and the darkness of a candlelit room give different expressions to the colours.

Further, you also have to consider what happens when the colour is placed in the middle of the colours in the backgrounds the art department has painted, and whether the character is distant or close up in the screen.

Then finally, not only the character, but the whole screen has to be beautiful....

Colouring requires theory, which guarantees reality, and the sensitivity to depict things beautifully. I really have to bow my head to the people who do this job.