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The Complete Digital Comic, Part 1: Sketching and Pencilling in Photoshop

Posted on August 7, 2007 by Dani

I recently received a request to write a tutorial about creating comic book art on the computer. Although I don’t work as a comic artist, I’ve always been fascinated by the process. So, this will be part one in a series of tutorials that will outline how I would make a comic digitally.

This was a very fun experiment, and I hope all of you, even you non-comic artists, can learn something new by this series. And by all means, if there are any “real” comic artists out there with any input, please leave a comment on this post.

Supplies

Software

Adobe Photoshop – Photoshop is probably one of the best pieces of software you can use for sketching because of it’s brush tools and editing capabilities. Acceptable alternatives include Photoshop Elements, GIMP, or ArtRage – anything with basic painting capabilities, compatibility with a graphics tablet, and the ability to work in layers.

Hardware

Besides a good, fast computer, you will need some kind of graphics tablet, like a Wacom. You can read more of my thoughts about them in one of my previous articles. I am personally using a Wacom Intuos 3 tablet.

Creating a Pencil Brush

Got your handy-dandy Wacom tablet in front of you? Good. But we’re still not ready to draw yet. The first thing you need to do is change your brush settings so you’ve got a good “pencil” to work with.

In Photoshop, go to Window–>Brushes to open your Brush Palette.

The Quick and Easy Brush

In its most basic form, the only thing you need to make a good pencil brush is the default round brush. You just have to check on two very important settings.

On the left side of the window is a bunch of categories. Click directly on each name to see its settings. The first one you will be concerned with is Shape Dynamics. Go ahead, click on it.

Make sure the checkbox is checked, then find the Size Jitter setting at the top. Underneath it is a “Control” drop-down menu. Choose the Pen Pressure option. This makes it so your brush changes size, depending on how much pressure you put on your tablet pen.

The next setting you need to change is in Other Dynamics. Make sure this box is checked, then change the Opacity Jitter Control to Pen Pressure. This makes is so that the lightness/darkness of your brush is affected by your pen pressure.

That’s it! That’s all you need to make a good drawing tool. Experiment and scribble with it. You will find that it’s a lot like real-life pen and paper.

A Better Pencil

If you like the look and texture of traditional pencil, the round brush isn’t really going to do it for you. With a little tweaking, you can make your brush look even more like natural media.

1. Change the brush shape.

Click on “Brush Tip Shape” in the Brush Palette (It is above all the checkboxes on the left). You will want to find a more organic, interesting shape to use for your brush, like a spatter or sponge looking one. If you don’t see anything there in your current options, try opening up another library like Photoshop’s Natural Brushes. You do that by clicking on the little arrow in the upper-right corner of the window.

2. Apply a texture.

Next, check the box and click on Texture in the Brush Palette. Click on the pattern thumbnail and choose a texture that is more natural, like a canvas or paper texture. If you don’t see any, click on the arrow in the right-hand corner to open some more. Once you’ve chosen one, you can experiment with the sliders if you want (I usually just leave them as they are). Then, you’ll want to change the “Mode” option, which is right underneath the Scale slider. These modes work in different ways that are hard to explain, but I usually use Color Burn or Multiply.

Give your new pencil a scribble. It should look a lot more “real” than the first brush.

Working with Your Brush

Brush Settings

For whatever brush you use, you will use different settings while you are drawing depending on the effect you need.

Opacity – With your brush tool selected, this setting will be at the top of your screen. This effects the transparency of your brushstroke (i.e. how light/dark it is). You can use the number keys as shortcuts for this setting: 1=10%, 2=20%, and so forth.

Diameter – At the top of the screen, you will also see a little thumbnail of your brush. Clicking on it reveals a drop-down menu, where you can change the size of your brush. However it’s much easier to use the bracket keys ( [ ] ).

Get to know these keyboard shortcuts well, because you will probably use them constantly while you are drawing. Here’s a few hints:

A “hard” pencil – for when you want to create thin, light lines for rough sketches – lower the opacity of your brush (around 10-50%) and keep your brush size small.

A “soft” pencil – for creating thicker, darker lines and heavy areas of shading – use a high opacity (50-100%), and a larger brush size.

Drawing with Your Tablet

It can be tough, but here’s a few tips:

Sit directly in front of your monitor, with your tablet in front of you parallel to the screen. Remember not to rotate your tablet. This is kind of a natural thing to do at first, but it just

throws everything off because your computer monitor won’t move along with you. It will kind of be like drawing on a piece of paper that’s glued to your table.

Practice, practice, practice. Your biggest challenges will probably be straight lines and circles. Just keep sketching and drawing, and eventually you’ll gain the necessary hand-eye coordination.

Finally, let’s pencil some drawings.

After you’ve changed your brush settings and created a good pencil brush, your sketch process will be just like working with traditional pen and paper.

1. Open up a new document in Photoshop in the size your final page will be, with a resolution of 300 ppi or more. Create a new layer.

2. Draw a rough sketch. Indicate where your panels are going to be. (Hint: Hold down the Shift key while you draw to create a straight line.) For simplicity’s sake, my demo here has only one panel. Use this layer to scribble to your heart’s content, and really nail down the composition of the panels, the gesture of your characters, and other general forms and shapes. You’ll want to draw very lightly, so use a “hard” pencil that is small in shape and low in opacity. Even use a light color if you must.

3. When you are finished with your rough sketch, create a new layer so you don’t lose what you have so far. Start refining your drawing using a darker, heavier pencil brush start planning what your final inking will look like. Pay particular attention to how heavy/light your lines are and how you are going to indicate value, such as hatching/crosshatching and solid blacks. When you’re done, hide the layer that contains your rough sketch and save your file.

You’re now ready for some ink!

The Complete Digital Comic, Part 2: Inking in Illustrator

Posted on August 10, 2007 by Dani

This is part two in my series of tutorials about how to make comic book art on the computer. If you have not read the first part, Sketching and Pencilling in Photoshop, you might want to give it a look. Go ahead, I’ll wait…

Ready? Okay, now that we have a nice and refined pencil sketch, it’s time to give it some ink.

Software

To ink a drawing, I would choose between either Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. They are distinctly different in the way they work, so here is a breakdown:

Photoshop is pixel-based, and Illustrator is vector-based. This means Photoshop “paints” pixels, or tiny little dots on your screen; Illustrator, on the other hand, draws shapes and strokes using mathematical calculations.

In Photoshop, you have specify a resolution (how many pixels are crammed into your image) before you begin. The higher your resolution, the more you can enlarge your image without it looking pixelated. In Illustrator, it doesn’t matter because the drawing will stay the same no matter what size it is.

Photoshop works best for painting because you can get subtleties of color, value, and texture really well. Illustrator is best for solid, flat shapes and lines.

So, which piece of software do you use for inking? Both of them work pretty well. Photoshop works more like traditional media because of its painting nature, but with Illustrator you can resize the drawing without worrying about resolution. Experiment and find out what works best for you.

Inking in Photoshop

1. Open up a new document that is the size of your page. Make sure the resolution is very high (around 600 ppi or higher).

2. Place your sketch on its own layer. Lower the opacity to 50% or so. 3. Create a new layer on top of your sketch. This will be the layer you ink on. 4. Choose a brush that is hard-edged. The normal round brush actually works pretty well for this,

but you can experiment with different brush shapes if you like. 5. In your brush settings, make sure that Shape Dynamics is turned ON, so that you get a

calligraphic line while you draw. Make sure that Other Dynamics is turned OFF, so that your line will stay solid black, no matter how much pressure you put on your pen.

6. Ink your drawing just as you would normally. This can be a frustrating task to do with a tablet, but it can be done. It just takes practice and persistence.

7. When you are done, hide your sketch layer. You now have a finished ink drawing!

Inking in Adobe Illustrator

I will concentrate most of my tutorial on Illustrator because that is the software that I use myself. I will be inking the sketch I made in part one of this tutorial, which you can see here.

1. Getting Started

Create a new document in Illustrator. Place your sketch by going to File–>Place.

In the resulting window, find your sketch file, check the box that says “Template,” then click Okay.

Your sketch will be placed at the center of your document at 50% transparency on a locked layer.

2. Creating Your Panels 1. Select the Rectangle tool. Draw a rectangle that covers your document. 2. Make sure you have a stroke on your box, and no fill (so you can see your sketch

underneath).

3. Use the Rectangle tool to draw in your panels (for simplicity, my demo here only has one panel). If your panels have an irregular shape, you can also use the other shape tools or the pen tool.

4. When you are finished, Select All (Command+A) to select all your shapes. Then go to the Pathfinder window. If you do not see it, go to Window–>Pathfinder. Find the button that says “Exclude overlapping shape areas” and click on it.

5. All of the shapes you’ve drawn will now be combined into one shape. Thicken the stroke and change the fill color to white (or black, for a “frame” look). You can see that your panels have been cut out of your larger rectangle shape, so you can see your sketches in all the panels.

6. If you need to tweak the size or position of your panels, use the Direct Selection tool (the white arrow) and click on the center of the panel. Then use the free transform tool to modify it.

3. Inking Your Drawing

The Pencil and the Brush

There will be two main tools that you will be using to ink your drawing: the pencil tool and the brush tool. For more geometric shapes, you might also dabble with the pen and shape tools, but it will mostly be the pencil and brush if you are going for the traditional hand-drawn look.

The Pencil – If you were to draw a stroke with this tool, it would be a thin line with no variation in width. It is not good for drawing lines, but it useful for drawing organic shapes. I use it mostly for solid black areas.

The Brush – If you were to draw a stroke with the brush, you get a nice calligraphic line. This is the tool you use for drawing your lines.

Because of the nature of these tools, remember a couple simple rules:

If you’re using the Pencil tool, use no stroke and a black fill. If you’re using the Brush tool, use a black stroke, with no fill.

The Inking Process

o Lock your panel layer so you don’t accidentally ruin it. o Create a new layer and place it underneath your panel layer.

You can now draw on this layer. Any strokes that you make “outside the lines” will be hidden by the frame of your panel layer.

o Tool Settings

You can change the settings of either the brush or the pencil by double-clicking on it in the Tool palette.

You can also change the shape and size of your brush by double-clicking on its icon in the Brush palette (Window–>Brushes).

Use brushes of different sizes to get a good variety of line in your drawing. It is easier to make a bunch of brushes beforehand so you don’t have to change settings all the time.

You can find more detailed instructions about this process in one of my previous tutorials: http://danidraws.com/2006/12/13/video-notes-bake-sale-brush-tool/

o Use the Brush tool and start inking your lines. Vary the thickness of your line to give it some interest.

o Use the Pencil tool to block in your solid black areas.

o Fill in further details, texture, and hatching.

A Little Demo

To help you understand a bit better, here’s a little video of me inking my drawing, using the process I just outlined.

For more inking tips, please read my previous article here: http://danidraws.com/2007/01/08/creating-line-drawings-in-adobe-illustrator/

The Final Drawing

Hide your sketch layer, and you’re done!

Keep an eye out for the next part of this tutorial, Coloring…

The Complete Digital Comic, Part 3: Coloring in Photoshop

Posted on August 24, 2007 by Dani

This is part three in my series of tutorials about creating comic art on the computer. Check out Parts 1 & 2 here:

Part 1: Sketching and Pencilling in Photoshop

Part 2: Inking in Illustrator

This part will be about coloring your line drawing in Photoshop. Enjoy!

Getting Started

1. Create a new document. 2. Set the size to the dimensions of your final page. 3. Make sure the resolution is 300 ppi or higher.

Placing Your Line Drawing

If you created your line art traditionally, you will first need to scan and adjust it. Check out my previous tutorial (http://danidraws.com/2006/11/29/get-the-most-out-of-your-line-drawing/) for tips.

If you created your drawing in Illustrator…

1. Select your entire drawing in Illustrator. 2. Go to Edit > Copy.

3. Go to Photoshop and Edit > Paste it into your document. 4. Choose “Pixels” in the resulting dialogue. (If this dialogue doesn’t appear, go to Illustrator’s

preferences under “File Handling & Clipboard.” Check the box next to “AICB,” then try again.)

5. Resize and position your drawing, then push Enter to confirm.

Once you have adjusted and positioned your drawing layer, you are done with it. Don’t color on it unless you have a specific reason to. Color on separate layers placed beneath your line drawing.

Basic Coloring

1. Choose a hard-edged brush. The default round brush is fine. In the Brush palette, make sure that “Other Dynamics” is turned off. Also make sure the opacity of your brush is set to 100%. In short, you want a brush that paints completely flat and opaque color.

2. On your color layer, start blocking in your basic colors.

3. For a shadow, create a new layer and place it on top of your color. Lower the opacity of the layer to 50% and change the mode to Multiply. Choose a dark color and paint in your shadow shapes.

Useful Tips

The Magic Wand Tool

Once you have blocked in your basic colors, you can use your magic wand tool to mask out sections as you work. Simply click on an area to select a specific color.

To preserve your different sections, make sure you paint on a separate layer.

Use Layers

Use layers to keep different areas of your painting separate. How you organize them depends on your own preference. For example, you can create a separate layer for different objects, or for background and foreground elements. This makes it easier to paint a specific section without worrying about ruining the other.

Save a Color Palette

This can come in handy is you have multiple panels with recurring characters and settings. You can do this in several ways:

Simply create a new Photoshop document with your colors painted on it. Keep it beside your comic on your desktop and use the eyedropper tool to select a color.

Use Photoshop’s Color Swatch palette (Window > Swatches). Add or remove colors by clicking the buttons on the bottom of the palette. When you have your colors organized, use the palette’s drop-down menu to save the swatches.

Rendering

There are many different ways to approach a comic book painting and it all depends on the style of the artist and the mood of the story. Here’s a few basic techniques to get you started.

Airbrushing – Traditional comic book look

This creates a soft, smooth look. Click the airbrush button at the top of your screen next to the Opacity and Flow options. This makes it so that the paint “flows” out of your brush and continues to build, even when you are holding your brush still, like a traditional airbrush. The Flow slider controls this effect.

Use a round brush with a soft edge. Lower the opacity for more subtle effects.

Render by gently building up color. Pay special attention to the pressure of your pen, the opacity of your brush, and the flow of your paint.

Transparent Washes – The watercolor look

For a more painterly look, choose a hard-edged brush and lower the opacity. Also turn on the Opacity control in your Brush palette so that it is affected by your pen pressure.

Render your painting by lightly laying down “washes” of color. Don’t be afraid of letting your brushstrokes show through.

“Solid” Painting – An oil/acrylic look

Block in your basic colors and light and dark areas.

To blend, lower the opacity of your brush to 50% or lower. Use the eyedropper tool (Shortcut: the Option key) to choose one of the colors you are blending. Lightly go over your edge. Use the eyedropper tool again to select the blended color and paint over the edge again. Continue to do this until your edge is smooth.

More Resources

Insight from some professional colorists…

Coloring tutorial by MAD Magazine cartoonist Tom Richmond. Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Making of the web comic, Copper. Copper Step-by-Step, Part 3 Videos by Steve Hamaker, colorist of Bone. YouTube link: http://youtube.com/user/Creve21 DC Comics Guide to Coloring and Lettering Comics

Final Painting