Comics with Illustrator Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics software which allows artists to create illustrations, logos, comics, and more. Vector graphics are different from Raster graphics found in Photoshop, digitized photographs, or other digitally created images. Vector graphics use polygons and mathematical formulas to represent the image, meaning that they can be manipulated and scaled as large or small as possible with no distortion. printcnx.com
Set-up Document Size 1. Open Illustrator 2. Go to File > New 3. Title your file and set the Width to 7 and the Height to 10.5 4. Select More Settings and set Raster Effects to High (300 ppi) 5. Select Create Document Active Area The active area in a comic is 6.25 wide by 9.75 tall which leaves room for the page to be cut. 1. Click-and-drag out the panels on the far right to expand them 2. Select the Layers icon 3. Double-click Layer 1 and rename it Frame 4. Select the Rectangle Tool (M) 5. Click anywhere in the blank workspace 6. Type in 6.25 Wide and 10.25 high and select OK 7. Press V on the keyboard to bring up the Selection Tool and click-and-drag the frame into the center of the workspace
Importing a Sketch You can draw directly from scratch in Illustrator, but we recommend first sketching out your comic on paper, scanning the image, and then tracing the image in Illustrator. This process is referred to as Inking. Importing 1. Select the area to the left of the Frame Layer and lock it -Locking prevents the layer from being edited 2. Select the Create a New Layer icon in the lower right-side of the panels 3. Name this Layer Base Sketch 4. Go to the folder containing your sketch and click-and-drag the image directly onto Illustrator s workspace 5. Hold Shift and click-and-drag the corner of the image down to resize it to fit in the workspace, minding the safe area frame. 6. Change the workspace layout to Painting by selecting the drop down menu in the upper right 7. Press V on the keyboard and select the Base Sketch 8. Select the Transparency panel 9. Set the Transparency to around 50% -This makes the tracing/inking process easier to see
Inking/Tracing Inking 1. Lock the Base Sketch Layer and create a new layer, naming it Panel 1 Line art 2. Press Z to select the Zoom Tool, and zoom in on panel 1 by left-clicking -Holding Alt + Left-clicking zooms out 3. Select B on the keyboard for the Brush Tool 4. Ensure that the Variable Width Profile is set to Uniform, the Brush Definition is set to 3 pt Oval, and the Opacity is 100% 5. Change the Stroke in the upper Options bar to 0.25 6. Click-and-hold, drawing/tracing over the base sketch image -Illustrator will automatically smooth out the lines, also allowing you to resize them indefinitely later 7. Press V on the keyboard to bring up the Selection Tool 8. Drag the selection box over the entirety of the line art 9. Right-click and select Group TIP: Ctrl+Z will undo your most recent moves Ctrl+Shift+Z will redo your most recent move Shift+E is the eraser Resize the eraser with the bracket keys [ ] on the keyboard
Coloring There are two primary ways to color in Illustrator, by hand with the Blob Paint Brush, or by using the Pen and the Live Paint Bucket Tool. We will be focusing on the Blob Paint Brush. Blob Paint Brush Coloring 1. Lock the line art layer and create a new layer, naming it Panel 1 Color 2. Drag this layer below the line art layer -This ensures that the line art will be on top of the color layer 3. Select Shift+B to bring up the Blob Paint Brush 4. Use the bracket keys [ ] to increase or decrease the size of the brush diameter 5. Select a color by double-clicking the Stroke Box in the lower left area of the tool box 6. Select a color for the hair by clicking within the color picker box and by sliding the Hue Bar up and down 7. Color in the hair by click-anddragging the mouse (or Wacom pen)
Lettering Typing Tool 1. Lock the current layer and create a new one, naming it Text 2. Select T on the keyboard to bring up the Type Tool 3. Click where you would like the text to go, and type out a phrase in all caps 4. Double-click the text so it is highlighted, and change the font on the upper options bar to Maiandra GD and change the Font Size to 7 Speech Balloon 1. Lock the text layer and create a new one, naming it Balloon 2. Right-click the Rectangle Tool and select the Ellipse Tool 3. Hold Alt and click-and-drag your cursor from the center of the text, enough to cover the text up completely 4. Select the drop down Fill Box on the left side of the Options Bar and select white 5. Select the drop down of the Stroke Box and select black 6. Change the Stroke size to your preference
Speech Tail 1. Select P on the keyboard to bring up the Pen Tool 2. Click in the center of the text balloon 3. Click again about halfway to the subject s mouth 4. Click once more a little further down from the first point 5. Press V and select the tail. Select the drop down for the Fill Color in the upper left of the Options Bar and select white 6. Select the drop down for the Stroke Color and select black 7. Hold Shift and left-click both the tail and the balloon 8. Navigate to the Pathfinder tab in the panels menu to the right of the workspace 9. Select the Unite icon 10. If the speech bubble is transparent, select the Fill Color box again and select white 11. Drag the Balloon Layer below the Text Layer so the text will display on top
Finishing Up Exporting 1. First toggle the Eye icon off that is next to the Frame layer This will keep the safe area frame from being seen in the final export 2. Select File > Export > Export As > Save as Type > Title your comic > Select Export 3. For the JPEG Settings ensure that the Color Model is set to RGB -RGB is the default color model for web-based images. If printing your comic, CMYK is the color model most commonly used. 4. Ensure that the Quality is set to Maximum and the Resolution is set to 300 ppi You re done!
Resources http://webcomicalliance.com How to Make a Graphic Novel/Comic Book Youtube: Quickly Inking and Coloring comics in Illustrator CC by Brad Colbow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3spuxmtlbj4 Learn to Draw Anything with Adobe Illustrator CC by Yes I m a Designer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbbql2su-ag Lynda.com: Lettering Comic Books with Illustrator by John Roshell Illustrator for Non-Illustrators by Von Glitschka The Base Sketch used in this course is based off of Lucky Penny by Yuko Ota & Ananth Hirsh http://www.johnnywander.com/