For Part 1 of this series of blogs, The Foundations of Writing, click here!
For Part 2: Script, Lettering & Layout, click here!
For Part 3: Pencils, click here!
For Part 4: Inks, click here!
So where was I? Oh yeah, I’ve written the strip, drawn it in pencil and inked it. Now, I’m almost ready to take the strip onto my mac and play with it there.
ERASING
Before we finish with the drawing on paper though we need to get rid of all those left over pencil marks.
Some comic artists do their pre-ink drawing in blue pencil. This is super handy as it generally doesn’t get picked up when the image is scanned into the computer. So blue pencil artists can feel smug that they can miss out the whole erasing stage. Personally, I like to work in traditional lead pencil (albeit a mechanical one), though maybe one day I’ll jump on the blue pencil bandwagon.
Anyway, for Luddites like me who still want to use an eraser, here are some tips (which are expressed far better in The Art Of Comic-Book Inking by Gary Martin). Seems hardly worth mentioning how to do something so simple right? If you’ve ever ruined a drawing by scrunching it up through careless erasing or smudging inks by letting tiny drops of spit land on the paper while blowing eraser crumbs away you may think it’s worth taking a moment to consider careful erasing!
So first up, I make sure I’m holding the paper firmly in the section that I’m erasing at the time. I use a good quality, medium textured eraser.
I erase the pencils from the paper methodologically, area by area.
Then I bring out Captain Brushtastic! You may have a different name for your Draughtsman’s brush. Either way, I can’t recommend this beauty any higher! It’s so speedy, brushing away leftover eraser bits, and no spittle on the paper from blowing them away – hoorah!
I double check I haven’t missed any pencil marks and place the paper in my scanner.
SCANNING
I use an A3 Mustek Scanner (sang to the tune of Mustang Sally) to scan the A3 paper. Most likely it’s not the best quality hardware in the world but relatively affordable for an A3 scanner. I had one that broke down only after 5 years of loyal service so was happy to get another.
I’ve heard folk adamantly insist on the correct settings to scan ink work, and others adamantly insist the polar opposite. Let me show you a few possibilities for scanning black and white linework…
The following image shows the strip scanned as Greyscale. You can play around with the contrast and brightness etc afterwards but this is what the pure scan looks like…
Another option is to adjust the contrast of the scan itself, rather than doing it afterwards. Below the contrast is set to 88. We get something close to pure black and white…
The way I generally scan my Lucy artwork is on the Line setting. Like this, the scanner looks at the picture and tells every pixel that makes up the digital image to pick a side – black or white? So this is not appropriate for any inks with grey washes, but for pure black line work and blocking, it’s just right.
CLEANING UP
Looking at the scanned image, I check that there are no unwanted marks caused by dust on the scanner or anything else. If so I use the Photoshop pencil set to white and clear these up. I try not to be too super precious about tiny marks.
Now is where those arrows I added while inking come in handy. These point out any areas which need cleaning up at this stage, so I get these sorted out along with any other bits and pieces I’ve noticed.
Now I take my scanned image and add it as a layer to my original Photoshop file of the comic strip which included the panel layout and lettering.
I set that layer to Multiply (which means I can see through it, except for the black linework). I adjust the size of the image so it sits tightly over the original panel layout. If necessary, I rotate the image a touch so it’s lined up as perfectly as possible… 
I tweak the position of the lettering, including the copyright line and remove the panel guides and notes.
Now the strip is ready to fill with a rainbow of love, in other words, colour!
See you next time for the final part of this series!
For Part 1 of this series of blogs, The Foundations of Writing, click here!
For Part 2: Script, Lettering & Layout, click here!
For Part 3: Pencils, click here!
For Part 4: Inks, click here!
For Part 6: Colours click here!
For a video overview click here!
