PixelWhip!

The original photo

Using color in your comics can be difficult if you don’t know what you’re doing. Many comics regularly utilize color schemes that consist of bright, saturated colors that clash rather than complement each other. Here’s an easy way to get a palette of colors that are pleasing to the eye.

Grab your digital camera and go take some photos. Go outside and try to avoid subjects that are too dark or monochrome, such as a landscape with a lot of green. Urban decay is a subject that I can always recommend. Make sure that your camera is set to capture high-resolution photos– 300dpi or more.

Import the photo into Photoshop or another image-editing program and zoom in on an area of the photo until you can see individual pixels. You’re looking for groups of 4-9 adjacent pixels. This group of pixels will be your color palette.

Zooming in to select a group of pixels

The chosen colors used in the final art

Because you are sampling the colors of individual pixels from a high-res photo, the pixels that are grouped together in the picture combine to form one color when viewed at a lower, more normal magnification. Therefore, the colors of those pixels will naturally complement each other.

When you go to purchase your first Wacom tablet, don’t make the expensive mistake of buying the biggest size available. You don’t need it. The smallest size (4 x 6) will work just fine and you will save several hundred dollars.

Once you’ve been using the tablet several hours a day for a few months, you’ll know if you really need one of the larger, more expensive models. I suppose that the case could be made for the 6 x 8 or 6 x 11 models, because they offer two sets of ExpressKeys, thereby giving you twice as many keyboard shortcuts and program commands as the 4×6 tablet. However, bigger is not better here. The 12 x 12 and 12 x 19 tablets are for artists who work with broad strokes and lay them down very quickly. Chances are, if you are inexperienced with drawing on a tablet, that technique will not apply to you.

I’ve been using an Intuos 3 with a 4×5 drawing area for more than three years now. It works very well with both my MacBook Pro’s 1440 x 900 wide screen and my Dell’s dual monitor (two 1040 x 1280) setup and I won’t be trading it in any time soon.

I frequent a lot of drawing/painting forums on the internet in a questionable effort to better my art skills. One of the most frequently asked frequently asked questions seems to be:

“Do I need to go to art school?”

This question is nearly always answered in a long and rambling fashion by a pro artist who is likely less than a decade older than the teenager who’s asking, and said answer invariably ending with a fence post firmly up the latter’s butt.

If you are in high school, and think that you want to be artist, but aren’t sure if you need to continue your education or not, let me help you as quickly as I can.

You need to go to an in-state University and get an art degree. Art school after that, for the purpose of continuing study, is optional.

Yes, I know. I know that your favorite comic book artist worked at Kroger’s and/or Best Buy right out of high school and struggled with college until his big, super-popular creation and mastery-level skills landed him on top of the world, so he dropped out his sophomore year and now he’s buying a yacht and fending off movie and television deals while choosing which color BMW he wants this year.

You aren’t that guy. You need a well-rounded education.

Art schools are good at teaching art fundamentals and techniques. However, a state university with a reputable art department will expose you to a wide range of people, disciplines, ideas and experiences that will make you a true artist. And much of the time, it will be cheaper than an art school.

Some universities here in Kentucky that are known for their art departments: Western Kentucky University, Morehead, Murray. Ask your guidance counselor or your high school art teachers for their opinion.

If you want to create comics or art for film and video games, do not look upon your art history and contemporary art courses with contempt. These industries are hideously inbred as it is, and they all need those worldly, outside influences like you need air and water. If you want to write comics as well as draw them, consider minoring in History.

Despite what you see on the internet, art is not about celebrating yourself. Don’t think that your professors, who are trying to impart the importance of Chagall, Seurat, Diebenkorn and Rothko are full of shit and out of touch. They know better than you. They want nothing more than to help you. Outside of your parents, no one will take more interest in you and your chosen path than your art professors.

So go to college and learn to be an artist.