Hey, like I promised last time, here is a run down of how I do an update. The images are on the small size… but it was mostly to get an idea, not a tutorial…

I start off with a thumbnail (really rough) of how I want the layout to be… Sometimes I change the look as I actually work on the final page…

(thumbnailed on a post-it note…)

Then after getting my paper ready with the borders, I begin to draw.

(As you can already see, I have decided the change up the layout and have inserted a 6th panel.)

Finished pencil work.

(I work with a non-photo blue pencil. The great thing about it is I don’t need to erase my lines when I am done inking. I use photoshop to remove the blue from the image.)

A finished page inked.

(I start out by inking the borders and the word bubbles with a brush tipped micron graphic pen. I then use a .30 rapidograph pen to draw out everything. Once I finish inking those lines, I use a F size faber-castell graphic pen to border out my characters.)

I scan the page into photoshop.

(Using the crop tool, I even out the page borders if it scanned lop sided. )

I get rid of the blue lines now.

(I go to image, adjustments, hue/saturation (or ctrl+u/apple+u) and go to the cyan selection.)

(I take the saturation to -100 and the lightness to +100 and that gets rid of the blue lines.)

I convert the artwork to grayscale, then bitmap it.

(I set it to 50% threshold and 300 dpi.)

I convert it back to rgb by stepping back to grayscale then to rgb. After that, I apply 2 layers. One is multipy and the other is screen.

(Multiply is the layer where all of my grayscale screentones are and Screen is the layer where it gives the overall color to my art.)

I add in the text.

(The text gets its own layer each time I apply it to a bubble. When there is a lot of text, I put it into a folder to condense the clutter in the layer box.)

Then at last, I screen tone the art.

(Using the magic wand tool to make area selections, I fill the space with the screentone patterns I added to my pattern tool. I add more layers if I want a different effect with piling the screentone over top of each other.)

I save the file for web at 700 wide and that’s that… Hopefully you all enjoyed this.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 11:51 am and is filed under comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.