Award-winning comic book artist takes bland to beautiful
By John Koski
SLN Staff
If you asked a thousand people to guess what Jeff Balke of Elkhorn does for a living, odds are that not one in those thousand would come remotely close to a right answer.
Balke, you see, is a colorist. No, he doesn’t work in a hair salon, nor does he work in the paint department of a local home improvement store.
Balke’s medium of choice is comic books. He’s the guy who adds color to another artist’s pen-and-ink drawings. By adding color, he brings the drawings to life, making them look almost three-dimensional at times and, as Balke likes to say, helps them “pop” out of a comic book page.
The line drawing, top, of Michelangelo, one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, is what colorist Jeff Balke receives from another artist known as an inker. Balke then uses Adobe Photoshop to add color and shading to Michelangelo or “Mikey” as he is more commonly known.It’s a lesson he learned early in his career.
“When I first started out,” Balke said, “several people told me my style wasn’t ‘poppy’ enough.”
Balke said he had no idea what they were taking about until one of them took him aside and showed him how to modify his style to give his colorings more pizzazz and three-dimensionality.
“When I became interested in comic books,” Balke said, “I thought, ‘Wow, this is cool,’ because there are so many things you can do. At any given time, there can be six or seven people working on one comic book.
“To create a comic book,” he explained, “a penciler lays everything out and gets things nicely organized, then an inker comes in and darkens the lines and puts in shadows. Then, as a colorist, I come in and lay down all of the coloring and also do the shading, special effects and lighting.
Balke does all of his work in Adobe Photoshop using a stylus because it is more precise than a mouse. “It’s all done electronically,” he said.
“I enjoy being a colorist because I’m not just putting blue and red on a character like Spiderman and calling it a day,” he said. “I actually try to make the panel look three-dimensional, and I like that.”
Once Balke finishes the coloring, the comic book goes to a letterer who adds dialogue and explanatory text.
Getting started
“Like most kids at a young age,” Balke recalled, “I doodled with pretty much anything you put in my hands – crayons, markers, pens, pencils and chalk.
About 10 years ago, Balke, who is now 33, posted some of his drawings online.
“They were black and white drawings and they just weren’t getting much of a response,” he said. “Then a few people asked me if I had anything colored. The next day, I posted a Spiderman picture I had drawn and colored and the response was outrageous. The entire day, I got 35 to 40 positive comments and I thought, ‘Okay, maybe I’m on to something here.’
“Since then, I’ve just kept going and going and going.”
And indeed he has.
“I just completed my 100th comic book,” Balke said. “I’m very excited about that. It’s a huge milestone for pretty much anyone in this industry. It shows that you’ve been around for a long time and have the dedication it takes to succeed. You have to push yourself to be in this industry.
Not only did Balke demonstrate perseverance to achieve his 100-book milestone, his peers have also recognized the quality of his work.
In 2011, Balke won one of the comic book industry’s highest awards, the Shel Dorf colorist award. To prove it was no fluke, he was nominated for the award again in 2012.
“Shel Dorf is one of the founders of the San Diego ComiCon, which is one of the biggest comic book conventions in the world,” Balke said.
“I was extremely honored to even be nominated because the other colorists who were nominated all work for Marvel and DC, two of the biggest publishers of comic books,” he said. “I’ve never worked for those companies. I work independently. I’m a tiny, little indie guy and I beat out the colorists who work for the big companies. I think that says something.”
Personality plus
“What separates me from some of the other people in this industry is that I’m personable,” Balke said. “There are a lot of artists, in general, who are stand-offish. I’m not one of them. I enjoy going to conventions and shows and talking to people. I enjoy showing people how I do some of the things that I do, and I think a lot of people appreciate that.
“When I was starting out as a colorist,” Balke said, “I would ask some of the colorists I admired how they did certain things and I’d either not hear from them or they would give me a bland answer like, ‘Well, it’s just kind of one of the things I do.’
“Eventually, I figured it out and found my own style,” he said. “I love vibrant colors. My style is not real life; it’s a very comic-booky style.”
“If someone came up to me and asked me how to become a colorist I’d tell them to practice, practice, practice,” Balke said. “I’d also tell them to get a stylus and try not to work off of a mouse. It’s not impossible to work off of a mouse, but it’s very difficult. I’d also tell them to try to find a couple of artists they like and play with their line drawings and put their own colors to them.”
Coloring with Jeff
“I’ve been touring for the last four years,” Balke said. “This year, my ‘Coloring with Jeff’ tour will be appearing at 24 comic book shows.”
At the shows, Balke signs comic books he has worked on, completes sketches, and does some coloring using markers.
“At the shows, people are always asking me what a colorist does,” he said. “So I’m able to show them with my markers what I do as a colorist.
“When I’m at the shows, I love meeting new fans and just meeting people in general. I’ve always been like that. I have to be around people.”
When asked what the future holds, Balke said, “ I’ll be doing this until I retire, which I don’t know that I’ll ever do. I love creating things because it keeps my mind going all the time.”
For more information, visit Balke’s website at www.jbalkesart.com or his Facebook page at jbalkecolors.
