Comic Styles in Photoshop
You can create a comic book style image using Photoshop.
This focuses on the style for a single image rather than producing an entire comic book, and it you were going to do that I'd suggest editing each image by itself anyway.
Editing the image
This involves some clever use of layers and filters. It's a little tricky, but doable and can be useful for all sorts of things. The key is add enough dark lines and to merge the colours using an Oil Paint filter.
You could use any image for this, but it probably works best with images that include people. That way you can add speech bubbles (call outs) and other lettering.
I've provided you with three of my images below. These ones work, so maybe start with those and then use your own image afterwards.
You can use any of these images for this skill:
Students on steps image – this is the best image to use
If you use your own image, make sure it's big enough to do justice to the technique.
Adding lettering
Once you have the style, you can add call outs to the image.
Comic book lettering needs a certain type of hand-drawn font. This is the perfect time to bring out COMIC SANS! I mean, it's in the name isn't it?
Combining images and adding comic styles
This brings together some real skills.
I'm looking for a grimey, desaturated background image with a brighter image on top that's then got a layer style added to it.
The instructions are a little complex and rely on you already having done the first exercise.
Combining two images in a comic style
The two images to use are:
Creating task
This would preferably be more than one lesson.
Duck image (you can change colours by using a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer)
Retro comic book style
This is an alternative style of comic book image that's a little simpler to work with.
Retro comic book style (needs updating to Photoshop CC)
The base image you use for this will make the difference to how much contrast and brightness you need to add.
Here are some images you could try this on:
Shouting man image - right click and save the image
Fire drill image - right click and save the image
Lego Men in Black image - right click and save the image
Or you could search for an image on one of the copyright free image sites I have listed.
Slides from class
Theory about comic book styles.
There are more resources, including a range of templates to use for frames, on the Archived Comic Book Styles page. Some of that might get pulled over here eventually, depending on exactly what I decide to do with this unit.