TWCL

[Kentos]

well- i posted so far once (about parodying) and afterwards had a chat with my friend and we decided to do an original idea called....Gremlins and Goblins! Following the story of two heroes, a-


wait, im digressing. Anyways- we are thinking of him doing it IRL and then scanning them- but does anyone else know perhaps of better or simplier way? Or what about those sketch-pad thingys, hard to get?

thanks again!


P.S: How shall we host such a thing? Any ideas?

[Lavenderbard]

I think I have a sketch pad thingy. If so, then the term you want is 'graphics tablet'. It was not hard to get. I bought it at a computer store.

I also draw pictures and scan them into my computer.

There are benefits and drawbacks to each method, and ultimately (assuming cash with which to buy the tablet and/or scanner is not an issue) each artist needs to decide which one appeals most to them.

If you do not have your own website suitable for hosting, why don't you try starting out on one of the free hosting sites, like Drunk Duck or Smack Jeeves?

(There are a bunch more but I don't remember all the names, hoefully someone else will chime in.)
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[Kentos]

Lavenderbard wrote:

I think I have a sketch pad thingy. If so, then the term you want is 'graphics tablet'. It was not hard to get. I bought it at a computer store. I also draw pictures and scan them into my computer. There are benefits and drawbacks to each method, and ultimately (assuming cash with which to buy the tablet and/or scanner is not an issue) each artist needs to decide which one appeals most to them. If you do not have your own website suitable for hosting, why don't you try starting out on one of the free hosting sites, like Drunk Duck or Smack Jeeves? (There are a bunch more but I don't remember all the names, hoefully someone else will chime in.)

okay- will look at those free hosting! And how expensive would the tablets be?

ty!

[Kail]

Kentos wrote:

And how expensive would the tablets be?

There's quite a range; low end is about $50 or so, high end is a couple hundred bucks. As far as I know, the big difference is size, which is basically how convenient it is to use, but you can still draw just as well with a cheap one.

But drawing with a tablet is way different from drawing with a pencil. I have a tablet and I still draw stuff in ink and scan it in because it's so awkward for me to use the tablet for line work. If this is going to stretch your budget, you might want to see if you know someone who's already got a tablet your buddy can practice on, first, to see if he likes the feel of it.

I think there's a few tablet based threads floating around the forums here, if you want some more info.

[Luke]

Very few people seem to like using a tablet at first. I personally never had any problems with it, but people seem to take issue with drawing in one place and seeing it appear on he screen.

If you plan to do art digitally, in photoshop or illustrator for example, then I'd say that a tablet is a good investment. Just be prepared for your art to suffer for a little bit. Learning a new skill takes time :]

Also, drawing and scanning physical copies of your comic should be fairly straightforward. I can't really think of a simpler way...
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[lonelyfetus]

I just wanted to recommend this book. Despite owning a whole library on the ins and outs of comic theory and art books -- this is the only one that is dedicated to the process from scanning to color methods to pre-press.

I've always been good with color vector, and b/w lineart, but this shows you how to get the best of both worlds, and even organize files efficiently for prolonging the future of current projects for web and print.

Other books kind of brush on the subject and never really went into detail beyond the basics, giving you their personal method -- but this one gives you an actual industry standard, and in great detail - by people who color comics for a living.

[Beertycoon]

Good tip Fetus...gonna order that one myself too
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[Alohilani]

LovelyLuke wrote:

Very few people seem to like using a tablet at first. I personally never had any problems with it, but people seem to take issue with drawing in one place and seeing it appear on he screen.

What bothers me about the tablet is simply the feel of a plastic pen on a plastic surface as opposed to a pencil or marker on real paper. I always feel like the tip of the pen is slipping around.

But anyway. Hosting-wise- you can get a free website from atspace.com and this has been working pretty well for me. There's no ads on the site or anything.

http://kilailo.atspace.com/

Of course, there's nothing there yet but that silly little half-a-video, but you get the idea.

Of course, they don't seem to offer any easy web editor thingamabobs, you have to write your own HTML documents, use another program, or make a friend do it. And I think the amount of files you can host directly on the website is pretty limited; that's not a problem for me because I always host my content on other sites and just link to it.

And it's free!

[Reformed Hooligan]

I think by "sketch pad thingy" you mean a Tablet.

Don't fuck around with $50 crap ones, you'll just be disappointed. There are a number of brands out there, but if you are looking to do anything approaching serious digital art there is only one for you: Wacom.

Wacom makes a lovely piece of hardware called the "Bamboo Fun". Yes, I know, it sounds like a kid's toy, but it is a serious piece of kit for the money. 6x8 drawing surface with a super-handy touch-sensitive scroll wheel and four buttons. I got mine for $110 over 18 months ago, it should be obtainable for under a Benjamin these days.

Personally, I use both a tablet and a scanner. (scanner: Canon CanoScan 5600F. LED-lit, internal power supply, oversized scanning surface) Don't go for the bells and whistles on either of these kinds of hardware. You can find really sweet bang-for-your-buck hardware around the $100 dollar mark. The two that I have are extremely high-quality products despite the relatively low price tag. Cared for properly they could easily give me a decade or more of reliable service.

The scanner/tablet combo is a more flexible and arguably quicker way of getting pages from concept to finished product. It allows you to get your idea out at first with a simple pencil and paper. When you're happy with the basic form of your work you scan that puppy in and go to stage two. Digital tablets, even quality ones, are hard to become natural with as far as drawing-from-scratch-on-a-blank-sheet goes. But they are wonderful for digital inking and coloring.

This allows you to be quick and sloppy with your initial IRL pencil sketch. Things like scale, placement and overall final touches on your finished page can be dealt with digitally. You can even draw characters, foreground objects and background objects all separately on paper. Scan them in and layer them up using photoshop or GIMP. You can then tweak the size and placement of these individual 'paper' elements so that the finished scene looks juuuust right. You would spend ages doing foreshortening and scaling and other arty techniques to make background and foreground look 'right' together on a single sheet of paper. This is where digital touch-ups really shine.

Here's a super-crude example:



(NOTE: I am an aspiring webcomic writer, NOT an artist! I'm decent enough with a pencil to shape up story-boards, nothing more)

As you can see, this thing started as a peice-of-shit sketch on crappy lined paper. I belted out everything on this page inside of 25 minutes (and I really suck at drawing, if you have any art skill at all you could manage half that). Then I scanned that puppy in and went to work with my Wacom. Layered over the sketch is a digital ink and color job. If I gave a shit I could have then cleaned up the separate pencil layer to give it a cleaner look.

Here's what the starting-with-pencil-art scanner/Wacom combo can net you if you actually put in some effort:


(once again, I'm not an artist. I agonized over this fucker for weeks, you can replace skill with sheer time and effort)

If you look closely at Stogey here you'll note a digital ink and color job. Look closer at the shading and it doesn't look digital, because it isn't. All the shadows and shading on him come from the original pencil sketch. Shading with a real pencil on a real piece of paper where you are free to bump and smear and work it is, IMO, way easier than trying to do it digitally.

I personally think choosing between a tablet or scanner is silly. Use BOTH! Each approach is well suited to a certain set of tasks, but when it comes to the business of setting up a comic page neither is strong enough on their own. You certainly don't have to work the combo like I do, but I think anyone with art skills can find advantage in using them both.

A summary:

Tablet Pros:

Digital inking is super-easy with Painter X
Color is a snap
Work goes straight to a digital format suitible for on-line publishing

Scanner Pros:

Pencil work feels more natural, easier to get a concept started
IRL graphite shading kicks ass
Final product looks/feels softer and more organic

Combine the two and you have a recopy for success...

-RH

[Casual Notice]

I'm a traditionalist, so I believe that you should begin your art theory by drawing crude diaries on the walls of your habitation using whatever pigments you happen to come across. Eventually, you may graduate to more advanced pigments on stone tablets or pottery. If, during this early period, you run across a more skilled or more talented artist, of course, you should kill him in ritual combat, and, bathing in his blood, take his soul and his attributes as your own.

From there you may progress through a variety of techniques, brushworks, papers, etc., until you eventually reach the goal for which all of us strive: being wealthy enough to farm out all of your work to Korean sweatshops (or—dare I say it—opening your own shop where young art students are chained to their desks like Roman galley slaves and forced to draw millions of versions of the same scene a la Garfield).

Or you can go the lazy route and just use what's available and fits your need. Personally, I never colored on paper. For most of the run of my comic, I did the pencilling and inking on paper, but did all the coloring on my computer. The last ten or so comics were entirely digital. As has been mentioned here above, working with a tablet takes practice (just as any new medium does), so work with what's comfortable while your prepared yourself for the switchover.
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What I lack in sincerity, I make up for in sarcasm.
S*P*Q*R

[-Io-]

As far as tablets go, I highly recommend Wacom. Their products are solid and the texture and pressure sensitivity on the Bamboo Fun line is really excellent. I have the larger Bamboo Fun tablet and before that I had a Graphire 3 and both worked excellently.

[Reformed Hooligan]

-Io- wrote:

As far as tablets go, I highly recommend Wacom. Their products are solid and the texture and pressure sensitivity on the Bamboo Fun line is really excellent. I have the larger Bamboo Fun tablet and before that I had a Graphire 3 and both worked excellently.

*nods*

Another proponent. Never judge a device by its name, there's been some really great hardware over the years with really cheesy titles (the mega-fast "Pocket Rocket" USB jump drives come to mind). I'm all for under-dog technology: I prefer creative MP3 players to apple ipods, linux OSes over Windows, etc. But when it comes to tablets the underdogs just don't measure up in terms of price/performance. Wacom has dominated that market segment for damn good reasons.

-RH