Help! Need honest opinion on Art for comic!

[Grasshoppershot]

Hi! I really need an honest opinion on whether I'm doing this screen tone thing right.

For context, I'm working on another comic with my sister, and it's looking great so far! The problem is that everytime we screentone it, it looks weird. It doesn't look like the screen tone that I see in other Manga I read online. Is there a reason for this?

Note: I'm using clip studio paint ex
This is mine:

Compared to this:

And this

[mohdadeebace]

Don't use Halftones everywhere (Just use it in the background, A little on character's skin like below the eyes or nose or where shadow falls and a little on clothes like where wrinkles and shadow falls). It will look great and natural. Just like the panels below

Just an advice, Its up to you what to with it....
I know it because i draw panels for my own novel. You can check it out if you want. It's called Volkermord

Read Volkermord | Tapas Web Community

[Lensing]

Try to use it only on the characters and keep the backgrounds white except some shadows
or very dark areas. Contrast is important. The first panel of the example comic is a good contrast
between black and white

[Grasshoppershot]

What if the characters are people of color? Would I use screen tone or solid colors?

[Grasshoppershot]

When is it appropriate to screen tone backgrounds?

[Lensing]

There is no general answer for this. Study the panels of other comics and make reference
folders for yourself and apply it to your work. That´s what I did with black & white comic
noir style comics. My panels never looked like the panels of the comics that I was reading
and it got better when I had reference to work from, after a while you understand how it
works

[mohdadeebace]

solid colors. That will work

[mohdadeebace]

Don't stick to any traditional norms of manga art. It's your artstyle. do whatever makes you feel is good and natural for your artstyle. (I am no big brains in this field, but i think art is all about how you feel and what you like to draw and in what way.)

[silverraven0]

Did you use double screen tone ? That effect can happen if you use multiple and they didn't stack right

[thepenmonster]

The moire pattern you're seeing is because of numbers and computers and stuff that's too much of a headache to go into. But screentone is something designed for print and you have to fiddle with settings to make sure it renders properly in a digital format.

I haven't watched this video in some months but IIRC it'll teach you how to use the tool properly.

[NickRowler]

I think the reason why they look different is because Vampire Hunter D was most likely screentone traditionally. When it got scanned digitally, the screentone tends to artifact. Which causes them to look less like a true screentone but instead a grayscale texture.

I think the best solution for you, if you want to make a digital comic, is to use flat grey shades or create new textures that emulates screentones.

[BoomerZ]

Truthfully, tones were not made for digital. It's for news print. I tried to get a comics to look like tones, way harder than it's worth. And as people zoom in and out, it produces moire no matter what you do anyway. If manga back in the day could of done color, they would have. Tones was only an option because they couldn't do that in printing..

[Grasshoppershot]

When I used the screen tone feature, I'm pretty sure it was just one. All I did was selected what I wanted toned and then change the frequency. Sorry if it's hard to explain I'm using Clips Studio.

[Grasshoppershot]

Thank you I'll give that video a look!

[Grasshoppershot]

Now that you mention it, I wonder if my hero Academia was done the same way. Traditionally on paper before moved to digital. Whenever I use a reference,I am reading these mangas on my phone.. I bet if I had a physical copy I could see the toner versus whenever I read the digital version of my favorite manga

[Grasshoppershot]

That would make a whole lot of sense. It probably explains why no matter the pixels or the size of the canvas it still looks the same way. Do you recommend me doing it in grayscale and maybe erasing it with texture to give it the look?