#i've seen very simple panels that would have been fine if not for the fact i had no idea what order i was supposed to read things in :'D

[undertalethingems]

How do you do your comic pages? Do you use a special drawing software that give you the option of editing the dimensions of the panels? Or is it all free handed? I'm asking because I'm trying to draw a fan comic myself, and I use FireAlpaca, which gives me the option of exiting the borders and panels of comic pages, but I dont like some of its features. How do you make your pages?

my "special drawing software" is a super old version of photoshop elements XD it's from 2009, and somehow i still haven't found another program that i like better for text editing or setting up panels--mostly because it's super straightforward. there's plenty of other things it's not good at--for example, i don't think it can do outlined shapes, and it's really not the best for digital painting. So, I use other programs for that.

Anyway, when it comes to making comic pages the way i do, you can probably use the same basic technique in other programs because it's ultimately very simple. All i do to make my panels is use the shape tool to make boxes in the sizes and shapes i want; in photoshop, these shapes can automatically 'snap' into alignment with one another, which makes keeping them to a standardized size easy. so that might be something your program doesn't have--you could probably just use the rectangular selection tool and delete edges that don't line up.

once i make all the panels i need, i merge them all onto one layer, and then do all my drawing and shading in clipped layers above the comic panels. Clipped layers are super useful and let me draw without worrying about going over the edges of the panels below, and i usually only ever need a few--one for lineart, one for "color", and one for shading the backgrounds. text, speech bubbles, and other effects go over those.

so, there's no real trick to it; i know some programs let you draw comic panels and then 'cut' them to create new borders (called gutters, i think), but i haven't figured those out so i just use this cheap method.

hope that helped ^^

#i guess my drawing program is special because it's old and idek if there's slightly-not-legal versions out there >> #the important thing though is finding a method that works for you ^^ #mine doesn't really lend itself to really creative panel layouts for one #the most important thing though is making sure your panels are easy to follow no matter how they're made #i've seen very simple panels that would have been fine if not for the fact i had no idea what order i was supposed to read things in :'D #so be mindful of that sort of thing =u=;; #art tips with undertalethingems #undertalethingem chats