Do you have any tips for drawing unique speech bubbles? I'm having trouble figuring out how to draw different tones of voices and moods.

For this ask, I’d like to start with a common linguistic experiment. 

Please check out the following shapes!

If I told you that one of these shapes is called ‘bouba’ and the other is called ‘kiki’, which name would you assign to each shape? Don’t overthink this - there isn’t a ‘right’ answer. 

However, there IS a very strong association in the English language (and most other related languages) between specific sounds and specific shapes. We have been more or less trained to associate not only specific consonants (b and k) with rounder or sharper shapes, we have also been trained to ‘read’ tone through speech bubbles. 

For the shapes above - most people who speak English or an Indo-European language as their first language will name the spiky one ‘kiki’ and the round one ‘bouba’. Shapes matter to us - they reinforce the sound and tone and feeling with the words associated inside! This concept will be the baseline for you when creating ANY speechbubble shapes.

Shapes and sounds and tone are inherently connected, and you already know about it, even if you don’t realize it consciously!

Take the speech bubbles below - does anything seem off about it?

The rounder speech bubble can pass because it’s the most ‘basic’ one and we can associate it with pretty much any form of speech, but the gentler tone of the words in the first one clashes with how sharp and spiky it is. These are the things you must consider when you create speech bubbles for any comic. 

Here’s a a basic guide to speech bubbles found in manga that you may be able to recognize automatically:

Now, you specifically mentioned drawing ‘unique’ speech bubbles. What does that mean?

I can’t quite understand your intent: Do you want your speech bubbles to be unique to your comic? Do you want a shape that closely relates to what the characters are saying? Is there a specific type of speech bubble you want to create for a type of speech - speech coming through the radio that’s static-riddled, or the speech or a robot, or the scream of a demonic entity that’s just broken through the skin of our world from within its own? 

I’d recommend thinking about the following as you draw:

1 - What is the tone of the character speaking? Does their speech need to be sharp and eye-drawing, or is it soft, and rounded out?

2 - What is the style of your comic? What shapes would fit better with your backgrounds? What would match the lineart you use? 

3 - Do you want the speech-bubbles to stand out and catch the reader’s attention, or would you rather they fit more naturally in with the rest of your drawings, in order to create more of a balance? 

I’ll leave you with the following infograph, just for fun and to give you some ideas, in case you aren’t quite decided or need more inspiration:

- Mod Chekhov

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