Draw a 4-Panel Comic Strip for Social Media Using Procreate

1. Trailer: [MUSIC] Want to create your own comic strip? Trust me, it's easy as one, 2, 3. In this class, I'm going to show you how to create your own four-panel comic strip on Procreate. Hi, I'm Simon. I'm a digital illustrator and top teacher on Skillshare. I'm currently living in one of the happiest place in the world, Copenhagen, Denmark. Today, I draw about simple things that make me happy, and I share it on my various social media channels. In this class, I will unlock your creativity by finding inspiration in your everyday life. Remember, the more you sketch, the better. You will go from an idea to a series of sketches that we call thumb nails, that's like your story forward. Together, we will review the structure of what makes a good story, with an introduction, a conflict, and a resolution. We will discuss different shots that you can use, and how to use them in order to make your story more impactful, dynamic, and engaging. Finally, with all those tools available, you'll be able to create four clean drawings on Procreate. I'll guide you on how to create clean and confident line, add a splash of color, and help you with the composition of your drawing in order to add the text in a way that's meaningful. If you're a creative person with some drawing experience, especially on Procreate, then this class is for you. By the end of this class, you'll have a beautiful four-panel comic strip that you can share on your own social media channel, and also on Skillshare. On top of that, you'll learn some valuable techniques on how to try your ideas and find inspiration all around you, and transforming a simple idea into a series of beautiful colored illustration that tells a story. Are you ready to tell your story? Ready in 3, 2, 1. Bye. [MUSIC] 2. Your Project: Do you remember reading the comic strip section in the newspaper? They usually were quite simple and only consistent to 3-4 panels, but how can you effectively tell a good story in such a short amount of panels? For your project, this is what you're going to explore. You're going to draw 3-4 illustration to tell a story specifically for Instagram. This means that you will create 3-4 images or illustration to tell your story. Here's how [MUSIC]. First, you're going to draw your thumbnail, which is basically your storyboard, to visualize the scene [NOISE] [MUSIC]. Then your story will consist of three parts. A beginning to set up the scene, a middle to introduce a conflict, and an end to show the resolution. Finally, you will draw your line illustration and color it using Procreate [MUSIC]. The project is first and foremost a skill share project so don't forget to upload it in your project and resources. Make sure to put the comic strip into proper order so we can follow the story. Once your project is uploaded, you can receive my comments, my feedback, my appraisal, and also encourage your fellow classmates to comment. On top of that, I welcome you to tag me on Instagram if you want me to share it with my followers. I'm so excited to read your beautiful stories and see your beautiful illustrations. With that being said, let's get started [MUSIC]. 3. Finding Inspiration: Remember, stories don't need to be complicated. They need to be simple, genuine, authentic, relatable. Gosh, that might be a little bit much. For this video lesson, you will need a notebook and pen, and your smartphone. Finding inspiration is something that we all struggle as creative people. Remember it, there's nothing scarier to the artist than a blank sheet of paper. But rest assured there are simple ways to help you find inspiration in your everyday life. By being able to visualize those simple anecdotes, you'll be able to share them to a wider audience. First, let's talk about the importance of telling stories on social media. Our addiction to social media might have exploded a few decades ago, but it's nothing new. As humans, we are captivated by stories. We love to gather around a good bonfire and tell stories to one another. Or before even having a smartphone, people were glued to their newspaper and gossip magazines. It's all the same. The great thing about social media is that it gives you the opportunity to reach out to your own audience. Second, finding inspiration. Finding inspiration is all around you and it's also super convenient to just go online and check it out. I like to go on Pinterest and Instagram to check out artists that I like. It also encourages me to play with different style. You'll naturally gravitate towards a style that you appreciate more than others. That's something that you need to get attuned to. For me, it's a child-like drawings of Cozy Tomato with a twist of vintage or to clean and editorial vector line drawings of Tommy Parker. Look around and for sure you'll find something that you like. Number 3, is to document your day. Throughout your day, you'll get really good ideas when you least expect it. Sometimes just in the shower or while you're bored on the train. Take note. Don't miss this opportunity, write it down. I use my digital notepad on my phone to sometimes write my ideas conveniently. I also carry with me a notebook to write down and doodle and also create initial sketch whenever I feel inspired. Some ideas are good, some not so great, but at least they're written down so then I can get back to them at a later stage. Another tip is to take pictures throughout today because we're all armed now with a cell that really allows you to take snippets very easily. Taking picture is a great way to remember what you've done during the day, but also to use these photos as reference for whenever you're drawing. Telling stories is what makes us human. Remember, they don't need to be complicated or extravagant. Far from it, you'll see that these types of 3-4 panel comics in newspaper or even online, are quite simple and benign. It's just the way they are told with personality and with a punchline at the end. Remember to keep an eye open to the world, to your surroundings, and everything around you. 4. 1,2,3 Your Story: [MUSIC] Do you remember reading the newspaper and skimming all the way to the comic section. These comics generally consisted of 3-4 panel comic scripts. They were quite simple in nature but they all follow a specific structure which is a beginning to set up the scene, a middle part to introduce a conflict, and the end to show the resolution. With social media, and in this case, Instagram, each photo that you will upload will act as a single panel. That means that the user will be able to swipe through to different images to read your story. Let's look at these two illustrations I drew to dissect the structure of the story. Let's start with the beginning of the story. Your first panel is always to provide the context of the story. In the case of Instagram, it's also the eye grabbing story in order to encourage the user to stop his feed and to start swiping, to start reading. With the first panel, the user will be able to answer these five questions. The five W, where, when, who, what, and why. Let's look at this example together. Here the beginning consists of a few frames, but that's okay. We can tell here that we have a light blue background which represent that it's a little bit more serene. The character is taking some space to be mindful, and that's our objective to do yoga and be mindful. We don't know, but we assume that we're probably indoors and the time of the day is not indicated but that doesn't really matter for the comic. Let's look at the second illustration. Here we can see a yellow background with a white sun, which indicates that we are outside. We also note that it's during day time and probably during summer based on how the characters are dressed. There are two characters involved and their objective is probably to relax and enjoy the sun [MUSIC] . Now for the middle part. The middle part is composed of two components. The premise, which is really the what of the first panel, and then the conflict, which is the depth of the premise where something's stop the protagonist from being able to perform what they are performing. For example, being interrupted in the yoga practice, or being asked to put sunscreen on. Now the reader knows, and this is a little bit more subtle, that something bad will happen if two protagonist decline putting sunscreen on. A story without conflict is plain boring and that's why we need to introduce this conflict. Finally, Step 3, the end. The end is where we find a resolution to the conflict. This last part allows your reader to get to know your character and how they behave or think faced with that conflict. In a well-written comic strip, this result in something funny or unexpected and that's your punchline. For example, your character is so oblivious that he's in the middle of the living room and blocking the TV. But he's not fazed by it because he's really into his yoga practice and that reveals the way he reacts to the conflict. Or the character is not very preoccupied for having burned under the sun and is quite happy with his lobster complexion. We can sense a little bit of delusion in that. Consider that drawing a single panel will take you a lot of time, so it's better to focus on only 3-4 panel and do it well in order to tell an impactful story in a short amount of time. To tell that impactful story, remember to have a beginning to set the scene, a middle to introduce a conflict because otherwise it's boring, and an end when you show the resolution and that tells you about the character of the character. The way your character reacts to the end of the premise is really your opportunity to tell a story in a fun and unexpected way. [MUSIC] 5. Sketching Your Thumbnails: This is your first draft to visualize the idea that you have in your head into a piece of paper. You will need a notebook and pen, or an iPad and an Apple Pencil and of course, Procreate. During this phase, really don't overthink it and really let your wrist do most of the work. For this part, I like to create thumbnails where I roughly draw what I have in mind. Thumbnail sketches are quick, abbreviated drawings done without any correction or edits. They're done rapidly, usually on the small scale. But in this specific instance, I like to draw a little bit bigger. Sketching your story. Now, to sketch your story, you can use any medium, even your iPad Pro and your Apple Pencil. Whenever I need to conceptualize and have no correction, I usually prefer the feel of drawing directly on my sketch book with a pen and paper. You can see I've done several sketches before I finalize my idea. The more sketches you do or the more thumbnails you do, you'll get closer and closer to your final drawing. First, this sketch book is quite large. I'm quite comfortable with its size, so it allows me to create four different quadrant to draw my four thumbnails. It's also an old sketchbook with a lot of coffee stains, missing pages, ugly doodles and I really am not afraid to mess it up and that's a great way to really open to your creativity because you are drawing and testing without really any edit. Remember that this is a comic strip and you might want to add speech bubble. Whenever sketching, remember to add some space at the top for your speech bubble or captions. I usually prefer to save the upper half of the panel for text. Now, let's talk camera view. When you draw a comic, think of each panel like a frozen moment in time. It's like watching a movie and pausing on different frames to tell the story. Here are a few things to remember whenever you plan your comic strip. Like in a movie, your camera angle is super important. Don't worry, we're not planning the next big blockbuster movie. It's only a simple comic, but I will still recommend these three shots. First, the wide shot. The wide shot is used to set up the location and add some context to your story. It also allows you to answer the five W's. That's why I like to use it in the beginning, but also at the end, sometimes to show an element of surprise, something that we didn't see. The medium shot. That the medium shot are usually used to show dialogues between two characters and that's why I like to put them in the middle to show the premise and also the death of the premise, which is a conflict. Now the close-up shot. The close up shot really focuses on the character's emotion or on a specific gesture. It's often used in the last panel to shoot a character's emotion or to introduce an element of surprise or a specific detail that we didn't see until then. At the beginning, you can see that the character is a little bit apprehensive or confused with all that singing. Here at the end, we focus on the clinking of the glass to reshow the characters full involvement in the festivities. As artists, we tend to plan by visualizing and that's why drawing those thumbnails are an essential part of the planning of your comic strip. Remember when sketching your four panel comic strip for Instagram, remember to draw without overthinking. Treat each panel like a frozen moment from a movie and play with different perspective and angle. 6. Setting Up Procreate: Procreate is a powerful digital illustration app that's currently only available for iOS. In my case, I use an iPad Pro 11 inch with an Apple Pencil Second Generation. What I really love about Procreate is how easy and intuitive it is to draw with it. For more in-depth detail, if you're a newbie to Procreate, check out my previous classes. For me, I'm a big fan of Procreate and that's mostly because first of all, Procreate is affordable. It's only a one-time payment of $10 US. There's also a large community of Procreate user that's how you can get a lot of brushes and tutorials online, just like this one. The only con that it have is that an iPad can be quite expensive, but it is an investment well spent. You can see that all my illustration done on Instagram have been done through Procreate and I'm going to show you how I do it. Before we draw, let's set up our canvas for this specific project or social media. I'm going to show you how I do it step by step. Let's set up your canvas. Remember that for your Instagram posts, Instagram has a resolution of 1080 by 1080 pixels and your story will have a vertical rectangle at a resolution of 1080 by 1920 pixel. To set up my Canvas, I go to the Procreate gallery page and I click on the plus button on the top right corner. You will see different new canvas options but don't worry, I'll tell you which one to pick. I usually pick a square format of 2048 times 2048 pixel at a resolution of 132 to 150 DPI. This is definitely large enough for Instagram and gives you some leeway in case if you want to use this drawing for something else. A quick tip is to name your canvas so you can remember how to use it. Click once on it and write a name that makes sense to you. Click the square, and now you're ready to draw. [MUSIC] In the previous video lesson, we talked about the importance of documenting your days with photos and how you could use these photos throughout your illustration to use them as reference. There are different ways to use your photo as a reference. The first one is to upload it as a photo. To do so, go to Action, Insert a photo and pick from your library, swipe right and you can even insert your photo as private. This means that during your time-lapse, this photo will not show. Tap twice on the layer to change the opacity, I usually go around 20 percent and swipe left, and lock it to make sure to not accidentally draw on it. [MUSIC] Option 2, which is my preferred option, is to upload it as a reference canvas. To do so go to Actions, Canvas, Reference, Image. You can resize and move the image as you please. You can drag the corner to change the size of the canvas. Leave your finger for a second on the top bar and move to canvas reference wherever it fits, pinch within the Reference window to zoom in or zoom out. Tap once and a menu will show up. Tap on the X on the right corner and close your canvas reference. If this was your first time, you will see that with practice, setting up your Canvas and uploading your reference will become second nature to you. For me, this part is important. It's like when you're cooking and you're prepping all of your ingredients before throwing them into the wok. If everything is in place, you can really start digging into the fun part without rushing any element and in this specific instance, the fun part is drawing. [MUSIC] 7. Drawing With Lines: A lot of comic strips are in black and white and that's for two reasons. First, it's very time consuming to color each panel. More importantly, it shows that you can effectively tell a story with simple line drawing. Now that we have our thumbnails, let's translate these visual concepts into clean digital lines on Procreate. First of all, setting up your streamline. Streamline help you stabilize your brush stroke when you draw. It's just like having your training wheels on a bicycle. The percentage represent the amount of assistance needed to smoothen your lines. For example the higher the percentage, the smoother your lines will become. For sketching, I usually use a streamline of zero percent, but this is mostly to not impede the creative flow. Overall you can adjust the streamline of any brush. You first access the brush library, select your desired brush, tap on it. Under Stabilization, you will find brush to your settings and here under Streamline, you can adjust the amount to your desired level. For creating clean lines over the sketch, I usually use a streamline between 25-50 percent. For my clean lines, I also like to use a technical pen brush. Here, let's get back to drawing. Here, I'm going to walk you a specific drawing on how I do it. Of course, you're an artist as well, and you have different processes. Feel free to use whatever makes sense to you. This is how I tell my particular story. Here you can see that my boyfriend is relaxing and enjoying the sun. Because I want to set up the scene, I'm going to use a long shot and that's why you're going to see the feet of the character, full body lying on a long chair. I also have a reference photo handy to help me with the proportions. In the close up middle shot, which is my second and third panel, you can see that I introduced a new character. I want to change your perspective a little bit when I added the new character. In the middle shot, the two characters are in the same plane and finally in the long shot, I reveal the final scene in the shower with all the plants. Let's talk about the importance of weight line whenever we draw. Here, you can see that I'm creating a different folder for each panel, naming them 1, 2, 3, 4. Of course, you can use more elaborate title but for me it makes sense and I think it's more important to always name your layers and folders. Let's go to Panel number 2 or Folder number 2. Here you can see that I'm introducing myself as a new character in the foreground. To give visual hierarchy, I also add thicker line around the character, which is myself. This is how it goes. Remember that object or people in the foreground are drawn with a thicker lines around them. I usually only control their outline with a bigger stroke size. That means that you can see that I don't use the biggest brush stroke to create the details of your character, such as the nose or the eyebrows. Otherwise, I will look weird and our visual hierarchy won't work anymore. If you look at the lines in the background, you will see that they have the thinnest weight. In the same way for elements in the background, I don't want them to show up too much, so I use the thinnest brush stroke. You can see in the last panel that the TV and the cupboards are using much thinner lines in order not to compete with the character in front of it doing yoga. The man in front of the TV has a thicker outline to show that it's visually more important and it's closer to the camera as well. Here's a technical aspect. In order to be consistent with my weight hierarchy, I usually save the different brush sizes. To do so, go on your left hand side panel where the brush is and press on the Plus button. In my case, I save three different brush size, five percent, 10 percent, 25 or 30 percent. But this is my process and maybe it won't work for you so play around, see what works and remember to be consistent. Your line drawing must be able to tell a story effectively without any embellishment before we even consider adding color. To draw your sketch and for strong line drawing, you need to know when and how to use streamline effectively and also what amount of streamline work for you. You also need to take in consideration the different line weights in order to establish a proper visual hierarchy in your drawing and to guide effectively the eye of your reader. 8. Adding Colors: [MUSIC] Coloring is not only for kids and for me, it's one of my favorite step. It reminds me of owning different colored pencils and coloring in my coloring book within the lines. Remember that your color palette is your box of crayons that you'll be using to color your drawing. I personally like to decide on my color palette before starting to color, and that's why I saved my swatch beforehand. Adding color is a great way to set the mood to your illustration and to grab the attention of the user as they're scrolling down your feed on Instagram. For this exercise, I would recommend you not going over seven colors. Usually three to seven is good. To find your color palettes, there is different ways to do it. You can first of all go to a color generator website like coolers.co and find a color palette that you like. Please note that all new palette exported from apps such as cooler can be accessible from new from file. You can also sample colors from illustration that you like if you have something that sets a similar tone. To save colors from photos, you can do it automatically by clicking on the color dot on the top right corner. Press the plus button next to the palette, New from photos. Then you can select a photo that you'd like to extract the color from. You can also export a color step-by-step by leaving your finger on the color of your choice and sample it like this. Now, there is different ways to color, you can color using a reference area. The fun part is re-coloring and there's a fun and easy way to do it if you have clear defined lines. Did you know that you can simply drops your colors into the lines of your illustration. Here's how. First, ensure that all of your lines are in the same layer. If they're not, you can select them. I like to duplicate them in case I make a mistake, but you can select them and flatten them. To flatten the selected layer, simply press them together with your two fingers. Please note that once your lines are flattened, that's it. There is no turning back. That's why I like to keep a duplicate copy in case something happens. Reference is a very interesting function because it turns one of your specific layer, in that case, the line layer, as your reference for coloring, let's say. This function allows you to drop colors on different layers without impacting your line drawing. Remember that you can only have one reference layer at a time. Coloring using reference is like coloring using Microsoft Paint in the early 2000s. It means that you can easily drop your color within the lines. But if the lines are not closed properly, your color will bleed and drop everywhere. Here's how. First, set your line layer as reference. To do so you can just tap on the lines layer and select Reference. Now, it's important to create a new layers for the colors that you'll add. Please don't add your color on the same layer as your line layer. Keeping your color layers separate from your line layer will save you a lot of time in case something bad happen, in case you made a mistake and you need to rectify your colors. Also ensured that all of your loops are popularly closed, otherwise your color will bleed over. You can also adjust the color drop threshold by dragging your color to your left or to the right. Just play around and you'll see. Sometimes it's also simpler to just color directly and not drop colors in case there are little nooks and crannies that are not being colored properly. In that case, I will also recommend you to remove the reference of the line layer every time you want to color directly with your pencil. Also make sure that your streamline is quite low in order to not have your line being modified when you're trying to color. If something weird happens when you're coloring, remember, you might have forgotten to remove the reference from your line layer. Always remember to deselect your reference layer because otherwise some weird and frustrating thing might happen to your drawing. Finally, add a background. Now you are drawing an unlike comic or comic strip, and you need some type of cohesiveness towards the different panels. Here are some example when I use a little bit more details to the backgrounds. In this example, I'm in the supermarket. I'm creating some vertical and horizontal stroke to emulate the products on the shelves. Here, I'm in the kitchen and I use the thinnest brush stroke in order to draw the stove and the kitchen counter. This is important as we discuss about visual hierarchy, not to take too much attention away from the main scene. Now I like to usually use the same background throughout the story. But sometimes I like to mix up the colors of the background a little because it add additional detail to the panel story. Here you can see for example that the three first panel are using a warm color. In this case yellow, to show that we are outside and we are warm. The last panel reveals that we are in the bathroom cooling down with the plants, and that's why I chose a light blue. As a general rule, my background are usually a simple square color block, one color. I also used a grid on Procreate to help me make sure that it's well centered. In my case, I like to have a simple color block of a background and not much detail because the focus is really on the character and on the story. Make sure that your background adds to the story, compliments the color palette without taking too much attention from the characters. I really loved this step of adding color to my drawing because they really can set the mood to your whole comic strip. However, it's still very important to put more emphasis and time on creating lines that makes sense. Also, don't carry away by adding too many colors to your drawing. The focus of the construct is really how we tell the story, and the color is really just the embellishment. Sometimes less and more and a very limited color palette can really help the reader focus on the right element of the story. [MUSIC] 9. Laying Out Your Comic: [MUSIC] Some [inaudible] are self-explanatory and they really don't need a lot of text in order to tell the story effectively. I personally like to add some visual cues like little icon, in order to better tell the story. Like a heart or happy face or a bell to notify a ringtone. Sometime even adding the face of the character in a speech bubble to really emphasize their emotion or their frustration is a great way to show the resolution of the last panel. However, using text is still an essential part of comic strips and that's why I'm going to show you my process on how I add text on Procreate. The first step is to resize and to reposition the drawings. We all have a tendency to draw a little bit bigger and we really want our drawing to fit the frame nicely. We tend to forget to allocate space for the speech bubble. Of course now we have to scale down our drawing in order to give enough space to the text and let our illustration breathe. Even though we mentioned it in the thumbnails, we have a tendency to want to fill up that square. But rest assured, it's very easy to scale down our drawing and to allocate some space for the text in order to let the drawing breathe properly. [MUSIC] Here's how you can change the size of your illustration. In your layer panel, select the folder of the layers you'd like to resize. Select the Transform tool on the top-left menu, you'll see it's a simple arrow. The selected image will now appear in a rectangle with marching ends. I call these little dots marching ends. Make sure that Uniform at the bottom is selected, otherwise you'll change the proportion of your drawing and that's not what you want to do. Now we can drag and reposition the image as please. Taken in consideration that you will need at least the top third for your bubble. Sometimes even top half. [MUSIC] Sometimes I like to write the text by myself using a calligraphic brush from the brush library. This brush have a little bit of streamline to them already, and I could recommend a few. As an aid, I also toggle the Drawing Guide on that you can find under Actions. Having the grid on will help with your handwriting, making sure that your letters are the same size and written on a straight line. For those who do not trust their handwriting, you can also type your text. Here's how. Under Action, select, Add Text. The text will now appear within a rectangle. [MUSIC] Tap on the box, then on the font for more option. Here you can select the font, the size, and the attributes. To get back to typing, click on the keyboard on the top left corner and start typing on your iPad. You can now access your text via the Layer panel. To edit it, tap on it and tap Edit Text. Just like any other layer, you can also tap on it and reposition it and move it around. With the option of text, you can now create a more impactful story. However, I will still recommend you to use it sparingly, as most people have a very short attention span, especially on social media. Now, all you have to do is to export each panel as an image. Here's how. You can do so by making sure that each layer is in the right folder and it's visible. You can do so by making sure that the right panel layer is visible. Then go to Actions, Share, and select JPEG. We're selecting JPEG because this is Instagram default image format. [MUSIC] You can then upload your image to Instagram in the right order. On Instagram, make sure to add a fun caption, relevant hashtags to really capture the attention of your audience. [MUSIC] Congratulations. Now your Instagram followers can read your story. [MUSIC] 10. Let's Wrap It Up!: Congratulations! You made it till the end of this class. To make it easier, I've compiled five key points to summarize the whole class. Let's go. Looking for inspiration. If you don't know what to draw, look for inspiration in your everyday life. You can do so by taking pictures throughout the day and writing down any potential ideas that come through your mind. Two, telling your story. Now, telling your story is as easy as 1, 2, and 3. Your story needs, of course, a beginning, a middle, and an end. The beginning will set up the scene, the middle part will introduce a conflict, and the end will find a resolution to re-show the character's character. The ending is also a great opportunity for you to deliver your punchline. Number 3 is how to visually plan your comic. In an old sketchbook, sketch your thumbnails to see how each panel will work together. Use a mix of different shots, including a wide shot, a medium shot, a close shot and treat each panel like a frozen moment in time from a movie. Number 4, don't forget your line work. Line work is super important when you draw your comic strips. When tracing your line work, you can even set up the streamline to help you create more confident lines. Use different weight line to add dimension to your drawing and add visual hierarchy to it. Number 5, remember your final touches. As a final touch, you can add color inspired from a color palette that you like. I personally like to add a simple color block as a background and to tie each panel together. Don't forget to resize your drawing also to make sure that you have enough space for the text and that everything looks harmonious together. A good composition is important. [MUSIC] Finally, remember to upload your final project, your beautiful comic strip under Project and Resources. If you have any question or comments, or you would just like to say hi, feel free to add them under the discussion of this specific class. I'll make sure to reply to every of your comments. Also, if you're interested in what I'm doing in my everyday life, feel free to follow me on my social media channels. I can't wait to read your beautiful comic strip and to get to know you a little bit better. Have a beautiful day and I can't wait to see you also in the next class. Bye.