1 - Introduction to Art Rage Studio Pro

Introduction to ArtRage Studio Pro. 

A drawing and painting application using the HP TouchSmart computer. I'm using a regular brush to draw and paint on the screen to create digital art with the natural look of drawing and painting.

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copyright 2012 H. Simpson

Wow, What a Spread!

2012 Culver City Public Theatre poster

How to Become a Comic Strip, Comic Book and Graphic Novel Artist

DIGITAL TOOLS OF THE TRADE

Software

LAYOUT APPLICATIONS


A layout application is not for drawing. It is strictly for arranging graphic material on a page. You use it to design a page, spread or book, including choosing type size, typeface and the arrangement of titles and page numbers. It can be used for producing comic books and graphic novels for print and e-books. Design once and use for two different media.

Adobe InDesign

• The industry leader. Create page layouts for print or digital distribution on tablets, smartphones, and computers.
• Available for Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista/7.
• Download at http://www.adobe.com/

QuarkXPress

• Page layout application.
• Available for Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista/7.
• Download at www.quark.com/

Manga Studio

• Hybrid application for drawing and layout.

Manga Studio Debut 4 is your all-in-one solution for ready-to-publish comics using color, screen tones and built-in word balloons. It has no vector feature. Download for $49.99. 

Manga Studio EX 4.0 delivers more drawing and coloring tools such Vector Layers, Gradation tools, Brush open tool, Path Tool, Perspective Rulers and more.

Available for Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista/7.
Download at http://manga.smithmicro.com/

That completes my comprehensive list of tools you can use in the natural and digital world to create entertaining comic strips, comic books and graphic novels. I've given you lots of choices and by no means do you have to use them all. I do encourage you to try them all to see what works for you.

If anyone feels I left out a tool, please let me know.

Comics used to solely be just pen and ink drawings. As technology has improved the industry has been able to present other approaches such as watercolor and other paints as well as printing from pencils directly.

Don't be limited by the standard way of doing things. Open your mind. Unleash your imagination and bring something new to the party.

read next - Why Worry About Trim?
previous - Rasta Love

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Remember… Just Create!

If you are interested in further expanding your knowledge, then I recommend these books.

You can support this blog when you purchase a book by clicking the link below, I get a piece of the action and helps me to continue doing this blog. Support an artist today.

copyright 2012 H. Simpson

You Da One Tablecloth - How to Adobe Illustrator Tutorial

Tutorial showing how to draw a digital tablecloth pattern using Adobe Illustrator software.

The more creative among you will see applications of this tutorial beyond tablecloths, such as wallpaper, brick walls, etc.

Please use the hidden dock (I don't know why Blogger hides it, thus forcing me to beg. Sheeesh!) on the right to follow and subscribe to me. I also would like to see your comments. Is this helpful to you? Are the explanations clear and complete?

Keep reading and  +1 me. Share with your friends. Please comment. Just create!

You can help support this blog with the purchase of a book or product below.

copyright 2012 H. Simpson

Rasta Love

ArtRage painting

How to Become a Comic Strip, Comic Book and Graphic Novel Artist

DIGITAL TOOLS OF THE TRADE

Software

RASTER-BASED IMAGE APPLICATIONS

Adobe Photoshop

• The industry leader. It is used for drawing, coloring and painting. Not good to use for lettering.
• Available for Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista/7.
• Download at http://www.adobe.com/

ArtRage

• This is a powerful and easy to use drawing and painting program. You can currently get ArtRage Studio Pro for $59.90 and ArtRage Studio for $29.90.
• Available for Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista/7
• Download ArtRage

ArtWeaver

• An alternative to Corel Painter. Artweaver is available in two versions: The Artweaver Free version at no cost and Artweaver Plus version at 29 Euros with more features than the free version.
• Available for Windows XP/Vista/7.
• Download at http://www.artweaver.de/

Corel Painter

• Very popular leading digital art software.
• Available for Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista/7.
• Download at http://www.corel.com/

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program)

• A powerful open source image editor application 
• Available for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista/7
• Download for free at http://www.gimp.org/

GIMP tutorials
http://sixrevisions.com/graphics-design/10-websites-to-help-you-master-gimp/
GIMP video tutorials
http://sixrevisions.com/graphics-design/gimp_video_tutorials/

Paint.NET

• A image and photo editing software. 
• Available for Windows XP/Vista/7.
• Download for free at http://www.getpaint.net/

SketchBook Designer

• A hybrid paint and vector application
• Available for Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista/7.
• Download at http://usa.autodesk.com/

SketchBook Pro

• Offers sketching software capabilities.
• Available for Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista/7.
• Download at http://usa.autodesk.com/
• SketchBook Express is a free version available on the Mac App Store.

A word about software choices. Photoshop was created to to be used by photographers for retouching photos. It was the creativity of artists that started using it for drawing and painting. So don't feel badly if you can't afford an expensive application. Use the free or low cost tools available. Your creativity can make the tool sing and come to life to fit your needs and style of art. Much like the early creative visionaries did with Photoshop by taking a tool that wasn't intended to create art and bending it to their will.

After all, people have made professional looking movies on iPhones! There's nothing to stop you from creating a professional looking comic strip, comic book or graphic novel with whatever tool you choose right now. Start today! Just create something!

Next… page layout programs.

to be continued....

read next - Wow, What a Spread!

previous -What's our Vector, Victor?

Keep reading and follow me. If you have found this helpful, please let me know and share with other creators. Feel free to ask me questions.

Remember… Just Create!

If you are interested in further expanding your knowledge, then I recommend these books.

You can support this blog when you purchase a book by clicking the link below, I get a piece of the action and helps me to continue doing this blog. Support an artist today.

copyright 2012 H. Simpson

What's our vector, Victor?

How to Become a Comic Strip, Comic Book and Graphic Novel Artist

DIGITAL TOOLS OF THE TRADE

Software


VECTOR-BASED IMAGE APPLICATIONS

Adobe Illustrator 

• The industry leader. It is used for drawing, coloring and lettering.
• Available for Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista/7.
• Download at http://www.adobe.com/

CorelDraw 

• An industry standard application.
• Available for Windows XP/Vista/7.
• Download for http://www.corel.com/

Inkscape

• An Open Source vector graphics application. Inkscape uses Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), an open XML-based W3C standard, as the native format.
• Available for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows XP/Vista/7.
• Download for free at http://inkscape.org/

sK1

• An open-source vector illustration application.
• Available for Linux.
• Download for free at https://sk1project.net/

Xara Photo & Graphic Designer and Designer Pro

• A single application for vector drawings and photo composition. There are 2 versions, Photo & Graphic Designer and Designer Pro, Pro offers advanced print and web design features.
• Available for Windows XP/Vista/7.
• Download Photo & Graphic Designer for under $100 at http://www.xara.com/us/

There are some free online browser-based applications. These are provided for information purposes only.

Aviary - http://advanced.aviary.com/online/image-editor

Fatpaint - http://www.fatpaint.com/

3D SKETCHING

Google SketchUp is available for free and has a paid pro-version. SketchUp is for 3D sketching and designed to simplify architectural sketching. This can be very useful as a reference for objects you have to draw from different angles.
Available for Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista/7.
Download for at http://sketchup.google.com/

Next… the raster programs.

to be continued...

read next - Rasta Love

previous - Tweedledee and Tweedledum

Keep reading and follow me. If you have found this helpful, please let me know and share with other creators. Feel free to ask me questions.

Remember… Just Create!

If you are interested in further expanding your knowledge, then I recommend these books.

You can support this blog when you purchase a book by clicking the link below, I get a piece of the action and helps me to continue doing this blog. Support an artist today.

copyright 2012 H. Simpson

Tweedledee and Tweedledum

How to Become a Comic Strip, Comic Book and Graphic Novel Artist

DIGITAL TOOLS OF THE TRADE

Software


As much as I've tried to avoid using brand names, so you the artist can experiment and find what you like, it is unavoidable with software. I still encourage you to do the same with software and try them all to see what you like by using demo versions which usually last 30 days. Some demo versions are full and let you use all the tools while others are crippled and you cannot access some tools, can't save or only save with a watermark.

No matter; try a demo before you buy any software.

The Adobe suite of products is the beast that can't be avoided and is the expensive poison of choice for the creative, advertising, entertainment, print and comic book industry. So while it it is expensive, there's no way to avoid having Adobe software in your tool set. If you are a teacher or student you can get an education discount which is really great. It's not like the Apple educational discount on their computers which is a measly $50 approximately.

DIGITAL IMAGING SOFTWARE

There are two types of digital imaging.

RASTER - A paint program. A rectangular array of closely spaced rows of pixels that form an image by defining values. It is resolution dependent. When you scale up rasterized/bitmap art there is an immediate loss in quality.

VECTOR -  A draw program. Mathematical expressions of points, lines, curves and shapes to represent images. A growable array of objects called control points which have a definite position on the x and y axes. The size of a vector can grow and shrink with no loss in quality.

Vector graphics require less memory than raster images.

Next time we'll look at the actual software applications you can use to create that popular form of entertainment known as comic books.

to be continued....

read next - What's our Vector, Victor?

previous - Rolling In The Deep

Keep reading and follow me. If you have found this helpful, please let me know and share with other creators. Feel free to ask me questions.

Remember… Just Create!

If you are interested in using these tools, then I recommend these products.

You can support this blog when you purchase a product by clicking the link below, I get a piece of the action and helps me to continue doing this blog. Support an artist today.

copyright 2012 H. Simpson