Show us the magic....please?

[Madmoonie]

I am amatuer illustrator, and I love comics and comic books, and especially TOTQ and Goblin Hollow. Please RH, sir, how do you go about making a strip? What is the process so to speak. Do hand draw it, scan it in, and make it better or go straight into the computer? I am Freehand fan myself, and I like to hand draw my stuff and then scan in and trace and fine tune my drawings. (My avatar, for instance is my own work. Its more or less what I look like.) Anyway, how do you do it, Mr. RH? Or would that spoil the magic for the rest of ya'll?

[Greatdane]

I believe that he draws the comic by hand and then scans it.
In one of RH's own posts he writes about a roach having fun on his scanner

But I am not totally sure, I do not draw myself (allthough it would be nice if I could...)

[Greatdane]

No, don't look at what I wrote, my bad

[LoneWolf23k]

I am amatuer illustrator, and I love comics and comic books, and especially TOTQ and Goblin Hollow. Please RH, sir, how do you go about making a strip? What is the process so to speak. Do hand draw it, scan it in, and make it better or go straight into the computer? I am Freehand fan myself, and I like to hand draw my stuff and then scan in and trace and fine tune my drawings. (My avatar, for instance is my own work. Its more or less what I look like.) Anyway, how do you do it, Mr. RH? Or would that spoil the magic for the rest of ya'll?

I am rather curious about this myself, and I too am always on the lookout for art tips myself. Judging from this comic, I can tell that Ralph starts by pencilling his comics (interesting design choice of Ralph's to represent a flashback)... Beyond that, no clue.

[Aurrin]

I know he draws them (by pen or pencil, but I don't know which) and scans them, then does post-production in paintshop pro. But that's as much as I know.

[CasVeg]

. . .interesting design choice of Ralph's to represent a flashback. . .

Well, flashbacks are usually kind of sketchy.

[Astral]

Its actualy a realy good way of doing things, flash backs are usualy depicted as black and white in movies, but some times its hard to tell. He also takes into acount what that person would remember most, like nessies flash back of her entrapment, the teath were more then a little visible.

[BlasTech]

I like to hand draw my stuff and then scan in and trace and fine tune my drawings. (My avatar, for instance is my own work. )

i tried scanning in an img for an avatar but after playing around with it in photo studio its too big for an avatar (both in pixel terms and file size), do you know how to shrink it down so that it can be used?

[Wayfarer]

I also drew and then scanned my avatar, but I didn't do very much to it after scanning. And it could be that there are tricks I don't know, because I see a lot of avatars here that are a whole lot crisper and clearer than mine turned out to be.

I do have some questions, though, that might help someone suggest something. What size did you scan your drawing in to be? How much did you do to it once it was in the computer? What kind of file did you save it as?

[BlasTech]

well if you cant tell ive never done much drawing on the pc

I basically just scanned in the B/W pic from freehand drawing and then coloured it in using photo studio and saved it using that. Im not sure what the size of the scan was though, i dragged a box around it and then scanned that, so i think it might have turned out a4 size

[Earl McClaw]

i tried scanning in an img for an avatar but after playing around with it in photo studio its too big for an avatar (both in pixel terms and file size), do you know how to shrink it down so that it can be used?

You need to learn you graphics (painting/drawing) application.

First of all, learn to save as a GIF or JPG. Both can allow options for saving at higher rates of compression (same image, smaller file), but beware the deteriorating image.

Second, get the image size smaller by resizing. I believe the limit for KeenSpace is 100x100 pixels. (You may have to calculate pixels per unit across a unit-based image size, depending on your application.)

[The JAM]

[...unWARP!!!]

Good evening.


Just don't use MS Paint for that. Your icon will get VERY pixellated.

[Wayfarer]

Second, get the image size smaller by resizing. I believe the limit for KeenSpace is 100x100 pixels. (You may have to calculate pixels per unit across a unit-based image size, depending on your application.)

At least on my scanner, I can actually have it scan the image in at the size I want. At the same time that it allows me to crop the image and stuff, it also gives me the option to resize it according to a number of different units (pixels is one of them), and then it will scan it to be that size. This may help with keeping the image clearer, as opposed to resizing it in the actual photo editing program (it is at least my understanding that it's supposed to help).

[BlasTech]

Thanks alot guys, ill go give it a whirl

[Earl McClaw]

At least on my scanner, I can actually have it scan the image in at the size I want.

Find a technique that works for you and stick with it. At least until you learn a technique you like better.

Scanning to size is great. No big files to save. No need to keep an original in case you mess up. Unfortunately, no way to easily remove something you didn't want. No way to adjust things without re-scanning. Etc, etc (on both sides).

Personally, I like to scan as 'big' as I dare then work on the image until I get one I like. I believe that it's easier to trim out what you don't want than add something you do. But hey, I'm not an artist, just a tech.