About half hour.

But I assume you know how to install a scanner. You connect it, install it, pray this means it's indeed installed, and open File -> Import -> YourScanner in Photoshop.

The scanner software appears inside PS. Personally I prefer to scan everything in 300dpi and Color mode, so as to get as much information as possible from the originals.

Recall how I distributed the comic over two pages: Now I'll get two documents in PS. I don't like this. I want to keep the comic in one document. This is what I do to assemble them.

1. I take the first document and crop it as is screenshot below.



2. I expand the canvas downwards. (Go to Image -> Canvas Size... to find this dialogue.)



See the boxes under Anchor? They decide in which directions the document canvas will expand. The little white box in the middle, which the arrows are radiating from, symbolizes the document itself.

I want to expand the canvas downward only, so I click the top middle box and change only the height parameter. I let the width parameter be.

Now I decide how far I want the canvas to expand. This depends on how tall the sketch is. In this case -- where I only have one other document -- i put in 250%. 200% is probably enough, but I like to be sure. I choose percent as a modulator in the drop-down box, as you can see.

When I click OK, the canvas expand down from the bottom.

3. Now I want to copy the second part of the comic onto here. I crop it as well, select its entire canvas (Ctrl+A), copy it (Ctrl+C), and paste it (Ctrl+V) onto the first document. The second document is now another layer in the first document.

I need to move it, though, and align it properly below the first part. I make sure the second layer is selected in the Layers box (F7). Then I hold down Ctrl and drag it into place. Whenever I hold down Ctrl in PS, the currently selected layer can be moved wherever I want to move it.

Sometimes the alignment of two parts are a bit screwed-up, though, as you see below: The upper edge is sloping just a tiny bit.



In this case, I can distort the layer, using the transform function, without loss of image quality. They say a transformation (or size change) within 10-20% of the image size doesn't harm the quality of a picture.

To transform the layer, make sure it's selected under Layers, and click Ctrl+T. The square-shaped handles as shown above appear around the edges of the layer. If you left-click the layer now, you'll see the menu shown above.

I play around with the scale, rotate, skew, distort and perspective modulators to make the layer fit the background layer.

When I've adjusted all layers so they fit perfectly, I flatten the image (merge all layers down into one) using Ctrl+Shift+E. Then I crop away the superfluous canvas at the bottom.

Now I have one document with one layer and the correct size.

Notice that although the sketches in the document look gray, the document is in RGB-mode after the scan (ie. in color). This means it contains all kinds of color information, and only appear gray.

What I want now is one color: Blue. This is what I do.

1. I remove all color information. Image -> Mode -> Grayscale.
2. I change mode back to RGB: Image -> Mode -> RGB Color.

Why? Because after this procedure the document is a color document in theory only. There's no color in the document. In practice, it's a grayscale-document. When this is done:

3. I press Ctrl+Alt+L to summon the Levels window.



In this picture I've already turned the sketch blue. What I do is this:

1. See the drop-down box under Channels? When the Levels window appears, it says RGB. Now I choose Blue. The histogram below will show you how much blue the document contains.

There will be three arrows below the histogram (not just one black arrow as shown above): A white one to the very right, a black one to the very left and a gray one inbetween.

I want the document to express as much blue as there is darkness in the paper. So I grab the black arrow in the right corner and drag it all the way down to the left.

2. Afterwards I choose Green under Channels and do the same.

What you'll see it this:



I don't touch the other jizz. The document now sports the correct blue color, and this is what I want to print out and ink upon.

Why this color-hassle? Now listen. When I'm done inking and re-scan the arts, there's one simple step in PS to eliminate the greens and be left only with what we want: The inks.

Why not ink on top of the sketches and erase the pencilling afterwards? Because PS is a clever program. It will detect remains from your pencilling in the paper, no matter how loosely you pencil or how fervently you erase those lines. Also, when you erase over inks, you'll erase a bit of the inks themselves. It's a slight difference only, but PS picks it up. The result is a dirtier image.

This is where I call myself satisfied with the sketches and decide to print them.

Before I print, though, I want to upsize the document to make it span the width of my A4 drawing paper. To do this I take out the Print with Preview-box:. File -> Print with Preview... This is what it looks like.



And this is where I put the thicker drawing paper into the paper feed of the printer. A very annoying thing to forget.

In the print window as seen in the screenshot above I un-tick the Center image-box and up-scale the preview of the document until it reaches full A4-width.

So why is it necessary to expand the thumbnail?
1. It's easier to draw perspectives and shapes correctly in a small thumbnail. This makes it preferrable to take the sketch itself with me as background for the inks.
2. The larger the image on which you ink, the better be the result. This is a well-known fact. You'll have more possibilities for adding wanted detail and losing unwanted detail.

Photoshop will tell me that he'll crop the document at the bottom if I print like this. I ignore him and print anyway.

These blueprints always count three to five pages to cover the entire strip anyway, so when I've printed the first page I take out the Print with Preview dialogue again, move the document down to the next panels which fit into the height of an A4, and print again. I repeat until the entire strip is printed.

I always try to avoid dividing one tall panel over two printouts. This would be hell to ink first and then synchronize in PS. My first priority for printing blue backgrounds is never to divide a panel. It might go on cost of paper and ink, but in terms of workload and quality, it's worth it.

A tip to avoid this: If you use the marquee tool (hotkey m) and select the panels you want to print specifically, you can tick the 'Print selected area'-box in the Print with Preview window. Note: If you do this, the position of the document must be zero centimeters from the top, no matter where in the document your marquee selection is located.


Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V

This comic will never break the fourth wall.
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