Intro to Comic-Craft
Or, all the stuff you need to know to make some manga
So lets make some comics!
Lets start out with the tools of the trade...
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)
pencils& Graphite pencils – mechanical, wooden, drafting/lead holders& Varying lead hardness gives you different values
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
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
Other tools& ruler/t-square/triangle/straight edge& french curves& circle and ellipse templates & eraser (vynl, plastic, kneaded)
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
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!
Now we have stuff, so lets make some comics!Where do we start?
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
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
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
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
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.
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
Colored comics& various techniques to make colored comics – digital media, markers, paints, colored pencil, mixed media& its your comic, do what makes you happy!
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.
