Tutorial Post: The Making of Parkur Bewth
Alrighty, ladies and gents (actually, are there even any males watching this comm?), it's time for the first ever (and probably last ever) Bitsy Bones Tutorial Post! Yay! In celebration of the newest bitsy, Parkur Bewth, this post outlines how I drew him and transformed him into the cutest little member of the bitsy family yet.
I realized after I wrote all this up that this whole post is actually a crash course in the basics of the PEN tool, because that is what I make use of 90% of the time. I tried to make it understandable even for people very unfamiliar with Photoshop, so if you are an expert in Photoshop and/or paths, you will likely find this extremely basic and the explanations long-winded.
First, I guess I should mention that I am by no means a Photoshop expert. I've only ever dabbled with it in small doses, and even then, I never really went in-depth. If you know of a more efficient way of doing things or any tips that may help, please do not be afraid to speak up and share your wisdom!
I am using Adobe Photoshop CS4, but this is really translatable to any image editing software that supports paths. In particular, I am quite fond of GIMP, a free, feature-rich, open-source image editor that's built and maintained by a community of talented and dedicated developers. If I wasn't such a pirate, I would definitely be using GIMP for all my bitsy webcomic needs.
I've kept these comics simple for two reasons: 1) I'm really no artist, just someone with apparently too much free time, a love for all things Bones, and some cracky ideas; 2) simple means I can crank out comics faster! Sure, shading and pretty backdrops would've been nice, but I don't think I actually can do those things without making you want to gouge out your eyes, so that's why you have to use your imagination for the settings and such. ;)
Let us begin by making use of our good friend google to find a picture of Ty Panitz and copying it into Photoshop. I have also pointed out a few tools/buttons I shall be making use of.
Isn't he the cutest little thing ever? I kind of want to smoosh him in a highly non-pedophilic way.
I am going to use this photo of Ty to outline Parkur's hair. For most of the characters, I pretty much improvise/exaggerate their hair to distinguish them (see Hawdjins), but I thought it would work well with Ty's hair since it's already pretty big for a little kid. I begin by selecting the PEN tool and drawing a very rough reference path. I mostly just click on any "corners" around whatever object I'm pathing. Be sure to close the path - the last point you click on should be the point you started with (your cursor will have a small circle when you hover over that point).
Once you complete a path, by default, you will notice that while the path is still selected, the shape you just drew is not anymore (the points have disappeared and only the lines remain). To get them back, use the DIRECT SELECTION tool, which looks like a white mouse cursor. You may have to right click on the PATH SELECTION tool (black mouse cursor) to get to it. Alternatively, with the PEN tool selected, press and hold the CTRL key to temporarily change it into a DIRECT SELECTION tool.
Anchor points can also be moved at any time with the DIRECT SELECTION tool.
Notice the path toolbar. Currently it has only the Working Path. You can select/deselect paths by clicking on them. When a path is selected, it will always be the first thing Photoshop checks when you try to do something such as Copy or Free Transform, so be sure to deselect paths when you are not using them. If the Working Path is not selected and you begin drawing a new path, YOUR OLD WORKING PATH WILL BE OVERWRITTEN. To save a path, double click on the working path and give it a name. Alternatively, click on the New Path button before you begin pathing.
Next, I need to curve the path so that it actually looks roughly like Ty's hair and not a polygon with hard edges. This is done by selecting the CONVERT POINT tool, which can be found by right-clicking the PEN tool on the toolbar. Alternatively, with the PEN tool selected, you can hover over a point in your path and hold ALT. This will change the PEN into a CONVERT POINT tool and do the same thing. With the CONVERT POINT tool, click and drag on one of the points. A thin line will appear on either side of the point. This determines the angle at which the line between two points curves. By adjusting these on every point, Ty's hair can be outlined much more accurately.
This is mostly trial and error at first (unless you're some math genius and can calculate inclines in your head) but becomes easier to predict the more you use them.
Okay, looking much better. Now I am going to open up a file containing another bitsy and use it as reference while drawing Parkur. I have basically been doing that for everyone, so yes, in the Bitsy world, Brenun is Adam and everyone else comes from her ribs or whatever the hell. For Parkur, I'm going to base him off Bewth.
This picture serves no purpose except that it's kind of funny?
What I did here was duplicate all of Bewth's layers and merge them (select multiple layers using SHIFT, right click for duplicate and merge). Then I used Free Transform (CTRL+T) to shrink this mini copy of Bewth. Be sure to hold SHIFT while shrinking to maintain proportion. Using the MOVE tool, I moved the mini Booth to the side so I can draw all over it. Usually, this whole step is not necessary since the adult bitsies are all the same height and have the same size head, but Parkur is tiny, so I had to shrink.
I'm going to go back to the image of Ty and with the path of his hair selected, Copy (CTRL+C) the path. Then, I'll return to the image of Bewth and Paste (CTRL+V). With this path still selected, I Free Transform (CTRL+T) and shrink it as necessary to approximately fit mini-Bewth's head. This is still very rough, so I'm not worried about it looking weird.
I also used the ELLIPSE tool to draw a path of what will be Parkur's head. You can either draw these on two different paths or on the same path like I have done. If they are on the same path, use the PATH/DIRECT SELECTION tool to select only the ellipse and use the fill path and stroke path buttons (labeled in the very first figure) to color in the head. Things to remember when doing this:
- Make a new layer for each shape. You never know when you want to nudge up or down a pixel.
- Fill first, then stroke.
- Choose the right color when filling, then change to black when stroking.
- If you want the outline to be smooth, have the BRUSH tool selected when stroking. I use a 5 px brush with 100% hardness for outlines.
For the record, yes, I did chop off mini-Bewth's head.
Next, I selected the path with Parkur's hair and fiddle around with it until it fit Parkur's new head. I filled/stroked it in the same way.
Quite dashing, even without a face. Here, you can see how the new anchor points look.
Now that Parkur's head is done, I'm moving to his clothes. I've changed the opacity on mini-Bewth's layer to... I don't remember, but it looks to be about 70 or 75%. I also made a new path and pathed out his shirt and shorts. I didn't even bother curving them.
By now, I know you know the drill. New Layer. Select shorts. Fill. Stroke. New Layer. Select shirt. Fill. Stroke.
Finally, I did Parkur's body exactly the same way. The only difference is that since it's a bottom layer, it doesn't matter what it looks like, so I didn't waste my time actually shaping it like a body. It's basically a neck with hands, and then triangles for feet. I moved this layer underneath all the others.
Tada! Parkur is all done! For his eyes, I just used the BRUSH tool to draw two dots. I wasn't happy with his blue shirt, so I gave him an orange one and drew a Flyers logo (exactly the same way I've been drawing everything else - PEN tool) for good measure. Even though we all know the Flyers suck.
Look at Parkur next to his daddy! ♥
For the tl;dr crowd, here's a PSD for you to play with. All of Parkur's paths should be there.
I will take this time to remind everyone who wanted to do a guest strip to keep at it. I'm not keeping an official list or anything, so feel free to drop in/out anytime you want.
I welcome all questions, comments, suggestions, and offerings of your firstborn child. I'm not quite sure what I would do with him/her, but I will figure it out.
I realized after I wrote all this up that this whole post is actually a crash course in the basics of the PEN tool, because that is what I make use of 90% of the time. I tried to make it understandable even for people very unfamiliar with Photoshop, so if you are an expert in Photoshop and/or paths, you will likely find this extremely basic and the explanations long-winded.
First, I guess I should mention that I am by no means a Photoshop expert. I've only ever dabbled with it in small doses, and even then, I never really went in-depth. If you know of a more efficient way of doing things or any tips that may help, please do not be afraid to speak up and share your wisdom!
I am using Adobe Photoshop CS4, but this is really translatable to any image editing software that supports paths. In particular, I am quite fond of GIMP, a free, feature-rich, open-source image editor that's built and maintained by a community of talented and dedicated developers. If I wasn't such a pirate, I would definitely be using GIMP for all my bitsy webcomic needs.
I've kept these comics simple for two reasons: 1) I'm really no artist, just someone with apparently too much free time, a love for all things Bones, and some cracky ideas; 2) simple means I can crank out comics faster! Sure, shading and pretty backdrops would've been nice, but I don't think I actually can do those things without making you want to gouge out your eyes, so that's why you have to use your imagination for the settings and such. ;)
Let us begin by making use of our good friend google to find a picture of Ty Panitz and copying it into Photoshop. I have also pointed out a few tools/buttons I shall be making use of.
Isn't he the cutest little thing ever? I kind of want to smoosh him in a highly non-pedophilic way.
I am going to use this photo of Ty to outline Parkur's hair. For most of the characters, I pretty much improvise/exaggerate their hair to distinguish them (see Hawdjins), but I thought it would work well with Ty's hair since it's already pretty big for a little kid. I begin by selecting the PEN tool and drawing a very rough reference path. I mostly just click on any "corners" around whatever object I'm pathing. Be sure to close the path - the last point you click on should be the point you started with (your cursor will have a small circle when you hover over that point).
Once you complete a path, by default, you will notice that while the path is still selected, the shape you just drew is not anymore (the points have disappeared and only the lines remain). To get them back, use the DIRECT SELECTION tool, which looks like a white mouse cursor. You may have to right click on the PATH SELECTION tool (black mouse cursor) to get to it. Alternatively, with the PEN tool selected, press and hold the CTRL key to temporarily change it into a DIRECT SELECTION tool.
Anchor points can also be moved at any time with the DIRECT SELECTION tool.
Notice the path toolbar. Currently it has only the Working Path. You can select/deselect paths by clicking on them. When a path is selected, it will always be the first thing Photoshop checks when you try to do something such as Copy or Free Transform, so be sure to deselect paths when you are not using them. If the Working Path is not selected and you begin drawing a new path, YOUR OLD WORKING PATH WILL BE OVERWRITTEN. To save a path, double click on the working path and give it a name. Alternatively, click on the New Path button before you begin pathing.
Next, I need to curve the path so that it actually looks roughly like Ty's hair and not a polygon with hard edges. This is done by selecting the CONVERT POINT tool, which can be found by right-clicking the PEN tool on the toolbar. Alternatively, with the PEN tool selected, you can hover over a point in your path and hold ALT. This will change the PEN into a CONVERT POINT tool and do the same thing. With the CONVERT POINT tool, click and drag on one of the points. A thin line will appear on either side of the point. This determines the angle at which the line between two points curves. By adjusting these on every point, Ty's hair can be outlined much more accurately.
This is mostly trial and error at first (unless you're some math genius and can calculate inclines in your head) but becomes easier to predict the more you use them.
Okay, looking much better. Now I am going to open up a file containing another bitsy and use it as reference while drawing Parkur. I have basically been doing that for everyone, so yes, in the Bitsy world, Brenun is Adam and everyone else comes from her ribs or whatever the hell. For Parkur, I'm going to base him off Bewth.
This picture serves no purpose except that it's kind of funny?
What I did here was duplicate all of Bewth's layers and merge them (select multiple layers using SHIFT, right click for duplicate and merge). Then I used Free Transform (CTRL+T) to shrink this mini copy of Bewth. Be sure to hold SHIFT while shrinking to maintain proportion. Using the MOVE tool, I moved the mini Booth to the side so I can draw all over it. Usually, this whole step is not necessary since the adult bitsies are all the same height and have the same size head, but Parkur is tiny, so I had to shrink.
I'm going to go back to the image of Ty and with the path of his hair selected, Copy (CTRL+C) the path. Then, I'll return to the image of Bewth and Paste (CTRL+V). With this path still selected, I Free Transform (CTRL+T) and shrink it as necessary to approximately fit mini-Bewth's head. This is still very rough, so I'm not worried about it looking weird.
I also used the ELLIPSE tool to draw a path of what will be Parkur's head. You can either draw these on two different paths or on the same path like I have done. If they are on the same path, use the PATH/DIRECT SELECTION tool to select only the ellipse and use the fill path and stroke path buttons (labeled in the very first figure) to color in the head. Things to remember when doing this:
- Make a new layer for each shape. You never know when you want to nudge up or down a pixel.
- Fill first, then stroke.
- Choose the right color when filling, then change to black when stroking.
- If you want the outline to be smooth, have the BRUSH tool selected when stroking. I use a 5 px brush with 100% hardness for outlines.
For the record, yes, I did chop off mini-Bewth's head.
Next, I selected the path with Parkur's hair and fiddle around with it until it fit Parkur's new head. I filled/stroked it in the same way.
Quite dashing, even without a face. Here, you can see how the new anchor points look.
Now that Parkur's head is done, I'm moving to his clothes. I've changed the opacity on mini-Bewth's layer to... I don't remember, but it looks to be about 70 or 75%. I also made a new path and pathed out his shirt and shorts. I didn't even bother curving them.
By now, I know you know the drill. New Layer. Select shorts. Fill. Stroke. New Layer. Select shirt. Fill. Stroke.
Finally, I did Parkur's body exactly the same way. The only difference is that since it's a bottom layer, it doesn't matter what it looks like, so I didn't waste my time actually shaping it like a body. It's basically a neck with hands, and then triangles for feet. I moved this layer underneath all the others.
Tada! Parkur is all done! For his eyes, I just used the BRUSH tool to draw two dots. I wasn't happy with his blue shirt, so I gave him an orange one and drew a Flyers logo (exactly the same way I've been drawing everything else - PEN tool) for good measure. Even though we all know the Flyers suck.
Look at Parkur next to his daddy! ♥
For the tl;dr crowd, here's a PSD for you to play with. All of Parkur's paths should be there.
I will take this time to remind everyone who wanted to do a guest strip to keep at it. I'm not keeping an official list or anything, so feel free to drop in/out anytime you want.
I welcome all questions, comments, suggestions, and offerings of your firstborn child. I'm not quite sure what I would do with him/her, but I will figure it out.