Kuluttaja Magazine illustration process

Final image: runaway stork feather vest, Clip Studio Paint inks with Photoshop colour

First round of thumbnail sketches based on a preliminary idea

Second round of thumbnails after refining idea

Line sketch (left), Finished inks (right)

Digital ink vs. the real thing

Kuluttaja magazine 1/2015 – Manga Studio 4 EX and Photoshop CC

Is it possible to ink in digital like you would on a dip pen or a brush and actual ink?

Cutting out the scanning and printing phases does save a lot of time, but is the quality there? Which computer hardware and software equals or even surpasses traditional media?

On the input side, there is little choice: Wacom is beginning to have some competition, but the competitors I know of, have problems with software integration. Wacom's Companion tablet has production quality issues and the various tablets (iPad, Surface pro 3) have inferior digitizers, which seriously affects line quality and accuracy. Basically, you still have two to choose from Wacom: an Intuos tablet or a Cintiq screen.

The Cintiq is much more intuitive and does not require much practise to master, but suffers from accuracy problems due to the interference the screen's own magnetic field causes on the pen digitizer. You can test this by drawing straight lines with a physical ruler. The lines will undulate quite a bit.

On this front, the Intuos tablet seems like the better choice, and it is much more accurate. But then you have to take into account the disconnection of hand from line: you are drawing on a tablet and looking at a screen. This takes a long time to get used to. I never did despite trying for four years and I still can't produce an acceptable drawing on an intuos. Some people even prefer this working method and it might be a good alternative if you suffer from back or neck problems.

Of the several pieces of Mac software I have tried, three show promise.

1. Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop is the industry standard for a good reason. The versatility of Photoshop is unmatched: from vaguely oilpaint-like painting to extreme image manipulations and elementary 3D graphics. Photoshop has amassed an impressive feature list in its decades of history. But there are drawbacks to this breadth – parts of PS have remained unchanged for a very long time.

The brush engine in Photoshop has not changed significally since Photoshop 6 in the previous millennium. Some bells and whistles have been added but the core is still the same. This is a problem because the engine does a very poor job of smoothing out the wobbly line the Wacoms produce. It also handles pen pressure comparatively badly, especially if you have a light touch. For painting, it's not bad, although slower than it should be, but trying to get a silky smooth line quality out of it is like trying to wash a cat with lemon juice.

Pros: 
+ Very versatile
+ You already have it
+ Mostly bug-free.

Cons:
- Very old and bad brush engine
- Super expensive to get if you don't already have it
- Doesn't have ruler guides (guides that allow freehand drawing but locked to a perfect curve or a straight line)

2. Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 6 / 7

Sketchbook Pro is a lightweight, cheap drawing app that just happens to have a very good brush engine specifically for smooth lines. It doesn't have a lot of features but the ones it comes with are all business (except for those product placement copic markers, what's up with that?): on top of the brush engine, SBP comes with extremely useful ruler guides for straight lines, ovals (no snap to a perfect circle *see below), french curves and a perspective grid in version 7. All the guides are easy to manipulate and work like their physical counterparts do, except you can use the full line width variance of your brush. This is enough reason alone to get this app.

Where it falls down is handling bigger files. If you're working at 1200 ppi on an A3 size canvas, you are going to have problems. Otherwise, version 6 is very stable and 7 is getting there.

As the name suggests, SBP is aimed at sketching rather than finishing drawings, and is unparalleled for this, but inking on it is pretty good too.

* Sketchbook Pro does have perfect circle guides after all! The manual is incredibly vague on this but I stumbled on it today by accident. Double-click the width-modifier of the oval guide to snap it to a perfect circle. I haven't seen this in any tutorial yet but that just goes to show that I haven't watched enough of them.

Pros:
+ Cheap!
+ Quick to use
+ Pretty good brush engine
+ Best ruler guides in the business
+ Stable
+ Opens and saves basic Photoshop files

Cons:
- Not a lot of features
- Can't handle big files, so no super res B&W line-art prints
- Also doesn't do colour profiles

3. Corel Painter (any version)

Is a buggy mess. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

Pros:
+ Incredibly detailed oil and pastel simulations

Cons:
- Will crash at the drop of a hat and destroy all your work
- Has generations of unfixed show-stopper bugs that are unlikely to ever receive attention 

4. Manga Studio / Clip Art Studio Clip Studio Paint EX

This puppy with two equally unfortunate names, has been designed by listening to artists and what is important to them. The brush engine is gorgeous. I have MS 4 EX, which is the previous version and the current one should be even better. It has controls to taper the line at the beginning and end, or not if you prefer to use pen pressure to taper them yourself, easily adjustable line smoothing, which is very effective, and handles big sizes like a charm.

For comic artists, there is the added bonus of being able to do the complete work within MS / CAS. You can do layouts for a full book, and title them as well. The balloon generation system is pretty good, comparing to all competitors which don't have anything like it.

On the other hand, the UI can be a bit overwhelming, the ruler guides, which it does have, are very hard to use quickly and effectively and you need to export your image if you want to use it in another app. I wouldn't recommend importing back from another app if you are not very experienced with computers.

Update 9.5.2015: I have since upgraded to Manga Studio 5 EX / Clip Studio Paint EX which corrected most of these problems, specifically the ease of importing and exporting. Guides are slightly less cumbersome to work with and the UI is generally much easier to grasp. It is still easily the most cryptic of these apps, but getting better. The brush engine is droolworthy. Custom brushes elevate this app into its own category. Seriously, if you do line work on a computer, this is the app.

Pros:
+ Best brush engine in the business
+ Useful and easy controls to adjust the brush
+ Additional features for comic artists
+ Mostly stable (and saves your work if it crashes)

Cons:
- Convoluted UI (slightly better in MS5 / CSP)
- Ruler guides are cumbersome (slightly better in MS5 / CSP)
- Need to export to continue work in another app
- Import is flawed (fixed in MS5 / CSP)

Summary

So, there are a couple of good options for inking on the computer. How do they compare to an actual pen or brush and paper?

Well, a brush does exactly what your hand tells it to do and if you have good paper, that's about it. It depends completely on your skill with a brush if that's better or worse than a stylus and Manga Studio. You can get perfectly smooth lines in MS without really trying, but you can't get the slight nuances of traditional brushwork on any computer app – the Wacoms just aren't accurate enough. So you inevitably lose some of the signature quality of your work. But whether it's enough to offset having undo, layers and freedom from scanning (and cleanup), and potential ink stains, is up to you.

On the speed difference: I have seen comments by professional comic artists like Sean Phillips, who are extremely fast with traditional inks, but also from new school artists who are equally fast on the computer. It takes about as long on each for me, but I save drying and scanning time by working digitally. Speed seems to be far more dependent on the artist than their equipment.

Brush and India Ink

Pros:
+ Does exactly what you tell it to do
+ Incredibly versatile and quick medium
+ Surprisingly forgiving on paper
+ A lot of fun in a scary way

Cons:
- Does exactly what you tell it to do
- aaaAAA! Ink blot!
- No undo
- Surprisingly unforgiving on brushes
- Very dependent on brush quality
- That scanning

The following four images show the same head inked in the four methods discussed here. You can click on them to open a larger version.

The original is the real ink version, which is a crop of an A4 full shot. The crop measures about 5 cm high.

I reproduced the inking on a Cintiq 21" in the three apps discussed above. You can get a good idea of the accuracy difference if I tell you that my working size on those is to fill the monitor with whatever I'm doing.

As you can see, the differences are not very noticeable at this size, but the feel of drawing with these apps is completely different. My hand relaxes when I use Manga Studio compared to Photoshop, because I can trust the line to look good. The lines are cleaner than my traditional inks, but I do feel like I lose some "character" from the line.

Photoshop CC

Sketchbook Pro 6

Manga Studio 4 EX

Real Ink

Akava Camp 2011 – Ink & Photoshop Colour

LakiWoman comic strip 2009 – 2013

1: "This comic is exactly like my life!"
2: "Do you really still read magazines? That's so 2000's..." "Their webpages are much ahead of the print version. I'll prove it."
3: "It's not about speed." "What?" "How do you know what I'm about to say?"
4: "Stop it!" "Stop it right now!" "That does it…"
5: "'…no Playstation for a week and dish washin–' But mom!" "You said it."
6: "Well, you were right, this is better."

I had a comic strip in Akavalainen magazine, that started in 2009. It was about a trade union lawyer and the strange problems she had to face at work and at home.

Right before it ended last year I was presented with a very fun opportunity. The magazine made a transformation from print to web and somehow this had to be reflected in the comic. So, I made two strips that communicate with each other. This was the first time I broke the fourth wall in the strip.

The top strip is the first webcomic, which actually came out slightly before the bottom strip, which is the last print version.

1: "Have you noticed?! You are online!" "What? Let me see…"
2: "But that doesn't look at all like me! Just look at the hair." "That's just a digital representation. In reality, your hair is much more three-dimensional." "And look at that. What's that supposed to be?"
3: "That's your son… He is just not fully loaded." "Oh, I guess that's his normal state."
4: "But wait, if I am online, does everyone see everything I do? The whole world?!" "Um… have you actually never looked that way?"
5: "That w-"

I will post highlights from the four years of strips in the near future.

Illustrating disputes

Kuluttaja magazine commissioned me to illustrate a continuing section of the magazine called "Ratkaisuja riitoihin" (Resolutions to disputes). The section lists the most interesting and funny consumer disputes lately and their resolutions by the Consumer Disputes Board (Kuluttajariitalautakunta). It's very popular among the readers. I draw two illustrations for every spread and it has been a blast! I loved the section even before I was asked to take over the illustration.

Here are some of the illustrations so far:

"AGONY" – There is an annual heavy metal festival in Helsinki called Tuska ("Agony"). The main performer of one festival day was arrested, could not perform and was replaced with a Finnish band. A fan was so disappointed that he demanded a partial refund for his ticket.

An adult bought a season card to a riding school with the intention of joining an adult beginner class. Since there was none, she was put in an advanced children's class. Not a great solution.

The riders image was the first one and I actually got a nice email from a reader who had really liked it. It's not very often that happens and it definitely made my day.

A bathroom renovation took over a month and the tenant asked for a reduction in rent for the duration. The landlord did not think there was cause.

This one hit particularly close to home – we've had an upstairs neighbour who has had two cases of water damage within half a year. Buckets of water came down on both occasions and the illustration is fairly descriptive of the aftermath. 

Enterprising mechanics took it upon themselves to make extensive repairs to a car well into its twenties without consulting the customer (the word on the piece of paper is "Invoice").

This is from the latest issue, which is hitting the stores as I'm writing this.

Towards Freedom

Maailman Kuvalehti – Vapaaksi

Maailman Kuvalehti gave me the task of illustrating an article about the struggle of Isoke Aikpitanyi out of forced prostitution for their 5th issue of 2013. She was smuggled from Nigeria to Europe with false promises of easy work. After two years she found a way out and became a fierce anti human trafficking activist. She is still helping people in the same situation she used to be in.

Because the article was very narrative, I approached it as I were illustrating a short story. The three images were a "cover" and two key moments in the story. The images were painted entirely in Photoshop.

You can find the original article on Maailman Kuvalehti's webpage (in Finnish).

Maailman Kuvalehti – Vapaaksi

Human Rights and Election Promises

My aim was to create an editorial piece and refine my new digital illustration technique at the same time. The illegal prison at Guantanamo is still not closed even though it was one of the major election promises of president Obama for his first term. That is scandalous but rarely mentioned anymore. It is justified, in my opinion, to expect more from a leader of a democratic and civilized country.

Kuluttaja – Cover 1/2013

On this cover I experimented a bit with combining watercolour and digital painting. I like the look quite a bit but it was a huge time consumer. Pure digital is much, much quicker as is pure watercolour.

The subject was VOD (Video On Demand) services like HBO and Netflix. "VOD storms the living room" was the headline.

Seura 2008 – Doping

"What can you do by tomorrow?" was the pitch the client gave me one morning. I loved the concept and since my schedule for the day was clear, I worked a bit into the small hours to produce this.

I combined a pencil drawing with watercolour texture and photoshop painting for the most speed.