Today
I was asked by a fan named Valencia
how I setup and use certain programs when it comes to my artwork, designs and also comics. Well
Valencia,
there are multiple programs I utilize in my work. First we will talk strictly
digital painting. The are two programs I use in the painting process are Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Corel Painter 12.
Both
of these programs have their benefits and weaknesses. Adobe Photoshop is great
for photo manipulation, adding some basic colors and setting up individual
comic panels. Corel, on the other hand, has the innate ability to mimic other
natural mediums such as oil, pastels and acrylics. Be warned though; if you do
use Corel be sure to save often as it has the tendency to crash frequently.
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© 2012 "Evil Dead: Groovy" SRB Productions, Inc.
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For
what you are looking for I would try and stick with Photoshop. Just scan in
your drawings, duplicate the first layer and set it to multiply. Then on the
“Background Layer” double click it to make it its own layer, rename it (for
this example I will call it “Background Layer”), erase all the black line
and just start putting in colors. Now when you lay in color on the “Background
Layer”, the inking will not be changed because it is above the layer in use and will still show as a solid black line because you set it to multiply.
I
start out all of my paintings with a good old traditional pencil or pen
drawing. Then it is scanned in and setup for painting in a similar fashion as described above. I
also leave the pen drawing on top until a solid black and white under painting
is done. Then I use a color overlay to put down as a base coat. Once complete,
I flatten the image and paint all my extra details right on the single layer. It is a lot to explain in a paragraph but that is the gist
of it.
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© 2012 "Sam" Salgad Publishing Group, LTC
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As
for your question about Graphic Design, I use the entire Adobe Suite but mostly
Photoshop, Illustrator and In-Design. In-Design is the most universally used
program for effective and efficient layouts. It allows you too easily do almost
anything with type and your overall design wishes. If you can imagine it in
your mind, you can probably do it in In-Design. As for Illustrator and
Photoshop, I primarily use these when I want to create a custom font. Creating
vectors is easier in Illustrator than the other programs and since they are all
Adobe they can communicate with each other as long as you are using the correct
file format.
If
you have any other questions please feel free to ask and I hope I helped in
your journey to make your comic come to life. Please let me know how it is
looking as I love to stay active in the comic community.
