The PC Weenies » Comics

Rebootus Maximus: Kindle-ized!

Krishna — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 10:56:50 +0000

Good news, Kindle fans, PC Weenies: Rebootus Maximus is now available for your device – for the bargain price of only $5!

Of course, you can always indulge yourself with a bonafide print edition (or digital edition for your iPad). This year, my goal is to attend the Small Press Expo (SPX) in Bethesda, Maryland. Every book and PC Weenies poster print sale that I receive will go towards my travel expenses and table registration (not cheap!). I’m fighting an uphill battle as our funds are tight and I need your help to get there.

Spread the word!

-Krishna
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How to add Halftones to Cartoon Art in Adobe Photoshop

Krishna — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 04:05:57 +0000

A close-up:

Adding halftones is a pretty neat effect – and it’s very easy to do using Adobe Photoshop. Halftones mimic the old school method of offset printing used in pulp comic books. You can add them by going to the Filter > Color Halftone menu.

What I like to do before adding halftones is to first flatten the colors to a single layer, then duplicate the layer (Command-J on Mac, Control-J on Windows). It’s on the upper color layer where I apply the halftone effect. Finally, I reduce the opacity of the ‘half-toned’ layer to minimize the effect.

Here’s what my layers look like:

The Color Halftone setting operates on two parameters: the Maximum Radius (size of the half-tone dots) and the 4 Channel settings. Each channel setting corresponds to Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, respectively. The Max. Radius value has a minimum value of 4. You’ll want to adjust the size according to the size of your file and the effect you want to achieve.

You can also fiddle around with the values for the 4 channels to see how you can affect the halftone’s color – or keep them all the same numerical value to insure that the halftones are displayed as one unified color.

The halftone effect works great for gray scale and color illustrations. Give it a try!

-KrishnaSimilar Posts:

Guest-Strip by Justin Stewart!

Krishna — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 11:14:23 +0000

I had the pleasure of meeting Justin Stewart at last year’s UP! Fair. We hit it off right away – he’s a very cool dude! Imagine my pleasant surprise when he sent me the very comic that you see before you today. I was bowled over!

While today’s comic was a pleasant surprise, forced obsolescence should come as no surprise for minions of the Steve Jobs camp. The erstwhile “leader” of Apple resembling a very popular cartoon villain was a masterful stroke. Well done, Justin!

Justin’s all over the web. His two major spots are his blog and his digital home at PopStew Comics. Kudos to Justin for his nerve-hitting guest-strip!

-Krishna

Books on Digital Drawing Techniques

Krishna — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 03:20:46 +0000

I just received Freddie Williams II‘s book “The DC Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics”. I haven’t had a chance to really sit down and read it as yet, but my initial skimming of the book indicates that it will be a great resource to have around. I hope to have a chance to really get “under the hood” with this book in the next few weeks, at which time I will draft a review.

In the meantime, I’d like to take this opportunity to recommend two books that address digital drawing / painting that you may enjoy:

The first is Digital Manga Workshop by Jared Hodges and Lindsay Cibos. Don’t let the title throw you – even if you are not a fan of manga, you will find plenty of good information here. I’d recommend this books for the beginner to intermediate level artist. This book features a solid primer on preparing your work for a digital flow and features excellent guides on digital inking, airbrushing and coloring your digital comic creations. There are several step-by-step techniques you can follow, along with great examples of the variety of inking and coloring techniques used by most Manga artists who work digitally. Side note: I met Jared and Lindsay at Megacon a few years back – they were really cool and even autographed my book! :)

The second book I’d like to recommend is The Photoshop and Painter Artist Tablet Book, by Cher Threinen-Pendarvis. This book is geared heavily towards exploring fine arts techniques using both Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop. It was one of the first books on using a tablet that I purchased. There are step-by-step projects you can follow along with to gain confidence with the medium. I would recommend this book for beginners and intermediate digital artists as well.

Both books are excellent so check ‘em out!

-KrishnaSimilar Posts:

Tastefully Done: 2010 Webcomics Calendar for Cancer Research. Now OUT!

Krishna — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:04:10 +0000

It’s now officially released for everyone to order just in time for Christmas!!!

The calendar includes the works of Danielle Corsetto, Lem Pew & Aric McKeown (from Blank It Comics), Jess Fink, Guy Hodge, Huw “Lem” Davies, Rasmus Pettersson, Rachel Dukes, Frank Page, David Wolfe, Michael Lalonde, James Norris, Jamie Smart and the cover by Krishna Sadasivam. (Couldn’t find links for Guy or James, maybe they can send ‘em to me?)

Each one has painstakingly drawn their webcomic creations in the nude all in aid of Cancer Research UK. Since 2007, both Tastefully Done 2007 and Tastefully Done 2008 has been raising money. Unfortunately 2009 never actually got off the ground but we’re back to celebrate 2010 in all character glory.

Support a GREAT cause. Buy a calendar today!

-KrishnaSimilar Posts:

Speaking Event: The Bay Area Macintosh Users Group

Krishna — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:00:52 +0000

I’ll be making a presentation to the Bay Area Macintosh Users Group tonight at 7PM at the Largo Cultural Center. If you’re in the Tampa Bay, Clearwater, or St. Petersburg area, I’d love to meet you.

I’ll be demonstrating how I put my comics together using my Mac. I’ll also have copies on hand of “Rebootus Maximus” if you want to save some shipping and pick one up from me. Word on the street is that I’m giving away a copy of “Rebootus Maximus” as a door prize!

It should be a fun night out. I hope to get a chance to interact with some local PCW fans!

-Krishna

P.S. New UNcubed today! Give it some love :)Similar Posts:

SuperFogeys Page 1 Roughs

Krishna — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:11:05 +0000

A few weeks ago, Brock Heasley approached me to draw a 3 page SuperFogeys: Origins story. The story was originally intended for David Reddick to illustrate, but Dave had to bow out due to a very busy schedule.

I was nervous and excited about the opportunity. Nervous because it had been a very long time since I attempted a page-based comic layout. Excited because, deep down, I’d been jonesing to draw some action sequence based comics.

Brock was a total pleasure to work with. He sent me a very tight script, but left it up to me to pick camera angles. I broke the script down into thumbnails and sent him the roughs to get feedback. The whole process was exciting and fun – especially because I could just draw and not have to worry about writing for a change.

Below are the roughs for page 1. You can click on ‘em to see the larger version.

As page 2 and page 3 get published on SuperFogeys, I’ll post the roughs for those pages online.

Enjoy!

-KrishnaSimilar Posts:

Gifts from the Mighty Javier!

Krishna — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:28:27 +0000

I come home from an exhausting day at work to a mystery package, sent over by none other than the Mighty Javier Hernandez, cartoonist, podcaster, and all around incredible guy!

Before opening the package, I was immediately greeted by a very cool Javier sketch on the envelope. Perhaps a prediction of things to come? We’ll see…

Anyway, inside the package were two super sweet comic books. MAN SWAMP and MANGA MUERTO. MANGA MUERTO is super thick – and MAN SWAMP harkens back to the days of comics magazines from the 70′s. Both look amazing, and I can’t wait to read ‘em both tonight.

Two good reads and a relaxing night. Thanks, Javier!

-KrishnaSimilar Posts:

DWT

Krishna — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 14:06:42 +0000

Bob’s first day is about to get more interesting….

-Krishna

Unsung Roles… of a SysAdmin

Krishna — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:00:00 +0000

Today’s comic is dedicated to sysadmin’s everywhere. Hope SysAdmin Day is a blast for you! Forward this comic to your fellow workers in case they didn’t get the memo. :)

I was a SysAdmin for about 3 years – I can definitely sympathize and empathize with what you have to put up with day in and day out. My hat’s off to you men and women who keep our computer networks going.

-KrishnaSimilar Posts: