Art by Mischavie

Decided to take a break from writing my analytical essay and draw instead…

I picked up a simple project that was just laying around untouched on my desktop to work on it a little. Hmmm… still a long ways to go. 

How do you do simple comic tones using photoshop?

It’s fairly easy, actually.

As you can see on the picture of the little bobble-headed girl…

1. First start with the line work and make sure it’s the topmost layer. 

2. Then, pick a small range of values and do simple cel-shading. Make sure it’s on a separate layer beneath the line work.

3. Finally, go to the menu bar at the top and go to Filter > Pixelate > Color Halftone. You can keep the default settings, but if you want to change the sizes of your halftone pixels, just adjust the Max Radius number. 

VOILA! You’re done. 

A few things…

- This was done on Adobe Photoshop CS2, but if I recall properly, I was able to do it on Adobe Photoshop 7, too. I don’t know about earlier versions or other programs. Sorry! :< 

- I typically work in grayscale when I’m doing this method, but I have done it in the past with a few colored pictures (like the letter to Maguregumo). The key is to keep the shading simple! 

- Unfortunately you can’t vary the “design” of the comic tones. There are other ways by using the stamp tool or just manually editing them onto your image, but that’s an explanation for another day.

And there you have it… a really easy comic-tone tutorial by yours truly! :) 
Have fun!