Rusty Shackle's Art Tips and Tricks

Hey all!

Wanted to drop a quick tutorial on ya.  Been doing this technique quite a bit lately - it’s an easy way to apply tonal shading while still in Manga Studio without cutting and pasting computones.

Here is a loose approximation of my workspace area and the layers I use.  As usual, I keeps it minimal.  The current hidden layer is my pencils, the ink is all of the black line art you see, and the tones are, well, the tones.

A lot of times in photoshop I’ll add a multiply layer over my colors and lineart and add a pure grey shadow stroke where appropriate, but this is the same idea for use with minimal colors.  The trick is to adjust the settings on the Brush Pen tool shown above.  I have it a higher size since my tablet pressure is pretty generous, but play around with the settings!  The opacity is the level of darkness you’ll lay down, anything under 70% will have that tonal-computone look that’s not quite ben-day dots but close.

You can also adjust the ink amount, the percentage for what it was set at is written above.  You can get some nice scratchy lines out of it this way, plus you can edit the brush shape too.  Makes shading go a bit easier in my experience.

My Double Dragon piece was the first one I did this with, it had WAY more techniques and also had some CompuTones laid over top for additional effect.  I DO NOT recommend this technique if you do a substantial amount of color holding, but if you do, here’s a trick.

when it’s time to export your image for use in photoshop - go to the file settings and hit the “settings” button.  Change it to keep layer structure for output, and allow up to 5 layers.  This will keep the layers as is (note you will need to delete the extra ALPHA channel before saving in photoshop as a jpg).  You can’t use my macro for line art preparation as that is made for a single layer BMP image, but this method actually works fine with this.  On the Maximum Carnage red variant, all I did was keep the black lineart as is, and adust the tonal layer’s hue/saturaion to where I wanted it.

Go experiment!  Modify!  Kit-Bash and make your own methods with this!

Hey folks!  I get asked fairly frequently about what supplies I take with me to conventions. I try and keep it as minimal as possible, and almost make a game out of getting it lower and lower.  Here’s what I recommend, tailor it to your needs!

1 - a backpack - really anything will do, this was a snazzy one I had gifted to me - I usually carry protein bars and other non-perishables because I hate paying $6 for a hot dog and also hate leaving my table unattended.

2 - business cards - these are a pretty basic thing, but people who may be on the fence (or you are out of stock of something) NEED a way to get in touch w/you after a con.  Plus it’s great for people who can’t get to you because you’re assisting someone else.

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So I got my first question today from Ryan Dunlavey (Action Philosophers, The Comic Book History of Comics, Dirt Candy)

Keeping in mind the fact that since I first interacted with him as a fellow Covered artist, he has had 2 graphic novels come out and I’m too lazy to do a full comic.  

Honestly, I’m not even sure how I do it.  Let me give you an example of a typical day - 

I work from 9 to 5:30 monday through friday and we have a one year old son.  So around 6 AM he gets up, which means I get up then too.   This part of the daily routine is not exciting, and really, neither is the work day itself.  Weekends are pretty filled with family activities or other chores, so my available drawing time is VERY minimal on these days.  So I get most of my schmoozing and joking on twitter done via a smartphone during the day, and send e-mails if I need to, which is F’N AWESOME on a phone service that gets one bar of reception in this particular building.  But I do have one thing that helps with art productivity - my to-do list staring right at me -

I can sort of keep my mind sane knowing what I need to do, and can kinda visualize or mentally prepare images (or even sketch up thumbnails on post-it notes) this way.  I list benchmarks for myself, P-I-C-Copy for Pencils/Inks/Coloring and Copy (if needed) so I know where I’m at and to motivate myself.

After dinner and other family stuff is done and the kiddo winds down, it’s about 9:30 in the evening and it’s FINALLY drawing time.  I can usually go for about an hour and a half or so, but I usually try and bring it down by watching a 1/2 hour of a ep of Ultraseven or part of a movie before going to bed at midnight.  

Here’s the funny thing, even with all that?  I’m maybe the most productive I’ve ever been in my life.

The strangest thing about NOT being able to draw all that often is OBSESSING about it.  And for me, I can eliminate potential problems this way, or solve issues on a picture even before I’ve lifted the tablet up.  ”Man when I get to do this P-swap I’ll try this color scheme out” or “y’know what fonts’d look good here?”, etc, etc.  That’s not how everyone’s programmed, but for me it helps tremendously.

I’m pretty streamlined in how I work to, most of my methods are reflex now (everything from desktop layout, shortcut keys, photoshop actions and macros, general sequencing) so when I tell someone “stop fucking using 100 layers in photoshop” and get a bit pissed it’s because I DESPISE seeing people waste their time.  So many bad tutorials online…but I digress.

The other thing is, having done this for a little while I know my limitations, workload and schedule wise. Also, I don’t take on a project if I don’t want to.   I used to think I was lucky in that I can draw what I want, but that’s not exactly true.  I’m lucky that people will LET me draw what I want for them :D, especially with the musicians I work with.  I don’t need to take on a project I’m going to slug through because I need dirty cash money, and lack the enthusiasm to complete in a quick fashion, and the more people realize that the quicker they’ll be.  There’ nothing rewarding about that.  I’ll walk away rather than plead my case.  Not worth my time.

It’s difficult for me still because I am offered comic work pretty frequently, but constantly deny it because there is no way with my life now to commit to a full book.  This sucks, but again, it’s perspective and knowing limits.  Time invested vs reward, compared to web or music projects that I will have quadruple the exposure (and money) was a lesson I had to learn pretty rapidly these last 2 years.

So yeah, that’s how I do it.  Having an insanely awesome family life that I want to spend most of my time on AND being entertained AND working full time AND maintaining an art career takes a helluva lot of balancing, but I had to find what worked for me.  Really you just have to figure out what you can sacrifice.  I sold my Xbox 360 because it was a distraction (I have a PSP which I can put to sleep so it’s not NEARLY as bad…), but that’s me.  Playing the last Dead Rising game became less appealing to me than getting to work for 1up.  

You really have to figure out what time you DO have instead of what you DON’T have, and how to maximize every f’n minute of it.  There’s no other way to put it.  Sorry this got a bit more confessional then people probably wanted, but hopefully there’s something usable here. 

Just a heads up!  Comicraft is having a sale on New Year’s Day where all of their fonts are available for $20.13!  You will need to sign up to make a free account if you haven’t done so already.  I REALLY recommend their fonts, the characters are far deeper than some of the freebie comic sites out there and there’s ones you can only get from them that are pretty notable.

I’ll return soon and will have Manga Studio tips for peeps!

Hey everyone! 

The sale officially begins after 12:01 AM Eastern time, due to the limited stock on hand, DO NOT ORDER UNTIL THEN TO KEEP IT FAIR YO!

Here’s what to do since I ain’t got no fancy webstore-

Send me an email at therustyshackles@gmail.com with your selections from Wave 1, Wave 2, and Wave 3 - include your paypal email address if different from the email sent.

OR order FULL PRICE game ones, get ONE $5’ER FREE PER EACH ONE YOU GET!

I will send an invoice to you, once it is confirmed as paid, send me a email with the confirmation and your address.  That’s it!  Remember, it’s ONE TIME $5 shipping fee, all will be mailed in a thick poster tube (or tubes if needed, no extra charge!) within a week from today.  The first 6 orders will be sent within the next few days.  Check the hashtag #BlackRustyBamBaLam to see any sell-outs!

Thanks everyone!

Hey folks!  Wanted to share some of the fonts I use and recommend.  I’ll mark them if they are free or paid and when the best time to buy is if applicable.

BLAMBOT - By now everyone probably knows Nate Piekos’ work so this shouldn’t be much of a surprise.  The available characters aside from the general alpha/numeric and some punctuations/other are pretty good, and his pay fonts are exceptional values.  Generally he has a discount available for people who are on his email newsletter, but KEEP IN MIND to apply the code before logging into paypal.  There is no review purchase screen like bandcamp or any other site so just a heads up.  Exceptional selections and the variety can’t be beat.

COMICRAFT - Comicraft is Richard Starking and John Roshell’s site and is one of the older pro sites online.  These are all pay fonts but very much worth it, the variety of each font along with character support are well worth the money.  They usually do a sale based off of the year (every font for $20.12 for instance) around new year’s and SDCC but skipped the con one this year, and instead did one for Father’s Day.  So they may be mixing it up, I recommend signing up for their newsletter, they do not bombard you at all.  Foom, Battle Damaged, RocketMan, Battle Scarred, Monster Mash and Spills are my favorites from them.

HYDRO74 - These are not explicitly for comics but are fantastic for music design.  Great variety and prices can’t be beat, plus a generous selection of free fonts.  I also recommend following him on twitter as he’ll give out the occasional free font. Hydro74’s fonts are listed so they are grouped together in photoshop instead of just alphabetical which I love. 

HOUSE INDUSTRIES - Another great designer for the music design set.  No free fonts and a bit on the higher end, but you can find used discs for sale cheaper online.  The Rat Fink and Coop sets are amazing.

DAFONT - This is my resource for all of the available free fonts in the world, and it’s very easy to get lost in it so don’t go right click crazy!  

ICONIAN FONTS - This designer in my opinion is one of the best kept secrets online.  Almost as much variety as Blambot and free (but a donation is asked for commercial use).  I wholeheartedly recommend Quartermain, PowerLord, Earth’s Mightiest and RedRocket.  The only draw back is photoshop won’t recognize them as a package.  The different settings such as bold, italic, etc are listed as unique fonts.  Not a big deal but wish there was a way to collapse them.

here’s a couple of single ones I like - Odaballoon is a free dialogue font in the style of silver age DC comics.  SingleSleeve is a cool Coop sort of font that I use for many projects including my main site’s header.

Hope this helps!

Hey everyone - check out con-bro Michael Mayne’s (Bonnie Lass) FREE word balloon pack for photoshop comicking - http://MichaelMayne.deviantart.com/art/Custom-Dialog-Ballloons-Pack-1-321499525

alrighty, now to some actual techniques since I’m close to being caught up.  With the methods I’ve shown you so far, you’ll have a lineart layer (black lineart on a transparency) and your bottom layer for coloring on.  In the last few years with advancements of printing and computer coloring, color holding has become a very common practice, where the black lineart is colored to add depth to a picture.  Generally by making the background elements a lighter color (receding from view) which is done superbly here.  It is also used to make special effects such as Cyclop’s eye beam, Green Lantern’s contructs, etc. stand out and look unique.

I’ve always thought the reason for the popularity of it is because of works by Alphonse Mucha.  Especially with fans of his work such as Adam Hughes really coming to light during the digital coloring age.  But I digress.

Let’s use my recent OHOTMU Redux submission for She-Hulk.  My original lineart for this was solid black 100%, but I colored in the lines below her eyes and her nose to make them not as prevalent.

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