Simple Fx in Photoshop

Hello everyone,today im gonna show you an easy way to add some fx to your comic art.
First you need the art you will be adding the fx to.Im goin to be using this pic of the Silver Surfer that i found on the internet to save some time.

Next you need an Fx pic.Now these are really easy to create,but can be very cool,and you can make them as elaborate as you want them to be.Here is the one i created,nothing crazy but it'll do the job.

Now,open both pics in Adobe Photoshop.

Position the Fx pic over his arm,like so.

Now simply change the Layer Style of the Fx  to Screen,and Presto!!

You can also play with the hue and saturation,and add a second one to the other arm if you like.

Photoscape for Windows

I don't know very much about this program,only that a lot of people seem to think its a cool little program.Not very spectacular,but if you don't need a program like photoshop,which can be a bit hard to navigate if your new to it,you might like it.This little photo editing software is very easy to use,however it limits you to one picture at a time,and doesn't have all the power of other editing softwares.but it is FREE!
For more info and download-
www.photoscape.org

Giant Size Cover

When i was younger one of the coolest comics to me,were the giant sized comics that seamed to never end.Sixty eight pages of comic awesomeness!! Usually something really cool happened in these issues .Secret origin,crossover,or something important in the story line. Here i have created an old Giant Sized comic to make your own.Fully editable,just add your art!! Again you'll have to have some Fonts similar to the ones i have.Enjoy,comment,request,follow keep checking in for new ones
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VB7FI3MR

FREE COMIC SOUNDS

I'm not gonna blab about the importance of sound effects in comics.If your a true comic fan you know how important they are.Ive noticed alot of sound packs around,mostly for sale . So i figured i would create a couple and offer them for free for those who would like to have them.if i have time i will create more,depending if i get some feed back or requests for more so if you like em use ,if you distribute give credit,if you want more let me know.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QU9N7SJF

Illustrator Lineart Brush

Here is a Very cool Brush For illustrator that i use all the time when im drawing in Illustrator.Its a brush created by Jimro and its really great for getting that comic look.The Cool thing about drawing in illustrator is that there is no need for inking because its a vector program ,so once i finish my drawings i import and color in photoshop,download the brush below and place the .ai-file in
/Adobe illustrator/Presets/Brushes/  and restart illustrator
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=C1YA8X3M
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GJWFKKZ6

Quick Ink In adobe Illustrator

Some times our schedules can be very limited,ok extremely limited!! Here is a method i learned some time ago,which is incredibly easy,let me say that again,insanely easy to do!! First of All you have to have Adobe Illustrator,if you don't then obviously it wont work,as this is a preset.

First of course open Illustrator and open your sketch,i will be using one of my Original Character, drawn by my good friend Carl Bonomo.

Second select your art work and press the live trace button on the top middle of Illustrator,next to the expand button.

As you can see its inks it instantly!! Now simply go to the drop window of the presets and choose Comic Art!See i said that was easy!!!! Now, you may have to mess with the settings to get the look you want,but as you will see that is very easy swell.And you Can Alway use the brushes to touch it up!

And here is the finished result after a couple minor touch ups,adjustments and colored in photoshop
hopes this helps some of you.

Sprite Comics

Recently i found out of a cool concept called Sprite Comics. I imagine they aren't a new trend but i thought them to be cool nonetheless.So i was gonna try to explain what they are but i was pressed for time so this will have to do.

Sprite comics are webcomics that use computer sprites, often taken from video games, for significant portions of their artwork. There are also animated sprite comics (called sprite cartoons) where each "strip" is a separate mini-movie, animated using technologies such as Flash.

The comic Neglected Mario Characters is generally considered the first sprite comic to appear on the web.^[1] It began as a spin-off feature from the Super Mariofansite Super Mario Headquarters.

The first sprite comic to gain widespread popularity was Bob and George, which played a substantial role in the sudden popularity of sprite comics. It is often mistakenly identified as the first sprite comic. The strip utilizes sprites from the Mega Man series of games, with most of the characters being taken directly from the games. Due to the popularity of the comic, many of its features have been frequently emulated by other sprite comics, and thus are often labeled as cliché. Such features include having extremely stupid characters, a character representing the author, and making fun of the strip itself.

Sprite comics frequently use characters from well-known games such as Sonic, Super Mario Bros., Final Fantasy, Mortal Kombat, Metroid, The Legend of Zelda,Pokémon, Mega Man, and Dragon Ball. Some sprite comics use sprites from several different games. In addition to or instead of video game sprites, some comics use original sprites created specifically for the comic.

Sprite comics have become very popular in large part due to the ease of creating a sprite comic, since minimal artistic skill is required. Sprites can easily be ripped from game ROMs using an emulator, or by using sprites from websites that collect sprites for public use. Comics can then be created using a simple image editor. Video game sprites are often designed to be animated, and thus often provide a wide variety of character poses, as well as being easily editable due to their simple design. Sprite comics also give the author the opportunity to parody the game from which the sprites are derived using the game's actual characters.

RETRO COMIC Cards BACK Psd

After creating the front i thought it would be fitting to create a back aswell.Fully editable,simply add your characters bio, stats,and your ready to go!! To edit the stat bars simply use the rectangular marquee tool and  erase press delete.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PXLALE7Q

Retro Comic Cards Psd

One of my favorite things,besides the books,were collecting the cards.With a little bio on the character,power ratings,alliances,they were  really cool to have.Here i have created a Retro Comic card of one of the coolest series i can remember.Just add your art,and change the name to that of your character,you can even change the color scheme if you like.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=S7RQREG0

MOCK COMIC COVER

By no means,do i presume to be a comic artist or photoshop expert.Simply someone who enjoys comics,and enjoys toying with photoshop.And for those people who enjoy making comics , the cover can be one of the most important parts of the comic.It grabs the reader,and hopefully if good enough ,will make you open it up to reveal its fantastic,and sometimes magical contents .For those of you with photoshop heres a very basic mock cover i created for you to adjust to your liking.The text is editable ,and all layers can be moved around to fit your art.Fonts will have to be installed,or simply replace with your own.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OZB2E6FA

Custom Brushes Plugin for Paint.net

For those of you using Paint.net heres a cool plugin ,that enables you to use Photoshop brushes.

If you don't already have Paint.net go ahead and download it free at
www.getpaint.net
then download Custom Brushes Mini from me below
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QTFUXUDE
To install,just place the plugin to the "paint.net/effects"folder.

Word Ballons for Photoshop

One thing you can never have enough of in a comic is word balloons! But for beginners, working in photoshop can be very irritating.Luckily the custom shape tool has sum word balloon presets.But if you happen to get tired of the same ol' shapes heres sum custom word balloon shapes,created by Chris Wahlart.They can be created at any size,height,or width.All you need to do,is add a few layer styles,and add the tail where you want  it with the path tool,or freehand,before or after adding a stroke to it.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KZNEMICR





Chris Wahlart

Layout Pages

Thumbnails can be very important when drawing sequential stories .Sketching your ideas on Comic Layout  Pages can help a great deal.Its  great way to play with vintage points and angles.it also helps before you lay out your final pencils.If you don't want to spend money on Layout Sheets ,here is a great Page Layout PDF created by Ralph Contreras,that you can print on regular paper ,which will be cheaper than buying them.The free high resolution file is in my link below!
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7F32S87Q

character bio 180

heres a really cool psd created by Ralph Contreras that will help in creating 180 degree view of your characters,so you can have a reference of what they look like from front,side, and back.It explains that heroes are usually 8 1/2 heads tall. He has incorporated this into the character design sheet.the left properly shows the head sizes,to help in keeping all views of the character unified.in my link you can download the free high resolution pdf file to use.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4UH6G4MH

Sketch Cards

Sketch Cards have become a very popular item,not only does it  showcase your work,but you can offer it as a free item or just use it for a character bios!Heres a really cool free psd guide i found on the internet that you can edit on your software of choice.Feel free to down load it from my link below.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VCRT5PR5

printing comics

For those of us fanboys , one of our dreams is to actually get hired by a comic company! Wether it by writing ,drawing,coloring or what have you.But in the mean time,we generally stick to web comics,or our sketch pad! But nowadays you don't  really need a company to pick you up. A lot of artist,writers,colorist,are actually creating great comics themselves or with the help of their friends! A variety of comic communities have actually started their own comics by banding together.Comixpress.com is a company that takes your completed art,prints it and assembles your comic!! They offer the highest quality printing,backed by years of extensive pre-press and design knowledge!

ANATOMY REFERENCE

It is a good ideah to keep good reference guides,when drawing.Many artist usually keep reference material whether it be character guides,for  costume design and color,or great city pics for a good background ,or maybe you need a horse in there somewhere ,and don't want to wing it!! In my case i have a hard time with
anatomy!! I usually keep try to keep good anatomy reference to help me out so my characters stay in proportion .here is a great 3d model that i use,and it might give you an ideah of what to keep handy!

LEFT SHOULDER MOVEMENT

ANIME EYE IN INKSCAPE

WRITTEN BY:MAXIM GRAFSKIY

In this tutorial I will teach you how to draw a classic anime-style eye. The technique was borrowed from an existing tutorial on Corel DRAW (see the link in the bottom), improved and adjusted for Inkscape.

I'm assuming that you already have a grasp of vector graphics. The tutorial itself will improve your skills using the Pen (Bezier curve) tool in Inkscape.

The result should be looking like this:

Start with drawing eyelids using Pen tool. It might take a while, so be patient :) The fuzzy part on top can be created using Tweak tool in Roughen mode. Be careful, however — it's too easy to create too many nodes in this mode, Force=25 should do. Fill the result with black color.

Draw the white of the eye and place it under the eyelid (use PgDown on the selected object), then fill it with 0,0,0,12 color (CMYK).

Now draw pupil and iris.  Easiest way to do this is to draw two ellipses, outline their strokes (Path > Stroke to Path) and tweak the resulted shapes. E.g. for iris you want thickening the left arc of the outlined ellipse which you can do by selecting and shifting nodes on the outside to the left. Or you can draw the paths from scratch.

Now use Fill and Stroke dialog to fill the pupil with 80,50,0,75 color (CMYK), and the iris — with a radial gradient going from 100,35,0,35 (CMYK) to 70,35,0,55 (CMYK again).

Then use the Pen tool to create highlights objects and fill them with 20,10,0,10 color (CMYK). The objects don't have to be geometrically perfect, but you might just like to make them so :)

Next step is to create a shape like on the illustration below.  It will take some time. Easiest way, again, is to draw the basic oval and then just populate it with nodes and drag them into position. And the best way to fill it with nodes is Add Nodes... extension (Extensions > Modify Path > Add Nodes...). Or you can select some nodes and repeatedly click appropriate button in Node tool's options toolbar or even just press Ins key on the keyboard. When you are done, fill  the shape with 55,25,0,15 color and lower opacity to 50%.

Create two copies of this object, shift them vertically relating to each other and use Path > Intersection(Ctrl+*) to get such a shape:

But the iris is not exactly flat, eh? So let's add some depth using highlights. Use the Pen tool to create several objects like on the illustration below:

Fill the larger highlights objects with gradient going from pure white to full transparency. Then apply Gaussian blur (easiest way is to do it from Fill and Stroke dialog) to the smaller objects. Use different radii for blurs.

Now you only have to create a grey shadow from the eyelid. Use 0,0,0,30 for that shadow (CMYK again):

That's all!

Oh, and if you want the eye-spy bit, feel free to add the keyhole above the whole thing :) It's as easy as:

1. Drawing a rectangle
2. Drawing a circle above it
3. Selecting both and using Path > Difference (Ctrl+-)
4. Drawing a rectangle, outlining it (Object > Object to Path) and dragging both bottom nodes away from each other horizontally
5. Selecting both shapes and using Path > Difference (Ctrl+-) again

Line Drawings in Illustrator

Original tutorial by:Dani Jones

Creating Line Drawings in Adobe Illustrator

This is one grumpy dude. He was created in Adobe Illustrator with the brush tool. I don’t use the program a lot, but when it comes to “inking” my drawings, I find it very useful. Here’s an in-depth look into the making of this cute little grandpa guy including:

• How to place a sketch into a new document
• Some digital drawing tips
• How to fix little mistakes after you’ve drawn your stroke
• Ways to finish and color your drawing

Preparing to Draw

I start by placing my sketch into a new Illustrator document. Go to File–>Place. Find your sketch file. Before you click OK, make sure the box that is marked “Template” is checked. Notice that your sketch has been placed on its own layer and has automatically been locked and changed to 50% transparency.

Be sure to select “Template”.

Locked and ready.

 

Get your tools ready. The default brush set will not do for most artists. Create a variety of brushes to use for your drawing, or open up ones that you have saved. For more about creating and modifying your brushes, see my brush tool tutorial.

My brush palette features round calligraphic brushes in different sizes.

Laying Down Your Brush Strokes

To ink drawings in Illustrator, I like to use the brush tool. I like it better than the pen tool because it better simulates the traditional inking experience and results in looser drawings. Learning to trace a drawing on the computer with a tablet can be really frustrating. You may have to try several times before you get just the right stroke. Just keep practicing using your tablet and eventually you will find yourself pushing Undo less and less.

Some Tips to Get You Started

• Try “drawing” with your brush, as opposed to just tracing your sketch. Try not to be too stiff and concentrate on staying loose and spontaneous. Try not to break your flow by fixing every little mistake. Just push through, and you can go back and fix it later.

Don’t concentrate so much on making an exact tracing of your sketch. Stay as loose as possible.

• Use a variety of line. I’ve made a custom brush palette with several different sizes, from a bold 7-pt line to a very thin .5-pt line. You’ll notice that any drawing I do has a balance of thick, medium, and thin lines. Also put some variation within the strokes themselves. Use a tablet and set the brush to be affected by your pen pressure.

Notice the use of both thick and thin lines in my little drawing.

• Lay down each stroke with confidence. Your lines will be smoother and more stable. Try to keep your strokes longer, instead of shorter. When drawing with your tablet, try to use your whole arm, and not just your wrist.

• Take advantage of the shape tool for those objects that are just too difficult to draw with the brush tool. I’ll usually resort to the shape tool for circles, ellipses, and squares. You’ll notice that I use the ellipse tool for the table in my Bake Sale video.

The table in my Bake Sale Drawing was done by drawing two ellipses.

Fixing Your Drawing

When you have finished laying down your drawing, you can now go back and fix any small mistakes you may have made.

• Using the Brush Tool – Highlight the stroke that you want to fix. Now, simply “redraw” a brush stroke over it. Notice that the stroke that you highlighted changes. I find this tip useful for fixing slight curves, or changing the endpoint of a stroke.

I used the brush tool to lengthen this stroke.

• Changing the Thickness – If a stroke is just slightly too thick or thin, highlight it, then select a different brush. The stroke will change to the size of the new brush. You can also use the Stroke palette by changing the “1 pt” to another value. “2 pt” will double the thickness, “.5 pt” will half the thickness, and so on.

• The Pen Tool – If need to remove just a portion of a stroke, use the pen tool to add points to the path. Use the Direct Selection tool to delete the unwanted parts.

The ellipses I draw went straight through my pie. I used the pen tool to fix the overlapping areas.

Keeping Your Drawing Organized – Layers and Groups

If your drawing is a bit complicated, it will benefit you greatly if you stay organized. Group paths that are part of the same element, such as a person or an object, by selecting all the paths and going to Object–>Group (or pressing command+G). Now, when you click on one of the paths using the Selection tool, the whole group will be selected. This will make it easier if you need to move or resize your object. It will also keep your Layers palette more organized. If you want to add paths to your group later, click and drag them in your Layers palette. If you need to select a single path, use the Direct Selection Tool or ungroup by going to Object–>Ungroup.

How to Use Your Finished Drawing

You can experiment with different ways to finish your illustration. If you just want to color your drawing with solid colors, I like to use the pencil tool in Illustrator. Create a new layer and place it underneath your drawing. It may also be a good idea to lock your drawing layer, so you don’t accidentally modify it. Pick a fill color and set your stroke color to empty. Draw your shapes underneath your drawing. If you accidentally color outside the lines, you can modify the shapes in the same way fixed your brush strokes. Select your shape, then redraw your edges with the pencil tool to fix it.

Also experiment with different inking styles. Try different sizes and types of brushes to create different effects. In the picture below, I used a very thin brush to add some cross-hatching to my drawing. I liked how it gave it a more hand-drawn feel.

I also like to copy and paste my drawing into Photoshop. The beauty of creating your drawing in Illustrator is that you can resize it any size canvas you like. I keep it on it’s own layer and paint underneath.

This is an example of a drawing that I brought into Photoshop to color.

I hope this helps you create more interesting line drawings in Illustrator.