Transcripts
1. Intro: Hi everybody. My name is Ryan and I'm an artist who loves to draw Mongo. Many people outside of
Japan, including myself, love to read manga and
wish to make their own, but don't know exactly which steps to take to help
them achieve that goal. That's where this
class comes in. Over the years that I've been
drawing manga as a hobby, I frequently gotten comments
that express how close of a likeness my Mongo is to
quote unquote real manga. So I thought, why not
share how I do it? In my opinion, a crucial part to achieving that Mongo
look, our screen tone. Screen tones improve upon
a drawing strength to achieve a wider variety
of form and emotions. And that's what this class
is intended to teach. So if you're a beginner
to Clip Studio or just want to know more about
how screen tones work, then I do recommend this class. If you only like western
comics, don't worry, screen tones are
universal and whatever I say in this class can
easily transfer over. So even if you're
not among a fan, I believe this class still
has something for you. For the class project, we're going to work
on practice in our toning skills with
premade Mongo panels. Not only that, but we're
going to be going over how to apply your tones to express
storytelling skills. Remember, you need
Clip Studio Paint and a very basic understanding of this program to
participate in this class. Lastly, remember that at the end of the day,
you are the artist. Whatever has worked for me may not work for you
and that's okay. Alright, let's open up a document and Clip Studio
Paint and get started. I can't wait to show you
the power of screen tones.
2. Screentone Layers: Let's get started with Tony. There's a few simple
ways to tell him. Click Layer, New Layer tone. For this panel, Let's
choose a frequency of 60 and a density of 20. This will create a tone layer. Next, click the Clear
button to delete the tone. Now, whatever you draw on this layer will be in
a monochrome tone. This applies to brushes, hair brushes, and paint brushes. Try to use the magic wand or any selection tool to select the hair and
press the Fill button. You've successfully tone. Likewise, you can
also erase tone with the eraser or with a brush
that uses transparent color. I use both, but I like to
etch away the tone with the transparent color on a brush to get a sharper
edge on some shadows. You can edit this in the tone layer property
panel if you wish to change the frequency or density
or even its dot settings. Another way to use tone
is to simply click this little tone button
when you have a selection. This will give you
the same tone menu and make a tone layer
for that selection. The last way I use tone
is perhaps the simplest. Simply choose a color and
paint over an item you wish. And then click the tone button in the Layer Property window. This will convert your
image to a tone layer. Adjusting the opacity on any tone layer can also help
get the tone that you want. Next, let's cover the tone
frequency and density. Tone frequency is how close the tone dots are to each other. A tone frequency of
30 is more suited towards cartoony
moments or comics, as opposed to a tone
frequency of 60, which is used primarily for more realistic scenes
and Mongo or comments. You can look at a tone
density as how dark you want. The actual tones of V. Tones can be overlapped
on top of each other as long as their
frequency matches. This avoids more a which
makes your tones a mess. If you look at most Mongo, they only stick to a few tones. Less is more. Makes sure that either white or black is the main
focus of your drawing. Tone is only here to amplify
the dark or the white, or guide your eyes to
the focus of the panel. Remember to not go
overboard with tones.
3. Tone Scrapping: What if you don't want to
use a hard edge shadow, but you want to use a soft one. E.g. let's look at this arm
using the transparent color. I can create the illusion
of light hitting the arm by etching away at its
tone with the G pen brush. Now we can see light and dark. But the solid edges
of the shadows still flatten the image and create a graphic look
that I don't want. Sometimes in your Mongo, you want to convey realism. This is where the tone scraping airbrush tool comes in handy. The tone scraping
tool can be found in the airbrush tools
sub tool menu. Like its name indicates, you can use this to scrape at the tone to create
a softer edge. In breaks the edge of the
shadow into a softer shape, which helps smooth the transition
between light and dark. There's no one size
fits all to this tool. So I recommend
experimenting with a tool in its property settings. Using both a combination
of form shadows and cast shadows help make your
object way more realistic. This tool can definitely
require a bit of patience, but I think the end
result shows how affective tone scraping
can be to convey softness. Consider shading your character like this for the class project.
4. Exercise: Toning for Form: Coding for form can be
difficult for beginners. This is because it
relies on having a basic understanding of
anatomy and how shadows work. But that's no reason
to not try it. What I recommend is
studying anatomy and to avoid shading in a
continuous line. Toning for form gives off
a three-dimensionality to your character or settings without the need
for crosshatching. Sometimes it isn't necessary in your Mongo and sometimes it is. You are the artist
and you have to decide when it's
appropriate to do this. Now let's try an exercise. Now let's turn this
three panel page with three different
light sources. For this Characters panel. I've decided to light
them from our left side. I'll use tone to create
shadow shapes on the figure. The hair is blocking some of the light from
hitting the skin. Tone it by casting a shadow. On the characters right side is where a majority of
the light is hitting. So while making sure to not draw too much tones on this park, some shadows cast on
the hair is enough. You can clearly see where
the light is coming from. This by itself is a
fine use of tall. I don't have to go any further. But what if I want to emphasize a more softer shadow like
back in the previous video. Well, that's what I'll
use the tone scraper. Please look carefully. I'm only scrapping
away at the shadows that are on the form
of the characters. I'm not touching the
shadows that are being cast because I want
them to remain sharp. All shadows are not the same. Generally cast shadows are
sharper than form shadows. It is crucial to
know the difference. In this case, the shadows on
the nose and the lower lip, or blocking light from hitting the other side of the cheek. In this next panel, I want to place the light source in
back of the character. Since most of it will be in
shadow this time I'll turn the whole character
and etch away at the parts where
the light will hit. Well, I tried to keep
the form of the cheek. I'm making sure it's not
make it the same exact curve as the line because it
will flatten out the image. Now again, I'll use
the tone scraper to soften the cheek
and other areas. The only angle of tone I
want sharp is the bit of the nose because the hair is blocking the light
from hitting there. I'll add a little scraping on the eyes just to
try to bribe them. Looks good. Four last panel. I want the light source
to come from above. This means that a majority of the light will be hitting
the top of the head. Aside from the
hair and the nose, there aren't much shadows
being cast on the figure. So I'll use the tone
scraper to show a transition from light
to dark on the air. Now for the cache shadows
on the forehead and nose, I recommend taking photos of yourself with one light
source and trying to understand where
the light is coming from and then copying these
shadows to the drawing. This is also cartoony. So remember you
don't have to make your shadows
completely accurate. Tried to light this
character your own way for the class project.
5. Get Started Faster: I'm one of those people
that doesn't label their layers unless
absolutely necessary. That means I'm more likely
to confuse my toes and misplace them. Actually wrong. By establishing a template. I don't have to go through
the pesky issue of organizing my tones or even making
multiple tone layers. I highly recommend doing
this for Mongo pages, since repeatedly making
layers can be tiresome. In a new document, Let's start
to set up our tone layers. Make a folder labeled tones. In this folder, Let's
make two more folders. One we can label 60 line and
one we can label 30 line. Now in these folders, we
can make our tone layers. We're going to make
tone layers with a frequency of 10 152-030-4050, 60 line frequency folder. We'll also do the same
thing and the other folder and make the same tones but
with a frequency of 31. Click edit, register material, template, named the template and choose the save location. Now if you can make a new comic, you can click the
template button here in the new document. Now the new document will be made with the additional
tone layers that we made. This is a time-saver. I use this method for
all my comic projects.
6. Screentoning with Gradients: Gradient tones can
be used in Mongo to indicate depth and other
stylistic choices. I'm going to show two ways
to make a gradient tone. To make a gradient tone. First we're going
to click Layer, New Layer, and then gradient. This will make a gradient
and your chosen selection. The gradient layer has two blue knobs that
you can manipulate. Use the blue plus to move the gradient layer
wherever you want. Use the blue circular
knob to move the direction of the
gradient where you want it. If you move the blue
dot closer to the plus, the gradient becomes more of a stark contrast between
black and white. If you pull it farther
away from the plus, then you will get a more
gray tones in your image. Lastly, click the tone button in the Layer Properties
tab to transform your gradation into
a gradient tone. Now just like the tone layer, you can adjust the layers
frequency to whatever you want. If for some reason you want
to color your gradient, you can simply click
whatever color you want with the
Layer Color button. Now here's another way to
create a gradient layer. While this isn't my
favorite method, it can still come in
handy every now and then. Make sure your colors are
set to black and white. Make your selection,
and then go towards the gradient tool in
the tool palette. Make your gradient by simply dragging in whatever
direction you want. However, if you want to make adjustments to that gradient, then I'm afraid
you're out of luck. With gradient layers. You can still make adjustments to it by using the object tool. The blue dot and
knob then reappear. Gradient can help affect
the mood of your Mongo. Maybe adding a dark
to light gradient in the background can amplify
the characters sour mood. Or maybe just a
stylish hair choice. It's up to you.
7. Toning with your Photos: The tone button also worked
with your photographs. Let's start by clicking file and then import to import
a picture of the sky. Place the image
however you want, and then click Rasterize. Now I can edit this
picture however I wish. Use any selection tool eraser to get rid of anything
outside the panel. First, let's click
the tone button in the layer property
panel to turn it into a tone and then use any kind of eraser to take out any
parts I don't like. Here's the finished product. In the Layer Properties panel. You can also click
pasteurization to try to make your picture more graphic based on how
many values you put into it. Personally, I don't really use photography in my Mongo
and comics because I don't like the
juxtaposition between a very real photograph
in a cartoon drawing. Sometimes people can
consider the use of photography in Mongo as
lazy and unprofessional, if not done really well. If you're just starting
out, keep this in mind. You can try this technique for yourself, for your
class project. You get a picture of the sky and edit it into your
manga as best you can.
8. Screentoning with the Material Palette: Clip Studio has a
lot of resources. Let's take a look at what
the material palette has to offer. Monochrome patterns. If you look into the
monochrome patterns, tabs on the material palette, there's actually a lot
of interesting tones. You can filter these tones by their tags if you're looking
for something specific. Some of these have knobs
like the gradient layer. Here's a picture of the sky. Let's use this one
as a background. Simply make a selection
and drag your tone and your good color patterns. I want to give this
character shirt a pattern. Let's look for one in the
color pattern section of the materials pellet. At the bottom of
the material menu, there's a button
that can convert this material to a
black and white tone. So let's press that.
I want the lines, my character to show more. So I'll mess with
the pasteurization. Now there's a good balance between the tone
and the line art. You can download materials from the Clip Studio Paint website. To be honest, I don't do this
enough. I really should.
9. Exercise: Toning for Mood: In Mongo tone does not
always reflect reality. What message are you
trying to convey in this panel and what tones
can match that message. In this section,
Let's try to use only tone to portray
different moods. I've seen all of these
used in Mongo before, and I recommend
looking at other manga to see how the authors use tone. Let's get started
with this panel. Like I said in a previous video, a gradient can help
express a depressive mood. For this next panel, I
think I'll just grab the material from
the material palette and use it as a background. Notice how the mood
of these panels completely changed depending
on the different tones. From my last panel, I
want to demonstrate that low-frequency thing I was talking about a few videos back, lower the frequency
of the tone even more to make it seem
like a comical moment. But I'm not done yet. Let's try to convey mood by using tone only
on the character. I'm going to start off simply by making my character
a little shady. Maybe there's something
mysterious about this man. For my second panel, Let's reuse that material tone again. But this time let's put
the tone inside of him. Now it looks like he ate a really spicy pepper
or something internal. Lastly, I can make
this guy looks sinister if I use the
gradient tone on him. But leaving his eyes
exposed without the tone, really sell this image. I hope I showed
off what tone can do to help express mood. There's probably a lot
more ways you can do this for your project. Go try it out and see
what you can express.
10. Outro: Thank you for
watching. I hope you learned something new from
watching how I do my tones. Here are the results
from the class projects I've been working on
for these videos. Share your own in the comments
and let me know if you're interested in more mongo
or comic related classes. This is my first time
teaching a class, so I hope it wasn't
enjoyable experience. I usually post whatever I'm
working on my social media, twitter.com slash
ryan comic press. If you're interested
in checking on my art. This was a fun experience. Thanks again and
have a nice day. Remember to take what you found interesting and
discard what you did. There's no one right
way to tone drawing.
Ryan C
