DIY dialogue overlays 1 1

[Taylor G]

A lot of art tends not to have dialogue on it, including modern art and not-so-modern art that was intended for the international market.

In the past, publishers would tape a plastic or vellum overlay over the art, with the dialogue balloons on it.  When they didn't just glue the balloons directly onto the art .

Question: Any pointers or advice on constructing one's own dialogue overlays, for the case where the original is lost or in poor condition?

My thought was scanning the printed page and using Photoshop to erase everything but the dialogue balloons.  Then print or glue onto a mylar sheet.

Perhaps blowing up the original printed dialogue balloons would not look so great, so instead tracing out the shape and position of those balloons in PS, adding the dialogue, then print or glue onto mylar.

Since dialogue balloons with Arial font would look cheesy, I wonder if anyone has worked on fonts to imitate letterers of the past?  I'm personally interested in the seventies.....

The market rate for getting this done is about $500/page, which really adds up if you have a lot of pages like this.

[vodou]

1 hour ago, Taylor G said:

$500/page

Really? Surely there are guys doing it for a lot less. Otherwise I'd already be doing it for $450/page

[The Cimmerians Purse]

2 hours ago, vodou said:

Really? Surely there are guys doing it for a lot less. Otherwise I'd already be doing it for $450/page

449 Bob! 

[Rick2you2]

14 hours ago, Taylor G said:

A lot of art tends not to have dialogue on it, including modern art and not-so-modern art that was intended for the international market.

In the past, publishers would tape a plastic or vellum overlay over the art, with the dialogue balloons on it.  When they didn't just glue the balloons directly onto the art .

Question: Any pointers or advice on constructing one's own dialogue overlays, for the case where the original is lost or in poor condition?

My thought was scanning the printed page and using Photoshop to erase everything but the dialogue balloons.  Then print or glue onto a mylar sheet.

Perhaps blowing up the original printed dialogue balloons would not look so great, so instead tracing out the shape and position of those balloons in PS, adding the dialogue, then print or glue onto mylar.

Since dialogue balloons with Arial font would look cheesy, I wonder if anyone has worked on fonts to imitate letterers of the past?  I'm personally interested in the seventies.....

The market rate for getting this done is about $500/page, which really adds up if you have a lot of pages like this.

You would probably get a better result if you use the tracing function in Adobe Illustrator for the word balloons and substitute a different font. That way you could scale it up with no loss of clarity.

For fonts, they are easy to get.

Edited October 4, 2019 by Rick2you2

[Taylor G]

18 hours ago, Rick2you2 said:

For fonts, they are easy to get.

Where?

Thanks for the advice on Adobe Illustrator.

[Rick2you2]

1 hour ago, Taylor G said:

Where?

Thanks for the advice on Adobe Illustrator.

Start with the Windows fonts.

Here is one site listing various forms of predesigned fonts. Just be careful you don't accidentally get malware with a download.

https://www.creativebloq.com › download-free-fonts-resources-912696

You can also try programs like Prototypo to design your own. 

 

 

[Taylor G]

Thanks, I was hoping that someone had already done the work of fonts to imitate the work of the great unsung letterers of the past.

For example, not what I'm looking for, but hasn't someone developed an Artie Simek font?

[Rick2you2]

42 minutes ago, Taylor G said:

Thanks, I was hoping that someone had already done the work of fonts to imitate the work of the great unsung letterers of the past.

For example, not what I'm looking for, but hasn't someone developed an Artie Simek font?

There are so many app.’s out there, I wouldn’t be surprised if you couldn’t find one which allowed you to paste in some font characters in a raster format (eg, ordinary jpegs), which then traces the form and generates the font.

[fmaz]

For those who don't want to go the DIY route, any suggestions? 

Are there any boardies who do this as a side business? I don't have any pages that need this particular treatment... but I'll admit I've hesitated to pull the trigger on a few modern pages that I'd have bought BUT for their lack of dialog.  If I knew of a cost-certain method of getting it done that would be art-safe AND would be helping out a fellow board member, I'd certainly be encouraged to go that route.

 

[The Voord]

On 10/3/2019 at 3:56 PM, vodou said:

Really? Surely there are guys doing it for a lot less. Otherwise I'd already be doing it for $450/page

I'll do it for $400 a page!

[Rick2you2]

If you want to draw a simple word balloon, and don’t want to freestyle it, start br drawing an oval of the approximate size you will need for the text. Then, draw a separate, long thin triangle which will later connect the speaker to the oval. You can reshape it by touching a point and pulling with the cursor to add the bends you want. Move the triangle to the correct position on the oval and merge the two. Then, play with the points until you get the right shape you want, or add/subtract points.

[Claudio]

@Phill the Governor hooked me up several years ago.  Don't know if he is still doing them but it was a LOT less than $500 a page.  I tagged him so he could chime in if he is still active 

[Phill the Governor]

On 10/3/2019 at 9:10 AM, Taylor G said:

A lot of art tends not to have dialogue on it, including modern art and not-so-modern art that was intended for the international market.

In the past, publishers would tape a plastic or vellum overlay over the art, with the dialogue balloons on it.  When they didn't just glue the balloons directly onto the art .

Question: Any pointers or advice on constructing one's own dialogue overlays, for the case where the original is lost or in poor condition?

My thought was scanning the printed page and using Photoshop to erase everything but the dialogue balloons.  Then print or glue onto a mylar sheet.

Perhaps blowing up the original printed dialogue balloons would not look so great, so instead tracing out the shape and position of those balloons in PS, adding the dialogue, then print or glue onto mylar.

Since dialogue balloons with Arial font would look cheesy, I wonder if anyone has worked on fonts to imitate letterers of the past?  I'm personally interested in the seventies.....

The market rate for getting this done is about $500/page, which really adds up if you have a lot of pages like this.

 

27 minutes ago, Claudio said:

@Phill the Governor hooked me up several years ago.  Don't know if he is still doing them but it was a LOT less than $500 a page.  I tagged him so he could chime in if he is still active 

Thanks man!

As Claudio mentioned, I do charge less than $500 for standard overlays, although it is a case by case basis. Generally speaking the ballpark is around $300 for full cover mastheads, but I have replaced single stats for as cheap as $40. They are high-resolution, on colored paper to "age" the stats, and adhered to either a high-quality transparent overlay or they can be adhered directly to the art if the original stat had been too. I've worked on many pieces for private collectors, from Platinum Age to Modern art, and can provide examples if you'd like to see.

Many dealers just make their own stats (to save money, I get it), but at the same time it can really translate to "cheapening" the look of the piece if it's not done correctly, or professionally for that matter.

Feel free to shoot me a PM if you have more questions.