How Long to Draw a Comic Page TUTORIAL

In this tutorial nosotros are going to look at the process behind creating a comic page. We volition focus on how you tin suspension down the thought of your comic into a visual script, and making it like shooting fish in a barrel and fun to read by using unlike types of panels and perspectives.

Working in Adobe Illustrator we can create a fast and flexible workflow by using clipping masks to create our comic panels, and the Issue card to make wavy panels in no time.

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1. How to Create a Storyboard

When you have a character and an idea of what y'all want to tell, information technology might exist tempting to just dive in and start drawing. If you have extra care planning the story and the construction of the comic, you will avoid drawing yourself into a dead terminate.

Step one

It is hard to make a comic without having something to tell, and then the start step is to come up with some sort of serial of events. Storytelling is a whole art form all on its own and I won't delve into information technology deeply here, but you will get some tips on how you tin can organize your ideas and plough them into a visual story.

For this example I will be using my piddling chef character from a previous tutorial, to tell a short, slapstick kind of comic. I want to portray her as a cheery but clumsy graphic symbol, so she will have several mishaps in the kitchen but volition do her best to get everything together.

I start by coming up with a list of things that could get wrong for her, thinking most how ane thing can atomic number 82 to another. For this step I just putter a bit and scribble downwardly whatever comes to mind on paper, but if typing digitally works better for you then become ahead and use a writing plan instead. The important affair is that you feel comfortable and just brainstorm ideas.

Pace 2

Once y'all have some good ideas going, endeavor to arrange the events while thinking of the pace of your story. Unlike pacing works for dissimilar types of stories. Some might start with an intense hook and then deadening down. If you are making a longer story, there are many resources online on how to construct a story with classical models for drama. For my story, it will have a peaceful commencement only build up to a chaotic scenario, 1 thing going wrong afterward the other.

Script Case

• Show the setting is a kitchen.
• Show the chef cooking.
• She fantasizes about winning a prize.
• She accidentally knocks something into the nutrient.
• She goes to get something, the food bubbles and smokes.
• When she returns the food is smoking heavily and she is shocked.
• She takes the pot and runs away with it.

For this tutorial I will just cover the first folio of the comic. Although it is brusk and simple, I however write down a script for myself. It does not need to be anything fancy, and can in fact just consist of a list of deportment. I still take the time to write it downwards, though, to clarify what I will really exist drawing.

Step 3

Having a written script, nonetheless simple, will be a handy reference for this next step. Now that nosotros have written downwardly all the deportment we need, it is time to turn words into pictures. Endeavour drawing the actions from your script using uncomplicated stick figures. Practise non worry virtually making it look practiced—what is important is that your story can be understood in pictures just as well every bit in written form.

At this stage information technology often becomes clear if you have missed some necessary details in the script, or if something merely works in text and not visually. The script is non police, so feel costless to go back and forth between sketching and writing to conform what does not feel right. I like to scribble a lot in this phase and add together comments on the side.

Commonly I make the pages of the storyboard very small. If I have many pages to lay out, information technology gives me a good overview. Some people adopt to practise their storyboards in the size of the finished comic. Y'all might want to endeavour it that mode as well, to encounter what works all-time for you.

2. How to Choose the Right Kind of Panels

One time nosotros know how our story goes, let united states focus more on the expect and feel we want it to have. Comics come up in a wide range of formats, from newspaper comic strips and graphic novels to online comics scrolling almost incessantly. For my comic, I will be going for something a bit longer than a strip comic, but it will probably not need more than than a couple of pages. A vertical or horizontal page are equally fine choices, simply I will be using vertical.

Stride 1

All over the world there are unlike styles of comics, not only in the drawings only in the layouts as well. The empty spaces between the comic panels are commonly referred to every bit 'gutters', which are often used in Western comics. Having ane or several panels without gutters creates a unlike type of layout, which is often used in Japanese comics (manga).

The shape of the comic panels can vary a lot also. It does non have to be the usual squares and rectangles. Having a circular, star shaped, or wavy panel can give a different feeling or requite information to the reader. For example, the wavy panel is oft used as a way of saying that what is happening within the panel is a fantasy, dream or memory, and not part of the present narrative.

Likewise the size of the panel tin can change the temper of the comic. Having a very long panel with lots of space can brand the pace feel slow. Having several small panels adjacent to each other can make it experience every bit if things are happening fast.

Step ii

When drawing the content within the frame, call back of it every bit if you are a camera operator. Depending on which angle the camera is filming from, whatever is in the frame will look a certain style. Keeping the camera at a depression angle is called worm'south eye view and is often used to brand characters seem powerful. An angle from above is called bird's eye view. Using it makes a graphic symbol appear smaller and more vulnerable.

In that location is an expression called "talking heads" for comics where characters are talking a lot and the panels are merely basically that, talking heads. For strip comics it is not unusual for the panels to look very similar, with just one or two characters talking.

When making longer narrative-focused comics it might be good to movement the "camera" effectually a bit more. Close-ups, total body shots and using the bird's/worm'south centre view can modify things up a lot, even if it is just two characters talking to each other.

Step 3

No matter what type of comic you are making, clarity is primal. The reader should not be confused nigh in which order the panels should exist read or what is happening. While y'all do desire the to vary the angles, yous exercise not want to confuse the reader on which characters are talking and from where we are seeing.

A dandy tool here is the "180-caste rule". It is often taught in film theory, but tin can be practical to comics just besides. It is an imaginary line that the photographic camera will not cantankerous. That style the camera can motility around from one side to the adjacent without usa losing track of which character is which. The left grapheme will appear on the left side every time, even if the camera is in front of or behind them.

While this is called a rule, it does non hateful that it tin can never be broken. See it more every bit a tool to aid you and non something y'all e'er have to follow.

iii. How to Use Clipping Masks for Comic Panels

I have fabricated a sketch for a comic folio, and it is fourth dimension to start with the layout properly. Even after planning out how you want to layout your comic, when drawing it for real you still might want to change things. For this, a good way to keep your workflow flexible is working with clipping masks. Hither I will walk you through how clipping masks work in Adobe Illustrator, and how they can be used when creating comics.

Step one

I start by opening a new document in Illustrator, with the A4 size preset. From the File menu I choosePlace to import my sketch onto theArtboard. Yous might notice the large X shape over the paradigm. This is to testify that the image is linked but not embedded in the certificate. That ways that if y'all should move the image source file, Illustrator cannot load the epitome.

Pace 2

But below the top menu you can find some option buttons for your imported image. If y'all click theEmbed push, Illustrator volition make the image a part of the certificate. This increases the certificate size a fleck, but for long projects information technology comes in handy.

Step three

Using theRectangle Tool I identify the page and panels out equally placeholders. I cull no fill up and a blue colored stroke. The bluish is to dissever the panels more easily when I starting time inking.

Step 4

Since I have the sketch to follow, I tin just dive into inking how I experience like. This panel with the shocked expression seems fun so I go at it showtime. Using theBrush Tool, I import my ink brush from my previous tutorial, and start inking with long, lively strokes. Since we are going to use clipping masks, it does not matter if the lines are overlapping the borders. This makes the inking easier and more fun, since it means less constraints.

Step 5

Once the inking is done I select all the panel content vector paths, not including the frame edge. Then I group them by pressingControl-1000. I deselect the group, either by pressingCommand-Shift-A or by left-clicking somewhere outside the option.

The frame border will be our clipping mask, but nosotros too want the frame to bear witness as a black stroke. Since clipping masks are transparent, the blackness stroke of this frame will not be visible. Therefore we volition select the frame past itself and make a re-create by pressingControl-C.

Step half dozen

From hither nosotros add the panel content group to the choice. With everything selected, we right-click and chooseMake Clipping Mask from the dropdown menu.

Step 7

From hither we paste the frame border we made a re-create of earlier, by pressingControl-F. This pastes the frame edge on top of everything else and we have a finished panel.

Step eight

What is really corking is how you lot can alter the comic panel quite easily by using clipping masks like this. With theDirect Selection Tool, drag-select 1 of the anchor points of the mask.

Drag-selecting ensures that you are selecting both the transparent clipping mask and the black frame border at the same fourth dimension. At present yous can drag the anchor points to change the advent of the frame. The hidden parts of the inked console will bear witness appropriately.

Step 9

Now we endeavor another panel. This ane has a wavy border to prove that information technology is a fantasy taking identify. With Illustrator there is an like shooting fish in a barrel manner to achieve this upshot. First by having a rectangle shape at get-go. Add together some more anchor points to every side. I added five on each long side and two on each short side.

Step ten

While having the rectangle selected, go toIssue > Distort & Transform > Zig Zag.

From hither you will achieve the options menu. You can play around with the settings for different results. These are the settings I chose for my panel.

And this is the result. Discover how the vector path even so has the rectangle shape. If you want to dispense the shape of the panel more, it tin can exist useful to only have a few anchor points to work with.

Step xi

To apply the wavy shape as a clipping mask, nosotros demand to plow the effect we created into a vector path. We practise this by choosingObject from the top menu, and then going toExpand Appearance while having the panel still selected.

At present nosotros take a wavy vector path we can use every bit a clipping mask.

Pace 12

Time for inking once more! But like final time, experience free to ink without thinking about staying within the border. When you are done, group everything inside the panel together withCommand-G, or right-click and chooseGroupingfrom the dropdown card.

Make a copy of the frame border to paste on acme later. Then select both the content group and the frame border. To make a clipping mask, correct-click and chooseBrand Clipping Mask. Yous can also pressControl-seven for the same outcome.

Step 13

Top the console off by pasting the copied frame border on top of everything withCommand-F. You will notice that once yous have made the clipping mask, the whole console becomes like a new object. The private strokes of the drawing cannot be selected unless y'all use theDirect Choice Tool.

Double-clicking the object using the clipping mask volition accept you inside it. Here you have full access to modify the artwork again. For example, I thought that the lines were a bit too thick in this panel, and so I just double-clicked the clipping mask, selected the artwork group and lowered the stroke weight a chip from theStroke panel.

Step xiv

This panel uses a square clipping mask, but I changed my mind and want information technology to be an isolated console. I desire to have the character overlap the above fantasy console a flake. I retrieve this volition make information technology even clearer that she is daydreaming.

Select the clipping mask with theDirect Choice Tool. Outset adding points with thePen Tool where you want to change the clipping mask.

This way you tin can keep shaping the mask even so you lot similar. Since we are just working with lines and non white color, this panel and the one to a higher place interfere. To make our character overlap the panel above, we need to alter that panel'south clipping mask a bit equally well.

You tin modify the clipping mask by using theStraight Choice Tool straight, as in the previous instance. Another mode is to double-click the object, which volition have you to an isolatedPrune Group. Here y'all tin modify the mask without worrying about affecting artwork from other panels.

In Conclusion

In this tutorial nosotros have gone over some common techniques used in comics, such as the 180-degree rule and the bird's and worm'southward middle view, to make it wait more interesting.

Using various kinds of panels, nosotros can give different feelings to our comic, and working in Illustrator gives us the opportunity to use clipping masks which we can modify to our liking.

While there are no set rules in comics, it can be nice to take a couple to lean on in the showtime. Equally you continue to make comics, you will see that a lot is trial and error, just also that some techniques are mutual for a reason.

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How Long to Draw a Comic Page TUTORIAL

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