9 replies to this topic

[James Tweedle]

Hello all,

After the weekend (after Kapow, actually), I was having a conversation with my friends, who are currently scripting and drawing their own comic. They were saying how they'd like to get me on board, but I cannot draw to save my life.

I got thinking of what I could do to be a part of said comic, and started thinking about lettering. I got home on Monday, and began reading various articles and guides, about digital comic book lettering.

Tonight I tried my first shot at creating differing word bubbles etc, following guides online, and also the DC Guide to Colouring & Lettering.

I was just wondering if there are any letterers on here, and if they have any tips or anything?

I have tried to look for lettering exercises online to have a crack at once I'm confident enough, but I haven't found any, which is a shame.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

[Steve Sensible]

My tip is don't use Comic Sans!

On a more serious note, try sites like blambot.com - they have loads of fonts there, both free and pay fonts, and some useful articles.

[Colin Bell]

Not so much exercises, but you can't go wrong with Jim Campbell's blog for a fairly comprehensive How-To.

Scott McCloud also did a handy couple of videos for lettering in Illustrator that I refer to from time to time.

Good luck!

Edited by Colin Bell, 24 May 2012 - 09:29 PM.

[Ed Morley]

I'd highly recommend picking up a copy of this...

http://www.amazon.co...t/dp/0974056731

It's a very, very useful (and interesting) little reference guide. I assume you're lettering digitally, not by hand..? What programs are you using? Illustrator is the daddy for this sort of thing, but I've actually found that (since Cs4) Indesign is surprisingly versatile for lettering and you can get some really good results.

[mattgarvey1981]

O.S. Georg dabbles in lettering

[Shannonh]

Jim Campbell is the man! Very simple and straight forward tutorials over at his blog. I see he is linked already but will do it again for emphasis- Jim Campbell's blog

[O.S. Georg]

O.S. Georg dabbles in lettering

Indeed! though recent events have forced me to focus more on my writing (kaff* http://forums.millar...the-destineer/* kaff)

On the lettering side of things, I actually haven’t done that much research. I just try to do what I think looks good, and learn from the letterers I like. I did find this: http://www.blambot.com/grammar.shtml to a bit of a help. I’ve also found the free program Ink Scape to be very helpful, so I can’t recommend that enough! (I’m told Illustrator is pretty similar, but a lot more expensive) It’s a bit hard to get into, but if you like, I can give a lot of pointers to that.
Other than that, Jim Cambell is the man…

[James Tweedle]

Thanks you for your help everybody, much appreciated.

I have done my first sample page. I know there are things wrong with it (having had feedback on it on another forum), so I'm on my way to re-doing the piece and fixing the errors.

http://i47.tinypic.com/k0itnc.jpg

[Shannonh]

Your tails are way too thick and your word balloons are perfect ovals. Push in the sides a bit so that you dont unnecessarily cover up line work with leave negative space inside the balloons. But you did good keeping lettering away from balloon borders.

[James Tweedle]

Thanks, Shannon.

I am looking at re-doing the page when I get a chance. I will re-post the finished piece