Is There a Secret?

[Dreamer]

Aargh! I'm going crazy! Heather, your art is just sooo amazing! I'm an avid web-comic reader, and I read MANY web-comics. Yet, out of all the comics I read, I think your art is tied for first in my favorites list.
Like, honestly, if anyone did the book I'm writing as a web-comic, I think I'd want it to be you.

But, anyway, I was wondering, do you have any tips for a wanna-be webcomic artist? I've got a comic that's about 60 pages long, but the art sorta shifts around and is neither consistent, nor very good. So I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions. If I'm asking you for your secret, professional-artsit secrets, and you don't want to tell me, then that's ok too. But if you could impart a few tips to a youngster, then... I would appreciate it. ; )

Ok, so, first question... I do everything with pencil and pen, scanning them in, and later doing some shading on photoshop. I've noticed that pretty much all professional looking artists use tablets these days, so it's all computer art. Do you reccomend this?
I've been thinking about getting a tablet for a long time, but I've always wondered, how hard are they to use? Dd it take a long time for you to get a good feel for it, or was it pretty easy?
Pen-tabs seem hard to get used to. I'm just wondering if they're worth the investment. If they are, what brand and type would you reccomend?

Alright. Second question. What do you think are the most important qualities that a comic artist should have. I mean, do you have little, random tips that I could use, maybe? Just random things you've figured out maybe...

Third question (sorry if you've already answered this on faqs and I missed it...). How long did you have the idea for your comic? I've heard that it was a novel for a while. How long were you writing it before you turned it into a comic? I think I mentioned it already, but I'm writing a fantasy novel and I'm trying to decide whether to publish the book before I worry about making a comic, or if I should just dive right in. (I'll probably wait for a while in either case.)

Ok, last and most vital question.
How on earth do you do it?
You art, it's... just so amzing? Line-art, coloring... it's all so beautiful!
So, my real question is....
How do you do your awesome texturing?
I always notice that, with every single picture you do, nothing is just one flat color. verything seems to have some sort of... texture. How do you do that? It really brings your comic to life!
(once again, if this is one of your artistic secrets, then you don't have to tell me.)

Thanks for reading this long list of stuff. Just know that Dream*Scar is great and that I'm blown away every time I see your art.

Oh yeah, one last question. How much are your comissions?

[Fattimus Slime]

I am not Heather. I'm going to answer your questions anyway.

As far as an art style goes, it's all about what you're most comfortable with. It doesn't hurt to practice doing things entirely digitally, but if you produce better work a different way, then that's the way you should go until you feel confident in your all-digital stuff. Make time to practice.

The most important qualities for a comic artist is a sense of flow. It helps to be a movie buff, and to be familiar with storyboarding, or just read a lot of comics. Your images need to convey motion and a narrative flow, and your characters need to 'act', in an actor sense. You're telling a story, and everything needs to be working to that point. Dialogue can be stifling, and limits the flow of a comic, so if you can replace dialogue with an image, or a facial expression, or anything like that, then do it. Dialogue is to be kept to a bare minimum ("show, don't tell").

The third question, the roots of her story probably started some twelve years ago. It has evolved considerably since. Beyond that, I don't want to speak for Heather too much on this one.

Answer to fourth question is Heather's secret. I say secret, because she tries to explain how she does this stuff to people, but nobody ever gets it. It is my suspicion that she purposefully misleads people so we don't think she's being a bitch and still keep her style a secret.

[teh hchano]

I think most people think you should wait til you are good to start a comic,
but doing the comic has helped me learn faster than I would have xD it's prolly
best to start with a side story than your main brain child like I did tho xD;;;

on to the questions 8D

1 - Tablets take a long time to get used to. It makes your style look different
too. It's kinda crazy xD Inking and all on paper is fine, but having a tablet
might make editing go a bit faster, like if you mess up some lines, it
might be easier to fix with a tablet. I've grown to really like my tablet
over the years, to where I prefer it now. I think it's all taste tho.

2 - I think Matt got this pretty well. I still suck at this myself. XD Like
at times I picture a scene in a really cinematic way 8DD Other times
it's vague so it comes out boring :(


3- Matt's a whore who answered this for me LMAO. But yeah, I've had
Vix's story in some form since 1998, when I made her as an Role Playing
character... d*s itself, the current version, came around in early 2003,
and I started writing it in june or july of 2003. xD So it's been a while.
I only started teh comic last year, tho I did do some mock comics
for some scenes as I was writing it [which i can't post yet, since
they are huge spoilers].

It is hard to decide if you should publish it as a book before
a comic tho. I figure if you can publish it as a book first, then
go for it xD It can't hurt. :>


4- The texture thing is pretty easy, and I will just link this:
http://kitton.deviantart.com/art/tips-texturizing-digital-art-35239138

I use a concrete texture I found a really long time ago that I
have modded a bit [clone stamped out imperfections and changed
the contrast etc]... cgtextures.com has a lot of nice ones.

There are some cool tools that can add some cool looks to your
pics if you colour them. I use the curves tool a lot, but it's hard
to say how to use it if you don't try it yourself. Just grab a picture
you have coloured yourself already and in photoshop, go to:
image > adjustments > curves and muck around with the
line on there. you'll see how it messes with the pic. it can
add some cool depth.



excuse the top one, it was still not done xD but the face was
nearly done, so you can see how the curve tool added a little
depth to her colour [ignore the vague back lighting on her
right cheek that i added tho]


5 - The prices on my commissions vary depending on the
details/content xD But for the most part they've ranged
from 25 - 75$ and I try to work with a person's budget xD

[Dreamer]

Whoa, it took me way too long to make my way back to the forums.

Great advice. Thanks. I especially appreciate the texturing stuff... I'm DEFINITELY going to try that when I have time.
Though, for the life of me I couldn't figure out what you were talking about with the curves stuff. It didn't look so nice when I tried it on my picture. O-O

I think maybe I shall ask you to be the artist to do the cover for my book. When it's actually time for that, I mean. Hahaha.... But it could be a year or two. ;-;

It is decided! I'm going to save up money for a tablet! All the cool web-comic artists have one! -_- I want to make cool digital art eventually.

Oh man... Your story is... old! And well-thought out, or something... In any case, with a story that's been going on that long, it's gotta be pretty well developed. (Which is why it's so awesome, probably...)


Oh yeah, one more question... You mentioned that you are mostly self taught. So you never went to art school after high-school or anything like that?

Dang, are my thoughts skipping around as much as I think they are? Heh.. it's 2:18 in the morning. Maybe I should sleep now.

[teh hchano]

LOL. The last art class I actually paid attention to was in
Elementary School. Middle and High, I just zoned out and
used the class as a free draw period... my friend Kristen
and I drew comics together a lot of the time xD So yeah.
I learned most of what I know on the net thru tutorials, or
through crits from friends.

[Sakura Moonflower]

Now I have to ask a question, lol.

I do not understand my clone stamp tool AT ALL.

I am utter FAIL!!! with it.

To keep with the context, I'm working with Photoshop Elements 2 here.

.... Splain it? DX

[teh hchano]

Uhmmm. well in the version I use, you go to a spot on the layer you want to
copy and alt+click. This is basically an anchor spot. Then you move to another
place where you want to lay down the same thing you just alt+clicked and start
'painting'. It will copy from the anchor spot. If you start to copy something you
don't like, say like you were doing skin on the face, but you reached the end
and started copying hair, you can just go back and reanchor with alt+click.

Grab a random photo and mess around with it, you will figure it out after a
while. It is good for patching things up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWn0lxRNqos
^can watch this vid. It's pretty funny and is kind of a joke vid, but it is
pretty informative too.