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Art tutorial: 5 ways to add some life to your drawings

by Palle Schmidt 2 Comments

Do your comics panels lie flat on the page? Struggle to make your characters more dynamic and your backgrounds more authentic? Here are 5 quick tips to making your comics come alive!

1. Wind

Yes, wind! We often forget the weather when we are making comics, but this is just another case of a little going a long way. A puddle or a snowdrift can give off the same effect and help us determine where and when we are.

wind

2. Foreground

Put something in the foreground of your frame will make it look like there is an actual world around your characters.

foreground

3. Shadows

Same as with foreground, the shade of something that is NOT visible in the frame, will give off the illusion of a bigger environment.
shadow

4. Tilt

If all your lines run parallel with the borders, you run risk of confusing and/or boring your reader. Tilt the image, make it seem more dynamic.

tilt

5. Trash

Put some paper scraps, dead leaves or cigarette butts in your frames to make them seem more lived in. A cracked pavement, a grafitti or some peeled paint gives the same feeling: The world exists outside this one, static image!

trash

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Filed Under: Pro Tips Tagged With: art hacks, Art Tutorial, comics, drawing, how to, improving as an artist, learning, life, pro tips, tips for making comics

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Marius says

    May 26, 2014 at 10:35 am

    I think you should be more tilt the fourth picture.

    Log in to Reply
  2. joebigelow says

    June 1, 2014 at 10:00 pm

    Excellent tips thanks!

    Log in to Reply

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