Cost of making comics

[woodwater]

About the rectangles - have you tried drawing them on a new layer behind the one where your people are? That way, you don't have to cut the rectangles apart.

One good thing about using a vector program like Xtreme is you have the flexibility to move individual objects behind or in front of other objects. You can drag the shape below another using the Object Manager, or select the shape and use the keyboard shortcuts to move them:

Control-B - moves shape to back of layer
Control-F - Moves shape to front of layer
Control-Shift-B - Moves shape behind one step
Control-shift-F - Moves shape forward one step

I looked at your file, and I noticed that you have your background rectangles filled with white by default, which means if you put something on a layer below that, you won't see it.

You can set that so shapes have no fill. Make sure nothing on your page is selected, and left-click on the box on the color line that has a criss-cross pattern on it, next to the little eyedropper. That sets the shapes to have no fill.

If you want all your shapes to have no fill by default, go to the Utilities menu - Options, and click on the General Tab. Check "Give new objects most recent attributes". Then, any shapes you draw should be clear by default.

Now, if you make a new layer and drag it below your lines and start making colored shapes, they should show up beneath the lines.

It's true what you say about drawing people - the lines aren't always closed. That's why Bob Hahn did his coloring on a separate layer underneath his line work in his video.

I hope that helps.

This was done with a light pencil. However when I imported it to Xaraxtrem it looks darker and hard to ink

[woodwater]

This was done with a light pencil. However when I imported it to Xaraxtrem it looks darker and hard to ink

I managed now,forget it.

[woodwater]

http://www.dan-dare.net/Homepage.htm

Dan Dare comics has just th kind of coloring I `d love to use in my comics. I wonder what materials his creator,Hampson, used for coloring?!

[Soquili]

The comic images were hand drawn and inked then printed on pulp stock back in the 1950s and 1960s. The images on the website are scans from the comics.

[handrawn]

Hampson made great use of photo referencing, which is as important if not more important to the way it was rendered than anything else, and a whole team of artists were involved:

http://www.tameside.gov.uk/blueplaque/frankhampson
http://www.frankhampson.co.uk/photorefs.html

further digging around on google may turn up references to actual materials he used, but typical of the time would have been [bristol] board and coloured inks [eg Winsor and Newton or Dr Martin's] - but I have no specific reference for Hampson in this regard

One thing - you could not have picked a much more expensive to produce example if you'd tried

[woodwater]

The comic images were hand drawn and inked then printed on pulp stock back in the 1950s and 1960s. The images on the website are scans from the comics.

You know where i can order Dan Dare comics from that time?

thanks

[woodwater]

Hampson made great use of photo referencing, which is as important if not more important to the way it was rendered than anything else, and a whole team of artists were involved:

http://www.tameside.gov.uk/blueplaque/frankhampson
http://www.frankhampson.co.uk/photorefs.html

further digging around on google may turn up references to actual materials he used, but typical of the time would have been [bristol] board and coloured inks [eg Winsor and Newton or Dr Martin's] - but I have no specific reference for Hampson in this regard

One thing - you could not have picked a much more expensive to produce example if you'd tried

But it appears I can do the same with Xara, judging from some drawings members have done like the ones by "markmywords"?!
I didnt want to read the entire tutorial,too many videos. Apart from the two by Bob Hahn ,which do you advise?
I`m busy teaching and playing guitar in a band so time is scarce.

thanks

[handrawn]

no shortcuts

the point about Hampsons work on Dan Dare is that they went to the lengths of posing in costume with props for camera, getting all the detail right down to the lighting corrrect, to give reference for the drawing - an ideal way of working, but labour intensive

sorry, but if you do not want to read the tutorials, or watch the videos, then you are not serious about this are you?

how to do this digitally is there - but there is no sound-bite answer

[woodwater]

http://www.xaraxone.com/guest/guest88/index.htm

its all here and in the basic tutorial right ?
Im serious about it but had little time so far

[handrawn]

We may be at cross purposes here ?

Bob's tutorial shows you the basics of how to color with xtreme

Paul's tutorial which you linked is a good example of how to apply digitally, a particular kind of effect, but.....

that's all that these tutorials are: how to do it digitally....

if you do not know how to color work in the first place, what you need is an art class ...