T
wo years ago during the summer
vacation, I went on a 10-week comic
workshop run by Quang Comics. At
that time I hadn’t established my working
process and style, and I thought that I’d not only
learn how to write and make comic strips, but
also get inspiration from great comic artists. Yet
the more I learnt about comics, the more
I realised that comic techniques can also be
applied to digital illustration work. Here, I’d
like to explain how I use comic techniques in
my digital illustrations, as well as reveal some
useful tools and tricks.ENHANCING THE LINE-WORK
At that time I worked digitally. There are
countless digital brushes that can be acquired
from the internet, and trying to choose one was
tricky. I felt I’d been given too many options, but
also believed that just randomly picking a brush
wouldn’t be helpful. And then I remembered
something the teacher told me: that I should
decide on the brush style that could best deliver
the theme and the mood of the story.
The comic I was working on at that time had
a science-fiction theme. I wanted my comic to feel
cold and calm, so I explored mainly solid, hardPhotoshop brushes without much pen pressure.
I also tried out various brushes using Illustrator
and Clip Studio Paint. Unlike Photoshop, both
programs enabled me to use different brushes on
the line-work in real-time using line vectors. I
could also adjust the stroke sizes, so before I really
started working on the comic I could see if the
line complemented the theme.
Once I finished the course, I followed this
process for some of my illustration work. When
I have to create icons or have to adjust the line-
work or brush strokes later because the style or
the dimension of the final artwork is undecided,
I use line vectors in Illustrator. Photoshop also
partially supports vector functions. After you
draw vectors using the U and Pen tools, right-click
the canvas and click Path Stroke. You can then
apply the Photoshop brushes to your vectors.
Clip Studio Paints has many handy features
for creating comics. It has more detailed presets
for cartoon pen brushes, a range of user-created
screen tones and other useful assets, and has a
three-dimensional figure tool that will speed up
your figure drawings. It’s the best software for
creating digital comics, but it lacks compatibility
with Adobe CC. This is why I eventually settled
for Adobe’s range of applications.BRINGING IN TEXTURE
When I looked through a collection of black and
white comics for reference and inspiration, I was
especially impressed by comic artists such as
Wonkyo Jeong (Omscic Comics) and Sungmin
Choi, who use screen tones to enhance their
comic work. I wanted to try doing something
similar in my digital illustration process.
Screen tones can be created quickly, and unlike
hatching by hand enables me to apply shading
that’s consistent. It’s a straightforward technique
for introducing several shades between black and
white, creating more depth within the image.
There are so many different types of screen tones,
including hatching, concentric lines, line patterns
and brick shapes, all providing a quick way to
build up atmosphere in your comic art.
I purchased and tried out many pattern
brushes and texture masks from the Creative
Market website. During the process, I found the
biggest advantage of using digital patterns and
textures is that unlike real screen tones, I can
alter them easily. I could enlarge small and dense
patterns, and also reduce large-scale patterns into
smaller, denser shapes. After some trial and error,
I settled on using Kyle Webster’s half-tone brush
pack for Photoshop. Not only does this give me a
collection of brushes and half-tone patterns, but
I can easily reduce or enlarge Kyle’s patterns into
different sizes to suit my artworks.ARTIST INSIGHT
BELOW
I used bold patterns in
the clothing of one
character, making
them stand out in
the illustration.RIGHT
I first applied black
and then applied
restful patterns
to convey a sense
of calm.“DECIDE ON THE
BRUSH STYLE
THAT CAN BEST
DELIVER THE
THEME AND
THE MOOD OF
THE STORY”