How to create your own comics on the computer. How to draw a comic: step by step description

How to create your own comics on the computer.  How to draw a comic: step by step description
How to create your own comics on the computer. How to draw a comic: step by step description

Superhero stories, westerns, biblical themes, even historical narratives can be made interesting by adding pictures. Comics are the same magazines, only perfectly illustrated.

What is a comic?

A comic is a sheet of paper connected together or finished books, albums in which you can see the story. There is very little text in them. Most of the action takes place in pictures.

The stories are different in length, from a half-page story to a whole story in drawings.

Home distinctive feature of all comics is the connection of storytelling with pictures. Moreover, unlike books, where illustrations only occasionally complement the text, the main thing in it is the drawing, and minimal amount The text explains the details of the story.

How to draw a comic for beginners? You need to read the tips and get to work.

Each strip of the graphic-narrative genre must begin and end with a single thought.

Usually the first page serves as an introduction, in which the author conveys the general main ideas. The reader must understand in what period the event takes place, where and by whom. the protagonist all this action.

In addition, a large frame should end the entire comic. In it, the creator of the masterpiece will talk about what happened at the end, or in the epilogue, and also tell what awaits the hero next.

Reading comics

Every creator this genre has its own style, its own specific characters, manner of drawing and plots of stories.

In order to know how to draw a comic, it is important not only to be able to draw people, but also to read the works of other people. Narratives of world famous authors can inspire, suggest the idea of ​​a plot.

Genres

Comics come in completely different genres. But the biggest success to this day is the stories about superheroes from DC or Marvel. Fans of these comic book publishers often feud with each other, criticizing the stories and the manner of drawing. However, it is these two "monsters" in the graphics industry that belong to such heroes as Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men and so on. Such genres came to the world from the USA, where they figured out how to draw comics in stages.

The Land of the Rising Sun has its own special and very large anime culture. It's called "manga". The text in such comics goes from bottom to top and from right to left.

Every year in Tokyo, several million different mini-stories are published, created by people who are proficient with a pencil and know how to draw an anime comic.

The classic drawing includes from four strips of illustrations. It can be either color or black and white. Even novice artists can draw simple comics, but this does not mean that the plot or pictures in the cartoon will be primitive. Sometimes they have to do even more work, taking care of the shadows and shades.

The target category of those who will read this comic is also very important. Complex plots built according to the scheme invented by the author are not suitable for children. They also will not be able to figure out where the hero thinks, where he speaks. In children's comics, thoughts often fly out of the head, and a cloud of speech comes out of the mouth.

Improvised materials, or How to draw a comic with a pencil

In order to draw simple comics on several pages, you need to take different kinds ordinary pencil. One of gray flowers should thinly draw lines, the other is bolder, and the third let it be thick.

Be sure to put a few erasers in front of you to adjust the work. In order to end up creating stories with a pen in a few seconds, you need to learn in detail how to draw a comic book with a pencil.

We need to take a few sheets of paper for the anime itself and a few more in reserve. In addition, there should be a sharpener and a ruler on the desktop. The table should be well lit. It shouldn't have extra items, which will interfere with the location of the artist's hands.

A more professional author who knows how to draw a comic also has special markers, pencils, felt-tip pens, helium pens or ink. After some time, the creator of this genre may realize that it is time for him to move on and transfer his art to a virtual version. Comics that are drawn with the help of special

The first step on how to draw a comic

The main and most basic stage in creating a cartoon is the idea of ​​a plot, which can have complex moves. However, many authors limit themselves to the simplest story to begin with. Consider how to draw comics with a pencil in stages.

First of all, you need to come up with short story, anecdote or fable. Text should be minimal. It is desirable to circle the dialogues of the characters in the form of a cloud or a square. To make it clearer how to draw comics with a pencil, it is recommended that you first write down all the twists and turns of the story and highlight the most important of them. In advance, the novice creator of this genre must write down the entire plot on paper. If there are conversations, then they also need to be painted in stages.

Each piece of text must be divided into squares, in which the corresponding images will then be drawn. It is best to start and end the action. One should smoothly pass into another, while completing a certain thought of the author.

After the plot is detailed and thought out, it's time to draw.

Second step

Now about how to draw a comic book based on a story. The ability to portray people or animals is an absolute plus in any anime. But you can do without it. In the graphic genre, as in any other art, fantasy is limited only by the person himself.

You can independently come up with something, comics, and create a narrative with them. By inventing a completely new and original style, you can eventually get an army of fans.

When a sheet of paper is in front of the artist, he must visually divide it into several parts. This step will allow you to plan how to draw comics with a pencil in stages. In these empty squares, fragments of history will be drawn one after another.

A person does not have the ability to accurately copy the same drawing, so it is not surprising that the hero will be somewhat changed.

Large frames in a comic book mean the duration of the action drawn in them, while small ones are considered secondary and serve to support the main idea. In a large frame, one, two or three events can occur.

Small frames do not need a background, while large ones need to be drawn in detail. The reader will want to see not only the main character, but also the very place of the events.

Hero drawing

Drawing a hero is not so easy. But this task is quite feasible even for a bad artist. It's all about practice. Anyone can learn to draw.

    do not create too many details in the drawing, they will be very difficult to repeat;

    do not try to copy the same poses and facial expressions as in the previous image;

    not strive for perfection, because comics should bring pleasure from creation and ease of work;

    Don't try to fit everything in at once.

The main character is best portrayed in the center. It should also be turned closer to the turn, if any.

Step Three

Basic rules for drawing comics:


Dialogues

Comic book characters don't make long speeches. Their conversations should be direct, without complex sentences or epithets.

Each word that comes out of the hero's mouth must be circled in a box. It is usually narrow and small, but the letters in it are visible. Dialogues are written in block letters.

The reflections of the characters are usually circled with a round bubble.

When they dream about something, their thoughts in the comic are depicted by a cloud.

Noises are conveyed by exclamation marks, interrogative marks, and other punctuation marks put together.

The hero's cry can be enclosed in a circle with sharp spikes around the rim.

A little information about what and where happens during the drawn scene, background or your own conclusions can be taken out of the squares of the comic. They can go between them, above or below.

And the dialogues themselves, which the characters exchange, in classical genres, are drawn over their heads.

During painting, you need to leave the clouds white or at best yellow, so that they stand out qualitatively and do not merge with the pattern.

Nowadays it is fashionable to depict everything in the form of comics. Every minute, scrolling through the feed of social networks, you come across these colorful pictures. Often they seem stupid and uninteresting. But there are also quite witty, useful and informative. Since it's fashionable, it's time to learn and master programs for creating comics.

What are they like? After all, there is an opinion that drawing on a computer is very difficult and not accessible to everyone. And this is not necessary. AT special programs comics can be created from ready-made

Creaza Cartoonist

In this program, sufficiently voluminous comics can be created with small means. To get started, you just need to choose a suitable template from the proposed ones or create your own. Next, the application communicates with the storage of photos that are dragged into the application. You can add text fields, any replicas and graphic design to them. Drawing on a computer is not useful here. Ready comics can be saved to computer memory or a USB flash drive, sent to mailbox or post it on one of the social networks. The release of the update promises that Comic Life will recognize text and select the appropriate pictures.

Make Beliefs Comix

Create a Comic

Another app for creating comics is Create a Comic. It looks very simple, easy to learn, and it is convenient to start acquaintance with it for young users. It contains an extensive library of all kinds of items and characters. The basis is simple but there are also famous characters comics. The creation process is outrageously simple - a background is selected, after which heroes are added. Then the bubbles are inserted into which the replicas fit. The result is sent directly to social media or to an email inbox. Since the program is free, there are some limitations: floating advertising banners. The downside is the failure to work without an Internet connection.

These are the best and convenient programs to create comics. Which one to choose? It depends on the goals, the amount of time and the skills of the artist. Everyone will choose an application to their taste and will be able to plunge into the world of drawing comics. And if the people like the work, then you can become famous and even earn money on this business.

When you draw a face, the first thing you should do is prepare the base. Do you do that? If yes, what does she look like?

I am using circle and line. Now important question: why?

Well well. Yet simple. The line and the circle represent a skull divided in half! "No-o-t" - you say - "anatomy sucks!". Yes you are right. But listen to me.

Important features of the skull that you should definitely know are the relative proportions of the skull and jaw, as well as the position of the eye sockets, nose, and teeth. Remember, a circle is a sphere.

I draw horizontal lines, mainly to show where the eyebrows, eyes, nose and mouth will go. Since the skull is a sphere, then the lines will be curved, no matter what angle you look at them. Notice in which direction the lines are curved in this and other examples.

It is very important to understand where the eyes, nose and teeth will be located, because they determine the position of the main features of the face.

Click on the image to see the image in full size and 100% quality.

I often use the rule that the eyes and nose form an isosceles triangle.

GREAT. So, at this stage, it would be a good idea to go over the most important parts of the face. Memorize their geometry!

EYES

They are spherical. The sphere penetrates your face (romantic, I know).

Sorry, the pupils are small.

What makes eyes old, young, wary, surprised? How can eyebrows help convey different emotions?

To check if your eyes are looking in the right direction, simply remove the iris. If the pupils look where they need to, then everything is fine! Hooray.

NOSE

Noses are usually pyramids with nostrils on the underside! The line passing through the center of the pyramid corresponds to the meridian in the sketch.

There are a huge number of variations on the theme of the nose! Consider length, roundness, pointedness, nostril size, etc. You can look for other lessons dedicated specifically to noses!

The shape of the lips also depends on the shape of the mouth. The shorter the length of the mouth (closed, with elongated lips), the fuller the lips will be. The longer the mouth (in a smile, when crying), the thinner the lips.

The mouth is quite difficult to work with, but it is quite possible. You need to remember the position of the teeth in the skull! And the fact that the mouth is connected to the pharynx.

The shape of the lips is also very dependent on many factors. It is necessary to distinguish between thick and thin lips. Straight and curved. Full top or full bottom. Oh.

Fortunately, you already knew all this. Now let's move on to the most interesting: we will transfer everything to the face! Oh yes, even the shape of the face you can do whatever you want! If you don't want to bother, you can go the anime route and churn out identical faces as if they were slapped with a shovel. But if you respect yourself, then you probably know that all people different forms faces.

Click on the image to view the image in full size and 100% quality.

The only difference between a thin face and a fat face is where the fat is deposited! When working with facial fat, pay attention to the cheeks, jaw, and neck.

Other places to pay attention to: cheekbones, eyebrows, chin, and the distance between all these details…

You did it! :D Now you need to collect all your knowledge and apply it in such a way as to create a living, breathing face. This means that you need to add an angle and emotions, we do not look at one point like robots. Well, most of us.

When you tilt your head, don't forget to curve all the lines towards the skull!

The same circle and line rule applies when viewed from behind! Just imagine that you can see right through them.

When the head turns up, the lines follow the same path. Conversely, when the head is tilted, the lines are directed downward. The most remote parts (forehead and, accordingly, the chin) fall under the foreshortening reduction.

latest comments

1. In the face, it's all about geometry. It doesn't matter how cool you think you are, but if you start doing everything at random, I'm sure it will turn out bad. So no need to guess! It takes only a couple of seconds to draw a circle and a couple of lines. And don't even think about the details until you build good design. Make sure that important elements lined up exactly along the lines on the skull and face.
2. Avoid similar faces.
3. If you're not sure about facial proportions, translate the drawing in Photoshop, and if the face looks ok when you rotate the drawing horizontally/vertically, then you're pretty damn cool.
4. Faces are different. Study your relatives, for example (your own or others). See what they have in common and what is different!

Write down the main provisions. Roughly speaking, a comic is an ordinary story told in the form of consecutive pictures. This means that comics are not much different from other forms of storytelling, which must meet certain conditions.

  • Start. Every story has to start somewhere. Even if your story is drawn on a white background, it's already something. First you need to decide on the background on which the actions of the characters will take place. Depending on the story, the background can become an integral part of the story.
  • Characters. You need actors for your story. Your characters develop events, speak dialogues, they are the link with the reader. Develop your characters' story over time. This is especially important for long-running stories.
  • Conflict. Every story needs conflict to develop. This is the basis of the story, the reason that explains the actions of the protagonist. Conflict can be as simple as checking Email, or covering universal scales with the salvation of all worlds.
  • Subject. The topic depends on the readership. If you write funny story what kind of jokes would be appropriate? If you are writing a love story, what lesson in love can you learn from it?
  • Atmosphere. This is the energy of your comic. Do you write comedy? Or is your story more like a drama? Maybe you want to draw pictures covering actual problems? The possibilities are endless. Combine comedy and drama, write a novel with a hint of a thriller.
  • Convey the atmosphere with dialogues, text inserts and visually.

Write about what you know. This is one of better ways make the comic more believable. It will also help you not to lose yourself in the process of creating and save you from blindly copying existing comics.

  • Choose a style. Since you're making a comic, appearance will be the first thing the reader notices. Choose a style that matches the nature of your story and the pictures in your head.

    • Experiment with several styles until you find the right one. There are many popular styles that you can use to practice and adapt later. For example:
      • Captain America
      • Illustrations
      • black and white
      • Comic
    • Drama usually needs more visuals than comedy. Although, as with any rule, there are exceptions here too.
  • Choose a format. These are usually single-frame, multi-frame, or comic books. Experiment with different formats until you find one that suits the character placement, follows the storyline, and matches the background.

    • One-shot comics are a typical example of comedy. These comics don't need a lot of preparation. The joke is based on one or two sentences in dialogue. Typically, such comics cover current issues or news, have a political context.
    • Multi-frame comics are a line of consecutive pictures. Although there are no restrictions or rules on the length of the tape, it usually includes 2-4 frames with a couple of lines in each. This is the most popular type of comics because they have story line, but short enough to allow comics to be released regularly.
    • Comic books or graphic novels require more story content per page and usually tell longer, more connected stories.
  • Brief stories with large quantity illustrations are called comics. This is usually a printed or electronic version of a book that tells about the adventures of superheroes or other characters. Previously, the creation of such works took a lot of time and required a special skill, but now everyone can create their own book if they use certain software. The purpose of such programs is to simplify the process of drawing a comic and generating pages. Let's look at a few representatives of such editors.

    This is almost the same standard Paint that is installed by default on all operating systems. Windows systems. Paint.NET is a more advanced version with extensive functionality that allows you to use this program as a full-fledged graphic editor. It is suitable for drawing pictures for comics and page design, as well as for book design.

    Even a beginner can use this software, and it has everything necessary functions. But it is worth highlighting a few disadvantages - the existing replicas are not available for detailed changes with your own hands and there is no way to edit several pages at the same time.

    comic life

    Comic Life is suitable not only for users who create comics, but also for those who want to create a stylized presentation. Extensive features of the program allow you to quickly create pages, blocks, enter replicas. In addition, a number of templates have been installed that will suit different project topics.

    Separately, I would like to note the creation of scripts. Knowing the principle of the program, you can write an electronic version of the script, and then transfer it to Comic Life, where each cue, block and page will be recognized. Thanks to this, the formation of pages does not take much time.

    CLIP STUDIO

    The developers of this program previously positioned it as software for creating manga - Japanese comics, but gradually its functionality grew, the store was filled with materials and various templates. The program has been renamed to CLIP STUDIO and is now suitable for many tasks.

    The animation function will help you create a dynamic book, where everything will be limited only by your imagination and possibilities. The launcher allows you to go to the store, where there are many different textures, 3D models, materials and blanks that will help simplify the process of creating a project. Most of the products are free, and there are also default effects and materials.

    Adobe Photoshop

    It is one of the most popular image editors and is suitable for almost any kind of image interaction. The capabilities of this program allow you to use it to create drawings for comics, pages, but not to form books. You can do this, but it will be long and not very convenient.