Lily's Comic-making Process
Mar 16, 2007 6:29:52 GMT -5
Post by Animetor Lily on Mar 16, 2007 6:29:52 GMT -5
Well I'm no pro, but I can show you my comic making step-by-step pictures if you're interested.. ^^
1) the first step once you figure out a storyline and plot, is to break it down into several pages so it fits into a certain number of pages. It's important that the story should flow properly too from one page to the next.
2) It's helpful to do a really rough thumbnail on a rough piece of paper. Draw the comic panels and character/story planning in small rough + simple sketches for all the pages. This helps you to see and decide if something looks wrong before you draw the actual comic. You can look how this artist does it here >>
Page Sketch by Nicole Chartrand
3) Once you're happy with the thumbnails and everything generally, start sketching in the page in normal size in full
This is my example done for the 'Dark Souls' Anthology project (comic titled 'Silhouette')
If you can use blue pencil it's better, because in later stages it won't show up much when you scan the comic in the computer, and it's easier to erase without leaving traces. After you sketch in all the pages, you can still change anything you're not satisfied with to something better if you want to. ^^
4) Next when you're really really ultra happy with your sketch, start inking it in using a proper drawing pen. Do NOT use a ball pen for inking. I know some ppl use those sassy G-pen things, but frankly I haven't the first idea how to use them, so I use a technical pen ^__^
www.cultpens.com/acatalog/Uni_Pin_Drawing_Pen.html
My fave brand is Unipin and Faber Castell, sizes range from 0.1 - 0.5. A size 0.8 is used to outline the panel borders.
Choose the proper pen sizes for the lines inking. For example, objects closer should use a larger size pen than objects in the background. Or for clothes lining, use a small size pen for seam lines and other small details. You can emphasize some outlines as needed.
Use a ruler to ink action lines, and a small pen. For curved action lines, you can use one of those bendable rulers or a round ruler. A bendable ruler is better, because you can bend it into any shape you want to
5) Final step after inking is cleanup, tone & adding dialogue. For traditional comics, use the guides you can easily find online for adding screentones. Mine is a digital based comic, so I do everything using the computer. ;D
For traditional means, you can use liquid paper or white poster paint for cleaning up inking mistakes, or adding white highlights after adding tones.
For digital means, you can use graphix software such as Adobe Photoshop or GIMP for tone & cleanup. ^^ Check out my toning tutorial in the other thread here for a digital toning tutorial.
After all those, the final result appears...
Hope you find this helpful nya~
1) the first step once you figure out a storyline and plot, is to break it down into several pages so it fits into a certain number of pages. It's important that the story should flow properly too from one page to the next.
2) It's helpful to do a really rough thumbnail on a rough piece of paper. Draw the comic panels and character/story planning in small rough + simple sketches for all the pages. This helps you to see and decide if something looks wrong before you draw the actual comic. You can look how this artist does it here >>
Page Sketch by Nicole Chartrand
3) Once you're happy with the thumbnails and everything generally, start sketching in the page in normal size in full
This is my example done for the 'Dark Souls' Anthology project (comic titled 'Silhouette')If you can use blue pencil it's better, because in later stages it won't show up much when you scan the comic in the computer, and it's easier to erase without leaving traces.
After you sketch in all the pages, you can still change anything you're not satisfied with to something better if you want to. ^^4) Next when you're really really ultra happy with your sketch, start inking it in using a proper drawing pen. Do NOT use a ball pen for inking. I know some ppl use those sassy G-pen things, but frankly I haven't the first idea how to use them, so I use a technical pen ^__^
www.cultpens.com/acatalog/Uni_Pin_Drawing_Pen.html
My fave brand is Unipin and Faber Castell, sizes range from 0.1 - 0.5. A size 0.8 is used to outline the panel borders.
Choose the proper pen sizes for the lines inking. For example, objects closer should use a larger size pen than objects in the background. Or for clothes lining, use a small size pen for seam lines and other small details. You can emphasize some outlines as needed.
Use a ruler to ink action lines, and a small pen. For curved action lines, you can use one of those bendable rulers or a round ruler. A bendable ruler is better, because you can bend it into any shape you want to
5) Final step after inking is cleanup, tone & adding dialogue. For traditional comics, use the guides you can easily find online for adding screentones. Mine is a digital based comic, so I do everything using the computer. ;D
For traditional means, you can use liquid paper or white poster paint for cleaning up inking mistakes, or adding white highlights after adding tones.
For digital means, you can use graphix software such as Adobe Photoshop or GIMP for tone & cleanup. ^^ Check out my toning tutorial in the other thread here for a digital toning tutorial.
After all those, the final result appears...
Hope you find this helpful nya~
This is awesome Lily. Nice example of how it's done. 
