THECOLOURS

Carl Barks had no say at all in the colouring of his stories in the comic books. In the beginning, he gave very thorough directions about the colouring he wanted in the panels but it was the publisher Western which made the final decisions. So he resigned himself to the fact that he would not get what he asked for. If I asked for a yellow desert, you could be sure it turned out red, he once resignated. This also means that Barks is not to blame for the numerous instances in which the nephews' caps changed colours in the comic books - this was all done by disinterested people at the publisher's and must have been painful for Barks.

After he retired Barks made up for the many colourless years by using breathtaking colours in his paintings. Although he had no control in what was used in the comics at Western's, he was always very fond of bright and strong colours. He actually felt that the special colouring in the Disney cartoons greatly contributed to their success, and he tried very hard to incorporate the same type of colouring into his paintings. But, he is known to have said that he was never entirely satisfied with his results.
From the paintings Barks did in his golden years it is even possible to deduce which colours he would have preferred when it came to his beloved comic book characters.

THE ANIMATED SHORTS
The Hockey Champ (1939)	Donald's Penguin (1939)
Barks worked on several animated cartoons when he was hired by the Disney Studios. In some of them he even served as Story Director meaning that he would have his say in the production and end result of the films. However, this responsibility would probably not have included the colours of Donald Duck as they would have been established before. Thus we shall never know if Barks liked the colours of Donald's blue and white sailor's jacket and white cap, but it seems that he much later recalled his pale blue square back collar.

THE PAINTINGS
(Untitled) (1972)	Oh, Oh! (1975)	Hi, I'm Donald Duck (1975)	Live it up, Kid! (1976)
The Wadfather (1972)		Trespassers Will Be Ventilated (1987)
Barks' paintings are built up from many layers of base colours before the final layer is added. This protracted technique gives the paintings their special bright and rich glow which can never be reproduced on paper let alone on a computer screen. Barks preferred to paint on masonite because of its smooth surface and the bright way the colours turned out. Right from the start of his painting career Barks used certain colours for his most used duck characters; Scrooge wore a black top hat, a red coat with greyish trimmings and similarly coloured spats. Donald wore a light blue cap, and a darker blue sailor's jacket with yellow rims, while the nephews had their distinctive colours of red, blue, and green. From time to time, the green was exchanged for a more yellowish colour which gave that nephew a look as if he was from the early days of comic art.

THE CRAYONS
Banker's Holiday	Time for a Tantrum		Family size Job
Outback Down Under		At King Solomon's Mines
In 1996 and 1997 Barks produced a large number of crayons in which he carried over the used basic colours from his paintings. Again, we see Scrooge wearing his black top hat, the distinct red coat with the greyish lapel and cuffs, and matching spats. Donald is wearing his light blue cap and blue and yellow sailor's jacket, but there is a difference: His square back collar is now pale blue just as it was all those years ago when Barks worked with cartoons.