screen toning lesson

from http://www.tokyopop.com/147.html


Pop Mhan is the creator of Blank, an action-packed comedy about a secret agent with amnesia that will be exploding into bookstores and comic shops in 2006. Pop has been drawing American comics for the past ten years. However, Blank represents his first foray into eastern-styled sequential art and storytelling. Not that anyone could tell. A lifelong manga reader, Pop has taken to drawing it like a catgirl to milk.

Pop is one busy guy. However, he recently managed to put together a tutorial on toning in Photoshop for his art board that we've stolen for our insidious use. (Just kidding! He said it was okay.) Check out his art board for more great tutorials and art tips like this one. And be sure to check his main website for up-to-the-minute updates on Blank.

First off, I should say that this certainly isn't the only way to tone a book, but it's how I've been doing it for Blank. Keep in mind that there are many other ways to do this.

Anyways, since Blank is in "published" format there are some simple rules to bear in mind. The most important is that the art MUST be made up of only BLACK and WHITE pixels. There can be no GRAY pixels, such as are commonly found in web-based publishing. And ALWAYS tone at the print size. If your print specs are 1200 dpi at 5" x 7", make sure your piece is at spec BEFORE toning. Trying to resize your pic will cause unwanted moire patterns to form.

Getting started

This is Missy, one of the characters from Blank. Seems like people enjoy drawing her the most.
Must be her...eyes. Yeah... So for this tutorial, she be the one getting da treatment.


First you need to prep you pic for toning. Once you've cleaned up the art, getting rid of all those unwanted, yet strangely entrancing, dust specs that the scanner picked up, you "thresh" the line art so it becomes a perfect BLACK and WHITE pixeled marvel. This is done with Image -> Adjustment -> Threshold.
You usually have to mess with it a bit until you are satisfied with the end result.

Setting Up Your Layers

What I like to do is to work with a layer that's purely line art. It saves me some time by giving me the option to "click-fill" large areas. Some people prefer "lassoing" everything. I'm sure there's probably a better way out there, but I'm old school...so there you go.


I select an area of black, then: Select -> Similar

Copy and paste in a new layer, rename layer to: Black. Delete the old and then duplicate the Black layer, renaming it "Gray" (this will be the layer where I lay down my grayscale).
When Grayscaling the Art



Dig? If you go too dark, a lot of times the tones will look muddy.
I use both the lasso tool and the pencil brush to do the grayscale.


And...



A Gradient Fill



I wanted to cover a few different techniques on Missy, so here we have a gradient fill.
Oh, my chicken scratches are pretty eligible, huh? The bottom right says "Dark to Light."

The Conversion

Okay, so you are all finished with the grayscale? Select a purely black area left over from duplicating the black line art. (If you didn't do that step, then omit.) Select -> Similar, then Delete.
Now you have a layer that is purely grayscale.


This the most important step! Ctrl + A (select all), Ctrl + C (copy), Ctrl + N (new file), Ctrl + V (paste that shiznit).
Next, Image -> Mode -> Bitmap.
At the dialog box, set the resolution to 1200 (or whatever resolution you are working at) and the method to halftone.
At the next dialog box (pictured above), the frequency should equal 85, the angle should be 45 and the shape should be round.
This converts the grayscale to the halftone dots.
Then, Image -> Mode -> Grayscale ("ratio" = 1).
Now drag the halftone image back to your original file, making sure that this new layer is underneath the black (line art) layer. Align the halftone layer to black line art layer.
You should have sumthin' like this...



The Last Step

I like to add yet another layer on top of the halftone layer and name it "White." On this layer, I put the highlights.
Alternating between the 3 pixel and 1 pixel-sized brush on the pencil tool, I etch in some highlights. It's a little like cross-hatching. I try to create a gradient to "texturize" certain areas or lighten up other areas. It can get pretty time consuming.
Here's something I did on her inner thighs. (Okay, stop snickering. This isn't that kind of demonstration.)



Now, just merge all of your layers and save as a .TIF and you're good to go!
Here's the final picture...



Just remember to always tone at print size and that this is one time when it IS good to only see things as either black or white (no gray pixels here!). And don't forget to pick up Blank when it comes out next year for more of Missy. A LOT more of Missy... ;