Pages: The Final Part, and the Real Hard Work
Friday, April 13, 2012 at 3:58PM This is it, the end of all your hard work - pages. And of course, this is the part of the process that takes the longest. Depending on how many pages you have to do. I'm going to take you step - by - step and show you how I make my comics pages.
Remember your thumbnails and script? Well, this is where they are used. With those beside me, I start the pencils. I use Bristol board for my pages, I'm not sure about brand names, and I usually buy it at either the school store or Wal-mart. Try different kinds and find what's right for you. I cut it myself, I prefer to work at a simple 8 1/2 by 11, so it fits in my scanner. But, lots of comic artists like to work big, so they can fit more details into their panels. There's no for sure size, so do what feels right.
Some artists just use straight lead/graphite pencils, some use non-photo blue pencils, and some use col-erase pencils. I've experimented with all of these, and I've found I like to use either the np blue (like I've shown here, in these examples) or just straight mechanical pencils. Because I ink over my pencils instead of tracing, my scanner picks up the np blue, and it messes up my black, white and grey comics. So, as of MGD 1, I just use mechanical pencils, and save the np blue for sketches. I personally don't like col-erase at all. It's never as erasable as it says it is! Wouldn't recommend. Find out what works for you.
Next part is inks. I ink directly over my pencils - which isn't always a good idea. It means you have to do twice the inking and be very careful with how you draw in the first place so no pencils get left over when you erase them. Many artists use tracing paper, or light boxes to do their inks, or they use computers. I personally can't stand tracing paper, so I do things the hard way.
I use sharpies for panel boarders and black spots, and art pens like staedtlers and microns (usually a mix of the two, although I prefer microns and would recommend, they can be expensive and hard to find.) for everything else. I also use gel pens for some lines - they work for me and they're the only ones I can find in a .7 nib size. I use a variety of nib sizes for different parts - usually a .07 for most things, .05 for background stuff, .03 for character details, .01 for small stuff like faces, and .08 for outlines and word balloons. For lettering I use a .005.
Finally, markers. I use prismacolour greys art markers. I prefer the cool grey set, but in a pinch I've had to use the warm greys too. There is a difference, it may not look like it at the store but trust me you'll see it on the paper. The example I'm showing you here was done all in cool greys, but some of the later pages of MGD you can really see the difference, much to my frustration.
Deciding what greys to use where helps a lot if you know what colours they would be translating to, which is the reason why I do colour pictures of all my characters when I'm designing them. Art markers require layering and time to dry to get different shades and effects. I only use different markers for the darkest shades; if something is light I just layer the same marker over it.
A lot of art stores are marketing supplies like paper, pens and markers specifically for "comic or manga art." I've never used any of these products, and I've never heard of any professional artists using them either. I've taken a look a them, and personally I think the only difference between them and any of the products I'm recommending here is a price tag. Try different stuff out and find out what works for you, never buy something because some fancy label said its what you need to be using.
The final thing I do when making my comics is the covers. The process I use for them is pretty much the same as the one I use for pages - pencils, inks, and markers, but I also use pencil crayons and coloured pens for details. Doing covers is a lot of fun; it's really the crowning touch on the comic you've worked really hard on. Unfortunately I don't have any step-by-step covers to show you, but I do have the final Ogopogo cover.
I hope you've enjoyed my little not quite sort of how-to guide for how I make my comics. As of today I've completely finished Book 1 of MGD, and I'm in the middle of designing Book 2. I've learned some lessons; I'll be doing some things differently, and trying to remember to document how I do things so I can learn more in the future. As always, thank you for reading, and thanks for liking my stuff!
Comics, Webcomics, covers, inking, making comics, pages, pencilling in Blog