Traditional manga is printed in strict black and white on paper that is not of the highest quality in the world. Not only do you work without color, but you often work without shades of gray. That means everything has to be tinted or shaded in black and white to provide contrast and definition to the panel. Hue and shading are interchangeable terms; we use both words throughout the chapter to mean the same thing.

CHOOSING THE CORRECT TEXTURE

Simply applying a random hue to a drawing is not enough. It is important to choose the correct texture for the job.

There are two things to consider when toning: the lightness or darkness of a shade, and the toning pattern. How the light source can affect a tone will be explained in more detail in the next chapter, but it is clear that a light and fun scene should not have dark tones all over it. Similarly, a film noir manga should tend toward the dark end of the scale when it comes to tones.

Lightness and darkness, or hue values are distinguished by the percentage of black in the hue. So 5% is very, very light, while anything above 75% is very, very dark.

The darker the hue, the harder it is to tell the difference. After 60% or so, it is important to be fussy and not to put numerous extremely dark shades.

Many hues are not simply shades of gray, but rather have appropriate patterns for different textures. These textures mimic different surfaces, such as wood, metal, and concrete. Tones are often placed on a garment to indicate a pattern on the garment. Again, choosing the correct pattern in tone is key. When the clothes are toned, do not give the gloomy hero a polka dot shirt. Similarly, a plaid shade is correct for a school uniform.

Tones are generally made up of a series of black and white dots. These dots, printed, appear to have a gray value to the eye. By using only black and white ink, not even gray, printing costs are cheaper. Clip Studio Paint specializes in creating solid black and white art, but it also has options for gray printing.

 

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LPI (LINES PER INCH)

Point tones in Clip Studio Paint are first organized by the number of lines in the tone. Lines Per Inch (LPI) is a unit of measurement for a halftone. The number of dotted lines in a diagonal square inch is the LPI or L of the pitch. What this means in real terms: the lower the L, the fewer dots it has, and the larger the dots. Conversely, the more L, the smaller the dots, and the hue appears closer to a solid gray. A widely used solid gray is 65L and is a good default.

To understand how objects in the real world translate into appropriate tones, it might be wise to draw from real life and see what fits. When deciding on a shade pattern, look at recent fashion catalogs. The more the tones match what a person would actually see, the more they blend in with the overall scene and the less they are disturbed. After all, you want the reader to focus on the story and the art itself, not the shading. The paradox is that the better the shading, the less it will be noticeable, and that's a good thing.

Here are the three previous drawings without shades, and then with a series of shades applied to them. The first drawing in each series is the detuned drawing, followed by the "good" tone, and then two "bad" tones.

 

 

Now we are going to tell you the best technique to apply these tones in Clip Studio Paint.

Step 1

Once you have your drawing open, you are going to use the "magic wand" tool to select the areas we want to tone. In the "magic wand" tool option, check Expand / Reduce Area and then set the number to 0.2mm, and also check All Layers. If you can't find the tool option, have the "magic wand" tool selected, then go to Window -s- Tool options.

 

Step 2

Once you have the areas you want to tone selected, drag and drop the shade you want onto the page selection.

Step 3

Repeat steps 01 and 02 on the different areas you want to tone, using different shades.

Step 4

To add shadow, use the "lasso tool". Draw a selection using this tool, and then drop the hue on the new selection. Repeat this step until you have shaded all the characters.

Step 5

To tone the background, double click on a gradient shade. I chose Basic - 2- Gradation - 1 Point - 42.5L. A window called Tone Properties will appear. Click the Paste button on the page, bottom left. This will cover the entire page with the tone.

Step 6

Open the Layer Properties window if it isn't already open. Open the shades tab at the top of the window. This will allow you to make changes to the tone type. Change the angle to "90" in the View Settings and increase the Repeat Size so that the gradient fills the entire page. Once you are done, click OK.

Step 7

We only want the background tone to be the background and not to cover the entire page, so we have to hide the background gradient layer by clicking the eye for the layer. This will make it easy to select just the background. Then use the "magic wand" tool to select the background, make sure the All Layers option is selected. Then go to, Selection -s- Invert Selection. This will select only the foreground figure in this case. Make the layer visible again by clicking the eye icon next to the layer and pressing the Delete key.

Finished!

THE VALUE AND THE SOURCE OF LIGHT

The choice of value often comes down to the lighting and mood on the particular panel. Before shading, tints often pick one or more light sources on the page and ink their drawing with those sources in mind. The places where the light falls are not shaded and, on the other side of the objects, there are shadows.

In manga, texture and even solid tones are often used as a graphic element. The use of solid blocks allows easy identification. If a jacket is dark gray, making the entire jacket solid gray is called using the local value. Local value has nothing to do with light, but is the natural color or value of an object.

Often times, a character will have only one or two elements of their design with a strong, local value or texture that will be consistent throughout the manga. This gives characters and objects a strong and easily recognizable shape. There are artists across the spectrum, like Satoshi Shiki, who use tone to create shaded form; But, most artists from shounen to shoujo manga frequently use tones graphically. There are often panels for drama, mood, and setting shots with additional shading to show the form.

In toning, the shape can be created by using multiple shades. On a piece of dark clothing, the local value would be applied first. Then a shadow tone can be applied over the local value in areas away from light. This will create the illusion of shape and still have a recognizable silhouette and good design. Always make sure the L of the shades is the same when they overlap.

 

THE STATE OF MIND

The tone or mood of a particular story also dictates the type of tones used. A light shoujo story will have fewer shadows on a panel, and therefore will have a much lighter tone than a hard sci-fi story. Pretty backgrounds, such as flowers or animals, can be used to enhance the atmosphere. By contrast, a grim and gritty tale that takes place outside on a dark, rainy night will have dark tones throughout. The shadows will be black, or close to it, and often the tones can even be waived in favor of point blacks, or large areas of black on a panel.

If a character on a panel is feeling depressed, the tones can be darkened to reflect their mood. Similarly, a character finding his way out of a bad situation can symbolically "light up" with lighter shades on the page.

The reader's eye tends to focus on the place where there is the most contrast, or the focal point. Manga uses a lot of negative space, large white areas, so the darkest areas are usually where the focal point is. Keep this principle in mind when toning both the page as a whole and the individual panels. If you're taking a dramatic break from a panel, it often helps to make that panel stand out from the other panels on the page by using tones.

Here are two examples of drawings that have lighter and darker shades depending on the presence or absence of light. The first image is the toned drawing; the second is drawing with a strong light source; and the third is the drawing with a weak light source and a strong shadow.

 

AVOID MOIRE PATTERNS

A common mistake with tones is that they create these unsightly patterns on them in the actual comic. These are called moiré patterns. What are they and where do they come from?

Simple: Moiré patterns are like optical illusions and are created when the points of the shades are incorrectly resized or overlapped. It is important for the tone in an original, uncompressed file and to know what the print size and resolution will be, be it the native Clip Studio Paint file format, a native Photoshop PSD file, or a TIFF file. The resolution should be around 600 DPI (dots per inch) to 1200 DPI depending on the printer. Hue in a high resolution file means that when the page appears in the print sleeve, the hue appears exactly as you intended it to be and no strange patterns on it.

Preventing moiré is easy in Clip Studio Paint, but there are times when you have to be cautious. When shades that are black and white overlap, the shades must be the same L, or they will cause moiré patterns. Notice the angle of the overlapping tones as well; certain combinations of different angles could cause moiré as well.

Never save a drawing as JPG and then try to tone it. The only time it can be saved separately in JPG format is when the page is completely finished, and the only reason to save in this format is to make a webcomic or for other Internet use such as MySpace or an online portfolio. When resizing a black and white image for the web, a moiré effect may occur when trying to reduce it to a size smaller than that of printing. This can be solved by reducing it to 75% repeatedly until you reach an appropriate web size.

Also, never save a drawing with a resolution lower than 600 DPI and try to tone it, as this again will create the moiré patterns in the actual work. Tone as high as it can or as high as the printer's DPI output. Toning a high resolution document requires at least 1.5 gigabytes of cache space from Clip Studio Paint, so make sure there is at least 2 gigabytes free on your hard drive to cover this cache and anything else Windows needs. or OSX.

Another way to avoid moiré is to export the tone as grayscale. This means that the grays will actually be gray rather than made up of dots. In this case, it is important to ensure that the book printer will print in grayscale.

Here is an example of how the tone will look in low resolution on the printed page, and the same drawing toned in the correct high resolution.

 

WHEN NOT TO USE TONES

It is not always appropriate to tone a panel. There are several specific cases in which the tone is not advised and it would actually detract from the drawing.

■ An intentionally flat drawing made for comic effect. When the characters are turned into "Chibi", or intentionally cute little versions of themselves, often the entire panel, or at least the Chibi characters themselves, are not toned at all to draw attention to the cartoon nature of the transformed character.

■ An extreme close-up of a face, eyes, hand, or other object. In this case, a tone is applied to the background, while the object is intentionally left open.

■ A "thought balloon" panel. The entire panel is occupied by the thoughts of a character in the form of text; there may be a shadow effect around the globe, but technically the panel has no shades.

■ Panels where dark elements are dotted black instead of hue. Instead of a gray effect, shadows or dark objects are rendered completely black for sharp contrast.

Note that although most of the elements in a panel are toned down, some tone may be added to the background. It is quite common for a figure to get out of tune; it is less common for an entire panel to be like this. Without some dark element on the page, a reader's eye brightens it too much.

Here are two examples of panels where toning is not appropriate and would detract from the panel if present.

 

A FINAL NOTE ON THE TONES

Toning is the bread and butter of every manga artist. Without color or complicated computer shading effects, a manga artist must master toning to add humor, depth, realism, and humanity to their work. While toning a drawing isn't as fun as making a facial expression, flower, or wick, it's important to master this step. Also, if you really like toning itself (our condolences!), It is possible to find work in the manga industry as a toning specialist.

In many manga, the characters can express movement, show great emotion or receive an epiphany in the space of a single panel. Given that a comic panel is a single snapshot in time, what is the best way to express that movement or emotion? One solution that manga participates in frequently is speed lines.

These variable weight lines are drawn directly in the background behind any element of the character, often taking the place of the background. Speed lines can be straight or circular, parallel or concentric, thick or thin. It all depends on the type of movement that must be expressed on a panel.

Note that these lines can also be called lines of motion or action, especially when speed is not involved. For simplicity, we are going to call them speed lines in all cases.