Color appeals to nearly all of us and I remember the days before color television. I even recall my father discussing it at the dinner table concerning the attraction of color after which I thought: why bother? B & W television was presenting the shows well enough to my satisfaction; although my reflection on it was that of a little boy, I simply didn’t see the need for color tv. It was not because I did not like color or that I thought that B & W was better, but it was more that I thought the latter was enough.
Is this the reason I don’t use much color, if at all, in my drawings? No. The main reason is that I don’t see the need for color as the content works well with black, white, and gray. It’s not that it’s “enough” but that it is appropriate, whereas if I added color in some of my drawings this would be a mere paint-over, as it were. It really would not add much and might even be distracting. Now that I think about it in terms of television or movies, maybe my drawing is more film noir than it is technicolor. If one person is correct that my drawings fall into the category of “dystopian surrealism” (Rachel Gould in this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV0tbVb4Hxg), then I suppose that the lack of color makes more sense.
In the future, I wouldn’t be surprised if I employed color more though it likely would never be just for the inclusion of color for its own sake. Instead, I would hope that it enhanced the drawing. At least, I would hope that would be the reason; otherwise, it would just be the color-book effect wherein the drawing becomes a vehicle for use of color instead of the color supporting the composition and whatever thought the imagery presented.
So, currently, color in my drawings might be more of a distraction than an attraction. Yes, there are a few of my drawings that have color but it’s working more as black, white, and gray; I don’t think the color in those drawings really pops out at the viewer.
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