How is xkcd drawn

[firsttenormtv]

I was wondering how Randall Munroe draws xkcd. all of the characters always look the same, does he draw it by hand or does he use some kind of program?

[Random832]

I was wondering how Randall Munroe draws xkcd. all of the characters always look the same, does he draw it by hand or does he use some kind of program?

They're hand-drawn, though some comics do have details added in later (like stuck pixels in http://xkcd.com/395/). The frames appear to be perfect rectangles added after scanning, but before resizing - though some in the past have not been. At one point they were drawn on grid paper, which was not cleaned up after scanning.

The characters look the same all the time because they're stick figures!

[LE4dGOLEM]

<LE4dGOLEM|Interview> There's a notable change between your early comics and your newer works; You started out drawing in what looks like just ordinary coloured pencils, what do you use now?
<xkcd> Actually, all the color is added by special effects -- they were just ordinary noncolored bic pencils. Now, I use those same cheap ass-pencils but then I ink over everything with Micron pens (I used to use Pitt ones, which I like better but which don't support the thin line widths I have now). It's all done on paper, then I scan and edit it on a computer.

EDIT: I think at the Google talk he said he draws them REALLY BIG before shrinking them down and messing with them.

[Jesse]

You missed the stage in the process where everything gets stolen.

[Dobblesworth]

I was kinda under the impression that he had one of those 'hand-held laptop tablet PC thingamebobs', then just did it all in MSPaint or equivalent software with a professional touch-screen stylus or something. I guess he's keeping to the 'real' webcomic artists' style of pencil and paper. Hmm interesting.

[Belial]

Assuming the process hasn't changed since he lived here, he draws all the elements he needs out on sketchbook paper (albeit not necessarily in the proper format), scans the paper, and manipulates them in GIMP or Photoshop or something (I never asked) until they're laid out correctly and cleaned up adequately. And adds any computer-generated elements he needs at that point.

And Dobble, he does in fact have a tablet, kinda sorta. Fujitsu lifebook. Becomes a tablet when properly coaxed.

[Wondrej]

I thought its made similar to this. but well maybe to draw XKCD in hand is easier


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dqzYumQEIrY

parts 1 2 3

[ishikiri]

There is an interveiw somewhere (possibly in the early blog posts?) were he explains what bits of kit and software he uses. There are pictures of him in a train carrige in the interveiw if anyone remembers reading it.

Basically what Belial said.