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shilin β Snapshots
Published: 2012-09-15 21:09:56 +0000 UTC; Views: 62961; Favourites: 1895; Downloads: 900
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Snapshots of Carciphona volume 3 pages that I've been working on.I receive questions time to time about how I make these pages. I had the whole book thumbnailed first, and then draw them on paper before scanning them to tone digitally on photoshop. I use pencil to "ink" these pages because pens are too unforgiving and I'm really bad with inks haha ;; A lot of people ask me how I get the lines to look like inking/look so dark: I use Levels in photoshop to adjust the overall contrast of the lines after scanning to make the lines darker, and then use dodge and burn to clean up the rest of the scanned graypatches c:
Just thought I'd share some photos of these pages during production!
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Read Carciphona , my original fantasy webcomic/graphic novel (: Other art by me My art book, Toccata !| carciphona | art blog | tumblr | twitter | shop (manga, artbook, prints) |
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Comments: 125
hi shilin, what i really wanna ask is what are the dimensions for your bleed, trim line and stuff when doing your pages on card stock also when u scan it in you scale down to fit your print size?
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calculate the bleed on the size you want to print, for example .125" bleeds on 5"x7.5" would make the page 5.25x7.75" large. Then just enlarge that size to your drawing size, then enlarge the print size without the bleed with the same ratio, and you will arrive at the sizes of the 2 boxes that would be your bleed and trim lines.
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so lets say my final print size is 5.5 x 8.5 , what would be the bleed and active area of something like that ?
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active area is your final print size, the bleed is usually .125" on each side, so add .25 to the final size and that margin would be your bleed
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oh ok i got it thankies
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How do you erase those sketches before your "inking" since you're using a pencil. ovo I didn't know that it was by pencil! It looks so much like a digital lineart
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I plan my pages out beforehand so there is no experimentation when I actually draw the pages. When I sketch out the pages according to the thumbnail plans, I sketch extremely lightly and when i "ink" i press hard, so i can lightly erase sketchy lines without affecting the final lines much (:
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Thank you for your quick reply! ^o^ I really hated inking because I can't ink traditionally and doing it on the tablet takes me a long time. Thanks for sharing this tip of using pencil which I never knew it even existed ! Though carciphona looks so much like it had been inked digitally since your background lines are so thin o_o...
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thinness of lines is relative, if you can't use a thinner pencil, draw on a bigger piece of paper ^^
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Okay and thanks for taking the time to replying my questions ^^ . Currently addicted and inspired by carciphona. Saving money to buy all four volumes at once cause of the shipping price to Asia is close to the price of the set haha! Nonetheless still looking forward to owning and rereading carciphona as a hard copy! 
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It is soooo cool to see your working process!
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First you do it and then scan it traditional?
or do your sketch and digital ink it?
I DO NOT UNDERSTAND.
I will die Β for a cerebral bleeding
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I do line works traditionally, then scan it into photoshop to tone it
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What kind of paper you use? this paper looks different to a normal one. o.o
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it's cardstock paper (: you can buy them next to regular printer paper at stationery shops like office depot
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Do you have any tips for someone still trying to find their style of art?? Your so amazing! I love your works, but did you ever hit that phase too?
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of course, just keep trying lots of things out, work hard and be patient, and one day you will find something you feel comfortable with.
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This is the fantastic!!~ Great way to see. how you start Carciphona!!!~
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If it's ok to ask, What size is a page on the computer? do you have it at 300 or 600 for when you are ready to print? also, what is the size for your screen tone, before you paste it on your comic page? I was told size is important to consider if an artist is going to print a piece that has screentone, otherwise it will look weird. They also told me its bad to mix two different screentones on top of each other, that it will look bad. Do you mix them, or separate them carefully? Like when you want to do a gradation for example.
I would really appreciate your feedback, since you have the experience! ><
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here are the answers to your questions:
- I draw on letter size paper because it's the cheapest and easiest to obtain, so my final dpi is a little weird at 400 for printing
- the dpi of the screentones I use are at 600, so they're a bit too big for my pages, but it's better than being too small
- It depends on the screentone; I use very little of any of the halftone type screentones which create problems when they're mixed together or resized, the most prominent problem of which being a checkered pattern that you can't get rid of. Most of the tones I use are noise really so I don't have that problem. I do mix a lot of tones together to get the effects I want, I like it, but some people don't. Gradients in my comics are actual gradients, not tones (:
hope this helped!
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I see, so does that mean 600 dpi for screentones must be because they will print better?
I like tones because they bring the certain mood an artist may want to show.
I remember reading that while you have your comic page window open in photoshop, you then open a screen tone window and then copy and paste it to the area you want. I assume you then cut out what you don't need. Did I understand that right?
Thank you for clearing that up for me, it's nice of you to explain so generously!
I have 2 of your books by the way, and a couple of posters. <3 Will you be at FanExpo Toronto this year?
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You should use whatever DPI your final file is at, so if you intend to draw at 600 dpi, use 600 dpi tones, and 300 for 300 etc. Resizing doesn't do tones much good, even if it may not look like it at first.
And yes, that's correct!
I will be at fanexpo artist alley again this year (:
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Oh! That makes sense! Thank you very much.
YES! I'm so excited! What days will you be there? I was looking for the full pass, but now they only sell day passes. I would love to see you at least during one of the days you will attend.
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I will be there all 4 days (:
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What kind of pencils do you use?... cause that is some seriously amazing quality you have there.
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0.3mm hb mechanical pencil (:
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That's a smart idea on how you 'ink'...
And you use normal sized paper?! 
your art is so stunning
Wait a minute... Are the word bubbles drawn with pencil and scanned at the same time :U?! Or just all computerized bubbles?
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the bubbles are drawn on pencil too (: the words are typed
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I mean the box where you draw your manga did you line it by yourself or it already outlined from the factory?
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the paper I use is 65lb cardstock, it's just a heavier type of paper that you can buy next to regular copy paper. they are blank when I buy them, I just print a rectangle on them to draw on
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ok thank you for answering
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I don't know if anyone have asked this but what kind of paper did you use for your manga?
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Your art inspired me to work on a manga comic I was drawing c:
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adding to all the questions haha, im curious how you get the lines so SHARP with pencil? do you do rough drawings on one page then trace the final lines onto a new page, or is it all done on one page?
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it's all done on one page, you just have to use a thin pencil and be careful (:
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if you use dodge on photoshop to get rid of all the lines you don't want on photoshop. then use curves. (it's so much quicker than levels and contrast)
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Thank you for the tip! I never knew about curves.
I use dodge for very specific spots after the general approximate leveling, because while there are grey smudges that I wouldn't want, there are sometimes soft shades that I actually want to preserve that have the same value as said smudges, which I'm guessing photoshop will interpret as the same regardless of whether I'm using levels or curves or contrast
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yep, so long as you fiddle with the levels and brightness and contrast a little bit beforehand to get rid of the bits you don't want. Then just use curves afterwards (drag it on the graph up or down) and you should be able to get it done fairly quickly.
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wow. I... Have never thought of that ._.
Inking has always been the most irritating thing for me waah. I've never thought of just leaving it in pencil and leveling it in photoshop and cleaning it up/ using the burn tool. I mean I've considered just leaving it in pencil... forever just like that lol
Ah. You're so smart, stop that QAQ
Do you use textures to screentone? Or did you make screentone brushes? : OO
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I use textures (: I have screentones as saved files that I open and paste onto the corresponding areas. The reason I don't make them into textures and use Fill is because I need to move them to some exactly locations a lot of times and you can't do that will fill.
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Ahh~ okay I get it now : )
There is a program called "Manga Studio" that gives you screen tone textures in the brush. It's a pretty useful program : ) That's why I was wondering if you had somehow made tone brushes but for photoshop
Welp~ Keep up the good work :,D I love Carciphona Your art style is gorgeous~
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hey, shilin, do you think you can sometime post vid of your manga progress working on your YT?
i really love your work and i finally found you on DA lol sorry i sounded so creepy...
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i will try to when i have new pages to work on again (:
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