[Alpha_Meta]

Hey everyone, I'm new to these boards and somewhat new to Pshop painting (been at it for a little over a year). I've been painting a webcomic for a while and I'm looking to pick up the quality and especially the speed. I'm guessing it shouldn't take more than half a day to paint one of my pages, for someone who knows what they're doing.

Click here.

The above link will take you to the index page of the web comic. I'm currently painting the second strip on the page, conveniently labelled "Work in Progress."
Hopefully a few of the wizards here will give me some useful comments as the page progresses.

Here's a short run down of how I work:

I'm working a bit above print resolution: 11"X17"@600 dpi. Roughly 7000X11000 pixels. I'll clean up the line art, delete out all the white, and use the polygon selection tool to block out the colors. I crop out individual panels since the full page is too much for my comp to handle. And I can use more layers like that, i.e., skin tones on one layer, hair on another, clothes on another etc.

Once I have the colors filled in I use the various blending modes to paint in light and shadow. I've read that it's better to start from the beginning with the darkest colors and only add light but so far I've not been able to pull it off and always end up adding shadow.

I'm curious to know how everyone else would approach this. Any suggestions regarding hair are especially appreciated. I'm having a lot of trouble using the smudge tool. It's awfully slow at the resolution I work at.

Thanks!

A_M

[SiLeNt_UK]

lol

PC i want to have your child and name it billy!

Impregnate me!

who does the pencils cos theyre pretty smooth. nice stuff i like it so far.

[George Edward Purdy]

First, I'd like to say that your artwork looks really good. The pencils have a lot of expression and energy, and the color is nice and smooth. I'd say you definitely have a promising career ahead of you in some form of graphics if you choose it.

However, I will say that although your method isn't bad, you're doing extreme overkill for resolution. I know what that's like because I did one of the first Photoshop color jobs on a comic book using a 486DX2-66 with 16mb of RAM. In this case you're needlessly torturing yourself.

The last time I checked (and I admit that it has been a few years) Marvel was asking for color at 300 dpi and line art was black and white (not grayscale) at 600 dpi, and that's print resolution, not the resolution of the artwork.

"I'm working a bit above print resolution: 11"X17"@600 dpi. Roughly 7000X11000 pixels"

Actually, that would be 6600x10200 pixels. This is way more than you need even for print. Original comic book art is done on Bristol board that is cut to 11x17, but the area for the artwork is generally 10x15. An actual comic book is generally 6.5x10 in America or 7x10 in Japan. At 600 dpi you would need to color your artwork at 3900x6000 or 4200x6000. However, I think most in the industry would agree that 300 dpi is more practical generally, so you should really be working with full pages at either 1950x3000 or 2100x3000. With those sizes your system shouldn't be taxed too much. You didn't post your system specs, but you could easily do that kind of work on a system I could build for less than 500 dollars. You just want lots of RAM, a fast processor, and a decent graphics card (although 3D support means nothing in Photoshop, so you can even get away with a cheap card), and you should have at least a 19 inch monitor.

[Alpha_Meta]

quote:

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Originally posted by George Edward Purdy:
First, I'd like to say that your artwork looks really good. The pencils have a lot of expression and energy, and the color is nice and smooth. I'd say you definitely have a promising career ahead of you in some form of graphics if you choose it.

---

Thanks, and I did have a semi-promising career as a 3D artist. But it didn't look like I was ever going to get out of texture painting, so I decided to try and break it out on my own. The response I've gotten to the comic has been pretty amazing, considering I'm such a slow painter and usually can't update more than once a week. Which is why I've come here, to figure out how the guys who could paint one of my pages in 40 minutes are doing it.

quote:

---

However, I will say that although your method isn't bad, you're doing extreme overkill for resolution. I know what that's like because I did one of the first Photoshop color jobs on a comic book using a 486DX2-66 with 16mb of RAM. In this case you're needlessly torturing yourself.

The last time I checked (and I admit that it has been a few years) Marvel was asking for color at 300 dpi and line art was black and white (not grayscale) at 600 dpi, and that's print resolution, not the resolution of the artwork.

"I'm working a bit above print resolution: 11"X17"@600 dpi. Roughly 7000X11000 pixels"

Actually, that would be 6600x10200 pixels. This is way more than you need even for print. Original comic book art is done on Bristol board that is cut to 11x17, but the area for the artwork is generally 10x15. An actual comic book is generally 6.5x10 in America or 7x10 in Japan. At 600 dpi you would need to color your artwork at 3900x6000 or 4200x6000. However, I think most in the industry would agree that 300 dpi is more practical generally, so you should really be working with full pages at either 1950x3000 or 2100x3000. With those sizes your system shouldn't be taxed too much. You didn't post your system specs, but you could easily do that kind of work on a system I could build for less than 500 dollars. You just want lots of RAM, a fast processor, and a decent graphics card (although 3D support means nothing in Photoshop, so you can even get away with a cheap card), and you should have at least a 19 inch monitor.

---

I talked to one of the old Image pro's before starting out, and he quoted the 300 dpi figure as well. I've decided to err on the side of flexibility and paranoia. Flexibility because, if I'm able to reach the level of proficiency I'm seeing from the guys on this site, it may be worthwhile to print at a larger size. And paranoia because I don't want to have to repaint these things.

I think I will take your advice though and drop down to the lower resolution. The art I've been doing isn't worth printing at a larger size than the standard comic book. Once my art is good enough to justify printing at a larger size I can get a faster computer to handle the rez.

The machine I'm working on is a 500 mhz Celeron, 32 meg video card, and I think 384 meg of ram. And only an old 17" monitor which looks to be on it's way out. Not very good stuff to be using towards the end of 2002, but I can get by with it.

[Alpha_Meta]

They're my pencils, I'm responsible/guilty for the whole thing.

[cptoonz]

Hi Alpha_Meta,

Well, the comic certainly is interesting and different. Artistically very appealling. Essentially I gather you want to pick your speed up on CG coloring? You are working at very high resolutions, and even cropping frames out, that is still a slower process. In fact, cropping out frames takes time as well...every little bit adds up. I love the way things look as they are finished, but I am not sure there really is a "faster" way to produce the same look...other than diligence and practice! The more comfortable you get with your procedure, the easier it will probably come. One thing, I know, is I still use alot of layers...bein' the hack I am...and layers take time, they eat up RAM too...it all adds up. There is always a trade off...you could reduce your rez and put something out not quite as polished...that would save time. You probably don't want to do that, and I wouldn't blame you. Try to think about you can make your procedure more effecient, though, reduce layers where you can, use your hotkeys, etc...It might sound silly, but every little bit adds up! I like the comic...hope you can continue it

[Alpha_Meta]

Speed is the thing. I downsized to the smallest rez George Purdy mentioned and it's made a heck of a difference. For one thing, all the brushes I've got are usable again. And I don't have to think twice when I want to zoom in/out. I can work like this.

The point about things adding up is well taken, but I'm already a hotkey wizard! Bang bang bang, nary a drop down menu in site. I haven't needed the tools floating-menu thing in a while, in fact, you'd be doing me a favor if you could tell me how to set up Pshop so it doesn't automatically pop up when I start Pshop. That adds up too - alt-w-o, get it out of here. Too bad there aren't hot keys for all the pen tools and the shift key doesn't cycle through all of them. Then I'd have no need for the tool floater again.

I've switched over to a combination of layers and alpha channels. I'm not entirely pleased with this. It's a drag to have to go into the alpha channel and make selections. More time consumed, as you've pointed out.

I'm going to try painting up the next piece from scratch in the computer, leaving out the line art step. I think this will work at low rez. Unfortunately, the monitor which I said was going out has gone out, and it's going to be a few days before I'm even able to finish this piece.

[Alpha_Meta]

I've finished the page. If anyone wants to see it, it's currently still in the Work in Progress position on the page, will shortly be the Current Strip, and then will be pg. 6 in the archives.