Authors use many tools, such as colors, in their writings to support their theme throughout a visual text. Using colors and color schemes in a visual text can enhance the setting, show character’s emotions, or even symbolize an underlying theme. There are multiple color schemes in art that represent different moods, that help the reader better understand the author’s point. In Bitch Planet, by Kelley Sue DeConnick, the author uses colors and color schemes throughout the text to show emotions felt by the main character that affects her future. An analysis of the title will also be included, to try to understand the meaning DeConnick was trying to provide. 

An example where this motif, presented in the introduction, is shown is on page 182 in the first panel. In this panel we see the colors of pink, yellow, and orange covering the characters.  This is an example of an analogous color scheme, which is used in this panel to describe a warm mood. The colors are harmonious and warming to show that the character is experiencing a happy feeling. Warm colors such as orange, yellow, and pink are used by an artist to express a good emotion in a certain piece, which is why the author used this color scheme.  This scheme is supported by the text, which shows the character laughing and playing with her grandmother as a very happy flashback in her life. This detailed flashback is a tool used to explain to the audience that the character was heavily affected by the actions that occurred during this flashback. Using the color scheme, it’s clear that this flashback was a positive memory that influenced our character’s life in some way. 

The next time we see the color scheme motif expressed in this story in on page 196, in the final panel.  The colors represented in this panel are gray, purple, and black. This is a monochromatic color scheme which uses the same hue, but different tints. It is used in this panel to create a dark and gloomy feeling that foreshadows violence. The gloomy setting sets the scene for the tension building up in the character, which can also be interpreted from the color black. Dark colors such as black can be a symbol for the an intense feeling. By using these dark and washed out colors, the author is progressing the violent behavior of the character throughout the story. The flashbacks begin with a warm and happy color scheme, but transfer into a dark and gloomy scheme through the plot to show how the main character has changed. The author wants to show that the character has transformed through this story, becoming more violent and aggressive, by using color schemes to describe the character’s emotions. The text supports the dark and gloomy color scheme by providing violent actions, and hostile thoughts in the panel (where the main character beats up the man making inappropriate remarks, and yells at the snobby girls). By using color schemes, the author is directing our thoughts the way she wants the character to seem in the story. The colors force us to think about the emotions that are being displayed, by using bright and happy colors or dark and sad colors to match the character. 

 The significance of the author using color schemes in this literary piece is to create emotions and to foreshadow actions with the character. You could argue that by using colors, the author wants create a happy, sad, or anxious feeling for the audience before even reading the text. This motif makes the reader ponder the subject of the text by creating a meaning with the colors. There is a subject or motive the author has from using the certain colors, so this causes the reader to consider why the author wants us to see that color scheme and how it causes an effect on the literature you read.  From interpreting and analyzing the colors scheme that the author uses, you may argue that it foreshadows an event or action based on the mood set off from the colors. For example, a dark and cold color scheme may foreshadow the death of a character. To continue, the color scheme in this visual text may be able to explain the title (Bitch Planet).  Kelley DeConnick uses the colors in this story to show the progression of violence and aggression found in the main character during the text. By showing us the beginning of bright and warm colors and finishing with dark and gloomy colors, the author may be trying to show us that the cause of our character’s conflict is the people around her. Frustration and irritability from the “b*tches” (sorry) that get to the main character throughout the story are the main cause of her violence and aggression. We see the aggression shown by the dark colors schemes in most of the panels. Maybe, the author is showing us that our character is truly an honest and respectable person, but has been put in a bad situation from the challenges that were caused by all of the people who were judgmental and spiteful. This could be interpreted by the bright white colors displayed in the last panels of the text. The main character may have always been honest and true to herself, unlike all of the “b*tches that surround her on this planet. This would explain why she didn’t change in the very end. The bright colors shown in the last couple of panels suggest a happy ending because, she’s happy with the way she is and wouldn’t want to become like all the other bitches in this world. 

 Through this visual text, DeConnick, does a great job with the usage of colors and various colors schemes. With these tools, she creates a new perspective for the audience which enables a better understanding and a more intense reading. She also reveals the feelings and emotions of the main character, without saying it verbatim, along with forcing us to view a panel the way she wants to.  She continues to use different colors to allow the reader to interpret the meaning of the title, “Bitch Planet”, by focusing on the different happy and sad color schemes. The colors plays a big part in this visual text by emphasizing the timeline of our character’s life, and how it plays a part of who she is in the end of the story. 