Illustration Tutorials and Tips for the Traditional and Digital Artist - Monster Cutie

Manga Studio EX Test Drive

Jamie — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:53:14 +0000

The good folks at SmithMicro sent along a review copy of Manga Studio EX so I thought I’d put it through its paces the only way monster cuties know how. I was most interested in its lineart/digital inking capabilities. Can it outperform Photoshop?

Overall, I’m fairly impressed with Manga Studio EX. It’s not going to take the place of my traditional brush inking for my comic, Yellow Peril, but I will definitely be messing around with it for single illustrations here and there. It might also be fun to do a 24-hour comic day challenge all in Manga Studio. Manga Studio comes in two flavors, Manga Studio EX for $299.99 and Manga Studio Debut for $49.99.

So here’s a quick rundown:

Loved

The way the digital nibs responded. Very natural feel. One of my favorite digital inking tools yet.
Ease of applying screen tones.
Very good response speed working at 600dpi.
Multiple pages in one file.
Ease of making panels and borders.
The fact that the sketches layer doesn’t render out. Very nice touch.
Ability to rotate page.

Not so loved

Tool layout. The menus take up quite a bit of real estate that should be used for drawing
Airbrush tool. I just don’t like it. It’s not really that bad, I just needed something else to make this list more than one item.

Coloring Lineart – Part 3, Cel Shading

Jamie — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:55:42 +0000

Also known as anime or manga-style shading, cel shading is a lot of fun and quite straight forward once you get the hang of it..

This style of shading is one of the most basic and easiest to learn technique-wise. It can also be one of the most expressive methods to add depth to your illustration.

For more about Peelander-Z please visit their website.

Coloring Lineart – Part 2, Auto Flatting

Jamie — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:28:02 +0000

We return to flatting, but this time we’ll use a nifty plug-in workflow to speed up the process. For this tutorial, you’ll need to pick up the multifill and flatting plug-ins found at http://bpelt.com.

This can save you loads of time flatting your lineart but will only work if your lineart is bitmap. This isn’t such a great workflow if you’re coloring just pencils. But for inked work, this will make your life so much easier.

For more about Peelander-Z please visit their website. Tell them Jamie sent you!

Coloring Lineart – Part 1, Hand Flatting

Jamie — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:05:57 +0000

In this series, we’ll learn how to color black and white lineart. The first step is to flat your piece. Flatting separates the objects in your composition by color making it easier to select specific areas to color.

The flatting process can be a bit meticulous and slightly boring, but proper flatting is essential for coloring line art. In this first part, we demonstrate how to flat an illustration by hand. Next time, we’ll look at a very helpful plugin that will automate much of this process.

For more about Peelander-Z please visit their website. Tell them Jamie sent you!

Snacking Cutie – Part 10, FIN

Jamie — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:56:02 +0000

And I’m spent! Remember how I started out saying that I usually stay away from effects and filters? This time we’re doing nothing but messing around with effects and filter. Ha!

There are a few things I want to fix up. There’s still some things that are bothering me about the bushes in the foreground and the sock needs some more sock details so that it doesn’t look like an oversized tongue, but for all intents and purposes, I’m done!

Snacking Cutie – Part 9, Doing the Butt

Jamie — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:21:58 +0000

We’re getting ever so close to finishing! This time we focus on the butt section of the bigger cutie and play around with some lighting.