The following is something I've been asked a few times. I wanted to share this with anyone who is interested but also, feel free to ammend things that you think are needed. This isnt me being an ego maniac and telling people the ONLY way comics should be drawn. Not at all. This is for those folks who desire to learn how to draw comics but dont have the means to go to school, etc. A springboard if you will.
-For those seeking guidance in the drawing and illustration and creation of comic books but can't afford a full time school. A few simple suggestions that don't require tons of money but DOES require a lot of time.
1) DRAW DAILY. Scribble, sketch, doodle; just draw. Do it for ten minutes a day. AT LEAST. Make time for this. Let it grow into more. Comic book artists draw one to two pages a day. A DAY. They have deadlines of a month for (typically) 22 pages. Sometimes the deadlines are longer due to the needs of the inkers, colorists and letterers and editors who have to clean up your mistakes...BUT NOT ALWAYS!!! If a deadline is missed you dont get a poor grade or a slap on the wrist; you eventually get NO MORE WORK.
2) DRAW FROM LIFE. Whenever you can. Sign up for a life drawing course. Most cities have a once a week life drawing class that will cost you no more than 5 bucks for 3 hours of figure drawing. If you can take a community college course with an instructor; DO IT. It's so invaluable. It'll teach you WORLDS. If you can't take a course, drag your ass outside, sit on a bench with your sketch book, pencils and will-to-do and draw people passing by. Don't stress on the details. Get the action down first. Draw the details later.
3) CHECK OUT: "HOW TO DRAW COMICS THE MARVEL WAY". This is a great book that I highly recommend. It'll get your creative juices flowing. It has great art by master artist John Buscema who makes drawing comics look easy. The bastard!!! It has everything you need to know to jump into the field of comics; action poses, drawing real people, acting, perspective, backgrounds, panel layouts, and the tools every comic artist needs to draw a comic page. If you can't find it at Borders or your local bookstore, try the library. Make copies of it there. Take the copies home. Pin 'em to your wall and sleep with 'em under your pillow. ABSORB, ABSORB, ABSORB!!!
Also, if you can get your hands on some copies of Mike Manleys; "DRAW" magazine, you'll be a VERY happy camper. Industry greats litter the pages with knowledge of the field about how they do it and sometimes, how you can do it too. DC comics has put out a number of great books that tackle writing comics, drawing comics, inking comics and coloring and lettering comics. They run about 20 bucks each. Great reads all of them.
4) STUDY THE MASTERS. look at Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Gil Kane and many other great comic artists to see how they set up a shot. Break a comic page down to it's bare essentials. Take page 5 of your favorite comic and write out what happens in each panel. The action, the setting, the characters and what they are saying and HOW they are saying it. Think of comics as acting. Players on a 2-dimensional stage that YOU control. Take that written piece of paper, put the comic AWAY, and draw the page from what you have written (Reference the characters costumes if you need to but do it by looking at a different page they are on. Not the one you just wrote about-this is to excercise YOUR imagination. NOT to COPY what the other guy did). What shot would work best? What would move the story along? What is the best possible way for me to illustrate all this information to the reader in a clear and quick way? Ask yourself these questions while you are drawing. Give yourself a deadline while you are drawing the page also. Be reasonable. Give yourself a full day. You're doing this cuz it's fun, remember? But keep in mind that if you want to draw comics for a living, you're going to have to draw the comic within a given deadline. If you can't work within the deadline, your career is going to be very short indeed. Some artists also ink that same pencilled page in the same day. Think you're up to it? Go for it. Have fun!
FINALLY:
These are some thoughts from one of my teachers at the Joe Kubert School of Illustration and Design that have proven most useful to me.
"Making art is a life. It's NOT a job.""Make Art. Not just pictures.""Think about images and the making of Art all the time."
"DON'T follow a strict formula. Remain open to chance happenings that work. Trust your instincts and abilities but don't let that be an excuse for lousy Art."-(see; "Make Art, not just pictures.")
"Hammer on it but think about what you are doing. Aimless hammering is fruitless. It's your brain more than your hands that do it."
-For those seeking guidance in the drawing and illustration and creation of comic books but can't afford a full time school. A few simple suggestions that don't require tons of money but DOES require a lot of time.
1) DRAW DAILY. Scribble, sketch, doodle; just draw. Do it for ten minutes a day. AT LEAST. Make time for this. Let it grow into more. Comic book artists draw one to two pages a day. A DAY. They have deadlines of a month for (typically) 22 pages. Sometimes the deadlines are longer due to the needs of the inkers, colorists and letterers and editors who have to clean up your mistakes...BUT NOT ALWAYS!!! If a deadline is missed you dont get a poor grade or a slap on the wrist; you eventually get NO MORE WORK.
2) DRAW FROM LIFE. Whenever you can. Sign up for a life drawing course. Most cities have a once a week life drawing class that will cost you no more than 5 bucks for 3 hours of figure drawing. If you can take a community college course with an instructor; DO IT. It's so invaluable. It'll teach you WORLDS. If you can't take a course, drag your ass outside, sit on a bench with your sketch book, pencils and will-to-do and draw people passing by. Don't stress on the details. Get the action down first. Draw the details later.
3) CHECK OUT: "HOW TO DRAW COMICS THE MARVEL WAY". This is a great book that I highly recommend. It'll get your creative juices flowing. It has great art by master artist John Buscema who makes drawing comics look easy. The bastard!!! It has everything you need to know to jump into the field of comics; action poses, drawing real people, acting, perspective, backgrounds, panel layouts, and the tools every comic artist needs to draw a comic page. If you can't find it at Borders or your local bookstore, try the library. Make copies of it there. Take the copies home. Pin 'em to your wall and sleep with 'em under your pillow. ABSORB, ABSORB, ABSORB!!!
Also, if you can get your hands on some copies of Mike Manleys; "DRAW" magazine, you'll be a VERY happy camper. Industry greats litter the pages with knowledge of the field about how they do it and sometimes, how you can do it too. DC comics has put out a number of great books that tackle writing comics, drawing comics, inking comics and coloring and lettering comics. They run about 20 bucks each. Great reads all of them.
4) STUDY THE MASTERS. look at Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Gil Kane and many other great comic artists to see how they set up a shot. Break a comic page down to it's bare essentials. Take page 5 of your favorite comic and write out what happens in each panel. The action, the setting, the characters and what they are saying and HOW they are saying it. Think of comics as acting. Players on a 2-dimensional stage that YOU control. Take that written piece of paper, put the comic AWAY, and draw the page from what you have written (Reference the characters costumes if you need to but do it by looking at a different page they are on. Not the one you just wrote about-this is to excercise YOUR imagination. NOT to COPY what the other guy did). What shot would work best? What would move the story along? What is the best possible way for me to illustrate all this information to the reader in a clear and quick way? Ask yourself these questions while you are drawing. Give yourself a deadline while you are drawing the page also. Be reasonable. Give yourself a full day. You're doing this cuz it's fun, remember? But keep in mind that if you want to draw comics for a living, you're going to have to draw the comic within a given deadline. If you can't work within the deadline, your career is going to be very short indeed. Some artists also ink that same pencilled page in the same day. Think you're up to it? Go for it. Have fun!
FINALLY:
These are some thoughts from one of my teachers at the Joe Kubert School of Illustration and Design that have proven most useful to me.
"Making art is a life. It's NOT a job.""Make Art. Not just pictures.""Think about images and the making of Art all the time."
"DON'T follow a strict formula. Remain open to chance happenings that work. Trust your instincts and abilities but don't let that be an excuse for lousy Art."-(see; "Make Art, not just pictures.")
"Hammer on it but think about what you are doing. Aimless hammering is fruitless. It's your brain more than your hands that do it."
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Vermont
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Re: For Comic Book hopefuls
Thu, February 2, 2006 - 8:14 AMRock on man, all of that is pretty good advice. I'm not too sure about reading marvel's book on how to make comics but outside of that you got alot of good points down. I'd say instead of reading marvel's book read McCloud's understanding comics, I'm not a big fan of McCloud but he knows his stuff and he makes you think of comics in a different way then marvel would (Marvel and Dc both tend to have strict formulas of what "works" and what doesn't).
I have to agree about life drawing, I'm a student at SVA and my comic work drastically changed once I started taking GOOD life drawing classes.
Good stuff though, hope some people take your advice
Later
Alex-
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Re: For Comic Book hopefuls
Fri, February 3, 2006 - 6:22 PMAdd to that: Take drawing classes at your local community college, particularly those concentrating on anatomy. Take introduction to anatomy, a science class, but invaluable. Grab every guide by Burne Hogarth on anatomy and make them your bible.
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Re: For Comic Book hopefuls
Tue, April 22, 2008 - 1:02 PMRight on man, I got "How To Draw the Marvel Way" as a birthday present when I was a kid it was a big help but not as much as Wizard Magazine's now defunct "Basic Training" section. they discontinued it but there is a book now (one or two volumes) but I haven't been able to get my hands on it. Also don't discount high art "How To" books. Get a subscription to "Northern Lights" and "The Artist's" they have lots of tips but mostly for painters. -
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Re: For Comic Book hopefuls
Tue, April 22, 2008 - 4:15 PM"The Marvel Way" was my first semi-formal introduction to illustration too... I actually started because I was introduced to the Champions RPG and was tracing the silhouettes in the rulebook. I had traced them until I could draw them free-hand from memory and everything else grew out of that. A year or so later I got my first copy of the Marvel book -- somehow I ended up with 2 copies. I think one was a gift from an aunt or uncle who didn't know I had it already. That taught me proportion and for years I started every illustration with stick figures to get the dimensions right. These days I just eyeball them as I'm sketching, those years of drawing stick figures I think is what really helps me keep the proportions reasonably on-target.
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Re: For Comic Book hopefuls
Fri, April 25, 2008 - 2:54 PMall excellent points, and a reaffirming read.
I read "Marvel Way" when I was seven or so, and it strongly colored my early efforts in art. Its a great book, that includes more than just art instruction, but pacing, drama, perspective and storytelling suggestions that always stuck with me. great book.
