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Questions/Discussion/Tutorials Thread
Posts
http://www.portrait-artist.org/face/lips.html - I assume you got things like this when Googling (this was my first hit). Really, I don't see why you think drawing male lips should be very different from drawing female lips. There is as much difference from one race's lips to another as there is between male and female, so you really just need to find some reference and closely observe the shape of the lips.
http://www.vh.org/adult/provider/anatomy/atlasofanatomy/ - This has lots of anotomy, which might help, but no nudes.
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1813 - lots of nudes.
http://www.altavista.com/image/results?q=male+nude+reference&mik=photo&mik=graphic&mip=all&mis=all&miwxh=all&stq=40 - Altavisa's image search is sometimes better than Google.
Edit: These are terribly small (requiring registration to get a full-sized copy), but might be clear enough to help you out, assuming you aren't looking to make an exact rendering from reference.
http://www.3d.sk/nudemale/page_02.htm
http://www.saveloomis.org/
http://www.fineart.sk/
If you'd like a few full-size versions of some of the 3d.sk models, I could send them to you. They're too large to link, but if you want, I can e-mail a zip file. Especially if you use gmail, or have your own e-mail server. Don't bother asking if you use hotmail.
Anyways, I'd suggest to anyone who is serious about art, if they haven't already, get the Andrew Loomis figure drawing books. They are possibly the best instructional material for novice and intermediate artists that I have seen, outside of an art studio. And they're absolutely free at that link.
While I do draw, I'm no where near as good as many of the people here. This lead me to wonder how many of you have or still do take art classes and how many have learned on their own? I've taken one class when I was 11, and I find it much harder to learn through internet tutorials.
If you're just getting started (or even if you aren't, really), I'd reccomend checking out The Natural Way to Draw and Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
my teachers preach those books. there good reads.
Ha, I didn't even start drawing until I joined this forum less then a year ago.
ditto. the only way i found about this place was through a guitar site. and i hardly play guitar anymore
i still play it but not so much than i used to.
Previously in working on my comic I've scanned stuff in and worked on it at 150dpi and then transferred it over to a 72dpi layout template and shrunk it down to fit nicely and arrange various pieces.
Now I've realized I should be working in 300 dpi and only saving a 72dpi image for online viewing (keeping the 300 for the files)
My problem is now my lines are all screwy and I have realized a whole slew of new problems.
1. My line thickness is all messed up... things are way thinner than they were before. Now I understand this is because I am shrinking down more and merely need to use a larger pixel size when working on the 300dpi images but my problem is as follows:
I'm still scanning and working on stuff in 300dpi but now transfer it to a 300dpi template and make some adjustments in size due to discrepancies in the original sketch sizes. These adjustments are enough to throw off the line thicknesses between two drawings. Perhaps this is clearer as follows:
Say I have two characters sketched, scanned in, and worked on seperately. I then throw the two characters into the same frame only one of the characters who was sketched slightly larger originally now has to be shrunk down more than the second character. The line thicknesses between these two characters is no longer the same.
Is there any way around this or do I merely need to make sure my original sketches are both to scale (or should I be doing adjusting after scanning)
This becomes a bigger problem from comic to comic as sometimes my original sketches take up an entire page and sometimes only half.
If anyone understands the dilemma I've just described and has a solution or suggestions I would greatly appreciate them.
I think someone once mentioned to me to work with line sizes in point rather than pixels but I don't know what they were talking about or how to do it.
My second question is:
2. Is there any way to convert my old 72dpi images to 300dpi without having them look like a flaming pile of garbage? I'm trying to get some of my comics printed in a local paper but they only accept 300dpi.
Am I pretty much screwed here with the old comics?
Third question:
3. Should I be working in 300dpi or in 600dpi then shrinking to 300dpi for a smoothing effect?
Fourth Question:
4. Is there a certain dimension to the layout of a comic that we should be using? We just arbitrarily chose our size of comic without ever really thinking and as anyone who has seen it will notice we have a lot of wasted space in terms of black bars. The paper we are submitting to wants either 2X10 or 4X10 and while I don't want to switch to those dimensions I'm wondering if we switched to a different type of dimension would it be easier to then alter the comic to this paper's demands...
Basically is there some standard we should be working towards?
That's all I've got for now.
I really need to learn the ins and outs of photoshop one of these days, questions like these make me feel ignorant :oops:
oh wait i am!
http://steamcommunity.com/id/BaronofBank/
Blog: www.blakesmisko.com
Portfolio: www.cargocollective.com/bsdesigns
1. Not sure if there's a way around that other than inking back over it.
2. Probably not- you could try converting it to a vector image with Illustrator/Freehand/Flash. If you're inking digitally, this might be a good way to go. If they're inked traditionally, just rescanning them is your best bet.
3. Higher resolution is always better. I haven't done much work for print, so I can't really say what youy should be working with. If you go with the vectorized solution it doesn't really matter.
4. PvP changed their comic format awhile back for easy printing, because it's just easier sticking to one format than trying to reformat for two. I'd reccomend making the switch to a standard paper format, unless you've got some Scott McCloud-esque wierdo format stuff that's important. Just don't expect papers to run it.
Doodman- Make a new picture. Now, open the picture with your panel. Right click the layer your panel is on in the Layer window. Hit Duplicate layer. Select the new picture. Click Ok. Viola, you've got your panel on a blank screen. Repeat this for all your panels until you've got them all on that new picture. Now, use the move and transform (ctrl+T) tools to layout the comic. Presto fantastico.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/BaronofBank/
Blog: www.blakesmisko.com
Portfolio: www.cargocollective.com/bsdesigns
1)The easiest answer is to work in a size that is constant. For example, if your target veiwing size is 800 x 400 x 72dpi, work at twice that size and twice that resolution (or 150dpi in this case). That's a general rule, always work at twice your target format. There are exceptions, but for now that should be more than adequate. If you separate the panels in to entirely different PS documents, use reference document for measurement. In other words, since your working at 1600dpi wide (or twice 800), if each panel takes up one third of the width, use three documents that are precisely one third of 1600dpi wide. The same goes for print work. If your target print size is 9", draw the originals on 18" paper. If you want to draw the panels on separate sheets of paper, draw them each on 6" wide pieces of paper. Do all that layout and measurement ahead of time, it saves you a load of work later.
But if you're already hip deep in work that has that problem, get a copy of Adobe Streamline or Corel Trace and use that to vectorize what work you have. You can then put a stroke or outline on the vector shapes to add your necessary line width or edit the nodes manually to get what you're looking for. As I'm sure Moss will tell you though, that is long and tedious work.
2)You can do it the way Bacon suggested, but it will be a lot of work. There's only so much a tracing program can do, and it will take a lot of tweaking of the vectors to make them look right at print size. I really think you're just better off redrawing them. Again, an obvious solution, but one I learned the hard way: whenever you scan anything save the lineart as a separate file. I usually do filenameRAW.psd or filenameLINES.psd.
3)Ideally you want to scan at 600dpi and resize to 300dpi for print. But working in 600dpi is not generally smooth unless you have a badass machine to crunch all that activity. Try scanning the lines at 600dpi then resizing them to 300 for coloring.
4)I'm less versed in this than the others, but whenever I do design work I try as hard as I can to not use a standard paper format. I think many many people overlook the potential of unique formatting to make your work visually distinct. I was in a comic shop a few months ago and i picked up a book called Vertical that is printed on tall strips of bound paper. One panel across, five panels down. It was so cleverly done that I felt I owed it to the creators to buy it. Don't pass up opportunities to make your work original, BUT, make sure it makes sense for what you're doing artistically.
This was with my old scanner, though, which required I choose the color range before scanning. My new scanner just does it automatically and picks up just the ink without any problems in the B&W Bitmap setting.
Supposedly the blue is also invisible if you try and do a straight photocopy, but I haven't tried it out myself.
And if you end up drawing on lined notebook paper, would the same technique work for getting rid of the lines?
With most of my art I like to keep it in my sketch book until i've finished it.
But keeping it in the book causes the art to smudge pretty badly. Is there any way to keep it from smudging and still be able to add more details and whatnot?
oh yeah. one more thing: is there any real advantage to useing the blue pencils?
no drugs were used in the making of this art
Depends on what medium you're using. You can put some wax paper or tracing paper over a page you want to preserve, and tape it on the back with painters tape (it has low adhesiveness).
If you're using anything like charcoal or pastels you want to look into spray adhesive, though the wax paper is still a good idea for that as well.
"There is not a man of us who does not at times need a helping hand to be stretched out to him, and then shame upon him who will not stretch out the helping hand to his brother."
thehomelymule: can you draw over the hairspray, or is it just for the finished picture? (i normally only use pencil, i'm not really sure if that makes a diffrence though)
no drugs were used in the making of this art
thanks again.
no drugs were used in the making of this art
Also: MAKE SURE TO USE FIXATIVE IN A WELL-VENTILATED AREA. DO NOT SPRAY INTO FACE.
Also also: We learn from doing!
1. Make a pencil sketch.
2. Finalize the sketch with a sharper & darker pen or marker.
3. Scan that in.
4. Put it through Adobe Streamline??
5. Touch up and color in Adobe Illustrator?? Or even Photoshop??
If somebody could help me out here by telling me how step by step (as if I had a learning disability, which I don't) I would be VERY thankful. I'd probably try it out for my own enjoyment, because I like the style a shit load. And thanks in advance.
You can see a demonstration of how he inks here: http://www.penny-arcade.com/inking.wmv
[Edit] Now that I looked up that Sketchbook program, I see a couple things, I found out what a Tablet PC is, and I also found a tutorial by Gabe himself on the Official Alias website: http://www.alias.com/eng/community/tutorials/tutorial_117/penny_arcade_tutorial.html
Whenever I shrink down, say a GIF, in photoshop it always looks a grainy mess.
"There is not a man of us who does not at times need a helping hand to be stretched out to him, and then shame upon him who will not stretch out the helping hand to his brother."
Gif is FANTASTIC for low color count stuff. You won't have any artifacts, and it's going to be really small. (Good for text, too).
Jpg's are great for photo-like images, with a high varience of tones / colors. It has great compression, but just like with everything - the greater the comp. the more artifacts.
"There is not a man of us who does not at times need a helping hand to be stretched out to him, and then shame upon him who will not stretch out the helping hand to his brother."
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v311/doodmann/camic1frame1copy.jpg
into my avatar?
i know its huge sorry :cry:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/BaronofBank/
Blog: www.blakesmisko.com
Portfolio: www.cargocollective.com/bsdesigns