Use of channels for traditional comic book artists

[Migue G]

Hi Everyone,

I'm a traditional comic book artist who used to scan his pencil work in order to prepare it for printing and inking.

For this process, I used to eliminate the sketch blue pencil from the drawing in order to leave only the graphite work.

Then, I save it like a grey file and then I convert it to cyan and print.

Thanks to this method, I own a digital file and original physical work.

For this process, in other programs, I used to work with channels, eliminating the cyan channel for the grey file. Then, I transformed this file into a blue color work for printing adding a mask layer.

I tried to do it in Affinity Photo, but I couldn't do it.

Maybe it's possible but I don't know how.

Could you assist me in this subject?

Regards.

Miguel Ángel

 

[NotMyFault]

Hi,

can you please share example file, showing the different states of edit, e.g.

1. original showing multiple colors
2. result after removing blue pencil
3. re-color to cyan

There are many ways to achieve what you are asking for, but it depends on several factors which woks best (.e.g. areas where blue and grey are both visible. Do you use only hard pencil lines, or shades? 

[NotMyFault]

In affinity, you can use a channels adjustment layer and adjust the settings to remove all cyan.

Assuming you are working in CMYK document format.

It depends how grey (graphite) areas are encoded, as pure black (K only) or rich black (CMY or CMYK). Pure black will be fine, rich black will do some collateral damage to the graphite colored areas.

[Migue G]

Hi,

I attach a few examples of deleting sketch blue drawings and converting the drawing line into a blue plantiff for inking.

Apologies for being in Spanish but they're short videos.

Thanks for your interest in my request.

Regards

 

 

[NotMyFault]

Sorry, these videos look a bit confusing to me. I don’t get the process, I see the steps, but it seems overly complicated to use channels.

a simple black and white adjustment layer should do the trick.

Or even simpler, why not just skip the B/W conversion. simply adding a fill layer choose your target color, and set blend mode to hue or color?

[walt.farrell]

Perhaps it would help to have a sample scanned document, in its original state, so we can see what you're working with and play with it.

[thomaso]

If I understand right you want to achieve A.) that the light blue/cyan in the sketch gets removed while B.) the black/gray should get blue?

Here is a  rather simple way (without Channels panel) with A.) a channel mixer adjustment + blend mode and B.) a Colour Overlay layer effect. Like so …

Saved with History / V1: Comic-Skizze grau cyan.afphoto

[Migue G]

Hi, Everyone,

I appreciate your time to look for a solution for me.

The traditional way of drawing and inking, with a little help from the graphics software, is more or less the following:

 

1) You draw your page. first, you use a cyan sketch pencil to do a raw drawing and second, you use a graphite pencil in order to refine it.

2) You scan the drawing.

3) You use the software to delete the blue pencil in order to get a clean page.

4) you transform the page in cyan again (the difference is the raw sketch is not there)

5) You print it and ink it.

6) You scan again and repeat the erasing of the blue drawing.

 

In summary, you finish your work by having a digital and physical version of the page in graphite and ink.

The digital version is for publishing and the physical version is for selling to people who are interested in having an original page.

 

I have attached two videos of both processes using Photoshop. As you can see, is very direct and fast.

 

[walt.farrell]

Thank you for the details, @Migue G. Could you also provide a quick sample sketch where you have performed steps 1 (drawing with both pencils) and 2 (scanning) and give us the scanned sample file? That lets us see exactly what you have, and experiment, without having to create something "close" to your file on our own.

[Migue G]

Hi,

I have attached the files of this page in different stages.

Regards.

[Old Bruce]

On 10/2/2023 at 9:15 PM, Migue G said:

For this process, in other programs, I used to work with channels, eliminating the cyan channel for the grey file. 

Are you wanting the "graphite" to become cyan so you can print that and use it for final inking?

I would convert the jpeg into a CMYK document. Delete the Cyan channel. Add a B&W adjustment layer and play with the red setting it to - 100 or more, this is just to get good contrast and detail. Then I would flatten the file so I have effectively a B&W CMYK document. I would then use the Black channel to make a Spare Channel, set that spare channel to the Cyan Channel and Clear the MYK channels. Save and done.

Takes longer to write about it than to do it.

[Migue G]

Hi,

Thank you for your help, but I don't know if the Channel section you're advising is the following in the photo, and moreover, how do you delete the channel? I tried but I can only make it invisible.

Regards

 

[NotMyFault]

I tested with the files you provided. There is absolutely no difference to a simple black and white adjustment. So no good reason to fiddle with channels panel which is a bit clumsy to use.

never the less, you need to have a pixel layer. To get one, use merge visible. Then channels panel allows to right-click on a channel called „pixel cyan“, and you can „delete“ the channel (fill with black).

the Same can be achieved non-destructively with a channels adjustment, where you choose the cyan channel, at set output contribution to 0.

you may merge visible, but this is superfluous if you export to a raster format.

[lepr]

On 10/3/2023 at 5:15 AM, Migue G said:

For this process, in other programs, I used to work with channels, eliminating the cyan channel for the grey file. Then, I transformed this file into a blue color work for printing adding a mask layer.

A macro is attached. Import it into the Macro panel of Affinity Photo then add it to the Library of macros for future use.

Open a blue pencil and graphite image then run the macro to produce a CMYK image with the blue pencil eliminated and the graphite converted to cyan for printing or exporting.

remove cyan and convert remainder to cyan.afmacro

 

 

 

 

 

[Old Bruce]

And a macro with my method.

Graphite to Cyan.afmacro

[firstdefence]

As per @NotMyFault solution using adjustment filters, a simple HSL Adjustment would also work. Select the cyan colour dot and increase the luminosity slider to 100%

To get a cyan sheet Id use a recolour adjustment filter set to Hue 180º

 

[Migue G]

Thank you, Everyone!!!

Finally, I got it!

Through your advice, I could do it and I understand better now the use of layers, filters, and channels.

Regards