Artist insight: Jinhwa Jang on adopting comic techniques in digital illustration

Discover how you can take drawing methods such as screen tones, pattern fills and solid colours, and apply them to your digital artworks

- JINHWA JANG

Two years ago during the summer vacation, I went on a 10-week comic workshop run by Quang Comics. At that time I hadn’t established my working process and style, and I thought that I’d not only learn how to write and make comic strips, but also get inspiration from great comic artists. Yet the more I learnt about comics, the more I realised that comic techniques can also be applied to digital illustration work. Here, I’d like to explain how I use comic techniques in my digital illustrations, as well as reveal some useful tools and tricks.

ENHANCING THE LINE-WORK

At that time I worked digitally. There are countless digital brushes that can be acquired from the internet, and trying to choose one was tricky. I felt I’d been given too many options, but also believed that just randomly picking a brush wouldn’t be helpful. And then I remembered something the teacher told me: that I should decide on the brush style that could best deliver the theme and the mood of the story.

The comic I was working on at that time had a science-fiction theme. I wanted my comic to feel cold and calm, so I explored mainly solid, hard Photoshop brushes without much pen pressure. I also tried out various brushes using Illustrator and Clip Studio Paint. Unlike Photoshop, both programs enabled me to use different brushes on the line-work in real-time using line vectors. I could also adjust the stroke sizes, so before I really started working on the comic I could see if the line complemented the theme.