Making Manga

I’ve made a new banner today for www.mka.ro; it was made in Adobe Photoshop.

Here it is:

I’m not very satisfied with the outcome, but i think it is ok.

I’ll wait for comments,

Hariana

I have made a banner for an online shop. And i think the outcome is quite good.

This was made in Adobe Photoshop.

You can find it here too, to see how it works with the site.

I’ll wait for your comments.

Hariana

I made this girl a long time ago…i also included it in Bartender Girl illustration, because i was too lazy to do her legs and the stool properly (which was in the sketch at the very beginning). Today i woke up and thought that i want to do my next illustration from “Turtle and Sausage” series, but i end up doing this instead.

As you probably already know, this is made entirely in Adobe Illustrator. I’m not satisfied with the way i worked and managed the illustration, but it was a good way to think “i really evolved”. I don’t think that it is a great illustration, but i’m a little bit fond of  it.

I’ll be waiting for some comments,

Hariana

Hi,

I’ve done another logo…well, a set of 6; these logos are made for www.mka.ro and one of them – the one the client will choose – will appear soon on the site. I hope you like them. I like nr 4 (from the image below) the best.

Thanks,

Hariana

Opening a new Photoshop file

As I’ve already promised you, I will post some simple tutorials, which will introduce you the program easy – step by step.

First, I’ll assume you know how to open a computer software , so let’s begin…

When I open my program, a gray background appears – the working space – but no file to work with. So, we go to File>New (Ctrl+N); a dialog window appears, where you have some options: you can give your new .psd file a name (the default one is “Untitled-1″); the next field – named “preset:” – has a list with some types of Photoshop files. You can choose U.S.Paper, Photo, Web, etc. I usually choose “Web”, because it is the best if i want to put my work on the web – such as my blog or some other sites – it has the right width, height, resolution for this environment. However, if you have copied something (for example “Print Screen”) Photoshop recognizes that command, and when you make a new file, in the “preset” field appears “Clipboard” – as in the image below. If you modify the values in the following fields, the preset changes to “Custom”.

Figure 1

Next fields:

• width and height: there you can write a numerical – integer value between 1 and 300000. If you are out of the interval, then the closest value will be chosen automatically by the software;
• resolution: there you should have 72 if you’re doing something for the web, or 300 if you want to print it; what is resolution – the number of pixels/dots per inch (ppi/dpi);
• measurement unit: you can have there inches, centimeters, millimeters, pixels, points, picas, columns; for web files, choose pixels; for the ones you want to print you can choose inches, centimeters or millimeters; i haven’t used points, picas or columns and i don’t think you’ll need those either;
• background content: here you can choose from 3 options that colors your background layer in white (if you choose “White”),it lets it transparent (if you choose “Transparent”), or gives it the background color (if you choose “Background color” option); when “Background color” option is selected, the color you will have is the color you have in the “background color box” – see Figure 2;
• image size: the size your file will have with these preliminary settings; it will grow when you will work with the document and insert new elements in it (it may also shrink if you “crop” it or make the image or canvas smaller).

Figure 2

Working with layers in Adobe Photoshop

So, we’ve managed to open a new Photoshop file

Now let’s see what can we do with layers.

The Layer is an image. But it can have an image above and one below it. Let’s take image 3: you have the background layer – the white one – think it as a piece of paper; now imagine that the dark red square, the blue square and the circle are drawn on separate clear cellophane pieces of the same size as the background layer. For a clearer image, see the image below.

Figure 3

How can we create a new layer? Well, we can do that by clicking on Layer menu from Photoshop’s menu bar: Layer>New>Layer (or Shift+Ctrl+N); by clicking on “Create new layer” icon in the “Layer”‘s pallet (see Figure 3 or Figure 4).

Figure 4

How to delete a layer? You have to have the layer selected; then, just as in creating a layer, you can go to Photoshop’s menu bar Layer>Delete>Layer; or you can click “Delete layer” icon in the Layer’s pallet; as well you can just hit “Dell” button on your keyboard.

How to move a layer up or down? When you want to move a layer backward or forward you can just drag your layer (into the Layer’s pallet) on the position you want. Or, with the layer selected press Ctrl+[ to move backward or Ctrl+] to move forward.

Tips:

Another way of deleting a layer/group/effect: drag and drop the layer you want to delete onto the “Delete layer” icon.

A simple way of copying a layer: drag and drop your layer onto the “New layer” icon.

Well, in short, this is how we manage layers…and the most important options of a layer and a Photoshop file.

If you have any questions, or tutorial request, i’m waiting for them!

Thanks,

Hariana

Have you ever asked: what computer program should i use to draw my artworks?

Well….

When i want to draw individual pictures of my characters, i use – mostly – Adobe Illustrator, because it produces nice, neat illustrations. There you have the opportunity to scale your work without damaging the quality of your work. As an option to Adobe Illustrator, you have Corel Draw, which has mostly the same thing.

However, if you are used to work mostly with brushes, you should try Adobe Photoshop . There you have a large palet of brushes and a multitude of effects which helps you in drawing. You also have some helpful tools, as Patch, Burn, Blur etc. which is very useful when drawing characters; also, it is used for editing manga pages for fans – see a tutorial here.

For drawing manga – creating your own – i use Manga Studio. It takes a while to get used to it, but after that it is very nice to work with it, especially because it has some tools that makes you feel like drawing on paper: pens and pencils, you can turn the paper the way you want, but it has the flexibility of a software program – zoom, select, fill, patterns etc.

Sometimes i try working on paper, but i really like the computer, so i’m better with that on paper i only do rough sketches. However, i have a drawing tablet from Wacom, and i’m very satisfied with it.

I hope i’ve helped you – even a little,

Hariana.

Mărţişor is called the celebration of the beginning of Spring in my country (Romania). I really like the holiday, because it has a nice tradition: men/boys give on 1st of March a little gift to girls- like a small brooch or talisman (most of them have funny motifs); at the beginning men received one too, but in time the custom remain only for women.  This little gift is called “martzishor” and has a little string attached on it (every mărţişor has the string). This string is practically the symbol  of this holiday and the artisans and manufacturers put one of these on each piece, or if the mărţişor isn’t designed with it, you get one separately; it is made from two separately strings – one red and one white – spinning one around another. White is winter, and red is spring. This can also represent life and death.  You can wear this string instead of a complete mărţişor. The mărţişor is worn until the end of March.

You can tie it around the wrist. The girls think that if the boy you like ties it and it doesn’t break until the end of March, then he loves you back (only a superstition).

For an image of a small mărţişor click  here and below there is an image with some Mărţişoare (pl. of Mărţişor).

However, the tradition says that the martzishor should stay on our left side of the chest, because there you find the soul, and there you want to feel the warmth of spring.

Some more symbols of spring which are often symbols of Mărţişor: clovers, chimney sweeper, horseshoe, arrow, anchor and hart.

I’ll make a “sausage – turtle” illustration(episode 2) with martzishor theme. I’ll try  to finish it until March 1st. The program i’ll use to make it – as usual – Adobe Illustrator.

I’ll add also a new post with the legend of Mărţişor, Dragobete and Baba Dochia -which are related one another.

Hariana

This girl is made in Adobe Illustrator. It passed some time since i made it, but i didn’t have a nice background for it. Initially i wanted to make a full-body view, but i hadn’t had enough patience. I’ve noticed that since i’ve made this work, my skills grew, and i’m quite satisfied of that.

For the background i’ve inspired myself  from a stock image from www.istockphoto.com, but i don’t know exactly the link.

Well, i’ll wait for comments and questions if you have some.

Thanks,

Hariana

I’ve made a logo for a betting site. I’m not very satisfied with it…but these were the client’s wishes……

You will see it online on www.helptobet.com really soon, however not right now.

I’ve used Adobe Illustrator to make it. The fonts i used were “Home bold” (for “help” and “bet”) and “Comfortaa”.

Thanks and i hope  you like it,

Hariana

This two colors are the shades i used to color the skin of Chibi “Napoleon” Girl the darker one was the shadow’s color (obviously).

Please leave some comments,

Hariana

Well…I wanted to let some time until i post again…but i just finished this work. When i’ve drawn the sketch i inspired myself from a costume of Napoleon, which i really like (i just started to read an historical book on him). I was very lazy and avoided turning the sketch into an illustration for a long time. But finally i’ve done il.

As usual, this is made in Adobe Illustrator CS4. I tried to use colors contained by the program.

Well…enjoy!

Hariana

I worked hard to finish it before V-day comes…but i guess i worked too hard because i finished a little bit too early.

The illustration is made in Adobe Illustrator. I named it “Episode 1″ because i hope i’ll add more illustrations to the series .

Why a turtle and a sausage?  Well, when my boyfriend does things that upsets me i just call him “sausage” or, “you’re a sausage” – mostly as a joke. And yes, i’m the little turtle…because i’m lazy and i move too slow in everything i do. So let’s say that this is a story based on real characters )

Well, i hope you’ll enjoy it and i’ll wait for some comments.

Hariana

This is made a long time ago and i remember that i had an inspiration at that time

I hope you like the colored boxes.

Thanks, Hariana

I’m using these colors in the upcoming Valentine’s day illustration. I used the middle one as the base color, the darker one for shadows, and the lighter one for highlights.

I’ll try to post more colors that match each other, in order to help you even more.

Hariana

Before starting to fill in the text, you should know that Japanese manga is written from right to left (well…I think you already know that, but just to be sure). So, when filling in the text bubbles with the text from the translation document, you should also fill it in from right to left.

These being said, let’s pick the Type Tool from the tool’s palet, or by hitting “T” on your keyboard. After picking that tool, the tool’s menu will appear bellow Photoshop’s menu (in Photoshop’s “Window” menu you find “Options”; select or deselect that option to make this tool’s menu visible or not). In the Type Tool’s menu we find some usefull options: we can change the font we are using, then its type – regular, bold, italic, bold-italic – and its size. The size has some predefine values (6, 8, 9, 10, 11 etc.), but you can also left click inside the text size box, delete the number written there and write the value you want.

Then you have the anti-alias box, which has the following options: none, sharp, crisp, strong smooth. Anti-alias has the role of smoothing the jagged appearance of diagonal lines in a bitmapped image. The pixels that surround the edges of the line are changed to varying shades of gray or color in order to blend the sharp edge into the background. If “none” is selected, then your text will have a pixeled appearance.

Then we have the alignment buttons, which have the same role as in wort or other text programs: it aligns the text by its left or right side, or by a vertical axis.

Then we have a colored rectangle. If we double click on it, the color pick box will appear and from there we can select another color for our text.

Now we will begin to add text to our manga page: with the Type Tool selected click and drag in the area you want to have your text, until the rectangle resulted has the dimentions you want. These dimentions can be modified, so don’t worry if you made it to small or to big.

After dimentioning the paragraph the way you want, write the text, or paste it in (Ctrl+V or right click into the text’s box and choose Paste option from the floating menu that appears).

If you have finished with the text, just select another tool, to deselect it, or go to layer’s palet and click on the new text layer. You will see that the layer’s name will change from “layer 1” to the text from your text box. However, if you want to rename the layer, it will not change the text in the box.

With the text’s layer and Type Tool selected, you can go and change the color, font size etc. If you want to move the text, just pick Move Tool from the tool’s palet, or by hitting V on the keyboard, and move your text layer. If the Auto-select is checked, your Move Tool will move the object that is below it; if not, the tool will move only the layer selected in the Layer’s Palet.

SFX: when editing sfxs, you will not use the paragrah, but the normal text, obtained by just clicking once on the page. When you will write, or paste, your text will be underlined, to show you that is not a paragraph.

The text will be only on one row (to have more, use the “Enter” key on your keyboard). I usualy make the text orientation verticaly for the sfxs. And then skew it a little, for a noisy appearance.

Then, save it as a .psd, and .jpg, so that you can edit again if needed.

Tips:

1. For easy navigation after zooming in keep spacebar pressed (to have Pan Tool active) while clicking and draging, to move the image around.
2. For thoughts use gray color – code 666666.
3. For noise use handwriting like fonts.

That is about it! I hope I’ve hepled you even a little.

Hariana.

Btw, below are the initial and the final “products”!

If you haven’t seen part one yet, click here.