How do you do your comics?

Shoe · Post by **Shoe** » Sun Mar 03, 2002 11:25 am

When I draw my comics, I do it in 1st period. I use a mechanical pencil w/ 0.5mm lead, or graphite or whatever it is these days, rubber eraser, and I usually use printer paper.

When inking, I use a Black Steadtler Lumocolor, then I erase the pencils.

I scan them in using some old HP scanner, then I open them in photoshop. I add the speech bubbles, and save the picture in Black & White (Quadtone, all black). Then I assemble the frames, and voila, I'm done.

Oh, and I have all the backgrounds premade so I just draw on top and erase the lines in photoshop.

MinnieMay9 · Post by **MinnieMay9** » Sun Mar 03, 2002 12:36 pm

[Even though I don't have any up yet...]

I now draw mine on graph paper[I can't draw a sraight line with a ruler -.-] with a .5 mechanical pencil.

I ink it in with what-ever black pen I can find at the time.

I use my old HP scanner, than after taking out all the icky grays in Adobe Photoshop, I put it into Illustrator to add the words and bubbles.

After that, I copy it into paint and put it finally into Microsoft Photo editor, where I finaly save it, ready for output!

Monkey Angst · Post by **Monkey Angst** » Sun Mar 03, 2002 12:51 pm

I just realized I need to update this process in my "about" page...

I do my comics very close to traditionally, on 11x14" Strathmore Bristol board. Each comic is 12.5"x4.5", and I put two on a page. I do them first on notebook paper, then do all the art in non-repro blue pencil, then go over it with a number 0 watercolor brush dipped in India ink. The details I do in Micron pen. Any mistakes get gone over with white-out, then done again.

Then it's time to scan. My scanner is too small to accommodate 11x14" paper, so I have to do it in two gos. I scan it in 300dpi in Black and White. I load the both files into the GIMP, where I stick them together (a long and frustrating process), and then clean off any flecks by guassian blurring the thing and then narrowing the input levels to 140-1.0-230.

I then save that as a PNG, and bring it into Adobe Illustrator, where I add the boxes and text. I tried hand-lettering a while ago, but I suck at it. Looks amateurish.

This process has obviously evolved a lot since I started two months ago, and will probably evolve further as time goes on.

Psiogen · Post by **Psiogen** » Sun Mar 03, 2002 1:26 pm

I pencil on 9x12 bristol with 3H graphite. For my inking, I use a .035mm Sakura Micron, for the lettering and the art. I like that size because it's small enough to do fine details but sturdy enough to survive my heavy handed inking. I also use a Sakura 1mm Graphic pen, for the panel borders, and to outline foreground objects, giving the image a stonger sense of space. Finally, I scan and color in Photoshop.

Magz · Post by **Magz** » Sun Mar 03, 2002 1:26 pm

I draw the comic out first in an A4 sketch book along with any dialog and notes then once I'm happy with it trace them directly onto A4 layout paper in either 0.8 and 0.3 black ink (using a Pilot Drawing Pen) but without any of the dialoge. I then scan this using a Umax scanner directly into photoshop (LE). I've got a 4-panel template created using photoshop so that the lines of the panels are the same size etc so I just copy/paste the scanned images into the template. Then it's just a case of playing around with Photoshop, adding in the dialoge after colouring. I've also started a file containing the most used pictures/characters so I can copy and paste these where appropriate to save a little time. I find that how I do it now has changed quite a lot since I started, and I guess it'll change as I discover better ways of doing things!

Shepherd · Post by **Shepherd** » Sun Mar 03, 2002 3:40 pm

James is the artist for Man-Man Mondays through Fridays, but I do the "God Is My Roommate" strip (writing and drawing) on Sundays.

I drink a lot of beer at a bar with my friends, discuss some weighty theological issues, grab a gel pen and some blank paper out of my backpack, and scrawl away. Then I wave it in people's faces screaming "COMIC GENIUS!" for ten minutes. Then I do another one. I can usually do two or three in an evening of getting 'faced.

This is, sadly, entirely true.

I scan it on an old IBM scanner and, for the FIRST TIME EVER, had to figure out how to integrate other images into the scan for today's (March 3) strip on this god-awful free program that came with the scanner. Old enough that it doesn't know what a PNG is.

I'm such a hack.
_________________
Matt Shepherd, Writer
<A HREF="http://manmancomics.keenspace.com" TARGET=_blank>Man-Man Comics</A>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Shepherd on 2002-03-03 15:44 ]</font>

Shoe · Post by **Shoe** » Sun Mar 03, 2002 5:17 pm

I've never used Illustrator for the speech bubbles, that's a really good idea. I'll try it next time.

Loserz Erik · Post by **Loserz Erik** » Sun Mar 03, 2002 5:46 pm

Alrighty, first off obviously, I get an idea. The ideas usually come to me at an inconvenient time so I make it my priority to immediately tell the idea to a friend or two, for two reasons, 1. To see if they think it's funny, 2. To ground the idea more solidly in my mind so that I'm less likely to forget it before I can get it down on paper.

As soon as I get access to a sketchbook I write down the idea and keep it there until I'm ready to use it.

Once I'm ready to draw out the comic I first do a sloppy sketch in a small sketchbook to figure out how I want to lay out my panels. After I've got the panel lay out all figured out I arm myself with an 11x14" piece of bristol board and a ruler and get the panels all in place and ink them in.

Then I go in with my mechanical pencil and sketch in the text and situate the characters around it accordingly. Then I go in and ink the characters, but I don't ink the text. After the characters are inked I go in and draw in any background that they are not interacting with in pencil and then go about inking that.

Then I go and add in some shadows and general black-ness to balance out the pictures some more.

Then I whip out a big fat vinyl eraser and get rid of all the pencil lines.

Scanning time! Usually my comic is too big to fit on one scan, so I chop them into parts via Paint Shop Pro and convert them to greyscale. I edit the contrast to make the whites whiter and the blacks blacker and do any touch-up work necessary. Then I reassemble all of the panels and merge them.

Next I go and type in all the text. I sometimes spend ridiculous amounts of time rearranging the words to make them fit the best. Then I make some ellipses and triangles to form the speech bubbles and merge them together. Finally it's all complete and I shrink it all down to 600 pixels wide and save it as a gif.

WHOO.

SpareChange · Post by **SpareChange** » Sun Mar 03, 2002 9:08 pm

Hmmm.... I've seen this topic before, but it's a good one...

For my comic "Spare Change", it's various Pilot pens and 20# copier paper. Drawn in the newspaperish 3"x10" standard. Since I have NO time, and I always update 6 days a week, I try not to spend more than an hour from start to posting the comic.

"Mass Production" (3 days a week) is done almost entirely in MSPaint. Refer to my "no time" comment...

But it can take from 5-30 minutes, if I can't make the dialouge flow well enough to suit me.

My comics prove a perfect example that ANYONE can do a webcomic. And I wish a lot more people would.

ZOMBIE USER 7782 · Post by **ZOMBIE USER 7782** » Sun Mar 03, 2002 11:50 pm

I have the least professional method.

I print out the squares I draw my comic on. Then I draw the comic straight on in black pen. They only take a minute to do so mistakes don't matter too much.

Then I scan them in again @300dpi and save them as bitmaps, which I open in MS Paint. Then I resize and/or crop the comics and save them individually as JPEGs.

RArcher · Post by **RArcher** » Mon Mar 04, 2002 12:56 am

Well how do I draw my comic... ALL digital give me a pencil and I suck... give me my Wacom Graphire Drawing Tablet (God someone pay me for this AD) and I only sort of suck. I find My comic is one of the few pure digital comics... I draw in flash 5. Using Hairline lines, ink. I then you a wonderful new feature called Optimize, Crtl+Alt+Shift+C And it s,mooths out the lines. I then just full in some colour... I used to use templates but I'm too lazy now and I think it might cramp any chance I have of improving my art. Check out my comic one of the VERY FEW that is purely DIGITAL!!! I RULE... shamless plugging is not a sin.

Jamie! · Post by **Jamie!** » Mon Mar 04, 2002 1:37 am

Tools:
Pen, A4 Reflex paper, ruler, My mind, Possibly assist from the co writer. -_-

what i do:
Draw the comic. It just comes to me.no pencil scatch or anything like that. just ink. Speach bubbles and all. Then i scan it in and got to paint shop pro, or photoshop. I remove the drawn speach bubbles and add computer done ones. some times i have to fix a pic buy redrawing parts with the mouse, with is no biggy. i shade it shrink it and save it a s a gif.

So,
DRAW
SCAN
SLIGHLY FIX UP
SAVE
THE END.

_________________

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Jamie! on 2002-03-04 01:39 ]</font>

Ashess · Post by **Ashess** » Mon Mar 04, 2002 3:47 am

for inking,I use marker + inkbrush.. is there no one here whe uses an inkprush?

Todd K9 · Post by **Todd K9** » Mon Mar 04, 2002 5:57 am

Well, naturally I think up the idea for a comic first, but that's to go with out saying.
I then turn to my trusty computer and use Photoshop to bring up my basic layout sheet. I then take the sprites in different poses (And some I edit after they are placed) I've created already and drop them into the comic, then type in the text for them. Botta bing botta bom.... you have Mega-Cool!

Linz or Char · Post by **Linz or Char** » Mon Mar 04, 2002 9:47 am

i draw mine in pencil on printer paper, then go over it with whatever black pen i can find on the floor. sometimes i colour it... with mr. sketch pens, and then i scan it with my crappy old scantek scanner or whatever program it is. then i open it in the program that came with my mom's digital camera, resize it, flip it the right way, and then open it in imagepals...the crappy program that came with the scanner, colour it some more, and put writing in. char does all hers in microsoft paint.

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Mon Mar 04, 2002 10:19 am

This's a good topic.

I do everything on a computer, 'cept for a writing down basic ideas:
-Text on ms Word.
-Frames in mc Paint.
-Then I copy frames in Photoshop, which, sadly, hasn't got a satisfying options for drawing squares and circles. That's why I do that part in ms Paint which, simple as it is, at the same time is very flexible.
-I write text in positions. Photoshop makes new layer for every text, so I have to merge them after that.
- I use lot of layers: one, in blue color for sketchs, then over it a tick, black drowing. Then I simply erase the blue one. When doing monochromatic, I use separated layer for various gray fillings, while when I shade it, I do it on a same layer as drawing (although I shouldn't).
-Not to forget: I do it all with MediaForte e-pen.
-I work fast. Never repeat panels (it's a matter of pricniple) but still produce comics fast: about half an hour for a strip.

Srdjan of "mcDuffies"

SuperJoe · Post by **SuperJoe** » Mon Mar 04, 2002 2:56 pm

Want to know how I make comics?!?

I take this piece of paper I took from this printer, and this pen that I got at the pen shop.

Then I draw three or four strips in about 10 minutes. Then I laugh at their stupidity and go home.

RArcher · Post by **RArcher** » Mon Mar 04, 2002 9:07 pm

Seeing that above response I have to ask how long most people take. My computer ones are nice and quick (or I think they are) taking maybe 20 minutes for a colour strip using no repeats or cheap panels (IE black outs, reuses, very simple ect...)
How long does you guys spend...?

Justinpie · Post by **Justinpie** » Mon Mar 04, 2002 9:28 pm

First I drink about half a bottle of Jack D, then everything just kinda gets blurry after that for a while...
..then I FTP and voila! new comic!

-Justin

ZOMBIE USER 3288 · Post by **ZOMBIE USER 3288** » Mon Mar 04, 2002 11:34 pm

I... uh, do them in flash.

And they aren't comics.

Flash disguises my lack of an ability to draw fairly well.