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Author Topic: Help With Manga Illustrating - Night Settings  (Read 3708 times)

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Offline Forlorn Serpent

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Help With Manga Illustrating - Night Settings
« on: April 29, 2017, 11:07:48 AM »
I'm having trouble with this one. From the various examples i've seen, it really depends on how the illustrator does it. But is there a common feature that i'm missing when doing exterior night illustrations?

I've seen mangaka do a regular drawing with a screen tone over it.

I've seen black and white drawings that just use an abundant amount of black to create dark shadows. I'm no where good enough to do that.

If you use manga studio/clip studio, what screentone density and line number do you use and what type of tone do you use so it doesn't look like gray scale. That is what i'm really having trouble with.

I want to be consistent but i fear that each time i do an exterior night panel, it looks different from the rest.

Naruto Example


Monster Musume


i'm pretty sure i can draw, or at least line art a panel. What would be the easiest or at least simplest way of doing night scenes without it distracting or ruining the entire panel.  Right now i think i should just do what Naruto does and just have a black background and everything just stays the same. But then i feel like i'm missing out on establish the tone (ha ha, a pun there) for the scene. 
« Last Edit: April 29, 2017, 11:29:20 AM by Forlorn Serpent »

Offline MahluaandMilk

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Re: Help With Manga Illustrating - Night Settings
« Reply #1 on: April 29, 2017, 02:37:24 PM »
Hmm...since you work digitally, I'd say play around with the different styles on different layers and see which version of it you like best for your work. Now that you mention it, I haven't tried to draw or color a night scene in ages, and I mean like, back to maybe middle school level far back. I'll have to look into it as well.
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Offline MK

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Re: Help With Manga Illustrating - Night Settings
« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2017, 04:18:27 AM »
I would say it depends on the theme of the story.  If it's some light hearted comedy then using screentones is better, if it is darker/violent then completely black is fine.

If you use a black sky then you need to have some kind of contrast with the ground/mountains/buildings or just ouline them with white.

I haven't really used screentones on manga/clip studio in a while so i can't say too much.  All i remember is that 60% is pretty dark but you can usually tell the difference in screentones when there is 20%+ difference.  So 80% is EXTREMELY dark but you would tell the difference of 80% and black.  I'll check sometime and let you know more

Offline Forlorn Serpent

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Re: Help With Manga Illustrating - Night Settings
« Reply #3 on: May 09, 2017, 04:29:17 AM »
Any help will come in handy. I just don't get screentones at all.

Offline MK

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Re: Help With Manga Illustrating - Night Settings
« Reply #4 on: May 09, 2017, 04:52:19 AM »
Screentones were invented to create the feeling of grayscale without actually using gray.  By using black dots you are able to save money on ink but still achieve the gray colors without hatching/cross hatching.  You can basically think of the as stippling just with much less effort involved

Offline KeanFox

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Re: Help With Manga Illustrating - Night Settings
« Reply #5 on: May 09, 2017, 12:42:37 PM »
Screentones were invented to create the feeling of grayscale without actually using gray.  By using black dots you are able to save money on ink but still achieve the gray colors without hatching/cross hatching.  You can basically think of the as stippling just with much less effort involved
I didn't know that. glad to know, It make sense.

In the book How To Draw Manga Getting Started page 119. They take a line art of girl on a bicycle . Then make it look like night then dawn just by playing with tone. I always liked that chapter because it made sense to me.

I don't think you have to be consistent  If its fast moving action shonen go with black and minimum tones.
 Vice versa if you going for mood. Play with it, find your sweet spot.
I need to play with tones.


Offline Gabryel

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Re: Help With Manga Illustrating - Night Settings
« Reply #6 on: May 11, 2017, 06:05:40 AM »
What KeanFox said. You don't need to be consistent, if the flow is good. You have to think what you want to achieve on that page / panel, and go with that. Reading a Manga, the people often just fly over the panels with their eyes, so they won't notice small changes in shading or tones.

That being said, I grayscaled my whole night scene background :D it's a lot about atmosphere in my case, hence I made everything darker.
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