Hi! I really enjoy your blog and explanations a lot. Thanks for sharing so much information. Since I am just starting with a comic blog myself, I have a couple of questions I would like to ask like what is your workflow? What is a rough sketch? Do you use layers in a graphics app or do you draw on paper? What kind of tools (pen or graphics tablet?) do you use? it would be cool if you can give me some advice. Thanks a lot and all the best!
Oh gosh, the workflow and tablets question!! Firstly, let me start by saying that I ( potofsoup) am not the only one running this blog, and that karaii and jonomancer probably have very different workflows and toolsets from me. (I know for a fact that jonomancer does pencils and inks on paper, scans them in and then does coloring and text digitally. He’s also using Linux, which means he’s stuck with GIMP or Krita, poor guy.)
But for me — I used to do everything on paper (CGU, China Comics, Sixteen), scan it in and do touch-ups in Photoshop. But in 2012 I went full digital and never looked back.
So, let me take you through the options, starting with Hardware, and then moving onto Software. Then I’ll walk you through my 2 different comicking processes — fan comic vs. Tisquantum.
This is going to be LONG, but also Thorough. Ready? :D
============ HARDWARE ===============
Here are the options I’ve explored, from cheapest to most expensive:
Used Intuos 6x8 Graphics Tablet: $30-80
Okay, so you can go to wacom.com and get a 4x6″ Intuos Pen for $80, but why do that when you can get a used Intuos 2 or Intuos 3 that’s twice the surface area (6x8″) on Ebay for about half the price? Seriously, go to Ebay, type in “Intuos 6x8″, and browse the selection. When I need to draw stuff on my home computer, I *still* plug in the used Intuos 1 that I bought off eBay in 2004. And it still works! :D
Pros: cheap, plugs into any computer, you can use it with any drawing program, and WACOM is very good at keeping up-to-date with their drivers
Cons: I have very bad drawing posture, and my back starts hurting after about 2 hours. Also you have to lug the board around and plug it in.
———-
Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Tablet: $150 - $200
I draw all of my fan-comics using this. It’s got a touch-sensitive pen that slots into its own special pen bay in the lower right hand corner. I love it because it’s super-portable, PLUS it’s a full-functional Android tablet, meaning that I can also play Candy Crush and read my Kindle books on it. It’s $150-200 on eBay, which is pretty rad. I use Sketchbook Pro for drawing, and I made a tutorial here.
Pros: portable, android tablet
Cons: The drawing apps available for Android aren’t as full-featured as Photoshop or other desktop software. They’re only $5 or so, but they’re limited in # of layers and image size.
———-
Intuos Creative Stylus for iPad 3/4/Mini: $80
So technically this is cheaper than the Note 8, but you need to already have an iPad 3, 4, or Mini, which costs you $300+, so… yeah. I don’t own any iPads, so I don’t have personal experience with it. I’ve seen other artists do cool stuff with it, though. Plus it’s WACOM, so you can’t really go wrong.
Pros: cheap if you already have the right iPad
Cons: Still limited by the iPad App Store. I hear Procreate is pretty good? I’ve also used Sketches and enjoyed it.
——-
Tablet PCs: Surface Pro or Lenovo Yoga: $900-$1200
So there used to be so many tablet laptops with pen sensitivity, but now it’s mostly touch-sensitivity. But I recently got a Surface Pro 3, which I’ve been enjoying, and my husband uses a customized Lenovo Yoga that he ordered off of their website. If you’re in the market for a laptop anyway, I think it’s worth adding the $300 to the sticker price to get a screen that’s pressure-sensitive, because drawing on it feels super natural.
Pros: full-functional laptop, nice screen size
Cons: much expense. The Surface Pro can still feel more like a tablet than a laptop, but that’s mostly because it’s top-heavy.
———
WACOM Cintiq or Yiynovas: $400-$3000
I don’t have one of these because, wow, expensive. But if you want to draw on a monitor/screen that is custom-designed for professional artists, AND be able to plug that monitor in to any computer or laptop, either the Cintiq or the Yiynova is the way to go. Yiynovas are basically the half-price alternatives to Cintiqs.
Pros: You feel like you’ve hit the big leagues, wow all the sensitivity feels so good!
Cons: expense? The smaller ones you can haul around, but the big ones are basically locked to your table.
Anyway, that pretty much concludes the HARDWARE section. Next:
================== SOFTWARE ================
There’s a lot of programs out there, but they mostly fall into 3 categories: painting-focused (stuff with minimalist interface and strong brush engines, but might not have the lasso tool), Photoshop-inspired (strong photo-manip tools, but might not have good drawing interface), and Japanese-origin (complex interfaces, but targeted towards illustration and comics).
I’ve tried to hit the big ones and the ones that I use, although I know people who swear by Krita or ArtRage or whatever.
PaintTool SAI: Free for PC
I haven’t used it, but so many fan artists and illustrators swear by it, plus it’s free for PC? It doesn’t seem to have many good comicking tools, though.
Pros: Free, full-featured
Cons: It’s Japanese, so the interface — good luck, man. Also: PC only.
———
Photoshop: $0-infinity????
Oh, Photoshop — there’s a reason it’s industry standard, but I also don’t feel comfortable with the monthly tithing system that is Photoshop CC. So I *ahem* use Photoshop CS4. You actually don’t need much of its functionality for comics, but it’s good for a lot of other stuff. Like… photo manips, rudimentary animation, etc.
Pros: It’s Photoshop.
Cons: Ugh giving money to Adobe. Also: it might be me not using the newer PS, but switching brushes on PS is a bitch.
————
Sketchbook Pro: $5 on Android/iOS, $60 on PC/Mac
I really like the clean, intuitive interface and the customizable Lagoon on the PC! I feel like the Lagoon and the Brush Pucks deserves its own post, so I’ll save it for that. It’s also nice that it’s cross-platform. It has rudimentary layer options, and basic text/ruler features.
Pros: nice interface, not too expensive.
Cons: Not as robust as Photoshop or MangaStudio in terms of layers, export options, etc. It’s decent at a lot of things, but not superb at anything. Also, Autodesk is also moving to a subscription model. :-/
————
MangaStudio Pro: $50 for PC/Mac
This is designed more doing comics, so there’s a TON of tools for word balloons, dialogue text, panel frames, etc. Plus it has most of the Photoshop functionality that I every use, such as advanced layer options (masking, Overlay layers, layer groups, etc), and color tweaking (Hue/Saturation, Curves, etc). The internet-download version is called ClipStudio for some reason.
Pros: full-featured, powerful comicking tools. Photoshop-level power at a pittance. Great brush engine.
Cons: translated from Japanese, so figuring out the interface is a bitch. But I think ultimately worth it — I’ve finally got the interface customized to mostly suit my needs. Also: there’s a really big difference between MangaStudio 4 and 5, and it’s hard to find tutorials for MS5. And personally, the brush engine is waaay to complicated for me — I actually prefer the simpler one of Sketchbook Pro.
Thus ends the software section. Next:
============= My Comicking Processes ===========
Oh gosh this is highly personalized and probably not helpful at all, but here they are:
Fan-comics:
I try not to spend too much time on fan comics, so I do them on my Galaxy Note 8, with Sketchbook Pro. There’s 2 peculiarities that come with that:
(A) I keep all the pages in the same file, but unfortunately each file maxes out at 18 layers, so often times there’s a lot of layer juggling and “draw something to ‘good enough’, merge down to clear out layer space, regret forever”
(B) I use an old version of SKP that doesn’t have the lasso tool, but has much nicer color interface. So there’s a lot of my workaround of “create duplicate layer, resize/move layer, erase the parts I don’t want, then merge back down”
So, my process:
(1) Do layouts for all the pages, in pink lines
(2) Lineart.
I often have to go back to the draft layer in a different color (green, usually, then blue) to tighten up some of the original sketches.
Sometimes I ink a panel on a new layer, move/resize to where it looks/feels good, then merge with the other inks of the page.
dialogue dialogue dialogue. Usually on a new layer.
Merge all the dialogue and ink layers for each page when I no longer feel regret.
Put in white behind the dialogue balloons and sometimes the panel gutters, then merge with lineart.
(3) Coloring
Loosely brush my way around a background layer.
Lay down flats for the characters/foreground on a new layer
Create Multiply layer, put in shading as appropriate. I generally try to remember to use reds for the skin, but the rest of it is lazy grays straight from the color palette.
Create another layer to pick out the highlights if necessary
Merge everything to save layer space. Cry because I see something in the bg that I can’t change anymore.
(4) Photoshop
I export as PSD and load it on my normal computer in Photoshop
Turn up the saturation a bit if necessary — depends on laziness
Export as jpg, upload to tumblr
Here’s what the layer nightmare looks like: (I had to delete all my pink draft lines to make space. There’s 6 pages in this comic, and each page has lineart + coloring + bg, so that’s 18 layers, which is the max.)
I’ve talked about my Tisquantum story process a bit here, but here’s the my current technology/production process:
(1) Do several pages of layout in Sketchbook Pro, usually with purple for some reason
(2) Load up the file in MangaStudio, draw panel borders. Rasterize panel borders and re-export as PSD
(3) In Sketchbook Pro, while watching roughly 3 episodes of Crime Procedural — Linework layer, background layer, layer of grayscale flats, then shade the flats
(4) Load up the file in Photoshop for postproduction:
ctrl-shift-G all the art layers to clip to the panel shapes. Add white to the clipping layer for open panels as necessary
type in lots of text. Tweak. Agonize.
Make speech balloons as a vector shape layer with an inside stroke of 6px, add balloon tails with the pen tool
Move text and balloons around until everything feels right
Add sepia layer (set to Soft Light)
(Eventually I hope to learn how to do all this in MangaStudio, but right now I have a more established PS workflow)
(5) Get beta feedback
Re-tweak lots of dialogue
Sometimes the beta points out a major art problem. But at this point I can’t open it in SBP without losing all of the text and speech bubble stuff, so that’s when I plug in my Intuos and try to fake the brush textures in PS.
Export as web-friendly size, upload to server. Type up historical notes.
Here’s what my PS layers look like: