How do you draw a comic?

Holly Jolly · Post by **Holly Jolly** » Tue May 29, 2001 4:15 am

Ren, you talked about how to do cool poses, well I'm not that good, but I know how your suppost to do it. In animation you must use basic shapes, AND a action line. Without a line crossing the entire character, it will end up as a mass of junk. Okay, maybe not entirely, but without a action line it can keep the drawing from looking like you know what your doing, as if it comes out in one fluid motion. An action line helps with action with archs, even when standing in one spot a human is not exactly starit because of the S shape of our spine. Anyways, if your doing a hard pose, and you want it to come off with no struggle shown, try using action lines. Okay, so you probably already knew this, but didn't say it, so I'll just shut up now.------------------
There is always someone better then yourself.

Ren@shoushi · Post by **Ren@shoushi** » Wed May 30, 2001 4:30 am

o0k, I think I do that. Past few days I've had artists block though, I can't even look at my drawing stuff. Can't focus... Proly just gonna surf the web and then fall asleep <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/wink.gif">

Holly Jolly · Post by **Holly Jolly** » Wed May 30, 2001 6:18 am

Never had one of those. <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/smile.gif">

Ren@shoushi · Post by **Ren@shoushi** » Fri Jun 01, 2001 11:09 am

Thanks for the input! That was cool. I gotta say I had problems with the rapidogaphs, but alot of people seem to like them. And Canson Bristol rocks! I just got some, the smooth kind, $8 for 15 pages though kinda steep, seems to be worth it though. I agree with the statement about adapting comics to fit the medium. I don't mind scrolling though. I have been playing around with layouts waiting for my space to be set up. I think I'm not gonna do full pages. I think the cool thing about online comics is that you don't have to do it any certin way. I don't have the finess that I see in alot of comics that are full pages. I tend to start cramming in alot of panels and making it look.. well crammed in. I think I'll make it smaller and only have a few panels.btw your comic is pretty cool! So far I've only been looking at "Tranlations" looks very good though.-r

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Sat Jun 02, 2001 8:00 am

My inking pens are called (and I'm reading off the pens directly here, so don't think I'm an art wonk, 'cause I'm not):
PENSTIX No. 3013-EEF .3mm
PENSTIX No. 3015-EF .5mm
PENSTIX No. 3017-F .7mmThey're made by some company called "ALVIN Australia", but the thing that makes them good is that they are smooth felt and they keep working a good long time.I ink over the strips which have been done in mechanical pencil, text first, then characters, background if I'm feeling up to it.(I should note that I just print out the back pannels using my printing allowance from the UW EE department, then draw directly onto them. Previously I drew them in pencil with a ruler, then traced freehand with the pens.)After that I just scan in under "lineart". I use a mustek 600 CP flatbed. If you haven't bought your scanner yet, buy a mustek. Do NOT buy any other brand. Mustek is unique in that they let you access their software through your paint program. Most other scanners make you use very badly written software. Mustek writes good software.Ahem, enough ranting about mustek.Now, where was I? Oh yes: Then I just convert to greyscale and scale to a width of 760 pixels. (This fits on 600x800, which is nigh standard these days.)That's enough ranting from me then. I'll plug Umlaut House and leave.------------------
Visit the home of the half straight fox! <A HREF="http://umlauthouse.keenspace.com" TARGET=_blank>Umlaut House</A>

Ren@shoushi · Post by **Ren@shoushi** » Sat Jun 02, 2001 8:51 am

Last night I was playing around with some Tombaw brush pens, I think they are called. There are many colors available and they have 2 tips. One is like a sharpie the other is like a flexible brush tip, really cool I use to use them when I was younger. I have most of the grey colors. They are pretty cool, what I was doing was tracing the outlines of my drawings with the pen tip (doesn't bleed) then using the .25 Micron pen for the inner lines. I guess I should really get one of those ink pens that you have to dip and has changable nibs... but I'm lazy to get back into that

-r

Ren@shoushi · Post by **Ren@shoushi** » Sat Jun 02, 2001 10:36 am

I got a cheap UMAX 1220P at FRY's Electronics for like $70 one day. Pretty good, I wish the scanable area was bigger at times (only 8.5x11 i think), but it works great with photoshop. The only thing I don't like is that it doesn't have an on off switch. It's always on. I wish it was like my printer although I'm sure they have this now, USB + an on off button on the front.Ren

Bacon Slicer · Post by **Bacon Slicer** » Wed Jun 06, 2001 1:51 am

Heh, my comics are so few and far between that my method for getting them off the paper and onto the screen has been different for every one. <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/biggrin.gif">But I think I've finally got a format that I like.Uncoloured comics
1. Work out where the frames are going to go, and draw them in lightly in pencil. Straightness of lines is not an issue at this point.2. Draw the characters and props and stuff in pencil. I'd do it in that nice 'invisible' blue pencil... if I had one. Outlines only, no shading yet.Hands are hard. I typically spend a good 5-10 minutes on each hand. If you look at my comics, you'll notice how often the characters' hands are just off the edge of the frame, or behind their back, or something. <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/biggrin.gif">3. Once I'm satisfied with how the stuff looks, do the frame borders with a ruler, then go over all the outlines with black pen. I've got some Pilot drawing pens with thickness 0.1 to 0.5, and I use 0.2 for most stuff, with 0.1 for detailed work. (0.5 is bold text).4. Get out my chunky WHSmith eraser and remove all trace of pencil from the page. (Fun!)5. Do all the shading and stuff in pencil. If you've got the blue pencils, don't use them for this step.6. Scan! I typically scan at 150 dpi, although this may change in the future.7. Send the scan to Paint Shop Pro. (:P to all you Photoshoppers!)8. Add speech, text etc.9. Resize to width 800, save as gif. It's greyscale, so gif still works.Coloured comics
Steps 1-4 as above.5. Scan, send to PSP, add speech text etc.6. For each area I want to colour, use the magic wand tool to select the area, then feather the selection by 2 pixels (this adds a semitransparent fringe of 2 pixels around the current selection). Then use the flooder set to flood everything, and fill in the selected area. This means that I don't lose the antialiasing on my lines, since that section's only partially selected, but nor do I get a white fringe around every area.7. Resize, drop colour depth to 256 colours (oh, the humanity!) and save as gif.~Bacon Slicer
PS. Yeah, I know I'm listed as a newbie. I didn't post for a month or two and my account was removed. <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/redface.gif">

Quattro · Post by **Quattro** » Wed Jun 06, 2001 2:07 am

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by STrRedWolf:

Minirant: Almost half comics here I found really need a ruler to help them draw their characters in general. Alot of work is needed with their style, and when it looked like I didn't need it, notable artist Chris Goodwin suggested it. It helped immensely.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I hope you haven't looked at mine yet <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/smile.gif">Actually, I'm in debate as to whether or not I should use a ruler. Half of me says "ya dummy, get off your lazy butt and get a ruler" but in the same breath I think "well, it sort of adds a bit of a stylistic quirk." This is most notable in my doors. Also, I sorta want to have a bit of a flat paper like quality to my art, but I'm not sure if that's getting across. If it is, great. If it isn't, ah well.Let me know what you think if you got the time,Quattro------------------
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Where being a super hero is as easy as getting a drivers license

Brian Young · Post by **Brian Young** » Wed Jun 06, 2001 4:31 am

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Quattro:
 I hope you haven't looked at mine yet <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/smile.gif">Actually, I'm in debate as to whether or not I should use a ruler. Half of me says "ya dummy, get off your lazy butt and get a ruler" but in the same breath I think "well, it sort of adds a bit of a stylistic quirk." This is most notable in my doors. Also, I sorta want to have a bit of a flat paper like quality to my art, but I'm not sure if that's getting across. If it is, great. If it isn't, ah well.Let me know what you think if you got the time,Quattro
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>No! Don't give up! Long live the "No Ruler" technique!
------------------
Brian E. Young<A HREF="http://boygirlclub.keenspace.com/images ... design.jpg" TARGET=_blank>Check out my new summer shirt!</A> It's cool. <A HREF="http://boygirlclub.keenspace.com/store.html" TARGET=_blank>Go buy it.</A>Boys & Girls Club (Jijo no Kurabu): <A HREF="http://www.boygirlcomic.com/" TARGET=_blank>http://www.boygirlcomic.com/</A>
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Pyromancy · Post by **Pyromancy** » Thu Jun 07, 2001 3:49 am

I come up with an idea for a basic joke.
then I get into the art part.I have a template that matches my basic panel layout made on bristol board(9x12). (On this bristol board, I have a collar of masking tape at the top and bottom so I can tape and retape on it and not destroy it.) using one inch strips of masking tape, I tape 8.5 x 11 xerox paper down. Using the panels, which I can see thru the xerox paper, I draw my art to fit the panels with a basic idea of where my word and thought balloons will be placed. After I'm satisfied with the look of the art, I tape down thin vellum or marker paper over the xerox paper. (There is a point to this.) With a .1mm Staedtler pigment liner (it's permanent) to trace my work. To better define the characters, I then use a .7mm Staedtler pigment liner (also permanent) to trace outlines of the characters. (In the past I tried to do these outlines with the .7 instead of going over the .1 lines and it looks weird and disconnected.) I untape the vellum from the bristol and plunk it down on a scanner. I scan at 300dpi black and white (line art if you don't use Umax). I have a panel template file saved in Adobe Photoshop, so when I scan the strip, I just load that and cut and paste it over the art and erase anything outside the panels. Once my panels are merged into the picture, I start the coloring process. Once I'm done coloring the work, I use adobe illustrator to write in the dialogue and narration. I also use illustrator to make the balloons and boxes. I cut from illustrator and paste into the photoshop document. I flatten the image and resize my work to a width of 530 pixels (still at 300dpi-it keeps it crisp) with proportion constraint on. then I save it.------------------
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Dan · Post by **Dan** » Thu Jun 07, 2001 11:02 am

Here are the 8 magical steps I have used to do my comic:Step 1: spend ages 4-17 drawing every damn day of my life.
Step 2: buy a Pentium III computer, a drawing tablet, Adobe Photoshop 5.5 (upgrade to 6.0), Illustraitor 9.0, Microsoft Frontpage 2000, Flash 4 (later upgrade to 5), and about a dozen or so odd books on how to use the various programs
Step 3: don't draw a thing for 3 years
Step 4: apply for and get a keenspace website
Step 5: procrastinate another 2 months
Step 6: throw together some quick character templates in flash (drawn mostly with a mouse instead of the graphics tablet)
Step 7: think of a story, put text in first, then stick in characters with appropriate facial features (talking mouth, surprised eyes, etc)
Step 8: sit back and watch no one read your site!------------------
Dan
<A HREF="http://www.stankywater.com" TARGET=_blank>StankyWater</A>

Seven3 · Post by **Seven3** » Fri Jun 08, 2001 4:36 am

Here's my method:0) Work idea out on a rough piece of paper, do basic layout until happy. Pencil then ink the good copy.1) Scan the image at 150 (I'd use 300 but my system can't hack it) DPI in black and white.2) Add the panel divsions (I do this on the PC so I get nice straight vertical and horizontal lines even if I didn't scan the comic 'square') and remove any 'artifacts' - errors on the image from either inking or scaning. I don't use twink as it makes a mess. At this point I also use the pencil tool to fill in any holes that would cause the 'flood fill' tool to colour areas I don't want it to. 3) Add the text and 'flood fill' to colour the image.4) Use the 'Select colour range' tool, and shade (and texture) those areas acorddingly.5) Shrink the image back the orignal size. this works best if you shrink it to half or quarter, rather than a third or two thirds.6) Optimise image as required and save as web based format (jpg, png, or gif) as image suits.7) <a href="http://portside.keenspace.com/comics/20 ... ><LI>If you don't have Photoshop, use <a href="www.gimp.org/">Gimp</a>------------------
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A pic from the first violent video game, Axe. <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/smile.gif">[This message has been edited by Seven3 (edited 06-08-2001).]

Mr Rayinn · Post by **Mr Rayinn** » Sat Jun 09, 2001 5:30 am

hmmm... well, as for me, my technique is pretty straightforward. I start out schetching the comic in F or H hardness pencil (I really need a harder pencil), no erasing, so it starts out looking like crap. I do the speech bubbles before or after, depending on the situation. I re draw it with a super fine point sharpie permanent marker and a ballpoint pen. Then I erase all the pencil with an artgum eraser. then shade, then scan. I don't have photoshop, I have Photodeluxe which doesn't present many good tools to clean the dang thing up, usually I just use it to color (rather, shade) Rayinn's hair. Whew! good topic! <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/smile.gif">----------------- <A HREF="http://elven.keenspace.com/" TARGET=_blank>http://elven.keenspace.com/</A>
Elven. It's good for you.

Mr Rayinn · Post by **Mr Rayinn** » Sat Jun 09, 2001 5:49 am

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Ren@shoushi:
Let me set this here post on fireAnyone draw full page comics as opposed to small comics that have only 2-3 panels? I am drawing mine as a large full page. I'll tell you it was hard. First I stared off with 6.5x10.5 but damn it was soo hard to draw in the panels them being that small. Finnaly I had to messure it out to 9x12. The Bristol paper is nice though when I erase with my stanford plastic eraser or better yet my gum eraser the pencil lines come clean off! I'm just roughing the basic comic now. Unfortunatly I won't be able to show anything off till I get me site from keenspace. Knowing my luck they'll probably give it to me before I'm done with anything <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/wink.gif"> hopefully what I am working on won't end up sucking.-r[This message has been edited by Ren@shoushi (edited 05-28-2001).]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Yes, in fact, every strip I do Is full sketchpad size. u can see at <A HREF="http://elven.keenspace.com/" TARGET=_blank>http://elven.keenspace.com/</A> . anywho, It's not THAT hard (urrg, this comic is driving me insane!) I guess it's fun though <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/wink.gif">

Rincewind MoG · Post by **Rincewind MoG** » Sun Jun 10, 2001 8:44 am

I come up with a vague idea for the plot of the strip. I pencil the first panel, procrastinate for a day, then finish the pencils and add all that neat shading, so I have an excuse not to ink or colour. I scan it into Photoshop, darken the pencils using "Curves" so that a mysterious person known as RossCBS (close to 50% of my entire readership) doesn't IM and tell me I need to darken the lines. I add the text and lines and stuff, usually making it up as I go along. Planning killed my last web comic, so I try to avoid it. <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/wink.gif"> I procrastinate for another day, and then upload the comic to <A HREF="http://midlands.keenspace.com" TARGET=_blank>http://midlands.keenspace.com</A> (plug plug).------------------
The trih xeem broke
against my dying
vessel and smashed a
fine patina across the
mystery shields of this
station.