Photoshop [or some equivalent] and YOU

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This how to is based on my style of art. It may not be for you, but feel free to adapt anything you see here to fit your drawing style.
My style is Bold character outline, with solid colours for the clothes and skin. Shading comes in the form of "cel shading", or just making one layer above the comic set to "DARKEN" with a 30% opacity. That way, when I draw on this new layer with solid Black, it just darkens the color(s) below it.

In the Beginning....
I begin all my comics or digital art with a pencil or pen drawing. I scan the image in at the resolution I intended to work with. Usually 300 DPI for high quality work. Upon opening the saved scan files in my program of choice/necessity Adobe Photodeluxe, this is what I'm greeted with.

I double click on the Background layer (or Layer 0, different programs name them different things). I made the background layer have 30% opacity. This will make it very light after I complete the next step.

I create a new layer on top of the scan. I name it 'Outline' so I remember what's on it. Using the Line tool, I carefully (usually zoomed in) trace around the image.

Visually, it's appealing to trace your characters / objects at a physically larger size then resize the outlines to fit your comic. You'll notice a decrease in the quality of the image during the colouring step later. This is due to the smaller an image is, the more pixelated it appears when zoomed in on.

The great thing about digital art is if you need to replicate a character for another box in your comic strip, don't create unnecessary work for your self. Just do the outline for all your characters once in basic poses and copy + paste them into the other areas of the strip. You can always erase arms, legs, facial expressions, etc and draw new ones freehand in their place. This creates a crucial element in your comic, visual variety.

Creating word balloons
Say your done staging where your characters are, and finished outlining them on the 'Outline' layer. You want to place your characters speech into the comic.

I usually have the comic's script typed up in another program, ready to copy + paste into my drawing program. I use the Text Tool, which in most programs pops up a dialogue box. It allows you to paste text into it, then change that text's spacing, font, size, italics, no italics, bold, no bold, etc. After clicking the equivalent of OK on that dialogue box, your usually faced with one LONG line of text on screen. Don't worry, it's on a different layer automatically created JUST for text.
It will take some creative use of the "Return" or "Enter" key to get your text to break at the right points that it will fit safely within it's area of your comic.

Once that's accomplished, time to make the balloon that goes around it! Fun for the whole human family.

I usually create another layer, naming it "Balloons". I made sure it's positioned BELOW the text layer. I then make whatever kind of selection I want the balloons shape to be, and use a FILL command to make the balloons background color white. Don't de-select that balloon shape yet. Using an "Outline" command, usually two pixels in width, the balloons black outline is made. It looks great - much better than any free hand drawn balloons you see in many web comics.

Color time
Not to be confused with ... eh, never mind. Create another layer, call it Color. Or if you will do ALOT of coloring, something specific like "Hair Color" or "Clothing Color". Make sure it's positioned just above the bottom layer that has the still visible trace drawing on it. Make the trace drawing layer invisible, or just delete it if your done with it.

Now you have a color layer positioned BELOW your Outline layer. This allows you to be really lazy with your coloring (no need to be exactly within the lines!) and still get an amazing result. It's like one of those old Paint-by-number activities now.
Once your finished the coloring of your characters, background etc, you begin your shading.

Shading
Create another layer, this make sure it's moved to the very top of all the layers. Call it "Shading" or something similar. Set that layers Opacity to 30% and effect to "Darken". There's many neat options available the layers effect (it's like choosing what kind of glass you want in your windows).

Select your paint brush tool, have Black as it's color, and go to town. Draw where any shadows would be, creases in clothing, dark sides of peoples hair, anything. Don't be afraid to use to eraser tool to remove any mistakes with the shading your painting on.
You can make multiple Shade layers to create great shadow and light effects. If your comic is done, make sure your name's on it somewhere and your sites address (in case someone downloads the image and forgets where they got it).

Time to export
I assume you've saved your file at multiple times during the process of creating your comic. Merge all your layers into ONE layer. This is usually done automatically when you export your file into a .gif or .jpg. Don't save it AGAIN once it's merged in the same file name. You will lose the ability to go back and edit your work again. Backups are good to have around.

Usually drawing programs have an export or 'save as' command under it's File menu. Saving in .gif or .png are great for a small file size, but they have a limited amount of colours available in it's Color Table. If your comics Black and White, save it as a .gif.

If your comic is very rich in colour, save it in a .jpg format. The Jpeg is usually a format for photo's, but is used on the net by many web artists with detailed work.
Make sure it's compression is set to minimum, or better yet "None". Or have it's quality set to "Maximum". The more compression you put on your .jpg file, the uglier it will turn out once you open the saved file.

Where to from here?
Your comics finished. If you've built a site, a good place to host it is http://www.keenspace.com. It's a web hosting service tailored specifically to online comics. Try, as a web comic author, or keep a regular schedule for your work. However, sometimes that thing called "Real Life" gets in the way - which is ok.

If you have to choose between developing a relationship, and getting your Friday night update done, turn off the computer.

Your fans will understand.

Posted by B.Scott
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