Black, white and screentones: solid blacks, screentones and black-and-white readability

Solid blacks

1. Step 1Choose what is black

   Dark hair, dark clothes, deep shadows: decide at the pencil stage which areas will be black.

2. Step 2Balance the page

   Spread the blacks over the whole page rather than bunching them in a corner. The eye travels from one to the next.

3. Step 3Black makes things stand out

   A light character in front of a black background, or the reverse, reads instantly. Avoid gray on gray.

4. Step 4Keep highlights

   Leave a few white lines in big blacks, on hair or a leather garment: the black keeps its volume.

Screentones

• A screentone is a pattern of dots that makes a gray. The bigger or tighter the dots, the darker the gray.
• Use few different grays: two or three values are enough for a whole page.
• A light tone for skin in shadow or colored clothes, a darker one for shadows and backgrounds.
• A gradient tone for a sky, falling light or an emotional background.
• On a tablet, drawing apps have ready-made tones; on paper, hatching does the same job.

Mood backgrounds

1. Step 1Focus lines

   Lines converging on the character: surprise, revelation, shock.

2. Step 2Flowers and bubbles

   A background of flowers, bubbles or sparkles: a romantic moment or a dazzling character.

3. Step 3Black and vertical lines

   A black background, or one striped with vertical lines: despair, threat, unease.

Moods: night, rain and memories

Tones aren't only for shading: they change the time and place of a scene without a word.

1. Step 1Night

   A dark tone over the whole sky and the backgrounds, the character left light where a light falls on them. Bold solid blacks for the shadows.

2. Step 2Rain

   Thin white lines scratched diagonally over a gray tone, all in the same direction. Add splashes on the ground.

3. Step 3A memory

   Panels with blurred or rounded edges, a black background around the panels, or a soft light tone over the whole scene.

4. Step 4Tension

   Backgrounds getting darker from one panel to the next: the page darkens with the situation.

The coach's tips

• Squint at your page: if everything turns gray, add blacks.
• Test your blacks on a copy of the drawing before touching the original.
• Don't tone everything: the white areas matter as much as the gray ones.
• Look at a manga page from a distance: you'll see its big black shapes. That's its structure.
• In the app, trace a character, then choose their black areas: hair, clothes, shadows.

Practice right now

Once the lesson is read, draw this exercise: it takes about 15 minutes.