Animation Paints - Doug meets color theory?

What does DOUG have in common with color theory besides the technicolored Humans?

In my previous post about color theory, I talked about my preferred 2D Animation software of choice which was Toon Boom Harmony Premium but the most I could talk about was manipulating the color values for each digital Cel. Doesn't sound like proper color theory talk.

When I talk about color theory, I talk more about contrast:

For example, the background should have a more neutral tone to the colors and be less interesting. Why? Because our eyes are supposed to pay attention to the characters which are highly saturated and very colorful.

That's what I like about Doug. The fact that they have very colorful technicolored humans to which when I was a kid, I thought the characters looked interesting with their literal colored skin tones. I've read the reason for the technicolored skin tones is due to diversity (At least in 1991 standards) but when I look at these skin tones, I actually look at how the artists at Jumbo Pictures had to think back to their knowledge of Color Theory.

There are multiple ways to discuss color Theory but I don't want to bore you with the details so instead, I'll show you this art piece I made during my freshman year in College.

Click on the image to enlarge.

The one with Miso and the High contrasting Value really does matter when I talk about Doug because that was representative of when the show switched to a better color palette circa 1993.

After 3 seasons, by the second half of the third season, the color palette changed and instead of that gaudy pastel palette seen above, we get as seen below a very nice and subtle high contrasting palette.

As seen in this screenshot from the Magic Meat episode, the background is dull but the characters are highly saturated, making them much easier to read.

My theory was whoever was in charge of the coloring department at Jumbo back in 1993 was inspired by this one screenshot from The Simpsons.

But look at how brightly light Bart is in this screenshot. The high contrasting colors really does make him the spotlight.

But color theory would only get you so far. It's how you control the colors, that's how it works. And often at times, when a series persists for longer via seasons or sequel series, the palette doesn't remain the same anymore. And Doug really showed us how that happened when the high contrasting palette was ditched for a more saturated look in the Disney series circa September 1996 to June 1999.

And even then, the show stayed with acetate cels. No digital ink and paint tools were used by Jumbo Pictures back then. They were all about finite acrylic paints and 35mm photography instead of photo scanning drawings and coloring them with paint bucket tools.

I'm sorry for being inactive for the past 2 months but I had another bout with writers block, paying attention to the escalation of the SAG-AFTRA strikes, and building and upgrading my Custom Built PC but trust me, I've got more stuff to post. 

Here's a sneak peak:

It's not an animation paints post but rather it's something I almost flipped out about back in June 2023 but trust me. There's more than what meets the eye.