A colorist is a visual arts professional whose work involves adding or adjusting color in a collaborative work.

ComicsEdit

In comics, a colorist is responsible for adding color to black and white line art. Originally, this was done by cutting out films of various densities in the appropriate shapes to be used in producing color-separated printing plates. More recently, colorists have worked in transparent media such as watercolors or airbrush, which is then photographed, allowing more subtle and painterly effects. Most contemporary colorists work in digital media using tools such as Adobe Photoshop.

CinemaEdit

A colorist is also an electronic artist who adjusts color and mood during the telecine film transfer process or video tape-to-tape color timing process. They have replaced a lot of older style film timers in making color adjustments to feature films. Most films have been adjusted by a colorist, sometimes to a very large extent. They match scenes shot at differing times and locations, set the mood, create a style or usually all of the above. As digital filming has gained in popularity, contemporary film colorists have also gravitated toward computer-based film coloring using programs such as Adobe Premier or Adobe After-Effects.