Anatomy of a Page

This is a brief run through of how I put a comic page together.
Nothing technical, just a tour. It may take a moment to load. I
hope you found it at least a little interesting. LOL!

This is the rough sketch I scanned in. It was originally done on printer paper drawn with a fine-line sharpy marker, as many of my primitive sketches are. This sketch is rough, it's meant to capture movement and placement and to hint at the shapes and proportions of characters and environs. But it sure as heck couldn't be hand inked in this state. So this is the kind of sketch I make when I know I will be computer inking... down and dirty sketching.

I scan it in at 300 dpi and then open it in Photoshop 7.0. I open the Channel palette and choose the select lock icon. This selects the linework on the page and locks it from being worked with. Then I run an erasor right over the entire work. It erases the background leaving linework on a transparent layer.

I then go to the layers palette. I lock that layer and am ready to being working.

With the linework layer locked, I choose a nice bright red that will show up under the linework I will create. And I color the whole page with that red. Because the layer is line locked...only the linework gets colored. And Voila! Red colored sketch.

Now I put a new layer under the line layer and fill it with white so the lines stand up very visible.

Now I am ready to do digital line work. I set up another new layer, over the line sketch layer this time. This layer is where I will draw the final line art.

I choose a right diagonal calligraphic brush and set it to 5pts. And I draw the new lineart on the top layer using the sketch underneath as my guide.

I guess this is the digital equivalent to using a light- table to trace over a sketch.

This is a close-up of the first panel.

Here we see the whole page of lineart finished.

Where's the red layer? I just turned it "off". You can delete it if you want. I hold onto it in the PSD so I can make a tut like this one later, if I want to.

At this point I go in and tighten up the lines and clean up any sloppy areas. I take extra time to make sure the line work is crisp and dark and clean.

Ah! Now there are frames. I use black frames. I like them for dramatic mood and clean appearance. So I basically start selecting areas around the line art and black filling it until I have built frames.

There are a lot of inspirations for frame layout... Other comics, online tuts, comic making software, comic book "how to" manuals.... To me, learning to make layouts was the toughest part. I am much more practiced with it now.

Remember that white filled bottom layer beneath the sketch. I go back down to that and start filling in base color blocks to lay beneath my finished line work. Nothing complex to this part. Just patience.

I work the faces first, then go to the background and work forward. It makes details and color choice easier to accomplish. Sometimes I have to change my mind about a whole scheme if I color things in the wrong order.

And here all the flat block colors are done. For some comics, you could stop here. But I have a regretably painterly style established with this comic. So onto the the next step.

(And yes, I am aware that rather unflattering color makes the elf in the first cel--poor Caspyn--look like a great honking Umpa Loompa.)

Here I have all the shadows, highlights and midtones established in block color. I am still not happy with Caspyn in cel 1. But I will come back when I have a better idea of what is the matter with that scene.

Here we go making poor Gerith look like...well...poor gerith. Before he looked ashen and in shock. Now he looks appropriaely like someone the sea bashed against rocks in a heavy undertow.

Which is exactly what he is supposed to look like. Don't worry folks. He pulls through.

Times like this are hard for me because blood is oddly a lovely color of red, but it is garish as well. And I don't illustrate gore well, even mild stuff. So I am very careful with the application of blood to him. I chose a duller, deeper red in the Cinnabar range and applied it in transparent layers with a digital dry media brush. It is supposed to make him look "scuffed".

I also went in and used the "burn" tool to deepen shadows and create some more depth.

And here we go with the speech bubbles!!!!! I love doing these, they are such a fun process.

I type in the text on one layer, and then on a layer under that, I use the custom shape tool to create an oblong white box behind each text area. I then put leaders and speech points on all the bubbles. Finally, I choose the "magic wand tool, turn off the contiguous setting, and thereby select all balloons at once. Then I set the palette to 000000 (true black) and I click "stroke"--to create and outline around all the bubbles at once. I merge the text onto them and viola! She's a done page.

And in case no one noticed, I went into cel one and changed the lighting on poor bland Caspyn's face to show a backlit highlight. It is much more to my liking now.

I hope this was helpful. Thanks for stopping by!

RETURN TO TUTORIAL MASTER-LIST

	This is the rough sketch I scanned in. It was originally done on printer paper drawn with a fine-line sharpy marker, as many of my primitive sketches are. This sketch is rough, it's meant to capture movement and placement and to hint at the shapes and proportions of characters and environs. But it sure as heck couldn't be hand inked in this state. So this is the kind of sketch I make when I know I will be computer inking... down and dirty sketching. I scan it in at 300 dpi and then open it in Photoshop 7.0. I open the Channel palette and choose the select lock icon. This selects the linework on the page and locks it from being worked with. Then I run an erasor right over the entire work. It erases the background leaving linework on a transparent layer. I then go to the layers palette. I lock that layer and am ready to being working.
	With the linework layer locked, I choose a nice bright red that will show up under the linework I will create. And I color the whole page with that red. Because the layer is line locked...only the linework gets colored. And Voila! Red colored sketch. Now I put a new layer under the line layer and fill it with white so the lines stand up very visible.
	Now I am ready to do digital line work. I set up another new layer, over the line sketch layer this time. This layer is where I will draw the final line art. I choose a right diagonal calligraphic brush and set it to 5pts. And I draw the new lineart on the top layer using the sketch underneath as my guide. I guess this is the digital equivalent to using a light- table to trace over a sketch. This is a close-up of the first panel.
	Here we see the whole page of lineart finished. Where's the red layer? I just turned it "off". You can delete it if you want. I hold onto it in the PSD so I can make a tut like this one later, if I want to. At this point I go in and tighten up the lines and clean up any sloppy areas. I take extra time to make sure the line work is crisp and dark and clean.
	Ah! Now there are frames. I use black frames. I like them for dramatic mood and clean appearance. So I basically start selecting areas around the line art and black filling it until I have built frames. There are a lot of inspirations for frame layout... Other comics, online tuts, comic making software, comic book "how to" manuals.... To me, learning to make layouts was the toughest part. I am much more practiced with it now.
	Remember that white filled bottom layer beneath the sketch. I go back down to that and start filling in base color blocks to lay beneath my finished line work. Nothing complex to this part. Just patience.
	I work the faces first, then go to the background and work forward. It makes details and color choice easier to accomplish. Sometimes I have to change my mind about a whole scheme if I color things in the wrong order.
	And here all the flat block colors are done. For some comics, you could stop here. But I have a regretably painterly style established with this comic. So onto the the next step. (And yes, I am aware that rather unflattering color makes the elf in the first cel--poor Caspyn--look like a great honking Umpa Loompa.)
	Here I have all the shadows, highlights and midtones established in block color. I am still not happy with Caspyn in cel 1. But I will come back when I have a better idea of what is the matter with that scene.
	Here we go making poor Gerith look like...well...poor gerith. Before he looked ashen and in shock. Now he looks appropriaely like someone the sea bashed against rocks in a heavy undertow. Which is exactly what he is supposed to look like. Don't worry folks. He pulls through. Times like this are hard for me because blood is oddly a lovely color of red, but it is garish as well. And I don't illustrate gore well, even mild stuff. So I am very careful with the application of blood to him. I chose a duller, deeper red in the Cinnabar range and applied it in transparent layers with a digital dry media brush. It is supposed to make him look "scuffed". I also went in and used the "burn" tool to deepen shadows and create some more depth.
	And here we go with the speech bubbles!!!!! I love doing these, they are such a fun process. I type in the text on one layer, and then on a layer under that, I use the custom shape tool to create an oblong white box behind each text area. I then put leaders and speech points on all the bubbles. Finally, I choose the "magic wand tool, turn off the contiguous setting, and thereby select all balloons at once. Then I set the palette to 000000 (true black) and I click "stroke"--to create and outline around all the bubbles at once. I merge the text onto them and viola! She's a done page. And in case no one noticed, I went into cel one and changed the lighting on poor bland Caspyn's face to show a backlit highlight. It is much more to my liking now. I hope this was helpful. Thanks for stopping by!
RETURN TO TUTORIAL MASTER-LIST