Okay class, so you're here to learn how to make a comic strip in a day. The one you see before you took me all of five hours, from the first pencil scratch to the last click on the mouse button. Hopefully you may learn something new, or at least be entertained. Technically, this tutorial goes both through traditional and PhotoShop, but seeing how more of it is in PS, whatever. Secondly, most of the things here are a bit rudimentary to more experienced PhotoShop users, so if anything, if you know most of this, then may you find some inspiration in this.

Okay, fire off those beautiful steps, laddies--

STEP 1-- KNOW WHAT YOU'RE FRIGGIN' DOING
NOT SHOWN IN ABOVE IMAGE BUT GOOD STUFF TO KNOW-- SO GOOD WE HAVE TO WRITE IN CAPS.

Probably the most important step is the first one, and that is knowing what you want to achieve with your comic. What's your point? How will it be funny (or poignant, or whatever 2,3 syllabled word you're shooting for)? what will make it stand out? The easiest way I found how to do this is just free-write in Notepad until something connects. In this tutorial, I used a chunk of a storyline I'm writing for my own personal comic strip, BOOM: Breaking the Circle. In it, the main lead Spritely (the "ugly, bald child," as my brother calls him) is first meeting the art-student/ designer his agent hired to help create and promote his own comic book. So as a recent college grad, I'm pulling this from experience. No, I don't look like Neutron the person in question. And yes, I actually know people like Neutron.

Next, and what isn't featured here, is the quick thumbnail I did beforehand. The sucker was like an ich by half an inch, so scanning the little bugger is out of the question until I get a scanner that can make a 4500dpi scan without interpolation or something. Besides, you didn't miss much- what it serves is giving me a small, rough representation of how I want the panels to be laid out so I don't crowd anything at the end, how many inches I want each panel, etc. It takes all of ten minutes- tops- to do and it will save you a massive amount of heartache later.

STEP 2-- FRAME IT OUT

Using a simple L-square you can buy from any hardware store for 5 bucks (TIP: NEVER buy rulers or anything of the sort at art stores- they'll cost you twice as much as what you can get at the local nuts and lumber yard), I laid out the borders of the panels in PEN. If I need to do any overlapping, I can clean up the linework afterward in PhotoShop. Also, plan to work large, as it makes life easier and it'll aide you on a little trick later on...

The figures in each panel are sketched lightly out, starting with simple shapes and lines and then slowly meshed together. For this, I found using a .3 mechanical pencil works the best for me, although you can use whatever works best for ya. You can be as sloppy as you want here, just make sure you know which lines stay and which go.

Also, it must be said that I have been cartooning since I was in the sixth grade, so I'm fairly comfortable with what I can do. You should do the same, find the point where you are familiar and at ease with and then challenge yourself bit by bit. In other words, don't try to do a curvilinear cityscape when you're still figuring out one-point perspective. Do what you can and take baby steps, Bob. Baby steps to the door, baby steps to the elevator...

STEP 3-- REINFORCE THE FORM

This is where a steady hand comes into play. Using a fine-point pen (I used a regular Pilot Precise Rolling Ball pen), form out all of the characters main forms out. Don't worry about details now, just get the shapes down so you can better see what you're doing. Take some time on this step. Put on some music and just relax and don't get impatient. It's just like driving... except with a pen. And there aren't any cops. Or roads. On anything else that makes it like driving.

.....

Moving along....

STEP 4-- FILL UP THE POOLS (then drop your kids off)

Okay, fun part here! Break out a larger tipped pen, something you're comfortable with (for this I used a Faber Castell brush pen, but Prismacolor and (it you're the risky type) even a Sharpie works fine here). In any case, try to use the same kind of ink you used before (India ink with India ink, for example). Main reason for this is because differing inks may look a bit different when scanning.

Anyway, fill in the large black areas in your piece, being careful not to get too sloppy. It's tempting, but you might not want to risk it. This is also the time to look over your piece, give it a few hatch lines hither and yon, some "texture," just make it pop. Remember though we're going to be PhotoShopping this sucker so don't go overboard.

STEP 5-- ADD THE FIRST COAT OF PAINT

First things first- when scanning in your piece, scan it in at a larger size, both in dpi and inches, than the final product will be. This way you have more space to kick around in and when you reduce the size, you can also hide a lot of the small mistakes quite effortlessly. This isn't a gauruntee though.

The way I color my pieces is either I remove all the white from the image if I'm going to be altering the color of the linework, or just change the setting of the lineart layer to "Multiply" in the "Layers" palette.

I make a bottom layer an odd color like purple or blue, any color really that you don't plan to be using much in the final piece. This way I can easily see what I'm painting and where I have yet to hit, esp. with the lighter colors.

After that I make seperate layers for the solid colors, NOT painting any adjacent colors on the same layer. Keep them divided so you can go back in and fix anything a little easier and you don't have to be so tight on the coloring. All in all, you can probably do this process without having to make more than four or five layers that seperate all adjacent colors.

STEP 6-- BLACK MAGIC
This step in a contradiction, as it is the easiest and yet to make it look good, make also be the most precise step. Simply make another layer on top of the colored layers but below the lineart, and set it to 30-50% opacity. Using a hard edge brush in Photoshop. Smear some black over the areas you want to be shaded. Think how the image would appear in three dimensions, how the shadows would bend over the object.

Once you get the areas covered- break out the eraser. Now zoom into the piece about 300-400% and slowly widdle away the shadow areas, trimming them so they better fit the shape of the figures, etc. Also, in some cases, you may want to use the Smudge tool, just have its strength turned down to about 50%

And this is all there is to making pretty funky-cool cartoon-esque shadows.

STEP 7-- LIGHTING MAKES THE SCENE
Now Shading is all nice and good, but what makes a comic zing (pow and bam, thank you Adam West) is how well you create a scene. Sure, you could do it the Sunday comic hack way, but you and I haven't had our spirits crushed by an arts syndicate and oppressive deadlines, so let's run with it.

The way you add atmosphere is totally up to you. A few suggestions though is thinking about conveying emotions through color and the surroundings. In this comic I wanted to create a semi-oppresive feel while also kinetic and a little off kilter. To achieve this, I alternated the background in each panel, one with the ragged, splotchy back smear on stark white, and the other panels I added a slight gradient fill layers above the color and shading and set it on "Soft Light."

Really, it's all up to you on this step. Be creative and have fun. Or else clowns will come into your room and eat your toes. Yes.

STEP 8-- SPEAKING OUT

Now go back to step one and lay out the text, text boxes and text bubbles. I used the vector shape tool in PhotoShop to make my boxes. I know there are much nicer programs that will make your comic book bubbles, but I'm making do with what I got. Make sure not to cut off any cool parts of your illustrations, for that would defeat the point of all the hard work you've put in.

STEP 9-- GIVE TO MOMMY
Pu it up on your fridge and bring all your friends over to check it out.


-------dashed lines are fun-------

So... I hope that will be useful to some of you out there. If there is anything else you are wondering about, send it this way.

Comments and critiques appreciated. Thanks muchos.