Behind the Scenes: Sketching, Drawing, Inking, and Coloring in Manga Studio

by on August 19, 2014 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Behind the Scenes, Blog, News, Reviews

[dc]M[/dc]y working digitally changed the way I make comics, from top to bottom. Before I got my Surface Pro 3 and went 100% digital, I drew and inked my comics on Bristol board, scanned them, and finished it up in Photoshop.

Now, I do everything inside Manga Studio 5 (aka Clip Studio Paint Pro which is the name of the the digital version on my Surface. They are the same program).

Here is the step by step process I went through for drawing, inking, and coloring this week’s comic, Multiple Choice Comics 2.

Mary the Time Traveling Bearded Lady is our subject today. Below is how she appeared in the finished comic. Well, Mary did not start this way. Not at all.

mary bearded lady in color

Mary, Mary, how does your beard grow? Really, how does it grow?

Sketching It Out

I’m a sloppy sketcher. It is what I do. I’m fast and loose. Some folks can pretty much draw their final image out of the gate. Me, I need a few passes to get the look I want.

Mary started out as a very rough blue pencil sketch (reminder: I use this Frenden Manga Studio brush set).

mary sketch

The Ur-Mary.

This is Mary’s basic shape. Or the idea of her shape. This version is more of a placeholder than anything else, so I can lay out the rest of the panel.

There’s Red On You

My next pass is more focused, and I use the red layout pencil (again, part of the Frenden brush set).

mary red layout

Stage 2 Mary.

I’m fine tuning the drawing here. I’m working on making this part as near the finished image as possible, so my inking phase goes faster. The biggest change here was Mary’s hair. I also slimmed her body down too (a large beard on a smaller body looked funnier to me. Contrast). I also changed her eyes.

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Hand-Lettering Comics in Manga Studio 5

by on August 13, 2014 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Blog, News

[dc]S[/dc]ince I went digital with my comics, I needed to relearn a few things. The biggest change perhaps was lettering. Drawing was still drawing, I just needed to get accustomed to the Surface Pro 3 pen.

Lettering, however, was totally different. Or at least, it could be.

Let’s Letter

I had a choice to make: keep lettering by hand or simply use Manga Studio 5‘s Text tool.

The Text tool was the easiest route for lettering—just type the dialogue and alter as needed. While this might have been an easy choice for some, it wasn’t for me.

I don’t really care for the look of digital text for my comics. While my hand-lettering may not have been the most pristine at times, I felt it at least gave my comics a style.

Anything you can do to have a distinct ‘style’ or stand out in comics helps, and I felt my ‘rough around the edges’ text did just that. I don’t want my stuff to look 100% perfect. I want my comics scruffy or uneven. Just like me!

Cough. Moving on. The Text tool was out.

Hybrid Style

What, then? I hand-lettered a couple of comics in Manga Studio 5 like I did on paper, but I wasn’t happy with the result.

Inspiration struck after reading this Speed Comicking article by Ryan Estrada. In the article, Estrada mentioned pasting his dialogue from a text program. Handy, I thought, because editing and composing text in Manga Studio isn’t the smoothest. Estrada then lays out the text and panels in a process he calls ghost pages: just text, no characters because they haven’t been drawn yet.

I liked the idea of laying out the text in this way (it meant fewer headaches than my analog days, for sure). I still wasn’t crazy about using the Text tool and looking like a million other comics however. But then I thought: why not trace the text?

I gave it a try.

Trace, Tracer

Last week’s comic was the first test run of this process. This week’s comic was my second try, and a little more polished.

  • First, I typed up my text, all in capitals, in Notepad or OpenOffice.

  • Then, I set the Text tool in Manga Studio 5 to use Verdana, a simple font which is easy to read on a screen (the same text clattertron.com uses). I make the color red, so I can trace on top in black. 

  • I pasted each bit of dialogue separately, making each its own layer.

lettering step 1

Step 1: pasting the text into Manga Studio.

  • I re-sized and moved the dialogue around until I was happy with the placement.

  • I use the Grid to help with lining up text and other objects (this really helped in this week’s comic with keeping No Filter Fox the same ‘height’ in each panel).

  • If needed, I do quick sketches with the Blue Layout Pencil (part of the Frenden penciling and inking set) to help with text layout. I fine tune the sketches later using the Red Layout Pencil (part of the same set). 

  • Finally, I trace the text on another layer.

lettering step 2

Step 2: I trace the text on another layer.

Here’s the second panel, with the typed text off-set a bit.

lettering

I can always move the traced text later, because it is on another layer.

And here is what the completed version looked like.

lettering

All done!

This method combines the benefits of digital lettering, with the ‘real’ look of analogue lettering. It also lets me ‘dress up’ certain words easily (if a character is yelling or emphasizing something).

Go ahead and give it a try.

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Cartoon Commission: How to Wash Your Hands

by on July 30, 2014 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Blog, News

[dc]D[/dc]ad, bless him, commissioned me some time ago to draw a ‘how to wash your hands sign’ for his man cave bathroom. I’m glad I waited until a couple of weeks ago, because it was the second thing, after last week’s comic, that I drew on my Microsoft Surface Pro 3.

Dad let me go wild, and I did. Knowing my ‘client,’ as it were, I figured the crazier, the better. Dad wanted six panels, each showing a step in the process. Tired of folks (mainly his brothers) making a mess of his bathroom, Dad felt a sign was in order. He didn’t want any text, which made the sign easier and more of a challenge.

I enjoy drawing ‘silent’ cartoons¹ (see here and here). Not worrying about text lets me focus on body language, always an important part of any cartoon–and an area I’m constantly looking to improve upon.

Here is the last version of Dad’s sign. Well, the second to final version, the penultimate version for you vocabulary builders out there.

Y’see, Dad and I had a bit of a Stonehenge moment, like the scene in the classic film This is Spinal Tap. Dad’s original email asked for a 9″ x 18″ commission.

Turns out, he meant 18″ x 9″.

Rookie mistake on my part, as I should have confirmed the dimensions–but, Dad is an independent contractor, so I should get a bit of slack for taking his email as correct.

Anyway. Here’s the version I finished, before I had to chop it up and make it long and not tall. The upside is, this version fits better in a blog post, so it all evened out in the end.

cartoon commission

Wash yourself!

Had I done this commission with pen and paper and found out Dad told me the wrong dimensions, well, I would still be screaming. The colors may not be as sharp in this version, because of the shrinking down and what not–and I see a couple things I didn’t fix in this version, but did for Dad’s.

You get the idea at least. And yes, Manga Studio 5 has a ‘musical notes’ brush. It also has a gold chain brush.

Interested in a cartoon commission of your own? Contact me.

–

¹ Or as Stephanie likes to tell me, “Aren’t all of your comics silent by nature?” Yeah, yeah.

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Microsoft Surface Pro 3: Two Weeks Later

by on July 29, 2014 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Blog, News, Reviews

[dc]T[/dc]alk about a fast two weeks. I bought my Microsoft Surface Pro 3 two weeks ago yesterday. I figured it is time to share my thoughts on this tablet, now that I have used it to draw two comics and a full color commission (as well as typed up blog posts).

sign commission

Whoa, COLOR?!

That’s a panel from the color commission I drew last week. Dad wanted a six panel ‘how to wash your hands’ sign for his man cave bathroom. I drew it all on my Surface Pro 3 using Manga Studio 5.

What I Like About the Microsoft Surface Pro 3

  • Drawing. The Surface Pro 3 offers me a great drawing experience. Drawing right on the screen speeds up my work flow considerably. I finished a full color commission and a comic last week. Pretty remarkable, for me. Artists accustomed to other drawing tablets, especially those using Wacom technology, might have more of an adjustment period with the Surface Pro 3, however.

  • Portability. My Surface does what I want: it allows me to work on comics (or other art) anywhere. I had to take my car in for repairs on Saturday morning, so I walked to a nearby coffee shop with my Surface and worked (comfortably) for about an hour.

  • Weight. The Surface Pro 3 is very lightweight, which makes it easy to carry around—again, my goal was portability, so this is a huge win.

  • The Surface Pro 3 is a fully functioning computer, which means I can work on art or writing, or update my websites, and other Internet tasks. And, ahem, play Civilization 3.

  • The battery life is very good, especially if I have Wi-fi turned off—which I usually do while I’m drawing or writing.

  • Comfort. I can easily draw with the Surface on my lap, or legs if I am in a reclining position. No more chained to a desk or drawing table.

  • Power. My Surface is the 4 GB RAM i5 and I don’t have any problems running Manga Studio.

  • The kick stand. The built-in kickstand is great and offers plenty of angles for drawing.

What I Don’t Like About the Microsoft Surface Pro 3

  • The price of the Type Keyboard Cover. $130 is a lot for basic keyboard.

  • The touchpad on the Type Keyboard Cover. It ranges from too sensitive to not sensitive enough. It will click when I don’t want it to, or it will take several hard presses to register a click. The touchpad on my MacBook Pro is much better.

  • I’ve had a pair of weird start-up problems over the past two weeks. I was unable to start-up the Surface after carrying it, shut down, in my backpack. I had to do the two-button shutdown in both situations and the Surface started right up.

  • The stylus pen randomly ‘turns off’ at times. I don’t know what causes this to happen, but the pen will simply stop working. This seems to happen after I set the pen down for a minute (but not always, I think). I usually have to hold down the top button for a few seconds to get it going again and everything is fine–until it happens again.

  • The two buttons on the stylus pen aren’t the most comfortable, and are kind of in the way more often than not.

  • I wish the pen was thicker, or had a grip. This is a personal preference thing, as I have big hands. I working on a way to add a custom grip of some kind.

  • The Windows Button on the right hand side (when in Landscape). Easily bumped while drawing, which knocks me out of Manga Studio. I’ve learned to move my drawing more towards the center of the screen.

  • Windows 8.1. If I was more accustomed to Windows, this probably wouldn’t be such a headache. I’m getting used to Windows though, since I’m using it everyday now. Still, there are quirks that get on my nerves.

  • Using a USB mouse really drains the battery, it seems.

  • There aren’t screen brightness keys on the Type cover. There are keys to control the keyboard back light, which I never have turned on. I found the keyboard shortcut for screen brightness though: Fn + Backspace (darker) and Fn + Del (brighter).

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