Drawing comics

[Allen James]

I agree, the brushes in Photoshop are quite good for inking, and by using layers and opacity, you can do sketches first, then ink over the top.

I still find accuracy a problem. Normally I just do a pencil sketch, and the inking with a light box, brushes and pens, and it’s pretty fast. If I were to use my tablet and Photoshop I’m pretty sure it would take me much longer, and I would not have the same control and accuracy.

If you look closely at this example of someone inking in Photoshop, you’ll notice the line endings, where a wedge is made, say on hair, are round and blobby instead of sharp. You can avoid that a little by careful selection of brushes, and by using pressure to vary the width of the line, but it still remains a problem. They haven’t got it down to a perfect art yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgC3RZcn4F4

[steve.ledger]

In the hands of those with amazing talent and knowledge of the tools they choose, mind numbing results can be acheived no matter what.

This Photoshop illustration is arguably indistinguishable from a traditional pencil and ink drawing.



I'd love to see Eduard Visan play a while with Xara Xtreme

[Egg Bramhill]

No ones mentioned the obvious thing about using a graphics pad and that's still the fact that you're drawing on one surface (the tablet) and the results are being generated on another (the monitor). This fact alone makes the experience very different than using paper and pencil. I'd really love to try out a tablet PC.

[MarkMyWords]

Yes Egg, but you soon get used to it, I did anyway. The Cintiq looks to be the perfect solution; http://randymstaana.wordpress.com/20...-20wsx-review/ , if just a bit expensive.

Here's that comic book master Brian Bollands process; http://www.brianbolland.net/lessons/...roduction.html -All in Photoshop.

[gnurf]

If you look closely at this example of someone inking in Photoshop, you’ll notice the line endings, where a wedge is made, say on hair, are round and blobby instead of sharp. You can avoid that a little by careful selection of brushes, and by using pressure to vary the width of the line, but it still remains a problem. They haven’t got it down to a perfect art yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgC3RZcn4F4

The problem you mention is a well known one, and most artist who draw digitally with a tablet are talking about pulling and pushing the pen. The traditional pen or brush is pulled, but to get the correct "wedges" you have to reverse your drawing, so called pushing (the pen/brush) meaning you start "pushing" the pen from the wedge to the wider part (normally the wide part is where you start and the narrow part where you end). I believe Bolland ha smentioned this as well somewhere.

[Allen James]

In the hands of those with amazing talent and knowledge of the tools they choose, mind numbing results can be acheived no matter what. This Photoshop illustration is arguably indistinguishable from a traditional pencil and ink drawing.

In this case time is the problem. The drawing took that guy forever. Marvel cartoonists could produce the same image (and better) by hand in about 30 minutes.

http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/3...psketchxi3.jpg

Yes Egg, but you soon get used to it, I did anyway. The Cintiq looks to be the perfect solution; http://randymstaana.wordpress.com/20...-20wsx-review/ , if just a bit expensive.

Here's that comic book master Brian Bollands process; http://www.brianbolland.net/lessons/...roduction.html -All in Photoshop.

Some interesting info there MMW.


When a guy can produce the image below quickly, with a tablet, from scratch, then I’ll say tablets have replaced pencil ink and paper.

http://www.mattyocumcomics.com/wp-co...age3-inked.JPG

When a scanned ink drawing is worked on in Xara, you can achieve great results very quickly. To do the whole thing with a tablet would take me ten times as long. Sure I’d have a great result, but I would have to charge ten times as much. When I can find a tablet that allows me to produce the work at the same speed, without losing any quality, I will definitely want to buy that baby.

[handrawn]

Marvel cartoonists could produce the same image (and better) by hand in about 30 minutes.

[MarkMyWords]

In this case time is the problem. The drawing took that guy forever. Marvel cartoonists could produce the same image (and better) by hand in about 30 minutes.

LOL! I don't see how using a tablet slows the process down. For me, having the various digital tools helps my productivity immensely, but I can see we are not going to convince you Allen, fair enough. We each choose the tools we find most useful to our own way of working.

[Bob Hahn]

When a guy can produce the image below quickly, with a tablet, from scratch, then I’ll say tablets have replaced pencil ink and paper.

When a scanned ink drawing is worked on in Xara, you can achieve great results very quickly. To do the whole thing with a tablet would take me ten times as long. Sure I’d have a great result, but I would have to charge ten times as much. When I can find a tablet that allows me to produce the work at the same speed, without losing any quality, I will definitely want to buy that baby.

You sound more like someone who doesn't currently use a drawing tablet and is finding every excuse to convince himself that you still don't really need one.

A drawing tablet isn't an absolute necessity as that's what scanners are for.

Having said that, there are still more benefits than negatives to drawing tablets. Actually, I can't think of any negatives. On paper, you can't select part of your sketch, resize it, rotate it, reposition it, without having to erase and redraw that portion. On paper, you can't make your page larger if you need more room. On tablets, there's no worries of smudging from your drawing hand and you save on drawing supplies.

As for time, to physically use a tablet, you use it no differently as a pencil on paper. So how can a drawing take any longer?

The one physical difference in using a tablet is that you are now looking at a screen and not down at a piece of paper. But even when drawing on paper, you're not looking at your hand or staring at the tip of the pencil, but you're watching the line you are creating. Looking at the screen shows you the same thing. You're just looking up instead of down.

The only advantages pencil on paper has is in creating an original hand drawn drawing. And it's cheap and portable. Pencil and paper will never go away - but there are no negatives one can place on a drawing tablet vs drawing on paper first then scanning. It just comes down to a matter of personal choice. Excuses not needed.

[gnurf]

Another aspect which doesn't have to do with the artistic side, is how you save you artwork. When you draw on paper the drawings can be "used" after a very long time (say about 20 yrs.) but how will the digital drawing be used/opened after the same time? Some formats will without doubt be obsolete. Also, how much digital stuff will be lost due to hard-drive failures and no backup. A bit off topic, sorry, and now back to the topic:

If I would get a Cintique, but personally I disagree with Bob - for me it's not the same using a table and using pen and paper.
For me, using a tablet doesn't give the right touch and feeling. I mentioned in a previous post that to achieve the brushed looked you have to reverse your drawing style (pushing the pen instead of pulling).
And I'm not getting used to watching the screen while I draw on the tablet (but that is an individual thing, as I know many people don't have problems with it).
And I like the smell of ink, and the feel of the paper texture.

And when I mess up I retouch on the computer! And it's at this point I like the tablet, retouching images in Photoshop - beats retouching with mouse any time.

And this is not saying Bob is wrong, these were just my personal preferences.

And yes, I do use a tablet from time to time, but not to draw comics from scratch!