HOME | DD

DrewGreen — Basic Comic Lettering Tutorial

Published: 2012-05-22 17:30:27 +0000 UTC; Views: 6915; Favourites: 146; Downloads: 105
Redirect to original
Description Hey folks!

My friend Joe Edens (responsible for the webcomic Rabbid Force [link] ) asked me how I make my word balloons non-elliptical, so I threw this tutorial together for him. It uses Photoshop, but you can do this in Illustrator and it probably applies to other art programs similarly.

In other news, the campaign for the second episode of my webcomic, The Super-Gay Adventures of Ross Boston, is live on Indiegogo. Donations are appreciated, but so is sharing the link wherever. The link is here: [link]

~Drew
Related content
Comments: 32

Devilactive [2022-03-28 02:15:05 +0000 UTC]

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

TheInkyWay [2014-10-22 07:08:10 +0000 UTC]

Ugh, GODDD...

THANK YOU for making an Illustrator Lettering tutorial that's SIMPLE AND EASY TO FOLLOW!

(Not sarcasm. I was able to follow along with this very easily.)

Is there any more?

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

RunMonchoRun [2013-09-11 21:36:40 +0000 UTC]

Cool! make some more tuts! or at least a cool book of "how to". I would definitely buy it. kkk 

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

jomll [2013-02-14 08:00:02 +0000 UTC]

You need to make your own How-To... Book. You're one of the first I've seen who explained how to use Photoshop as well as Illustrator to make word balloons simplified. I'll be using your method.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

DrewGreen In reply to jomll [2013-02-18 08:14:03 +0000 UTC]

Well I'm certainly glad I was able to help!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Mosama [2012-06-03 20:05:28 +0000 UTC]

The entire time I was reading your webcomic I was thinking 'what font is he using?'
I MUST HAVE IT.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

DrewGreen In reply to Mosama [2012-06-04 01:13:43 +0000 UTC]

Hehe, I think it's a Blambot font. The font itself is called Crimefighter BB, if I'm not mistaken. Here's Blambot's website: www.blambot.com

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

HeroGear [2012-05-30 18:28:25 +0000 UTC]

I see you and Jerzy Drose do this! Really nice write up and smart idea!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

ichimarunef [2012-05-30 13:55:38 +0000 UTC]

My underwear isn't smelly

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

skortbulb [2012-05-26 00:31:56 +0000 UTC]

Ahh. Nice method. i usually just draw my bubble freehand all the time. I like 'em all irregular. This is good combo of even and organic.

Do you ever save the shapes you make for later, or do you make 'em form scratch each time?

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

DrewGreen In reply to skortbulb [2012-05-28 23:52:42 +0000 UTC]

I make them from scratch every time so they'll conform more uniquely to the shape of every block of text. I can definitely see the benefits of hand-drawing your bubbles, it matches some aesthetics really well.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

skortbulb In reply to DrewGreen [2012-06-03 06:21:24 +0000 UTC]

That's what I thought. They work really well on SGARB.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

COMETBUNNY [2012-05-25 14:13:07 +0000 UTC]

Thank you so much for sharing`

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

KarlaDiazC [2012-05-23 14:50:25 +0000 UTC]

Great! thanks!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

SercansArtbook [2012-05-23 10:35:10 +0000 UTC]

I also downloaded that fond. Because i love how it looks in your series. I will use it on my illustrations when i want to ( i don't have a webcomic YET ) The website is talking about licence fee. Do i need to pay that if i use it on my illustrations?

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

AF16 [2012-05-23 09:54:16 +0000 UTC]

Nice. My balloons are allways too round.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

MrBIGAL [2012-05-23 08:29:18 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for sharing! It should come in handy.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

LeoLeus [2012-05-23 04:15:21 +0000 UTC]

This is nice
I think that maybe there could be an inclusion of the Options bar when the Pen tool is selected, because judging by the looks of your screenshots, if I am correct, you have to change it from "Shape layers" to "Paths", so you can enjoy of a bit less of a mess when dealing with vectors in Photoshop.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

DrewGreen In reply to LeoLeus [2012-05-23 05:33:18 +0000 UTC]

Hmmm, you're right. I thought it would be communicated with the shapes options bar being shown earlier on, but I may include it again later in the tutorial once I get the chance to add it. Thanks for letting me know!

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

LeoLeus In reply to DrewGreen [2012-05-23 13:23:38 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome! BTW I sent you an e-mail to the address listed on your blogspot

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Hisscale [2012-05-23 01:30:34 +0000 UTC]

Oh, cool! Thanks! I was very easy to follow.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

GeezGeorge [2012-05-23 01:11:53 +0000 UTC]

Ah. Ahhhhhhh. So thaaat's how you do it...
Goodbye fuzzy edges on my balloons!
I have a decided aversion to pen tool, vectors and paths, but I need to foce myself out of that. They're too useful to ignore!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

ArsonDadko [2012-05-22 22:32:04 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for the tip. I prefer these ballons to perfectly round ones...

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Jean--Franco [2012-05-22 22:07:18 +0000 UTC]

Hey Drew, nice and short tutorial, perfect. Can you tell me what's the name of that font? thanks!

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

DrewGreen In reply to Jean--Franco [2012-05-23 05:36:10 +0000 UTC]

It's Crimefighter BB, and I believe it's from Blambot.com!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

dynamicsketch [2012-05-22 20:25:48 +0000 UTC]

Very sweet and handy. I made a tutorial years ago on how to make word balloons with borders. I needed some help on squaring the corners of those balloons a bit. I'm going to play with that right now.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

DrewGreen In reply to dynamicsketch [2012-05-23 05:35:22 +0000 UTC]

If you create your balloons in Illustrator, you don't have to worry about that so much with borders (just set your miter limit high so it won't be squared when you get to sharp points like the balloon tail). However...getting your lettering/balloons from Illustrator to Photoshop is a bit of a hassle and I generally hate having to open up a new program to work on an image I've already started in Photoshop, if that makes sense.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

dynamicsketch In reply to DrewGreen [2012-05-23 06:13:14 +0000 UTC]

I don't have Illustrator.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

dynakor [2012-05-22 18:32:41 +0000 UTC]

Thank You for this. Digital lettering is still a learning process for me, so I love seeing lettering tutorials.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

AndyBennett [2012-05-22 17:45:02 +0000 UTC]

Super useful! Thanks so much for this! Loving Ross Boston by the way, you're an amazing talent!

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

DrewGreen In reply to AndyBennett [2012-05-22 17:51:17 +0000 UTC]

Thank you so much! I hope this helps you out.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

AndyBennett In reply to DrewGreen [2012-05-22 17:53:39 +0000 UTC]

<3

👍: 0 ⏩: 0