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Being Seventeen

About Being Seventeen

Behind the Scenes


Here are the steps taken to make a strip of Being Seventeen:

1. Making Up the Story Line
Probabely the funnest part for me is making the story line. This is the part where I get to sit down with my trusty copy of Word 97 and outline the future of the comic. I type out everything, from each panels scene to everyone's dialogue and gestures.

2. Drawing
This is the part of the process that can be enjoyable or nerve racking. Sometimes trying to draw the image I have in my head is impossible, so I have to do with what I'm able to draw. I draw everything using .05mm lead and a really big eraser. Ink never touches my pictures because I feel they take away the "artistic" style away from my drawings. So all I do is go over my drawings again, making the pencil lines darker so the scanner can read it better.

3. Scanning the Images In
Scanning is boring. Really boring, but necessary. All images are scanned in at 300dpi greyscale and then exported via .bmp.

4. Touching Up and Colouring
I used Adobe Photoshop 5.0 to do all my post-drawing effects. After I open the image, I adjust the contrast to make the lines darker and then clean up any stray marks. I then proceed to color the image using layers and paintbrush. Once I'm finished with making the image look right, I re-size it and stick it in a panel for the strip.

5. Posting the Strip for All to See
After I have completed a full comic strip, I upload it to Keenspace and then stick in the necessary code, and wa la!

If you have any questions about more details on how I make my strip, feel free to email me at jtbrack@yahoo.com.