For those of you interested in the old school traditional printing techniques used for shading, idrawdigital has compiled a set of links containing a variety of screentones and halftones for your comics. Click here to continue…
When we last left off in the previous tutorial, we penciled and inked ourselves a pretty rad looking Spider-Man slinging his webs. This time around, I’m going to show you a few quick techniques to make a background and color your work. I have shown a few different ways to create backgrounds, and to flat and develop your colors. This time around, we’re going to use two different methods to do these things. Click here to continue…
With a few loose ends to tie up, idrawdigital presents the second part of the How to Draw Wolverine tutorial. Today, we’re going to apply background and color techniques to bring our crazy Canuck to life. When we last left off, we had an inked drawing of our man Logan Click here to continue…
In the previous tutorial, I showed you all how to draw Batman digitally, through rough construction lines followed by refinements in tightened pencil drawings. Now we’re going to continue on by inking our Caped Crusader and drawing in a simple background.
Here is where we left off last time. A fully drawn Batman with a thickened outline. Now, we’ll add in our inks with dark pools and shading.
Step One: Create a new layer and call it INK. This layer will be your new area for ink fills. In the event that you don’t like the ink work you’ve done, it is a lot easier to modify a separate layer, than having to go back over previously drawn artwork and correct your inking that way.
Step Two: Start with your pools and fills. Instead of spending time using a brush to fill in pockets of ink, you can quickly set up shapes for your fills by creating an outline using your Lasso tool.
Fill in all your areas with a solid black. I reduced the opacity of the pencil layer in order to see exactly where the selection lines will overlap the linework.
Continue to fill in the solid pools.
Sometimes the lasso tool will create sharp lines and jagged corners which need to be smoothed out. I’d suggest tracing over the edges of your lassoed fills with a small brush.
Now that our main figure has been inked and the form is built up some more, we can start to create a simple background. In this post, I go into detail about the importance of backgrounds and how to go about setting one up for your comics based on the situation.
In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to whip up a city background in just a few minutes.
Step One: Hide your artwork layers until you see a blank canvas. Then create a new layer at the very bottom of all the layers (just above the background layer which is locked).
Step Two: Using your lasso tool, make a shape that resembles a rectangle with a peak on top of it.
Step Three: Fill in the shape with a solid colour – I chose black for its prominence. Repeat Step two a number of times but stagger the position of the shapes. Make sure they are different widths and heights, but are connected together at some point. You should have a skyline beginning to form that looks something like this:
By using the rectangular shape with the peak, you are creating the illusion of a 3-dimensional form. It is showing the front corner of the building, and creating a makeshift perspective.
Step Four:
Step Five: Fill this shape with a solid colour (I chose a lighter grey in order to create a sense of depth. The darker buildings are more prominent and stand out more than the ones in the distance.)
Step Six: After you have created the first layer of buildings, create a new layer, and make sure it is below this first solid layer. Repeat the same steps to create the peaked rectangular shape (or boxy building shape like you see in the example) but make it much smaller. Fill this shape with a solid colour (I chose a lighter grey in order to create a sense of depth. The darker buildings are more prominent and stand out more than the ones in the distance.)
Step Seven: Add a solid colour or gradient on the base Background layer for effect. For an additional layer of moody, noir mystery, use a noise filter on the gradient or solid fill for a film grain effect.
These are the settings I used. Feel free to adjust the settings to increase/decrease the amount of grain. You’ve created a simple city skyline background. We will further develop it with details once we begin the color and finishing touches part of the tutorial.
Now that the background has been done and the inking portion of the tutorial has been completed, we will create a ‘paper doll’ or cutout from our Batman drawing.
Step One: Hide all your background layers, leaving your pencils/inks visible. Create a new layer called CUTOUT.
Step Two: On your Pencils layer, select the area around your character, ensuring that all the background spots are part of the selection (spaces under the arms, etc)
Step Three: Once the background areas have been fully chosen, we will invert our selection. In the menu, the option is: Select > Inverse
Step Four: Once the selection has been inverted, the selection should appear around the outer edges of the Batman drawing. We will now contract that selection in order to have it fit within the inked lines. Otherwise, when the background fill is applied, some of the edges may appear outside of your crisper black edges you defined earlier.
I contracted the selection by two pixels – this should be enough room to keep the CUTOUT fill hidden underneath the drawn artwork.
Step Five: Fill your cutout layer with a solid white. This layer will now help you distinguish between background and foreground elements. You can link your pencils/inks and cutout layer together, and move it as one unit, or recycle it somewhere else.
That concludes the second part of the tutorial. In the third part, we will tackle color and finishing touches to complete our Batman image. Feel free to check out this other tutorial on how to draw Wolverine while you wait for the next installment!
In this previous post about drawing backgrounds, I wrote about their importance and how to apply them to your comics in order to add further detail to your stories. Without some kind of defining background (whether its a colour, abstract linework, or a beautifully rendered scene) your foreground characters will just appear like they are floating in dead space with no purpose. This quick tutorial will give you a few more advanced techniques for backgrounds, and how to keep a nice big library for use at a moments notice.
If your comic is set in the city, amass a folder filled with reference shots in the city. Skylines, high and low angle views, rooftops, sidewalks, interesting buildings, street scenes, traffic, etc. The more reference photos you have, the better. If your comic is set in the wilderness, you’ll want trees, mountains, lakes, rivers and all sorts of natural vegetation. Separate these files into folders based on location.
You may find yourself seaming two or three photos together in order to get the right look for your scene. Using photo editing software like Photoshop allows you to alter your images in order to create the basic background you are looking for. Here’s some basic tips on how to do this:
Using the transform tools to warp, skew and twist your photos to fit can save you a lot of time trying to figure out what the structures would look like on an angle. Save time and use photo reference where necessary.
Once you’ve set up your photo reference, merge your layers together.
Reduce the opacity of that layer to 40-50% so you can see what you are drawing over.
Your work area should be somewhat transparent.
Now, proceed to trace out your background on a separate layer. Use a variety of different brushes for increasing line weight and creating depth.
I prefer to use a bright colour such as a lime green or a bright red. This shows me where I have traced – using flat black can lead to some problems if the photo below has a lot of dark patches (like the night scene in this example.)
Once your background has been traced out, use the black and white filter to convert your colored line to black.
The Black and White adjustment has a number of options to convert the color on your layer to black and white – choose ‘Maximum Black‘ in the settings.
Adjust the sliders in the dialog box until you have found a dark black that does not lose any of its edge fidelity (gets jagged or too blurry) and click OK. You have converted your background line art into solid black.
With all of these background files for use in specific situations, you will have an easier time keeping a consistent look to your setting, as well as saving time. I most of your story takes place in a certain area, reusing and modifying the line work is much easier than redrawing it all by hand. This helpful set of shortcuts will make you comics process way more efficient.
Tune in next time for another how to draw comics tutorial from idrawdigital. Check back through some of the previous articles for tips on color, inking and pencils.
You’ve seen them a million times, and in many circumstances, they have helped create that perfect touch to the setting within the comics you’re reading. Backgrounds seldom receive much attention, but are vital part of adding depth and mood to your comics. Here’s a few pointers on how to develop the right backgrounds and make your comics more realistic.
I can’t stress this enough when you’re trying to develop a scene, use as much reference pictures as you can. Build the scene in your head and in roughs before you commit to putting it on paper. Some of the best reference pictures come from stock photography sites – they’re free to browse, and you can often save low-resolution ‘comp’ photos for your photo library. Here are a number of stock photo resources I’ve used for building backgrounds.
Getty Images
Fotolia
istockphoto
You can also rummage through Google’s image search option as well. The results aren’t always the greatest – but sometimes you can come up with user-based pics that can fit the bill better than a stock resource. Remember, don’t try to take these photos and repost them as your own – that isn’t cool – nor is it legal!
Is the frame a birds-eye view or a street-level view? Do you require one, two or 3 point perspective to get your idea across? Where are your characters standing? Is this an establishing shot? Do details matter? Is the focus on the foreground or the background?
These are all questions you should be asking yourself prior to working out your composition. Having these all answered will make background drawings very easy. Sometimes, all it takes is a mere blend of colour or simple linework to get your point across. Other times, you need to have immense detail in order to build the mood or add depth to the story.
Establish where your horizon line is, and your focal points. From there, build your images according to the focal points – remember that the horizontal lines lead towards the focal points, and create a sense of depth. Practice this with photographs – determine where the focal points are, where the horizon line is, and how the lines in structures and objects all lead to the focal points to create depth.
Kevin Hulsey has a great primer on perspective drawing here.
Simplified, or extremely detailed… the choice is yours – and its dependent on what mood you’re trying to evoke. The important part is to plan it out first.
As mentioned before – perhaps your comic relies on a lot of details in the backgrounds to increase realism, or it is important to advancing your story – or maybe you don’t require as much emphasis on details, and simply use backgrounds to give the viewer a hint of the setting, and allow them the imagination to fill in the blanks on their own. Depending on your style or inclination, background detail is important.
Every leaf, every lily pad, and every blade of grass has its purpose. Its a visual stimulus and the way to establish an exact location and a moment in time.
Fantasy art often relies on intricate backgrounds in order to visually demonstrate the differences between the ‘fantasy land’ and the land we are accustomed to seeing. This detail is necessary to help immerse the viewer into the world that the artist has envisioned.
In these two frames from Kapow Express by Xia Taptara of idrawgirls fame, you can see the simplicity of the backgrounds. Its the interior of a noodle house – with some characters milling about in the background – but as you can see, its merely some blends of soft tones and some hazy silhouettes behind the main character. The emphasis is all up front, yet the feeling of being in a dark, seedy environment is achieved.
With colour and inks, your background can take a new life of its own and set a dramatic stage for your story – in this pin-up of Captain America – the rooftops are clearly rendered and the details of the buildings are quite intricate – window panes with reflections, dilapidated planks on the wooden water towers, concrete bricks with mortar in the spaces – these elements all add to the overall piece and visually guide the viewer along. With colour and ink work, the background comes alive and enhances the mood – even though its a subtle, drab and dreary shade of grey/blue… We can sense that is probably dusk or close to a night-time hour. We know we’re in a big city (possibly New York) and there is a general feeling of foreboding and mystery. The viewer receives all this information from looking at ONE panel with no descriptive text. Just a super hero hopping across a series of rooftops.
The background is what completes the story here.
In stark comparison, here is Captain America again, running towards the viewer with a look of urgency on his face. If you look at the image overall, it is quite powerful – there is a feeling of strength and intensity. This is due to the emanating action lines and a red wash tone applied to the background. Simple, yet extremely effective at building a mood.
Now if you eliminated both of those backgrounds, all you would have is Captain America running towards you – but add in those backgrounds and their subtleties, and there are two totally different moods achieved. Backgrounds are absolutely essential in trying to build momentum in a story, or establish location, feeling and general ambiance.
Think carefully as you are plotting your comic – make sure you pay attention to the importance of a solid background image or color/linework. It can make or break your overall presentation.
