How to Write & Draw Comics
Working out of your house can be tough – especially if you have a demanding family with little or no respect for your need to be drawing comics all the time. In this episode I offer some tips how to make it work, and some ideas how to get out of the house if it doesn’t.
Related post: What if I can’t afford a studio space?
AARON ALEXOVICH’S first professional art job was drawing deformed children on Nickelodeon’s Invader Zim. Since then he’s been deforming children for various animation and comic projects, including Avatar: The Last Airbender, SLG’s Haunted Mansion, DC’s Fables, Kimmie66, Confessions of a Blabbermouth, and three volumes of his own horror/comedy witch series, Serenity Rose. Aaron currently lives in Southern California, where the bright light makes him sneeze
for mysterious reasons.
What made you decide to work in the medium of comics?
There’s something incredibly personal about making comics, you know? It’s just you sitting there alone building a whole world up on a page. Almost like making an entire feature film single-handedly. Not every art form can compete with that kind of control. I love it. Kind of feels like dreaming when I’m really into it.
What part of the process is the most challenging or frustrating to you?
Every part feels frustrating most of the time. I sort of live for those little moments when things seem to come together. If I had to pick one especially tough part I’d have to choose inking. Still trying to find a way to ink stuff without killing all the energy in my roughs…
If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring comics creator, what would that be?
Always be working on something you love. Even if you have to take iffy jobs just for the money, it’s important to have a project you love on the side. Otherwise you’ll forget why you got into comics in the first place!
Aaron Alexovich’s site is heartshapedskull.com
Seth Kushner (http://www.sethkushner.com/) is a photographer and writer, known for his awesome portraits in Leaping Tall Buildings: The Origins of American Comics and his Schmuck series and photocomics on Trip City. Nathan Schreiber (http://www.nathanschreiber.com/) is an Eisner and Harvey Awards nominated artist, whose own book Power Out won a Xeric award in 2009.
I talked to both Seth and Nathan about the art and craft while I was in New York this fall, only later realizing what a great double feature the two interviews would make, as they worked together on Seth Kushners Schmuck! Their collaboration on the Schmuck series can be found at http://welcometotripcity.com/2013/10/schmuck-14-size-11/
Jeff Parker is a writer for comics currently on titles Batman ’66 and Aquaman for DC Comics, as well as Rovio’s Angry Birds. The past decade he worked mostly at Marvel, with acclaimed runs on Hulk, Thunderbolts, Agents of Atlas, and X-Men: First Class. Jeff drew comics for several years and worked in television animation (The Big Guy and Rusty The Boy Robot) and live storyboarding, ultimately returning to comics with his graphic novel adventure The Interman. Among his other original creations are the cave thriller Underground with Steve Lieber, the supernatural Mysterius the Unfathomable, and the webcomic Bucko with Erika Moen. He is a member of Periscope Studio and lives in Portland, Oregon.
What made you decide to work in the medium of comics?
I liked writing and drawing, and nothing else brings those disciplines together better for storytelling than comics. Ultimately it’s telling stories that I like to do, and comics lets me tell a lot of them where other media would limit that amount.
What part of the process is the most challenging or frustrating to you?
Good names or series titles are tougher than you’d think, at least for me. I’d rather build a whole story around a good name than start with the concept, it’s actually easier.
I don’t find much about building a story hard, it mainly requires enough time and I’ll get there. What’s much harder is raising awareness of a new project and bringing readers to that. Creating a book and selling it are two different things altogether.
If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring comics creator, what would that be?
My advice would be, if you want to be employable on a number of projects and have longevity, adopt a very zen approach to your assignments. Curves will be thrown at you by the publishers, the readership, everyone involved; it’s unavoidable. You can either grouse about it and become known as difficult to work with, or you can ride the wave instead of fighting it. I usually take it as a challenge that I can make almost any editorial note or change work and still get a good story from it.
There have been cases when the requested changes seem arbitrary and start coming way too often to make the job profitable, and I’ve had to bow out, so it’s not like I can always zen my way through. But I give it my best try before I resort to that.
Can I only give one piece of advice? I would also say to do whatever you can to make your collaborators’ jobs easier. If they’re happy with the process, it will just reflect well on you and make the story work that much better. Like, don’t ask for crowd scenes repeatedly, for instance. Do a lot of the visual research for the artist already and save that creator some time by including reference. Don’t try to push them to be other artists that they aren’t, work with who they are. As the saying goes, you go into battle with the army you have.
More at parkerspace.com
Getting to be good at anything, requires a lot of training. Ideally, you should do it every day.
It’s hard to give advice on how to get better at drawing or writing. But there are exercises, just as in sports, that you can use to develop the skillset and dicipline you need in your work.
My first tip is to set achievable goals. Don’t set out to write 5 pages a day, set out to write one. Just one. You increase your chance of succeeding, and thereby building confidence. Chances are you will even write more than you plan for, adding an extra feeling of success to your daily routine.
Getting in the habit of doing something every day can take some time, but it can be done. Start by just doing SOMETHING on your comic every day. Even if it’s just pencilling one panel.
Slow still get’s you there.
Find a peer group that can hold you accountable and help up your game. Playing against someone better than you, makes you a better player.
If there’s no one in you immediate circles who you can count on for inspiration and encouragement, use the internet as a way of connecting to peers. All it takes is a couple of people who are remotely interested in your progress, and you’re a lot more likely to improve your skills.
Putting up a daily strip or a weekly page can be a motivation – as long as you see it as a learning process and not a career. Careers tend to bring in some money and one cannot live on Facebook likes alone.
If you want to improve your drawing skills, take some lessons or draw from life. Be sure to force yourself to draw the stuff you are NOT good at. Over and over and over again. Also be sure to keep the drawings you make on file, however horrible they seem to you! It can be very hard to see progress when you’re in the middle of it. Looking back at earlier works will show you have improved, urging you to go further, get even better.
And to get better, you need to do it every day.
Sharing your artwork on social media has never been easier. Take a shot of whatever is on your art table, hashtag it or write a sentence describing it and click share. You can even hook it up with your Facebook and Twitter, and get a wider reach instantly.
Learning curve: 5 minutes. 10 out of 10.
Tripit
Go to conventions often? Get the free version of Tripit and keep all your travel info in one place. Go to Tripit.com to set up your account. Book your flight however you choose and ust forward your ticket email to plans@tripit.com and your info will be in the easily accesible app in mere seconds. SO much cooler than print outs or scrooling through your inbox for a flight number.
Learning curve: None. 8 out of 10.
Dropbox
This is hardly news, but the Dropbox app is absolutely awesome and essential for artists. Save all the documents you need, like your portfolio, a pdf of your graphic novel or sample pages and have access to them everywhere, anytime. The app allows for easy sharing, so you can email a link to files of any size to people you meet – on the spot. Another great feature is the photo upload that you can enable for on-the-go back up of your photo library, so you can clear more space on your phone without plugging in to anything. The free version of Dropbox gives you 2 GB of storage, the pricing for more is reasonable not to mention tax deductable.
Learning curve: 2 minutes. 10 out of 10.
PocketCasts
Why not get smarter while you’re working on your art? Drawing usually only requires a part of your brain to pay attention, you can easily listen to podcasts while you’re sketching and inking. PocketCasts allows you to add your favorite podcasts and stream or download episodes individually. The free version let’s you only add a handful of podcasts, so get the paid one, it’s cheap.
Learning curve: 3 minutes. 7 out of 10.
WordPress
If you have a blog, it’s probably WordPress. But did you know they have an awesome app that let’s you manage several blogs, write posts and add pictures on the go, approve and reply to comments without ever opening a browser? Well, you know now.
Learning curve: 8-10 minutes. 9 out of 10.
—
Hope these tips help you get more done on the road and makes life easier for you! Got any apps I should know about? Please comment below!