Comics for Beginners

How to Write & Draw Comics

Pro Tips

The Most Badass Tools for Inking Comics

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I’ve talked about the tools of the trade in other videos, but this time I want to dig deep on some of the some of the classic tools for comics inking and show the different style in lines you get from a marker vs. a brush or a quill.

As a companion to this video artist Michael Johnson Curry (mikejc.com) has provided a handful of his pencils that you can print out and try your own inking skills on.

You can find the printouts at the bottom of the resources page.

Let me know if that’s helpful and I can see about maybe doing more of that type of stuff.

Amazon affiliate links to tools mentioned in this video:

Wacom Cintiq

Wacom board

Pentel Brush Pen

Sumi ink

Staedtler Lumocolor Marker

Winsor & Newton Cotman Water Colour Synthetic Brush – Round #4:

Sharpie markers

Posca white acrylic marker

Pentel Twist-Erase III Mechanical Pencil, 0.7mm

Whatever Works

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In art, two plus two doesn’t always equal four. Using the same method or the same pen as Stephen King will not make you Stephen King. You need to find out what works for you, by trying out a bunch of different ways.

“If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”

Some people work within very strict boundaries – setting a timer or planning out everything in detail ahead of time. Others work more intuitively, making it up as they go along. As long as you get a result – and a result that you can be satisfied with – it matters less how you got there. But to make a living as a creative, you need to be able to repeat the process, so it might be a good idea to take a few mental notes along the way. Be conscious of what it is you do and how you spend your time, so you can make the most of it.

It frustrates me to no end seeing other artist just killing it, when their working methods are obviously flawed. I have to remind myself that we’re not all wired the same way and what works for me doesn’t necessarily work for them and vice versa. I interviewed a friend of mine who’s a very successful writer, after he got a three-year grant from the Danish Arts Council. I was cripplingly envious (can you imagine that? THREE YEARS of rent covered!) and decided I needed to figure out how he got to that place. During the podcast interview it came to light that my friend was envious of the colleagues who could sit down and write for more than four hours. I can personally write for ten hours straight, if the family will leave me alone. So as it turns out, we all have our own struggles and comparing makes little to no sense. 

If you want to derail yourself by looking at people better than you and being envious of their success, go right ahead. There’s a free resource called Instagram that’s perfect for that activity.

It took me many years to accept my own method in writing. Everyone I talked to seemed to write chronologically, apparently that’s what you’re supposed to do. But when I tried this method I would always get stuck somewhere in chapter five or whenever I hit a point in the story I wasn’t able to figure out at that given moment. I completely gave up and walked away from a few books that way.

I later figured out that skipping ahead and writing something I can figure out, I’ll keep my momentum and avoid getting stuck. I’ll get an idea for a piece of dialogue while I’m trying to write a synopsis or get an idea for the end while I’m writing the beginning. Apparently I’m just too much of a scatterbrain to work from A to B to C – and that’s OK! As long as I get to the end. Today I’ll allow myself to jump around, thereby short-circuiting whatever is blocking my way. I don’t care if this is the right method or not, I’ve become very good at ignoring what other people think.

You have to try stuff and fail a lot before you find what works for you. Maybe you’re a night owl and that’s when you seem to create your best work. A musician I know consistently sleeps late, while his wife drops their son off at school. He hangs with the family all day and goes to the studio after he put his son to bed at night, working until the sun comes up. Others insist that the morning hours are the most productive.

Perhaps you like working with crayons while your colleagues use markers or watercolor. See if there’s anything in their tools or working methods you can learn from – then go do your own thing.

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This post is an excerpt from my book SOLO – Survival Guide for Creative Freelancers available now in print, audio and ebook format.

The Art of Selling – and Selling Your Art

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I recognize the need for an artist to be more mindful of the business aspect. But I’m feeling a lot of resistance to the whole product/market lingo and finding it hard to implement in my own life.

If people want to sell you something, you’ll notice that they all more or less follow the same model of proposition.

First they describe a problem that – maybe – you have. If it’s targeted marketing and not just the random (and annoying) TV or radio commercials, they’ll often get it right.

Then they will tell you who they are and their unique value proposition (USP), what they offer. And ultimately how they solve your problem.

Here’s an example: “Tired of spotty wifi? We here at TeleWhatever have 50 years of experience and a unique global network. We know how annoying it is to not have wifi. That’s why we offer 24-hour wifi for only 9.99 a month, that includes blah blah blah. Make sure you never miss out on an important cat video and sign up today with 25% off!”

This model is used almost everywhere. It is especially gag-inducing when used in selling medicine or insurance, where first they mention all the ways you could die horribly or lose all your stuff in a fire. That would suck, right? Luckily they happen to have a product that will save you from all this disease and disaster. Phew! A plan that most likely ensures their survival rather than yours, but that’s another discussion.

What I want you to take away from this, is this model for selling anything: Problem -> unique offer -> solution.

Whoops, did I say “anything?”

If you are reading this, you are either an artist or an aspiring artist. I’m taking a wild guess that you would eventually like to make money on this and not just have it as a hobby.

And here’s the problem:

Art doesn’t solve any problems.

No. Really. It doesn’t.

As Oscar Wild put it: “All art is quite useless”.

In other words, the sales tactics you can find online or read in books are invalid. You can’t use the above model to sell art.

You can’t focus group art either. Knowing what your customer wants makes total sense in the business world. In the art world I believe the opposite is true. Thinking too much about the wants or needs of the end user derails the artistic process and/or makes for boring art.

I’ve created this little Venn diagram (very marketing biz, right?) to illustrate the three overlapping elements of a creative career. Without the product (your art), nothing to sell. Without the audience, no one to sell to (And I’ve added the passion element, because it’s darn hard to produce art that you’re not passionate about).
What you CAN learn from business, is finding the right people to put your art in front of. I’d start with surveying whatever little audience you already have and figure out who they are and where they hang around online and offline. That way you have a better idea of where to market your stuff.
Art is a product just like any other. But it doesn’t solve a need or a problem. Rather it touches people in ways they didn’t know they wanted (that sounded inappropriate, but you know what I mean). Which is why normal sales tactics don’t really work.
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Any other artists out there feel the same contradiction or dilemma? Let me know how you think about marketing your art in the comment section!

Tiny Habits and Baby Steps

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Hey, it’s a new year! Maybe you made a resolution that has to do with your creative craft, like write the script for your graphic novel or draw a page a day. A big goal, something to strive for! That’s the way to go, right?

Turns out 80% of new years resolutions fail by February.
There’s a better way to achieve your goals: Little habits, that can build skill and confidence over time. Small steps towards your big goal, instead of the big goal itself.
Making things a habit is a great way to get things done. Because a habit means it’s something you do without thinking about it. The more you rely on inspiration for your creativity, the less likely you are to be creative.
Being more creative is no different than trying to eat more healthy or getting fit. You need to make it super easy for yourself. Set the bar for success really low. Like “sit down at my desk and look at my comic every day for ten minutes.” You can do that, right? You don’t even have to work on it, just sit there. But I’ll bet you can’t helping doodling a little once you plant yourself in front of it. Maybe those ten minutes will turn into a good productive hour. Maybe not. The point is to set yourself up for success by lowering your expectations.
You also need to make it hard to fall into whatever traps you tend to fall into. I had a TV addiction once. I had this tiny little TV that fit inside my cupboard, so I coiled the antenna cable around it and put it in there. Every time I wanted to watch TV I had to pull it out from the cupboard, unwrangle the cable and plug it in. Bit of a hassle but totally doable. Here’s the thing; just making it a little harder to watch TV and putting the damn thing out of sight made me forget I had the option.
The same goes for Facebook. I deleted the app from my phone, so now I have to open the browser to check my feed. Again, totally doable. But you bet I go on Facebook a lot less since the app is no longer right there reminding me of it’s existence every time I look at my phone.
There are several apps for monitoring iPhone usage, I never tried any of them. I know the result would make me feel ashamed and miserable, even though my notifications are off and it’s always on silent. But we all check our phones more than we need to and it’s stealing precious time from us. Time we could spend flexing our creative muscles, even if just for a few minutes.
Waiting at the bus stop?
Instead of checking your phone, how about pulling out a small sketchbook and just draw what you see. Pick some small detail, like the window in the house across the street, the telephone pole or the old lady on the bench. Just look and notice the lines, understand the three dimensional object. Try to copy it on your notepad with as few lines as possible.
Bored on the train?
Draw one of your fellow passengers. Don’t judge your drawing, just make it. Then do another.
Standing in line at the post office?
Try to think of the main character in your story. What would he or she be thinking about right now, what would their posture be like, their look on the world around them.
There are many small things you can do that over time will move you towards your big goal. Try listing 3 things you can easily do, maybe a daily or a weekly thing. And then list 3 things you can easily stop doing, something that’s really taking you away from your goal. Commit to doing or not doing ONE of those things for a month, see if it sticks. If not, then maybe that strategy wasn’t built for you. You still have 5 other things to try out.

Steal With Intention

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In his great book Steal like an artist Austin Kleon recommends stealing from various sources in order to create your own unique artistic expression. I wholly endorse this message! But how do I practically implement this advice?

I recently tried out another form of stealing. I’m writing a YA novel in between other gigs and interruptions and often find it hard to get back in the groove, when I finally have the time to work on my story. It’s easy to feel stuck or disconnected from the story.

So I started stealing with intention.

Every time I watch a movie, read a comic or a chapter in the kids book I’m reading aloud to my daughter, I look for one thing I can lift for my own story. It could be anything; a particular conflict (mom vs. daughter), piece of clothing (someone wearing a Nirvana t-shirt), an activity (building a treehouse or playing cards), a tic or a trait. I’ll ask myself what this could be in my story. And like the kids in the story building a tree house out of old planks, something new will start to take shape in my story, even though some of the raw materials is from somewhere else. It also keeps my mind sharp and awake, not just consuming a tv-show or a museum exhibition. I’m looking for something to steal.

You too can try setting this as a sort of dogma rule for yourself, to always look for one thing that you can implement. Treat it like a game! If you can find just one thing to steal from a movie, it can be a bad movie and you still win.

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