Hello, writers and the likes! My brother is currently working on a graphic novel and has very good artistic skill. However, he’s been drawing his graphics with pencil on plain white xerox paper. I was wondering, what is a good software program or site where he can either continue what he’s done using a digital layout or start over completely using the digital software. Any info is appreciated! dole,
If he is good with a pencil and paper, it may be easier and better to continue with that and scan his drawings into a format that can be imported into any word processing or desktop publishing program. There are programs that claim to allow the user to make sketches that look like pencil on paper. I'm a one-time art major and I have never had any luck trying to sketch on a computer, so I won't venture to suggest a program for him to try. I will suggest that, even if he finds a good program, it will take time before he can achieve a style that looks at all like his pencil-on-paper sketches. I think to make it work at all, he's going to have to work on a tablet computer with a touch screen, and he'll have to buy a digital pen such as the one offered by Microsoft for their Surface tablets. I have one, but I can't make it look like a sketch done with pencil on paper.
Same here. I got Clip Studio Paint (also known as Manga Studio Pro) which is better for digital drawing than Photoshop, but still I do all my drawing in pencil on paper and then import it to work on in Photoshop. There is one big advantage to using Clip Studio for comic book or graphic novel work—it lets you easily create panels and page setups so you can see your entire book 2 page up, meaning you see the right and left pages side by side, the way a person reading it will. This lets you check the flow of images for continuity and to make sure panels don't echo each other annoyingly etc. For that though you need to buy the full program, which I never did. I only used it for single drawings at a time. No way was I going to shell out for the whole thing unless I was able to really draw in it, which I never was. Though even if you import pencil drawings to clean up and work on digitally, if you're making graphic novels I would definitely use it (assuming you can afford the full program).
I just take a digital photo and import it into photoshop. My scanner broke, so I was forced into it. But I learned how to set things up properly to get a good, evenly-lit photo which is a necessity. You must have the camera on a tripod and don't use direct lighting, use indirect (reflected) light. That's much more diffused (coming in from all around) and will create a much more even image. If you use direct lighting one corner or edge of the drawing will be much brighter. So I bounce the light off a wall and set the camera to take a long exposure. It means looking at the manual for the camera and learning how to fiddle with a few settings, and then experimenting until you get those settings balanced properly, but ultimately the results are just as good as a high quality scan. Of course if he has a good scanner that will work too.
As has been noted, you can take photos. You can get free apps that allow using a cell phone camera as a scanner. And most multi-function printers, ink jet and laser, include a scanner function that's going to be light years ahead of trying to do it hand-held. Does anyone today buy a printer that only prints?
