What methods do you use to draw/color your comics?

[byJDarby]

I saw a post that describes how to color comics in different styles, but I'm curious what tools, devices and softwares people use to do this.

I'm a digital artist so I use a pen and tablet [Wacom] because I've had some issues with drawing and scanning before (too many scratches, too much dust, too many jagged lines, not a perfect scan, ect.). In the past, I've used vector drawing/coloring methods in Illustrator. The art was amazingly high def without the pixels but the process took WAY too long.

This is my current method:

• Use Photoshop CS6 to draw the outline of everything. (brush tool)
• Color under the outline (brush tool)
• Add shading/special effects (brush tool, opacity % changes, texture clip layers, gradients, ect.)

It drives my crazy trying to figure out what comics, like Starpunch Girl or My 8 Bit Story, use as their tools/weapons of preference. Not looking to copy their style, just curious of their methods from start to finish.

What methods do you guys use step-by-step and how does that help/affect your styling?

(This post asked a similar question but it didn't provide the detailed answers with feedback that I'm looking for.)

[shinepaw]

I think the method mostly depends on what kind of comic you want to do, what fits the best.

As for my comic I use Paint Tool Sai, it's a great tool, the lineart looks much better, you can do painterly style more easily than in Photoshop, it's much more painting and drawing oriented program, but with less effects and no text tools. But Paint Tool Sai 2 is coming! And also it's much cheaper

I don't like scanned lines as well, I only do sketches on paper and the line on PC, but lately I do everything on PC, it's much faster.

My method for my comic is quite simple. I sketch up the panels (I have a template PSD since I use the same format), lineart with pencil tool, select areas to color with magic wand tool to lay down base colors, and add additional colors with the pencil tool. Color over the lineart, it gives more life to it, and then I add some other elements, like drop shadow, etc. Then I add the text and speech bubbles in PS.

And if you are interested in more painterly or detailed style you can hit up Deviantart, there are lots of great tutorials there.

[Raven_C]

I use a small-sized Wacom Bamboo tablet (one of those old models) that I've had since 2010.

For my comic Morsel:

• I draw the panels in Photoshop CS6

• I transfer the PSD file to Paint Tool SAI and then begin to sketch (I use the crayon brush). I don't finalize the lineart by "inking." I just leave it as it is, giving it a more sketchy look.

• Then I go back to Photoshop for coloring. (In my opinion, PS is much better than SAI when it comes to colors). I use either a dry media brush that comes with PS or I use one of the brushes I've downloaded/ purchased. My favorite ones are Kyle T. Webster's brushes.

For my second comic, I pretty much do the same initial steps, except I actually polish the lineart with a more solid brush. I want this comic to sorta have a toony feel so I leave the colors relatively flat.

[kurisquare]

I draw the panels, ink and letter by hand in A4 paper (I ink with a brushpen and use fineliners for panels and text), then scan at 600 dpi and color in Photoshop. Scanned lines don't look very good but if you scan at a really high resolution and then shrink the image you can barely see the imperfections.

[elixiadragmire]

also a wacom user, I've started thumbing straight to PC. A place the text in place (this layer group is turn off and on a lot). Then 'inking' in the background first and then the characters. After that and mess up my canvas. A get a load of colour and slap them around to dirty it up and then start honing in on the background colouring. Once that's done I to the natural light flats of my characters, then add shading, lighting colour changes, highlights. Then special effects and word balloons!

[Nerual]

All traditional for me ^__^
- sketching with pencil
- inking with waterproof markers
- lettering with Indian ink (I like strong black for this)
- coloring with watercolor (and watercolor pencils for my very first pages)
Then scanning... And I must admit I struggle to get correct colors on the final file.

That said, I still enjoy traditional art a lot (and I'm waaay too slow with digital art. It's pretty interesting, but I'm surely not comfortable enough with it to draw an entire comic this way).

[gateofselidor]

I pencil my stuff traditionally on paper. Everything else I do in Photoshop after scanning the page in. I used to prefer inking traditionally, but it's difficult to get a nice line quality when scanning, and pairing it with digital colouring made my lines look messy in comparison.

[UzukiCheverie]

• Use Wacom Intuos Pro 5 or whatever it's called
• Use Paint Tool SAI, paired with Photoshop for text and panels and technical stuff that SAI can't do.
• Use a default panel template I made like 3 years ago
• Do a sketch
• Continue onto lineart
• Finish lineart
• Add text
• Make speech bubbles
• At this point, if it was a black and white comic, it would be done and formatted for the vertical panels (because I still draw it usually as horizontally because it's what I'm used to).
• If color comic, start coloring everything, using the ink pen for the base colors.
• Create clipping groups to their respective layers and shade with the marker tool. ****MARKER TOOL IS BEST TOOL FOR LIFE**** <333
• After a bit of coloring and that's all done, merge all the layers and reformat for vertical and submit.

That's for Uzuki. For Time Gate, I use the same method as the black and white Uzuki strips, except I create my own panels for each page, and apply tones after the b/w inking is done. All of my lineart is done with a standard pen tool.

[Drezz]

• I do thumbnails in pencil in a sketchbook.
• Scan the thumbnails and enlarge to fit my page
• Do a rough set of pencils digitally in Photoshop at 72dpi
• Copy the pencils and paste them into a template page in Adobe Illustrator
• Create panel borders
• Ink the pencil work
• Import the Illustrator file into Adobe InDesign and do all lettering (helps with laying out a book ahead of time!)
• Export to PDF and PNG for web.

My color work, (which isn't here yet) adds a coloring stage (in Photoshop or Illustrator) after the inks.

I use a lot of heavy spot blacks, so it helps to do them in vector shapes in Illustrator rather than filling and coloring by hand in Photoshop.

[AlkseeyaKC]

• I sketch the thumbs in a notebook
• I "scan" them to my laptop using my high tech built laptop camera. lol
• Open a comic page template file I created.
• Toss the "scan" into Flash, crop it, resize it to fit the page.
• I do a better sketch over top of that and change any panels that need to.
• I then Ink each panel turning the panel line art into s symbol.
• Go back into each symbol and color everything.
• over top that I add the text and word bubbles using shape and line tools.
• Over that I make the borders and gutters.

I use a Wacom tablet.

[SpavVy]

After I do the line art I make a few new layers below it that are blank, then I go back up to the line art and use the select tool to highlight the parts I want to color, then I go to a couple layers under the line art and use the fill tool while the area is still selected that way it's not bleeding through my lines, I repeat this process for other parts as well, for the hair I select the whole outside of the characters body and have it on a layer just a little below the lines then I color the whole background black and go to the lowest layer and freely color so that way I don't miss any tricky corners which I'm sure a lot of you know what I'm talking about when it comes to hair. Once I'm finished I combine all the layers except the line art and then I select the background and erase the background then woolah it has all its basic colors are down then I repeat parts of the process for the shading but I use screen tone for that instead usually. If I use glowing effects then I make a new layer above and set it to add glow and use the spray tool. The program I use is manga studio 5 and I also have Gimp 2.8 for maybe I few touch ups.

[CiciEnixa]

For my comic, I use Photoshop for sketches and text, and Paint Tool Sai for coloring. I then turn it into JPG, resize, and upload.

Every once in a while (usually when I make fanart), I work with the ol' pen and paper, then scan it. I have problems with rough scans as well, which is why nowadays I scan only when I want it to look rough. When I don't want it rough, I trace over on another layer and work from there.

[Icelug]

I usually pencil the sketches on paper. With everything scanned I ink and finish the drawings with

*Wacom Tablet
*Manga Studio EX

For the coloured covers sometimes I use my good ol' PS 7.0

[getsuart]

Photoshop user with wacom tablet. The only thing I have from traditionnal is the early storyboard, so that I can draw it anywhere.
So it looks like :

• Early storyboard, with a lot of stickmen and potatoes
• Scan, open the page template, paste the early storyboard
• Retake all the storyboard so that I can ink it. The drawing doesn't need to be perfect at all !
• Lines of panels. each panels are separated, so that I can change something in it as I want and color it
• Text with word bubbles using the stroke layer style

Tadam ! Page is finished. It's merely like everyone else, to think about it.
I really like Photoshop, but Sai may be a little bit better for a real painted version. But I'm quite lazy to switch the softwares every time. I think it's one of the two main reasons that I'm not on Sai...

[byJDarby]

And if you are interested in more painterly or detailed style you can hit up Deviantart, there are lots of great tutorials there.

Thanks! Will do

I use one of the brushes I've downloaded/ purchased. My favorite ones are Kyle T. Webster's brushes.

Wow! Excellent resource. Thanks

I still enjoy traditional art a lot (and I'm waaay too slow with digital art. It's pretty interesting, but I'm surely not comfortable enough with it to draw an entire comic this way).

I know what you mean. When I transitioned to using a tablet, it took me nearly a year to get completely used to it. The texture change from paper to practically glass is just something your hands' gotta get used to.

[Amirai]

A vote for manga studio. At first I thought from the name that the program was a gimmick, but it turns out to be fantastic, and quite cheap, too. It did take me a while to get the hang of though, as it's quite different from photoshop, but now that I know how to use it I like it so much better,

In fact, I like it so much I've started working all digitally. The ability to do stuff like flip the page with one click, adjust lines rather than having to undo and redraw them, and in particular the very in-depth customization are very helpful.

@byJDarby - something that helped me when I was using a tablet that was too smooth was to put a sheet of paper on top of the tablet. Worked perfectly.

[Entoxia]

I agree, I spend a lot of time imagining how great artists go about their processes!

Mine is very straight forward:
-Basic planning and idea storming
-Sketch on paper/clean up sketch
-Scan at 300 dpi
-Open in Paint Tool SAI for coloring in shading
-Photoshop for speech bubbles and lettering

Thats about it~

[byJDarby]

• Export to PDF and PNG for web.

I'm curious why you export to PNG if your comic needs a background. Why not JPG?

• I then Ink each panel turning the panel line art into a symbol.
• Go back into each symbol and color everything.

I'm unfamiliar with this use of "symbols" for coloring. What program are you using? I'm primarily an adobe guy.

@Amirai Hmm...Thanks for the tip. Going to check out Manga studio. And I never even thought of that; a sheet of paper. I've been working with my tablet for 7 years so I'm used to it now, but I still want to try this technique out.

Stuff I'm learning!: I'm hearing a lot of people using SAI, manga studio and the traditional rough draft scan and draw over it technique. (I do all of my rough drafts electronically so this is new to me.) Playing with some of these ideas will definitely help adjust my style. Thanks people!

[Drezz]

@byJDarby : I export to PNG because my comic is usually under 16 colours, and it drops the file size significantly for web. A PNG-24 is about 25% smaller than a JPG of the same quality. If I did my work in full colour, I'd definitely use JPEG as it's more efficient.

[AlkseeyaKC]

Ooops! I thought I said what program I used but must have changed it. I tweaked my post so others know.

Anyway, I use CS3 Flash. lol
Symbols are typically what you used to animate with for tween animations. But it works well for holding panel art. lol