Hi Everyone! Welcome to my brand new segment here on the blog known as Tutorial Tuesday! This segment is designed to show you guys out there different ways you can make art. Sometimes it might show my process step by step, sometimes It’ll have diagrams showing proper proportions or techniques, and sometimes I’ll have videos that show all of the above. But the idea is to give those of you who are interested in making your own comics, some insight as to what it takes to make one. And give you one less excuse to not do it!
What makes me qualified to do tutorials? Well other than the fact I’m a published comic artist, I also teach drawing at a Music and Art Store called PLaY! Music and Art. If you live near Canton, GA you should stop by and get some drawing lessons!
Todays Tutorial is going to be pretty simple since its our first one. Just a step by step process of how I add in Gray tones to my comic Shadows of Oblivion. To do it I use a computer program called Manga Studio EX4. I love this program and i use it for 75% of my comic art. (I don’t even touch photoshop anymore because of it.) If you want more info on Manga Studio EX you can go to my comic’s website and just click on the Manga Studio banner and it’ll bring up all the info you could want on the software.
But enough gushing about the program i love lets see how this looks. I started with my line art (i’ll show you inking in another tutorial.) And I just started applying the various screen tones to it to give the art more depth and texture. Watch the line art come alive:
Two things are important to keep in mind when applying screen tones.
The first is is contrast. If you make all the grays the same value its going to blend together and the details will get lost. So make sure things you want to focus on need to be in stark contrast to its background.
The second thing you need to worry about is the size of the dot patterns. If you make the dots in your screen tone too large it’ll appear as if the subject is wearing poka dots. But if you make it too small you risk loosing the texture that the screen tones create, and it’ll look just like a flat gray. So you might have to experiment a few times so you get it to look how you want. The great thing about applying screen tones digitally is that you can play with the size and darkness until you get it just right. I know I do, so theres nothing wrong with you if you have to as well.
Now if you’re making the excuse right now “I can’t afford a fancy computer or this specialized software, I can’t do gray tones” I have good news. Before computers these tones were still used. You can go to art supply stores and pick up some tone transfer sheets and put these tone in by hand! It makes for some beautiful looking artwork.
So the problem with blogs is that its a one way street. I write and you read. You might have questions that I didn’t answer here. Well Feel free to leave a comment and ask it! I’ll happily reply in the comments. Or if you prefer you can email me at shawn@shawnmccauley.com. Follow me on twitter @thegreatshono or like me on face book! In any case I’ll get back to you as fast as I can with answers!
So I’ll leave you now with this ustream video of me toning this panel in real time, so you can see how i use the software. And Stop making excuses and start making comics!
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