Shading Questions: Black & White

I want to do a comic... I want this comic to be purely 2 toned, black or white. However I need help with it.

How do you make characters that purely dress in black not just look like black blobs? Especially when things like hands and other details vanish with pure black.

Hope I'm clear enough there... hope someone can help

Use things like White lines to indicate outlines of things, like limbs and outfit parts. Take a look at Crimson Jimson's stuff for good examples of what I mean. Heck just about any comic book inked piece, before it goes to colors. You will see uninked parts to show outlines of stuff.

I always finds that looks a bit weird Oo

Outlining in white. Judicious use of various shades of gray (via shading techniques). Highlights, highlights, highlights.

Highlighting a dark object can have the same effect as shading a light one, in terms of creating depth and texture.

Edgelighting will be very important.

How's this?
Blank (aka, unnamed character)

Also, I just had another thought... that might sound a little wrong... how would you draw a black guy without making them white or like some sort of racist characture... I might have to concede defeat and use tones after all >.<

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How's this?
Blank (aka, unnamed character)

Also, I just had another thought... that might sound a little wrong... how would you draw a black guy without making them white or like some sort of racist characture... I might have to concede defeat and use tones after all >.<

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Looking at some pictures from Sin City might really help you there. There are some great examples where race is conveyed in purely hard B & W scales.

Don't draw to represent the colors, but the lighting. A black man will still have white lighting that would make his features (eyes, cheek, nose, lips, etc) white, but more of his face would be dark. In the same lighting, a white face would have the same lighting points, but more of their face would be "light enough" to represent as white anyways.

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How's this?
Blank (aka, unnamed character)

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Looks pretty good. Some shading/highlighting in the wrinkles of the pants and along the shoulders/sleeves of the jacket would make it pop a bit more, though.

Depending on your taste, you can also use cross hatching to great effect to simulate non-blacks and whites and to add variation that you can't do with solids. Different types of cross catching and layering of cross hatching can also form to make shades of near black or to suggest curves and surfaces that aren't there.

Never had much luck with cross hatching... might look up some tutorials on it.

I guess it depends on what style you want to go for. Realistic, or cell shaded/animated type. Cross hatching can be used to great effect, as can the thin white outlines. Really depends what you're going for. You just want to 'indicate' things, you don't have to fully define them. The human eye is very good at reading these visual 'tricks' and filling in the details.

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I want to do a comic... I want this comic to be purely 2 toned, black or white. However I need help with it.

How do you make characters that purely dress in black not just look like black blobs? Especially when things like hands and other details vanish with pure black.

Hope I'm clear enough there... hope someone can help

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Check out what Miller does with Sin City.

As Suggested, Miller is pretty much "THE" source for the modern comix look of straight 2 tone stuff. Very Dynamic, and great use of Negative Space.

Another would be David Lapham. "Stray Bullets", "Amy Racecar" and his latest(only) run on "Dardevil/Punisher"(Colored but good).

Don't be afraid to go back in time too. The late Alex Toth has an amazing grasp of black&white too.

And of course Mike Mignola. If ya can find them, the old b&w issues of Hellboy are amazing.

Which leads to "Batman: BLack & White", 2 vols' both very good.

Hrmm.... Drawing "Ethnicity?" There's always a line, but for everyone it's different. Realistically, grab alot of National Geographics(Cheap!) and draw from those. Every ethnicity has it's telltale mark.

If ya have anymore q's post, to toast.

-CJ

First: That one example that you, yourself, posted, Zikar, works quite nicely!

As I remember, when "V For Vendetta" (the comic) was first published in Warrior magazine (a british comic mag) it was all black and white. David Lloyd was the artist, and it had some very striking, stark, black vs. white lighting.

Of course, all the suggestions given so far above are great!

I'm particularly impressed by the suggesstion from ChaseArcanum: "Don't draw to represent the colors, but the lighting." Plus, consider how the lighting is affected by the subjects material - Something that is shiney black will react to light differently than something thats more matte finished.

There is also the idea of using "zipatone" to get one or more middle gray(s) using black and white. If you're working the art on actual paper, then you can get sheets of various shades of "zipatone" - a pattern of black dots on a thin, plastic film with adhesive backing that you cut out and apply to the areas you want. If you're using digital image editing (like Photoshop) then you can use filters or just save as a GIF with only 2 color and use dithering.

Also, know that there are many, many different styles of "crosshatching" - from using just a series of lines all angled in one direction, to the literal cross-hatching, to small, curved-stroke squggling, and more.

As for ethnic features - I'd say get some photos of some real people and study, draw, and dissect them.

...aw heck, was any of that new or useful information?

Thanks for the advice everyone!

I'll deffinitly be checking out these things you mentioned

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I guess it depends on what style you want to go for. Realistic, or cell shaded/animated type. Cross hatching can be used to great effect, as can the thin white outlines. Really depends what you're going for. You just want to 'indicate' things, you don't have to fully define them. The human eye is very good at reading these visual 'tricks' and filling in the details.

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Also depends on the style of cross hatching. You can use it heavily or sparcely in a piece and the effects can be very different. It can be as simple as a few lines sticking out of a chunk of solid black or it can criss crossing lines. A little cross hatching on a leg versus an entire background for instance. A little light cross hatching can be used next to solid black to make a sort of gradiant and that may be all you want (on a leg in half shadow for example). A solid black background of stars looks different and feels different if it's a background of stars with the black cross hatched in in patchs. Some comic artists still use cross hatching subtle even with computer coloring these days. And of course most probably know traditional art (Frank Cho for instance is awesome with just cross hatching and a pen).

Edit for examples:

http://www.alandavis-comicart.com/si...er-586x630.jpg <- Look at Britain's armpit and legs. Basically cross hatching but very sparce. Still, it gives a better sense of a slight shadow/curve than had it been a solid black.

http://www.musial.org/comicart/faq/images/xmen136.jpg <- Which isn't to say solid black doesn't work too. Here, it's used not just to show the mood, but also gives Jean's costume a shiny look.

Also, depending on what kind of look you're going for pressure and thus how light your strokes are and how much you like/can smudge can work to great effect too. Prime example I can think of is Jay Anacleto - see http://www.haberlin.com/images/penci...to/image01.jpg which is actually one of his not so good pictures and doesn't to a lot to show off his range with the pencil or the complexity and subtly he can pull off.