Comfort Love and Adam Withers, (Kendall '04), are creators of the comics the Uniques and Rainbow in the Dark. The Uniques has been nominated for "Best Self-Published Comic" at the Shel Dorf awards! Comfort and Adam were also nominated for two Harvey Awards: Most Promising New Talent for Rainbow and the Dark and Best Anthology for Uniques Tales. Find their amazing work on the blog: http://comfort-adam.livejournal.com/ These people can draw!
DESIGN TIPS:
1. Concept about story, Benchmark all the time.
2. There are 3 different styles of Comics: American, Web and Manga.
3. Know your target Audience.
4. Quality Matters- Make Iterations
5. Share your idea (Don't worry about copyright and someone stealing it. While you share it and the more you share it you build proof that the idea is yours.) Get Critique and feedback. Especially on story.
6. Scripting- Make many drafts, make them before drawing. Get feedback from a full range of your demographic (6-10 people minimum.) Don't be afraid to scrap what doesn't work. Story, Plot and Character: Every scene should move one or more of these elements forward.
7. Character Design: You have to do it. This was to large a topic to get into on that day.
8. Thumbnails and Roughs: Work small as a way to see layout and better judge proportions.
9. Integrate Human emotion - Use body language and facial expressions
10. Pencils: If tight enough inking is not required. (Comfort and Adam's process includes scanning and using a combination of levels and dodge and burn to create the high contrast "inked" page.)
11. Ink: Needed for Black Heavy Art (Manga Studio is a good software for digital inking).
12. Color: Done in Photoshop. Use the layering method flats, tones, effects.
13. Lettering: Done in Illustrator. Pay attention to eye path, flow from top to bottom and left to right just like you read. Leave margins in your speech bubbles.
14. Sound Effects (Illustrated): Blend them with the art and make it express the sound in the shapes. Text of sound should be legible and should be express loudness contrast.
PUBLISHING TIPS:
15. Self Publishing: Digital Publishing and Print Publishing
16. Distribution: Print and Digital
Regular comic Releases: create subscription based on digital habits: IE every wednesday your fan goes to the tablet to get your comic.
All you need is 1,000 true fans to create a revenue stream. True fans buy everything. Build community. Let them in on the process. Let them be a part of the creation of the work.
Piracy online with comics is a way people try before they buy (or donate). This helps to create a fan base.
What to do at Conventions:
Sell: books, fan art prints, prints of your work and commissions.
It is critical to have your own comic book it launches you into the industry.
Fan Art:
It is critical to have fan art as that is the way new audience comes to your table. Fans see how you drew their favorite character and then they want your original work.
Fan Art connects you to new fans and make you money. These new fans (of the fan art) often convert to become your fans.
Copyright: Fan Art is not legal outside of Cons and no Merchandise (t-shirts, etc) EVER.
Forums and Job Postings for Comics: DigitalWebbing.com
Do you want to work for Marvel?
Marvel and DC will only look at their characters - they don't want to deal with any copyright issues.
Consider Self Publishing your own work instead. (Start by making 5 page books with short stories) This would be a good first project.
There are other methods but this technique works well for most digital painting even beyond comics.
The main key to this success is to LAYER your photoshop files like this:
Do thumbnails small with sharp pencils
Convert the image to blue:
Refine the image to make a tight pencil that can be used as an ink when scanned and tone corrected.
Correct your tones in the black and white scanned drawing:
Change Color Mode to RGB
Name drawing layer and turn to Multiply Mode
Flats on one layer
Making flats:
Digital Painting:
TONE - on another layer
Textures and Effects on different layers
(Search for tutorials on google look for filter combinations)
Lighting Effect Techniques:
Below is an example of the Digital Coloring process by Comfort Love and Adam Withers. We will show you step by step how the process works.
If using pencil for your image:
OR
If using a tablet to draw with:
Create a new layer called flats
Flats all on one layer (underneath the drawing layer)
Making flats:
Digital Painting:
TONE (shadows) - on another layer
HIGHLIGHTS- on another layer (Although Comfort and Adam did not do this for this image- many of you will want another layer for highlights - They are getting the highlights from the flats.)
The Final contains texture fills and special effects.