NUMBER 1 $595 SPRING 2001 IN THE U.S.A. Stas CYA Ca we yaTwoMorrows News I: day ‘Number 2 May-June 2001 + Hype and hullabaloo rom the publisher determined to bring new feo comics fandom + Edited by Ei Holen-Weathngton TwoMorrows. Bri More Women Into Comics. Well ONE more woman anyway As announced lt ise, publishers JOHN & PAM MORROW are tepecting the fst hid in Seplember 2001, and if the Uttasound technicians are to be belved, be {ile pit Names are aad being batted around. UOHN thinks “acqueyn Kirby Momow” asa nce ting to Comes Savant TOM STEWART offered up “Vinnie Coleta Morrow” ft ends up being a boy PAM has other ideas) Meanwne, Ja’ other new ara The Jack Kirby Collector #31 (ou fest tablod-eze ue getting rave reviews, and #32 (200 ghtng iby’ last known work, san update to the Kirby Checkin inthe work for ne vlate. (And special hank to ERIC NOLEN: WEATHINGTON, cur new fu-time production asetant, fr keeping things together at the Ralelgh, North Carina headquarter: while the two Morrows ate ohenwsedstaced wt al things Baby) 3 Eisners & A Surprise? “TweMornows was delighted to receve THREE Ener ‘ward nomination ths yer, TWO for STREETWISE (Best Anthlogy’” and “Best Short Story” fr Sergio ‘agonts’ delightful “Coil Sut) ls one for the ‘CBA COLLECTION, VOL. ONE ("Best Coric-Relaed Book") Both books are si avadable det from ws, sf you mised ether one, check em out! Inexpeay, the judges ht yet decide to eliminate the etegoy for “Best Comes Rated Perce” (the ‘one the COMIC BOOK ARTIST won lst yea). We're nat sure why; may with so many TwoMorows ‘mags, pus COMIC BOOK MARKETPLACE, COMICS JOURNAL, an so many other reat mags up forthe honor, the us couldn't ht he Fld enough? Now We Do Comics, Too! ‘This uly brings he release of Twodorons’ est comic 800k, PRIME: CREATION #1, Prime wae crested bythe {Giner award-winning edtor of COMIC BOOK ARTIST Jon 8. Cooke It features 6t pages of story by wing team of Jon. & Andrew D, Cooke, pene Civs Kroes, & ike (George Freeman! With a NEW wraparound color caver by INEALADAMS, and NEW Prime pups by SERGIO [ARAGONES, WALTER SIMONSON, BARRY WINDSOR: SHATH, and BRUCE THAM, we'e “primed” and ready to take the comics word by storm! And you thot we were ion to ake some ame geil pun. Shame on you, PROS & CONS! [MIKE MANLEY and BRIAN SANER LAMMKEN vil be sharing table atthe Sth annual ACME show in Newatk Delaware on Sunday. May 6th from 11 AM {04 PM. You can get drectons at wwnucaptaelue he. comevets hin or by calling Capan Blue Hen’ Comics & Cards at (302) 737-3434, The whole ThoMocows ew including ROY THOMAS wil ben atendance st HEROES CON in Chilte, NC Uune {-10) and COMICON INTERNATIONAL: SAN DIEGO (uly 19-22), and maybe, jst maybe at WIZARD WORLD CHICAGO (August 17-19) things ware ou. Come soe us and buy sul (lease? si) ‘Coming in uly, DRAW #2 fled ‘with more grea iteiens and Hom-To demonstrations from top poe! There's a new cover by and inter wth GENNDY TARTAKOVSKY, the man behind DEXTER'S LABORATORY and the Upcoming SAMURAI JACK! inking tips and tke with KLAUS JANSON! Piss PHIL HESTER, {RET BLEVINS, STEVE CONIEY, reviews, ks, & ce IS edt by MIKE MARLEY 88 pages, snd indudes 8 COLOR section If you need to contac the TwoMorrows edo (or wart to send ater of comment) ry eal! John Mowow, publshe, KIRBY COLLECTOR editor (Gand the one to go o with suberpion problems) ‘worm com Fonbeooke@aol com Roy Thomas, ALTER EGO editor: roydann@oburg.net Bran SanerLamken, COMICOLOGY edtr: ‘comiclogy@aol.com ‘andthe TWOMORROWS WEB SITE where you can read excepts from our bak sues, and ode fromm ‘ur secure online store a: woe twomortows com In June? You might think so, witha the “Creepy” and “Este We'd tke to give quick shout-out to Barbar Koto, wie of Toworons mancerberearaornave Jon xeon. | OMe ae” ‘GET WELL SOON, BARBARA! cares sees not only the release ofthe rrasive 288 age WARREN ‘COMPANION, but aoa new alec of Last sue we old | MICHAEL. you about ths | GILBERT mR. est of FCA wade | MONSTER! The Warren Companion apeback Now| fates an eshausve cect a complete Meccan tell you | feesign ofthe soi-out Comic Book Artist Ibe shipping | 4, and near 200 pages of new interes, August ond can | articles, & more! avalable in soeover eardred fom | ($35.° US) and a bite eiton hardcover Previews or ($57 PP US signed by JM WARREN hi Gealy fom | sal MR MONSTER: HIS BOOKS OF SwoMtoros | FORBIODEN KNOWLEDGE, VOL ZERO (520 PP US), nudes 12 harto- id tales 8 wel as over 30 pages of BRAND: SPANKIN’ NEW stan tvs The hog the horror Check out the har (20° US. Festurng: A new painted ‘cover by JERRY ORDWAY! An inde of a Feet comics publehed from 1940-19531 Intervews and features on €.C. BECK MARC SWAYZE, OTTO BINDER, & ones! Rae and previously unpublshed artwork by BECK, SWAYZE, KURT SCHAFFENBERGER, MAC RABOY, ALEX TOTH, GEORGE EVANS, ALEX ROSS, & ote, and foe word by SWAYZE! Ifyou love the FCA tlt in AUTER EGO, ths a must-have cou "To gt periodic ml updates of what's new from TwoMorrows Publshing, sgn up for urnaling ist Go: httpi//groupe yahoo. com/group/twomorrows Miracles Happen In August! Coming in August the newer addon to or growing st of Comparion Boks, KIMOTA THE MIRACLEMAN COMPANION! Before Watch, before DarkKnight, thee was ALAN MOORES. italeman, theft of the grim, laa tps that ‘would change syperhero comics forever. GEORGE KHOURY has uncovered all the Behind-thescees sees af he stp, fam the characters stata the Bish Marvelnan, tthe legal and crentve hurdles dng 524-5 run at Ecipse Comics, and why Yyou never st the fin NEIL GAIMAN sept bel Ths 128 ge trae paperback chou of unpublished ar. ninked pars &sceiche by JOHN TOTLEBEN, BARRY WINDSOR. SMITH, MARK BUCKINGHAM JIA LE” & morl Netto men tion depth interviews wth MOORE, GAIMAN, TOTLEBEN, BUCKINGHAM, RICK VEITCH, & mse! it sport 2 eazy new BUCKINGHAM cover ae wel an intoducon and back Cover by ALEK ROSSI And that's aot enough, aso includes a NEVER-PUBLISHED 8-page MOORE/TOTLEBEN ‘ory “Lux res” and an unused MOORE sept! Look fori in Previews or ender drecty fom TweMerrows for '17 postpaid nthe US. A percentage of profts goto ‘Miratleman ait Joh Toleber, who i bating the tye seve Retin Pigeon, so oder aay!Draw! 1 q| Spring 2001 Twomorrows Publishing Computer --Tips’& Tricks (Dave Gibbons) Penciling ~ Figure Drawing(Bret Blevins) Inking - Techniques (Ricardo Villagran) Color Section (Bret Blevins) Multimedia - Web.Cartoons (Channel 13) From Script-to Print Gerry Ordway), Self Publishing; The Bod (Young & Heebink) Classic Showcase (Owen Fitzerald)WY) SPRING 2001 « VOL. 1, NO. 1 ZA) wisi COMICS & CARTOONING Editor & Designer * Michael Manley Publisher © John Morrow Logo Design ¢ John Costanza Front & Back Cover Illustrations * Bret Blevins Proofreaders * John Morrow & Eric Nolen-Weathington FEATURES COMPUTERS - TIPS AND TRICKS [LAYOUT AND DRAWING USING THE COMPUTER, BY DAVE GIBBONS........ 3 PENCILING - FIGURE DRAWING HOW 10 DRAW LOVELY WOMEN PART I, BY BRETBLEVINS ............... 3 INKING = TECHNIQUES AN INTERVIEW AND INKING DEMONSTRATION, WITH RICARDO VILLAGRAN................37 COLOR SECTION PAINTING FROM LIFE BY BRET BLEVINS ...... 0... eee cece ceeeceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee 2 AS MULTIMEDIA THE INS AND OUTS OF PRODUCING A WEB CARTOON, BY CHANNEL 13 ..............00cc0ceeeeeeeeeee 53 FROM SCRIPT TO PRINT AW INTERVIEW WITH JERRY ORDWAY ON HIS WORKING METHODS ........... : 65 SELF-PUBLISHING/SMALL PRESS THE BOD INTERVIEWS WITH CREATORS YOUNG AND HEEBINK ..........84 CLASSIC CARTOONIST SHOWCASE AN APPRECIATION OF OWEN FITZGERALD, BY SHANE GLINES ...........! 96 BONUS FULL-COLOR SECTION! Featuring life drawings by Bret Blevins, page 45, ADVERTISE IN DRAW! For rates, call John Morrow at (919) 833-8092 or E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com ‘DRAW! Spring 2007, Vo. 1, No.1 was produced by Action Planet Inc. and published by TwoMorrows Publishing. Michel Manley. Edlor, John Mortow, Publisher Edo Address is PO Box 2128, Upper Darby, PA 18082. Subscription Adress: TwoMorrows Pushing, 1812 Park Dr, Raleigh, NC-27605, DRAW! ands logo are trade: ars of Acton Planet Inc. Ml contributions herein ar copyright 200' by thelr respecive contibos, Aston Plana ne anc Twotorrows Publishing accept no responstiy for unsold submissions. Al artwork herein is copyright the year of production, fs crear (f work-lor-hire, the ently which coniectd said artwor):the characters features In sad artwork ar radomarks or rgitord trademarks of her reapectve owners an said artwork or other trademarked rmatorl is prinid in these pages with the consent lhe copright holder ano fr journal, educational and histories purposee with no iningement fended or mplied Batman Superman, Shazam, Alar orce, ls, Here's Howie, The Adventures of Bob Hope are Th and © 2001 DC COMICS « John Carer Vs. Tarzan © 2001 Dark Horse Comics «Tarzan. Deja Thots, Jon Carer ar reqilered trademarks of the Edgar Pie Burroughs estate The Avengers, Avengers Dominion Factor, The Fantasbe Four Mr. Fantastic the Thing. no Human Torch, the Black Kngh Wonderman, The Scarlet Witch, Hela, Insible Woman, The Wrecking Crew, The Vision, Hela, on Man, Lok The Sorceress, Cacia America, Thor, Boom Boom are TM and © 200% Marvel Characters, Inc.« Deadbeat TM and © 2001 Cayposl Comics, Bon Books and Richard Howel/» Prince Valant TM and © 2001 King Features Syndicate + Swing Town is TM and © 2001 WidBrain + The Bod is TM and © 2001 Lamy Young and John Heebink » Conan the Barbarian isa registered trademark of the Robert E Howard estate» Staret Cara, Moroica © ACG Comics. This ent issue fs © 2001 Acton Planet In. and TwoMortowe Publehing and may no! be reprinted or retranamit- ‘ed wihout witton pormision ofthe copjrignt holders. FIRST PRINTING 200". Printed in Canada.FROM THE EDITOR OFF THE BOARD Well, the premiere issue of DRAW! is finally here. Its maybe a litle later and a litle bigger than we first thought, but then no one is ever really sure what their baby will look lke before its born into the world. And the TwoMorrows publishing family is a great one to be born into, DRAW! is the little brother looking up to our older sib- lings The Jack Kirby Collector, Comic Book Artist, Comicology, and Alter Ego. We have a lot of growing to do to catch up. There are many people Id like to thank for helping me bring DRAW! to life, and more importantly to you the reader, eternal student, fellow professional, or aspiring one. The frst person I ‘have to thank is John Morrow, whose enthusiasm for the idea from ‘our first phone call about the magazine that became DRAW!, as well as his professionalism, patience and gentlemanly manner has ‘made achieving this goal possible. Ti also like f0 thank all the incredibly talented and generous artists, whose contributions to DRAW! made our first issue possi- bile, and whose considerable time, energy, knowledge, and love of this medium is amply displayed within its pages. Big thanks go out to John Costanza for our logo, Dave Gibbons, Jerry Ordway, Ricardo Villagran, Larry Young, John Heebink, Richard Howell, Kieron Dwyer, Rick Remender, John Estes, Shane Gilines, the secret cabal (you guys know who you are), and especially my best pal for nearly 20 years, Bret Blevins. Bret not only drew both the front and ‘back covers of this frst issue, but has been supportive, creative, «and enthusiastic about my idea to create a professional “how -t0 ‘manual over the last several years, as [talked about and nurtured the idea for what eventually became DRAW!—to which his long distance phone bills will no doubt attest. The idea, the impetus for this magazine was begun some 25+ pears ago, when I was an aspiring cartoonist, comic book artist, illustrator, seeking anything, any scrap of knowledge to lift the veil ‘on the “secrets of drawing.” I combed the used book stores, fan ‘magazines, and art/animation magazines to get any and all infor- ‘mation I could on how to draw bette; the kind of brief hands-on knowledge 1 get if 1 waited in the long lines ata convention to shave the pro across the table give me a critique. Ii try and absorb every little bit of knowledge like a flower in the desert does water. Grateful, even when I was told “You've not ready yer,” Ta rush ‘home and write down what lil been told: even going so far as writ- ing the notes down on tape and sticking them up around my draw- ing board. Then came How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, given to me by my Grandma one Christmas. But I was frustrated at its lack of depth, though I loved all of the great Buscema drawings. 1 was frustrated because I knew there were more than three steps to drawing a figure or a page. The whole time I kept thinking, “If only there was a book that showed you how to do it.” There have been courses in the past like the “Famous Artists Course” which was advertised on the back of comics for years, but Thad never seen a set, and if you find those volumes now via used book sellers or E-bay, you'll pay collector's prices. So as I broke 2 DRAW!* SPRING 2001 (ne ofthe dozens ond dons of funny ond insulting drowings ets Bret Blevins cften assis his pal—and your edtor—with via fox; esol after phone smesoge ot long convertion, into the business, earned and improved as an artist, ever the student, Thept thinking that there still needed to be a Trade or “how-to” ‘magazine for comics. Each artist I met had some skill or knowledge Idd It would be great ifall this knowledge could be put into ‘one place: A magazine or book: After all there are zillions of them ‘on everything from raising pot-bellied pigs to building your own earth ome. Why not one for comics and cartooning? In several conversations last year, this idea for a “how-to” ‘book or magazine was brought up again, and as they say, “the time was right.” A friend put me in touch with John Morrow, who really liked the idea straight-off, and so the idea which became DRAW! Finally had a home and a format. ‘My goals for DRAW! are simple: To show you, the reader, in clear step-by-step fashion, the various skills and techniques employed by the artists in as in-depth a manner as possible—shar- ing the collective knowledge each artist from the vast fields of ‘comics and animation has stored away in their repertoire. Each issue will be crammed with as many “how-to” demonstrations from artists across the broad and related fields of comics, cartooning, ‘and animation as I can fit in between its covers. Its also a celebra- tion of the craft and craftsmen and craftswomen of those nique American art forms: Comics and Animation! Please drop me a letter or note and let me know what you think of DRAW!, and what you like to see covered in upcoming issues, and in our letter column in issue #2, which will be out in July. < ke Mike Manley, editor You ean reach me via E-mail: mike@actionplanet.com from my web site: wwnsactionplanet.com ‘or snail mail at: PO Box 2129, Upper Darby, PA 19082py fetes approaches to Batman in recent years was the Batman: Black & White series, later collected in a ngle volume, edited by Mark Chiarello and published by DC Comics. When DC revived the concept as an occasional back- feature in the Batman: Gotham Knights monthly, I leapt at (KS invitation to contribute a story. Rather than something grim and moody, I had the notion of 4 light-hearted piece that hopefully embodied a little of, feel that Dick Sprang, Alex Toth and Bruce Timm had ght to the character in some of my favorite Batman stories. number of techniques, from the high contrast to the delicately fched, had already been used in the Black & White stories; I COMPUTERS LAYOUT AND DRAWING USING THE COMPUTER A CASE HISTORY by Dave Gibbons thought that a clean, graphic look using a limited number of flat tones would look novel in context and would be perfect for the feel of the story. I also decided to dispense with panel rules, giving the art an open flavor, reminiscent of the old Dell comics, It immediately struck me that such a style of artwork could be produced very effectively using my computer. Its a Macintosh PowerPC 8500, alittle outdated now, but with a faster G3 processor installed and 208mb of RAM. I used a ‘Wacom pressure-sensitive graphics tablet and Adobe Photoshop 5 and Illustrator 8 software to do the digital work. But, to begin at the beginning, first I needed a story.. [BATMAN BLACK AND WHITE SSTORY OUTLINE FOR @ PAGES. by Dave Gbons ‘Ae T01 2000 (Ths str tls nthe sty ofa Dick Sprang classic. Surea staging, neadiong pace and a are van) ‘ie open nthe museum spensore by weathy cemical magnate WINSOR MUNSELL. Hels ‘honing milena playboy BRUCE WAYNE around. Thor are many great Woasures on Sopay, paintings, seuplures, testes, WAYNE is commenting onthe exquisite, magica fete color of a porta of Munsl (wich we can sce because of viowng angie) and enquiring about he arts. Munse is edgy, saying {hate d rather ot alk about when abot comes smashing ough one of te buldrg’s Sained glass wndows, ‘A the bot breaks, ouds of clrne gas belch au, choking guards and museum oars The {Gbot on te bot eads Bleach. Thinking quchy, Vino chongos fo BATMAN and. pacing & resplator tos oc, gets ead for acton. ‘As te ist ears,» fgure smashes open a dsplay case and oats an antique ches se The ‘our le cossod in a whe su, wh aback ana while Stipod Shit and white te. He is white ‘ned wih wie-sveakod ack hal and wea's sunglasses wih one black lens and one hte He as wt shoes wi lac spats and one back and one white give ‘Ashe makes forthe door, the igre pauses by he bilan colores poral (we see ony he frame, withthe arts namo : ROSCOE CHIARA), puling anchor bata ou As he Joost {ng the contons over opt, BATMAN swings down and grabs him. The gue swings ‘ound ana hou he contents of tho Dt nth DarkKnight ag, lack Ind ne ‘inde, BATNAN cannat top the Black and Wit Bandi ro escaping. We cut tothe Bandits lk Its compel fished in blak and white opard shin fart, ‘pnt pits on te wan pide of place ss he scion chess se, Diack and whe locos ak Out achockorboard. ‘The ban, leary unhinged, aks 1 his obedient Dalmatian dog Hels, fact, ROSCOE CHIARA, the once word famous arti. Renowned for his masterly and ‘eqaled v0 of clr, he was commissioned by Winsox Mungo fo pats ovat. Musll ‘wanted him io use some axparrertal nw pai is enema aor hed preduead hus nak ‘nly gating apr of hms, but useful pub for his pats. ‘The pains were indeed wonderful, possessing roma values beyond anything te word hha teen bn fhe hands of he grat Chara, resis were beating, siostsuperatat ‘But hore! The chemicals presetin the pigments ha a bizar effect on the pater over the long pours worked on te pcre. tor neadaches and visual problems. he fl stoop ‘ehavsted onthe nigh he fished the picture and when he aweke the next oming, in Font of It was shocked 1 so hat twas now sok and white, Pameps he paints wore not sale and As I mused over the idea of a black- &-white story, [ suddenly came up with an appropriate “black-8-white” connection that gave me the foundation for the whole piece. (It’s the final panel of the printed story, so you'll have to seek out Batman: Gotham Knights #12 if you're curious!) Pretty soon, I came up with a whole lot more familiar objects that were typical- ly black-&-white. From there, I had to come up with a reason for a bad guy to be interested in stealing black-8-white objects; once I'd established that, I more- r-less had my eight-page story. ‘Once it all made sense to me, I wrote an outline and e-mailed it off to editor Chiarello. The outline ran about three pages in length and pretty much told everything in the story. I'd write propor- tionately much less for a longer story, but this eight-pager was a very tightly packed piece of storytelling. I wrote the text using Microsoft Word, which I've set up to use macros to change with a keystroke from the format- ting used for, say, picture description to that used for character dialogue. Recently, I've been using Final Draft, primarily a screenwriting application, but more intu- ive than Word for comics writing, too. DRAW!* SPRING 2001 3—_;k i“ — ‘The outline was approved with minimal changes and I set to Cee tte work on the script. Although I was going to be drawing this jae A a ie myself, [ still wanted to tie down all the factors at the appropri Se eee eater ate stage, so I wrote pretty much a full script. This was e-mailed ‘Sicse ee Comenomi wit sone cxts Out Or Unc. ve srrceTs Ane et for approval and, again, approved with little modification ee eee nee Once I'd hit on the idea of an artist who couldn’t see color, I CATON: CHEERED CEE CHT rt ar went to town with color references in the dialogue and the char- ‘CONTRAST wher Gthrn PRLES Cone SADOW acter names, Winsor Munsell, for instance, is an amalgam of sronrme Tre owoscua cars ‘world-famous “Artists’ Colormen” Winsor and Newton, together CHEDTS: STORET: Onn toon with Albert H. Munsell, one of the most famous color theoreti- cians. ‘ata ers ne oe wan als Wel wean neo wo aLACKENEMne DRESSES ur villain’s name, Roscoe Chiara, is a juggling of the art term “chiaroscuro,” simply defined as “the play of light and crm ERASER MUSED GF Poe taro nda shade.” Editor Chiarelo’s name might also have added inspira- no ges em er er ocean Soares! ame: SENN = Chiara's character and motivation were pretty much that of a a.goephguanam acme mane aounne ancrune nyc wens NT standard Joker-mold Batman villain; a lunatic out for revenge. Ure Geororuat teams \rnoet nouns vo aT CR My version of Batman also stuck to the classic characterization; a Greets ecg eS. stolid and imperturbable, more of a “mid-gray” than a “dark” nna 2 SRR tice ee Knight, Feces nce ‘SeutRSircuataimnce weaken Te Cnet ano GOS Tur. ‘With regard to the formatting of the script, I like to begin rena ye eee every art page on a new typed page, as it makes things easier for = ESS the artist, in this case me. I use all capitals for picture descrip- sonnureen aien tion, which obviates the need to change case in what is, essen- tially, a stream-of-consciousness technical note to the artist. This also means that copy to be lettered can be typed in lower case for regular lettering, upper case for heavily lettered emphasis and underlined upper case for extra heavy. The story runs to eight pages in total, but I'll be using just the opening page as an example throughout this article. ‘With the words pretty much set (although the eagle-eyed will notice a late change of ttle), it was time to start drawing. I always begin with a small thumbnail sketch, in pencil, of each page. These will typically be 1" x 2/" in size, big enough to draw comfortably in, but small enough not to tempt me into indicating detail. I've created a series of small templates in ‘Adobe IIlustrator that are scaled to a comic book page, with ‘margins, ete. and I print out as many of these as I need. I'd usu- ally have eight, or even sixteen, thumbnails on a single page of typing paper. Tl correct or redraw these little images until I'm happy with the composition and storytelling. At this size, alternatives ‘can be produced very quickly and a whole sequence of pages can be reviewed at a glance. < If'm then going straight to drawing the full-size line art- ‘work only, I “ink” the thumbnails to clarify the spotting of blacks, using a Fountain Pentel, a Rotring Art Pen or any other handy, informal inking tool. Again, I’m thinking of composition, rather than detail, at this stage. In this case, I “inked” the thumb- nails using my computer and started by scanning the pencil ver- sions in at 300 dpi resolution, in grayscale. 4 DRAW! + SPRING 2001: TIPS AND TRICKS _ In Adobe Photoshop, I resized the thumbnail to the size of the printed page. This was made easier by using the precisely scaled thumbnail blanks mentioned earlier. This page-size rough will only be used as a guide and is easier to work with at a fairly low resolu- tion. I adjusted the levels in Photoshop, to clarify the image and get rid of background noise. In Adobe Illustrator, I placed the print-size rough in a layer, dimmed the image to 60% and locked it off. On another layer, I typed in the balloon lettering, to give me some idea of how much space it would occupy. | was particularly concerned about fitting it in the opening panels. Using IIlustrator's type tools, I was able to quickly achieve the best setting for the lines. In this case, I used 7 point type, with 7.5 point leading The font that I use was made for me by Comicraft, using ‘examples of my hand-lettering. It’s possible to make a font of one’s own hand-lettering using Macromedia's Fontographer software, but itreally requires the skill of a trained typographer to do it properly. In terms of cost too, the time taken and the cost of the software would probably outweigh the expense of having it made profession- ally. I find ita great time-saver and like the results as much as the “real thing.” Opening this “rough-lettered” image in Photoshop, I organized iton five layers. The topmost layer held my lettering, the next layer down was my “gray” layer, the next down was my “inking” layer, the next down held the penciled thumbnail and, at the bottom, was 1 white background. Since the image was at low resolution, five layers caused no processor delay even on my fairly modest system. Iwas now able to work very quickly on the inking layer, using the unanti-aliased Pencil tool to sketch in my linework and solid blacks. The Wacom graphics tablet allows a very responsive feel to this process, much like using a flexible pen. [ aiso drew rough bal- Joon shapes on this layer. I moved elements around using Selection Marquees on this and the penciled thumbnail layer, until everything fit comfortably. It's also possible to use the Free Transform tool to scale, skew of rotate individual elements very fluidly, copying to new layers, if required, to try out variations. Using the Line tool, constrained to the horizontal and the vertical by the Shift key, I drew in panel borders. (On the “gray” layer, again using the Pencil tool and a palette of | only three gray tones (25%, 50%, and 75%), I quickly laid in the gray tones. By setting the Blending Mode of the gray layer to Darken, I could still see the linework underneath. I reduced the ‘opacity of the thumbnail layer to clarify my view as necessary while I worked. At times, I used the Pencil tool in Behind mode, Which means that tones already laid down can be preserved while still working freely. Whilst this process is laborious to describe, it’s very quick and intuitive in practice and gives results impossible to achieve with traditional markers or tracing paper. Finally, I deleted the pencil thumbnail layer and Flattened the image. I printed this out at comic book print size as a rough for drawing the final art and also printed an artwork-sized version from ‘which to take the panel dimensions and lettering areas. DRAW!» SPRING 2001 5.Outs) ‘The hand-drawn artwork was scanned at 400 dpi in grayscale. It was then sharpened and adjusted using the Threshold command, by eye, to remove gray pixels (such as pencil marks) and match the full size linework as accurately as possible. The image size was reduced to 66.67%, which is print size, with the resolution kept at 400 dpi The Adobe Illustrator file containing the lettering was re-opened and the thumbnail image replaced by the finished art- work image, again dimmed to 60% for clarity of working. The lettering was adjusted and balloons and rules drawn accurately using Illustrator's precise vector drawing tools. The Ellipse tool was used for balloons but the shapes adjusted using the Direct Selection tool to give a less mechanical look. The logo, credits and title display lettering were designed separately in Illustrator and added to the art later in the process: (The image shown here is an intermediate stage before ‘masking off overlapping word balloons and removing the black outline from the gutter rules.) ‘The placed image of the final art was removed from the Illustrator file which was then saved and opened in Photoshop at 400 dpi, with anti-aliasing off, as a default transparent layer. This was then moved into the linework file, where it “floated above” the line art and was fine-tuned, cutting out overlaps and The image here shows the clean linework with the lettering and rules precisely overlaid, although the lettering and rule layer was not combined with the line art layer at this stage since I wanted it to mask out the art layers and save myself the necessi- ty of working accurately to the panel edges. I took the opportunity to do the corrections to the line art that I would have done using Process White in traditional media ‘Again, this makes the use of water-based ink drawing pens feasi- ble for preparing the original artwork. It's also possible at this stage, for example, to draw long or subtle curves using Photoshop's Path tools, obviating the laborious use of ellipse guides or French curves. 8 DRAW! + SPRING 2001 (1 BANDIT