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Intro to Comic-Craft Or, all the stuff you need to know to make some manga
19

Materials and Techniques Part 1: Introduction to Comic Craft

Aug 10, 2014

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Art & Photos

Becca Hillburn

A presentation by Becca Hillburn and Heidi Black introducing the basic materials utilized in creating comics. Covers pencils, leads, papers.
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Page 1: Materials and Techniques Part 1: Introduction to  Comic Craft

Intro to Comic-Craft

Or, all the stuff you need to know to make some manga

Page 2: Materials and Techniques Part 1: Introduction to  Comic Craft

So lets make some comics!

Lets start out with the tools of the trade...

Page 3: Materials and Techniques Part 1: Introduction to  Comic Craft

PaperYou mean there's more than one kind?

& copy paper (20lb, 24lb, 28lb, 32lb – also in sizes of letter, legal, a4)& thicker papers (cardstock/presentation paper)& manga papers (deleter, maxon, copic)& bristol board (canson, strathmore)& other media/illustration boards (for wet media/paints)

Page 4: Materials and Techniques Part 1: Introduction to  Comic Craft

pencils& Graphite pencils – mechanical, wooden, drafting/lead holders& Varying lead hardness gives you different values

Page 5: Materials and Techniques Part 1: Introduction to  Comic Craft

Non-photo blue pencils& nonphoto blue pencils are a favorite of comic artists because they can be easily dropped from art& great for working out perspective, anatomy, etc before committing to a line with pencil or ink& jetpens.com sells nonphoto blue (“soft blue”) mechanical leads& other colors can be used – use hue/saturation/lightness in photoshop to drop that color

Page 6: Materials and Techniques Part 1: Introduction to  Comic Craft

Inking tools & tech pens: copic, pitt, micron, rapidograph& brushes: watercolor/sable brushes are great& brush pens: felt tip or synthetic bristle& nib & ink (dip pens)& fountain pens

Page 7: Materials and Techniques Part 1: Introduction to  Comic Craft

Other tools& ruler/t-square/triangle/straight edge& french curves& circle and ellipse templates & eraser (vynl, plastic, kneaded)

Page 8: Materials and Techniques Part 1: Introduction to  Comic Craft

Computer programs& adobe photoshop – considered the standard& adobe illustrator – difficult to learn& corel painter – better for illustration& manga studio – offers a lot of templates, screentones, used by many professionals& paint tool sai – cheaper alternative, also good for coloring& free alternatives such as gimp, open canvas

Page 9: Materials and Techniques Part 1: Introduction to  Comic Craft

That's a lot of stuff!Relax!

You don't need all of those thingsStart simple. Find what works best for you. It isn't the same for everyone!

Page 10: Materials and Techniques Part 1: Introduction to  Comic Craft

Now we have stuff, so lets make some comics!Where do we start?

Page 11: Materials and Techniques Part 1: Introduction to  Comic Craft

Everyone has a story to tell& short stories are usually best to start with& many artists do autobio comics about events that happen to them& gag cartoons/comic strips are also good first comics& try to avoid your 2000-page epic as your first comic

Page 12: Materials and Techniques Part 1: Introduction to  Comic Craft

Starting with a script& a script will keep you on track with your story& a script can be very simple such as bullet points and actions, or very complex & scripts are also much easier to revise than art

Page 13: Materials and Techniques Part 1: Introduction to  Comic Craft
Page 14: Materials and Techniques Part 1: Introduction to  Comic Craft

thumbnails& thumbnails are your first draft – they help you visualize what you want on the page without committing too much time/effort& thumbnails can be very simple (stick figures)& making multiple thumbnails using different camera angles can help you create more visually interesting pages

Page 15: Materials and Techniques Part 1: Introduction to  Comic Craft

roughs& a tight rough is usually page size& refining what you worked out in your thumbnails& this is the place to work on things like perspective

Page 16: Materials and Techniques Part 1: Introduction to  Comic Craft

Pencils and inks& some artists will make another pass at the pencils before inking& if you mess up, you can use white paint or a white gel pen to “erase” mistakes.& or photoshop.

Page 17: Materials and Techniques Part 1: Introduction to  Comic Craft

screentones& screen tones are often used in manga& tones can be bought and pasted on original art, or applied digitally& other ways to make grey values include hatching/cross hatching, dry brush, watercolor/ink wash, and copic markers

Page 18: Materials and Techniques Part 1: Introduction to  Comic Craft

Colored comics& various techniques to make colored comics – digital media, markers, paints, colored pencil, mixed media& its your comic, do what makes you happy!

Page 19: Materials and Techniques Part 1: Introduction to  Comic Craft

So what's the secret to being an awesome comic artist?Practice.A lot.

Read comics.A lot of them.A huge variety of them.