Batman Ink

I'm trying to figure out how to make black and white comics. This was me messing around with black and white (ink and some gesso).

If anyone would like the original, it looks like the one on the left and is on regular computer paper. $15 + shipping? Any takers?
(edit) This was already sold, thanks!

Whine 2009 Comic

Just playing with my new brush and working on doing black and white images. (Which I failed by adding the blue.)

How to get a line drawing with a transparent background in Photoshop (Mac)

This is a step-by-step process to get your scanned line drawing to lines with a transparent background (on a Mac).

1. This whole process is done in Photoshop. Scan in your line drawing. Adjust the levels so there are mostly dark lines and the rest is white. You can either create a Levels Adjustment Layer (shown here) or hit Apple+L to adjust the layers for the currently selected layer.


2. Then flatten all the layers in the layers pallet. Select all (Apple+A), then copy the whole image (Apple+C).


3. The next action is done in the Channels pallet. It is usually located right next to the layers pallet. Or it can be located by clicking Window on the toolbar at the top of the screen and scrolling down to Channels. In this pallet, create a new channel (by clicking on the button indicated by the red arrow.) The new channel will be called Alpha 1 by default.


4. You already copied your line drawing, so now with the Alpha 1 channel still selected, paste (Apple+V) your line drawing. Instead of flat black, your line drawing should now be in the channel.


5. Click back onto the Layers pallet. Create a new layer and name it "Line" (Shift+Apple+N).


6. Click on the Select menu on the top toolbar. Scroll down and choose Load Selection.


7. The Load Selection window will pop up. In the Channel option, choose Alpha 1. Also click the Invert box located directly underneath the Channel option.


8. A selection of your line drawing should show up. If you deselect the eyeball on the Background layer, it should look like this.


9. Select whatever color you want and then fill the selection (Option+Delete) or as shown below.


10. With the "Lines" layer still selected, click the Lock Transparency option. With this option clicked, you can color just the lines on your illustration.


11. You no longer need the original Background layer with the line drawing, so you can delete that layer. Any layers you add underneath the line drawing can be filled with color pretty much like a coloring book. But the best stuff is coloring the actual lines of your drawing. Try out different colors and you can even make some of the lines blend with the colors from layers underneath (shown below).


12. Have fun and mess around. And good luck!

Record Day Process

After finding the old process sketches and work on this illustration, I thought I should show and explain how I went about producing it.


The job was to illustrate Record Day, so I basically had to have a record shop. I like drawing people (and monsters) so I planned on putting a person in a shop and trying to make it look sweet. As you can see I got the final idea early on and did some different variations on it.


During the thumbnail process I drew this sketch. It sucked. So I kept going with the other thumbnails.


After I settled on a composition, I messed around a little drawing the character. If this was going to be a series of images, I probably would have done many more of these to work the character design out. If you notice, I tried a guy and a girl, but settled on the guy (I don't remember why.)


So I started the sketch. As you can see I draw in blue line first. I was working out which album covers would go where in the composition. Once I did the whole thing in blue, I used a mechanical pencil to draw darker lines. I did this to chose which lines I want to use and to make it easier to trace.


With blue pencil again, I traced the drawing and did a more refined version on another sheet of paper (I use regular computer printer paper). Then with a brush and ink, I inked all the big lines. After that, I used the mechanical pencil again to draw the small little detail lines. Because of the album covers this illustration had more little details than I often do.


Next I scanned the inked drawing into the computer. I took away the blue lines and colored everything. All of my lines are still there, I just colored a lot of them to blend in with the color of it's shape as well.


Here are the lines without the shapes filled in. I like working this way because I'm using the ink drawing I did, so the edges of my shapes and lines have a hand-drawn feel, but I can also spend time adjusting the colors of the lines and what lines I keep or take out.


Next I added some shadows. Some of my illustrations have a lot of shadow, but this mostly was under the guy's chin and on the legs of the table.


At this point I thought that the back wall was popping out too much and I wanted to bring focus onto the guy, so I lightened the color of the wall and added a grayish gradient behind him. I wanted to make the wall a duller color than the guy holding the record.



This is the final drawing cropped the for the paper. I had always planned on cropping it like this which is why I never finished the drawing of the Ramones or Rancid album.

I hope this has been instructive and/or interesting. If you have any questions just shoot me an email.

Fall Colors, Some Old Sketches

For "The Pitch". When I was thinking of Thanksgiving, I thought of rapping Pilgrims and a Thanksgiving make-out session. The rapper sketches were odd, so I went with this. I am kind of in love with these fall colors.


This is a little illustration for Thriving Family Magazine. My wife suggested the fall colors that really helped me get going. I was messing around with the light glare from the window. It reminds me of being in an attic minus the dust.


I found some old sketches when I was throwing out old papers. I decided to scan these and put them together. I like "Young Skeletor" the best.