# Do cartoonists use photoshop? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 4, 2006, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cartoonists-use-photoshop/359369 "2006-06-04T09:28:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gitfiddle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/898d66/32.png) [@gitfiddle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gitfiddle)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2006, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cartoonists-use-photoshop/359369/1 "2006-06-04T09:28:41Z")
I’m just curious if cartoonists use photoshop, meaning is it fair game to draw then photoshop cartoons? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2006, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cartoonists-use-photoshop/359369/2 "2006-06-04T10:01:16Z")
It’s great for colouring them, and adding titles and providing clear text for the speech balloons. So yes. It’s not like it’s “cheating” or anything, it’s a tool like any pen or paint brush. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2006, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cartoonists-use-photoshop/359369/3 "2006-06-04T11:24:49Z")
Scott Kurtz of PvP Online certainly does. He just had a video up of how he does it–essentially just using it to be able to move elements around to find a pleasing setup. In Japan, several manga artists have moved to computer. I think that they are however not using Photoshop as they are working in black and white and need to be able to use different tones\* for their greys rather than simple color fills. I’m not sure how many have done this. The only person I would be relatively sure has is Yukito Kishiro. And yes, it is of course “fair game.” A lot of being a good artist is being able to draw consistently. And given as humans aren’t machines, we achieve consistency through a milliad of little tricks that allows for the appearance of accuracy, but without spending a lot of time calculatiing distances, muscle and vein structure, etc. And the more and better tools there are to do that, the more art the person can get out the door. - A “tone” is traditionally a clear sheet like scotch tape that has some pattern of black dots to create various greys. You would pick out the sheet with the best pattern and shading for what you needed, semi-attach it to the picture, then cut to exactly match the area you needed it in. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2006, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cartoonists-use-photoshop/359369/4 "2006-06-04T15:59:34Z")
> [@Sage Rat](#): > > In Japan, several manga artists have moved to computer. I think that they are however not using Photoshop as they are working in black and white and need to be able to use different tones\* for their greys rather than simple color fills. Photoshop is ideal for doing halftone shading. It could be done a number of ways – quick-and-dirty, using a pattern fill (or mask) using half-tone patterns that have been scanned in, or (more properly) shading the artwork as you please and then using the built-in halftone screen to blend the artwork with some geometric patterns. You can get some _fantastic_-looking halftones if you use the second method. It’s an involved process, but most of the grunt-work can be saved as a series of actions and almost entirely automated. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2006, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cartoonists-use-photoshop/359369/5 "2006-06-04T16:01:59Z")
Wouldn’t Illustrator be a more useful tool? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2006, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cartoonists-use-photoshop/359369/6 "2006-06-04T18:45:38Z")
If I were a cartoonist (I’m not, but I occasionally have to illustrate something), I’d probably do all my work in Illustrator, not Photoshop. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2006, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cartoonists-use-photoshop/359369/7 "2006-06-04T19:09:30Z")
I was just reading that Berekely Breathed used Photoshop at least for a little while on ‘Opus’. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2006, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cartoonists-use-photoshop/359369/8 "2006-06-04T20:24:06Z")
Jorge Cham, who draws the comic strip [Piled Higher and Deeper](http://www.phdcomics.com/) about my life (not really, it just feels like it) has said that his comics typically don’t see paper until the Stanford campus newspaper is printed. He has one of those electronic pen-pads, and uses different layers for “pencil” sketching, “inking”, and coloring. I’m not sure exactly what software he uses, though… ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2006, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cartoonists-use-photoshop/359369/9 "2006-06-04T21:39:57Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > If I were a cartoonist (I’m not, but I occasionally have to illustrate something), I’d probably do all my work in Illustrator, not Photoshop. It would depend on how the artist work. If they like pen on paper drawing, then it’s easier to can it and then color in Photoshop. If they actually draw the art using a computer, like the artist \*\*Chronos[b/] mentions, then Illustrator (or Freehand) is a better choice. In either case it’s certainly “fair game”, whatever that means. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2006, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cartoonists-use-photoshop/359369/10 "2006-06-04T22:37:23Z")
> [@Sublight](#): > > Wouldn’t Illustrator be a more useful tool? Illustrator isn’t any good if you’re used to drawing with a pen. It’s painfully slow to use, in comparison. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2006, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cartoonists-use-photoshop/359369/11 "2006-06-04T23:09:49Z")
[Some cartoonists even joke about their Photoshop skills.](http://archive.gamespy.com/comics/dorktower/images/comics/dorktower501.gif) ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2006, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cartoonists-use-photoshop/359369/12 "2006-06-04T23:10:13Z")
Ah, no I just checked and Yukito Kishiro does appear to be using PhotoShop. I guess I have just seen too many of the manga specific packages selling in stores here. Additionally, he seems to use Painter and something called Shader for 3D.