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The Starving Webcomic Artist's Guide
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If you're a webcomic artist, chances are good that you have no money. Or if you do, none of it
comes from your comic. The following is a guide to show you how to get a good looking comic
for the minimum initial investment. Note that the techniques I am outlining are merely
how I do things - every cartoonist has their own particular way of creating a comic;
feel free to improvise!
You will need:
- Adobe Photoshop or something similar ("Photoshop Elements" is the cheapo version of photoshop
and is the version I use).
- A graphics tablet (I use a tablet I picked up for AUD$50) OR
- A scanner, pencils, a fine tip pen (0.4) and a calligraphy pen (2.0). Oh, and also
an eraser and a shiteload of paper (A4 computer paper is fine).
Drawing With a Graphics Tablet
If you are inking with a graphics tablet in Photoshop (particularly with a cheaper one), you will find
it pretty hard to get a line that doesn't wobble all over the place. So, here's what I do.
First, create a canvas that is 4 times the size that your final drawing would be.
(eg: If you want the final comic to be 500 pixels wide, make the canvas 2000 pixels wide).
Next, sketch the outline of the cartoons in blue. This way, when you ink the cartoons in black, you won't be confused by the nasty mess of
black lines you would otherwise have.
Okay, now you have to zoom in as much as you can and start inking. Turn your monitor resolution
up as far as possible so you can see the maximum amount of the zoomed in area. I find you
will be able to get a pretty decent line at 400% and an okay one at 300%. If you are using
Photoshop Elements, use the drop shadow brushes to get a line that doesn't change thickness
depending on tablet pressure. Using a slightly thicker brush around the outline of characters is a nice effect.
Once you have finished drawing the ink outlines, colour the characters in using the paint bucket (before
you do this you may wish to save the ink outline to a different file for reuse in later comics).
When you have finished drawing, remember to resize the image to 25% size (if you made it
4 times larger than you wanted it).
Drawing With A Pencil, Pens and a Scanner
This is how I used to do the Digicomics, and I find you get greater control over your
pen this way. Sadly, you do not have an "undo" button :).
Draw the box outlines of your comic so you are drawing at a size you feel comfortable with
(just remember it has to fit in the scanner). I used to draw my comics slightly less than
the width of an A4 piece of paper. Sketch your cartoon in pencil, then ink it in
over the top with a the calligraphy pen around the outside of the characters and the fine
point pen for the inside details (this is a general rule of thumb, and not always the best
way to do things - experiment!). Erase the pencil lines (note that if you have a light table
you will be able to avoid the pain of this stage).
Scan in your ink outlines at least twice the size you want the final comic to be.
You may need to adjust the lighting on your scanner so that the black is darker and the
whites are brighter. Scan in grayscale rather than colour.
Load your scan into photoshop. Select "Auto Levels" from the "Enhance" dropdown and change
the image mode to RGB colour. Your ink should now look nice and dark. Colour your characters
in using the paint bucket tool.
Speech Bubbles
Go to www.blambot.com for a variety of great looking comic
fonts. These are all free for non-mainstream webcomic artists.
To draw speech bubbles, use the shape tool and select an appropriate speech bubble. Alternatively,
draw a circle, then draw the "point" of the speech bubble with the pen tool.
Select the speech bubble shape using the magic wand tool and select its border (Select -> Modify -> Border).
Give it a border of about 5 pixels (if your image is 4 times its final size), then fill in the
border with black using the paint bucket tool.
IN CONCLUSION
Well, that's the end of this pretty rough guide. Hopefully it will have pointed you in the right
direction. Remember, don't be afraid to experiment with different techniques (even if it ends up
looking crap you will have learned something, yeah?), and in your spare time try redrawing
other artists' work as accurately as possible. There is no shame in this, its a great way to build technique - Leonardo
da Vinci himself did the same. Note that I'm not condoning copyright infrigement here - use the
techniques you acquire doing this and re-use them in your own creations (don't simply
trace Batman and whack him up on your website).
Have fun!
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