Comic Artist Tips & Tricks

[pearlofthepacific]

Wow, this thread is such a great resource.

As for getting used to drawing on a tablet, it's definitely worth it. Scanned/Photoshopped linework can look stiff and muddy. Reproducing tutorials helped me a lot, and so did some more approachable applications that are really strong on drawing, such as MyPaint. If I were going to do that now, I'd probably use Krita. Cloud Alpaca (multi-page version of the freebie comics art app Fire Alpaca) looks interesting, but currently website is only in Japanese.

I got CS6 before Clip Studio (Manga Studio 5) came out, and I'm pretty much ready to stick to Clip Studio. Since I got that, I rarely open Adobe CS6 (it's so slooooooow on my office computer), but then I really like linework (and storytelling!) more than anything else.

What applications do people actually enjoy using most?

[Jonny Cannon]

Hey people,

Thanks for posting all the hints and links. I'm pretty old school and still work off the boards (or heavy duty cartridge paper in some instances). Jings, I'm only a recent convert to Pentel and Molotow brushpens, never mind getting a drawing tablet. I am doing more in the post-scanning phase on Photoshop (and Comic Life for lettering), so all the advice on here is really cool.

I've found the following books very handy for inking in particular:

The Art of Comicbook Inking by Gary Martin;
Modern Masters: Kevin Nowlan;
The Art of Sean Phillips;
Woodwork: Wallace Wood 1927 - 1961
Essential Tomb of Dracula (for Tom Palmer's lush inks)

The Modern Masters series is pretty damn good in general. For example, the Kevin Maguire book is excellent for considering facial expressions and 'acting' in comics.

Jonny