Let's look at the image above, the finalized inking of a manga. Yeah, I can stop right there and start selling my work but I'm not too happy with it. I think that Little Red Riding Hood's dress is red and eventhough this is a black & white manga, I still want something to represent that colour. So what do I do now? - screentone.
Screentone is a process of setting up tones for your manga, you can do this using actual cut and paste method or lazy people like me, uses their PC for the job.
Pros and cons - actual screentone is bloody expensive in Malaysia and it is difficult to use, and you also risk to cut your original artwork if your knife wasn't sharp enough or you put in too much strength in the process; but once you've got the hang of it, it is actually faster than using software and you can combine with other tools such as overlapping with white ink lines, utilizing different cutting techniques and the friction of your knife with the screentone surface to create different unique effects.
Using software however, is much easier than actual screentone, and it's a one time investment, get yourself a Photoshop and a WACOM tablet and you can use it for your manga as long as your computer's still alive. You have no worries for wrong doing in your work as well because you can always Undo whatever that you don't like. The cons, it is harder for you to create special effects - you need to use the right brushes, you can't draw straight lines with your templates and you'd take much longer time to create your effects.
So it's a little bit of pros and cons from both medium, just choose one that you'd like to use most. For me, I use Photoshop and WACOM tablets and have a jolly good happy day everytime i draw my manga! ^^
Screentone is a process of setting up tones for your manga, you can do this using actual cut and paste method or lazy people like me, uses their PC for the job.
Pros and cons - actual screentone is bloody expensive in Malaysia and it is difficult to use, and you also risk to cut your original artwork if your knife wasn't sharp enough or you put in too much strength in the process; but once you've got the hang of it, it is actually faster than using software and you can combine with other tools such as overlapping with white ink lines, utilizing different cutting techniques and the friction of your knife with the screentone surface to create different unique effects.
Using software however, is much easier than actual screentone, and it's a one time investment, get yourself a Photoshop and a WACOM tablet and you can use it for your manga as long as your computer's still alive. You have no worries for wrong doing in your work as well because you can always Undo whatever that you don't like. The cons, it is harder for you to create special effects - you need to use the right brushes, you can't draw straight lines with your templates and you'd take much longer time to create your effects.
So it's a little bit of pros and cons from both medium, just choose one that you'd like to use most. For me, I use Photoshop and WACOM tablets and have a jolly good happy day everytime i draw my manga! ^^
Hello!
ReplyDeleteI'm curious about filling in big areas (ex: black hair). You know, like in XXXholic style. What kind of pen/tool should I use? Could you specify the pen if applicable? Could you make a post about it? I looked through your entire posts and they are very informative and helpful and professional-looking but I didn't find out about filling big areas black.
Another question: do you have a published comic? You remind me of Eisu; pretty sure you've heard of him! :)
Thanks so much!
Nami Lami (namilami@gmail.com)
You could use a black copic marker for filling in large black spaces. Any kind of large brush pen should work! ^_^
DeleteI actually love screen toning on photoshop, it's easy and very cheap,lol! I tend to pile them by layer but with the selection tool. It's a good idea to keep a tablet handy.
ReplyDeleteyou could also use Manga Studio it saves alot of time you dont even have to ink it
ReplyDeletei'm a noob so i'm kinda confused; since as far as i can tell this is basically shading why can't i just shade it in with a pencil?
ReplyDeleteThe shades won't come out in industrialized printer, or it'll come out a mess. Though the pencil texture may seem appealing, but imagine u have 6 panels in a page drawing n u do the shades by pencil, all of them, it's going to look very messy, n very dirty as well.
DeleteTry for urself n compare with professional comics n u will see the difference.
Hey do you know what store there is in selangor where I can get that toning paper?
ReplyDeleteHey do you know what store there is in selangor where I can get that toning paper?
ReplyDeletedo you know what store in kuala lumpur that i can get thhe screen tone?
ReplyDelete