How to Write & Draw Comics
Inspired by an article Molly Crappable wrote on freelance life, I sat down and had a discussion with myself about what it takes to survive as a one-man army. If you’re a struggling freelancer or considering becoming one, this episode is for you!
Molly Crabapple’s 15 rules for creative success in the Internet age
You know how important it is to draw every day, if you want to improve as an artist. But more importantly, you need to keep a forward momentum and draw the hard stuff.A lot of artists share daily sketches on Twitter and Facebook. While that’s a perfectly valid thing to do, I see one common problem with most of these sketches – they are all very good! The problem here is that the artist has sat down with a blank piece of paper and drew whatever he felt like, whatever image he had in his mind.
Let’s imagine you were to do the same. Wonder what image would pop up?
I’ll take a wild guess: Character shot.
Whether it’s a macho superhero, a funny animal or a sexy robot, the problem with that image is exactly that it came from inside your head. And let’s face it: not much new comes from inside your head.
I used to only draw muscular guys with swords and dragons. While I did get slightly better at drawing guys with swords and dragons, this daily exercise didn’t help me get better at drawing. Not by a long shot.
What DID make me better, was being forced to draw stuff I didn’t already know how to draw, the “boring” stuff like flowers in a vase, and the hard stuff, like a street full of houses and cars and trees and people .
Unless you push yourself and draw from life, study and copy from photo reference and other artwork, you’ll only be maintaining your drawing muscle, not improving it. When it’s really hard and frustrating – THAT’S when you’re on your way to getting better.
Imagination is overrated. You need input to produce output – even original, fresh and innovative output!
Sketching daily only works if you push yourself to draw the stuff you can’t.
Jeremy Haun is the current artist on Constantine. Wolf Moon, by Jeremy and Cullen Bunn, debuted in December from DC. He recently completed a run on Batwoman. Over the past decade plus, alongWhat made you decide to work in the medium of comics?
I’ve always been a huge comics fan. I spent my childhood drawing and redrawing what I saw in comics and telling my versions of those stories. It’s what I always wanted to do.
What part of the process is the most challenging or frustrating to you?
Doing the comics themselves is challenging, but probably the most consistently frustrating part is managing the time required to make comics. While comics are perceived as a fun child-like medium, the time you are allotted to create a comic is about a month. With the amount of time needed to put out the kind of finished product I’m happy with, makes for some long, long hours at the drawing table.
If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring comics creator, what would that be?
Keep working at it. Do your craft for the love of it. You will continuously improve. The industry is set up in such a way that it is difficult to get hired without having prior experience. But keep at it and do your own thing if necessary.
You can support Jeremy’s Kickstarter for his new Dino-Day Art Book here.
No time is more approriate for a little self- examination than the beginning of a new year. Sparked by a rather painful personal relationship issue, I dig deep and look on the dark side – not just only my own less-than-perfect psyche but also the general emotions like envy, the need to vent or the need for recognition – and what happens if we are not mindful about the vibes we’re sending out. I go through ten lessons I have learned in the past few years that hopefully helped me become a more positive influence and a happier person to boot.
The ten lessons:
Hopefully these painful lessons can be an inspriration and a wake up call to others.
The great thing about the new year is it’s a chance to get some perspective and stop and think for a moment. Look back on the year that went by too quickly and evaluate. What worked and what would you like to change for the new year?Rather than making some grand resolution like “draw 2 pages every day”, try setting small, achievable goals that build a habit. As my friend Kody Chamberlain put it:
I’ve found that small ongoing adjustments are more effective than attempting a major and sudden change. Try that if you need a resolution.
I’ve made a habit of doing resolutions, not because december 31st is the only day you can make changes and take action – you can do that every day – but because people tend to ask me. And having to answer a question is a good excuse to think.
Maybe you’ve already made a plan for 2015 but in case you’re not sure, here are 5 ideas for New Year resolutions for artists and other creatives:
1: Spend an hour every week cleaning up the clutter around your drawing board and/or office. It’s really easy to get behind on simple things like these, and eventually it can bog down your workflow, having to look for tools or references or just having to work in a mess. Clearing physical clutter cleans out mental clutter as well.
2: Take at least one coffee meeting every month with someone you admire. This could be another artist, a writer or someone completely outside your industry. Someone you have a gut feeling there’s something to learn from. Prepare a few questions but try to be open and curious. Ask about their struggles, their strategies and their workflow.
3: Take a walk every day. Clear your head and get some movement into your joints. As artists and writers, we spend a lot of time sitting down and that hurts our bodies. You don’t have to go to the gym, just walking or doing 15 minutes of exercises and back stretching can really make a diffference.
4: Get in the habit of asking yourself: Is this helpful? Whenever you’re asked to do something, evaluate if it’s helpful for your overall goal, whatever that is. And every time you get angsty, depressed or start to worry about your story, your craft or if people will like you, stop and think for a moment: Is this helpful? If the mood or your worrying is not helping you produce better art, stop it. Do something helpful instead, like sitting down and getting the work done.
5: Quit one of your social media platforms. I know this one hurts. But think of the many hours a week you’re spending clicking links from Facebook, scrolling your Twitter feed or liking pictures of art (or cats!) on Instagram. You don’t have to shut down your account, just consider removing the app from your phone or simply don’t go in. We see it as a deserved break in our routine but more often than not, it’s a huge time suck. You’re better off looking out the window for 5 minutes and clearing your head.
This year my personal resolution is to spend the first hour of my work day, EVERY work day, on my own business. Whether that’s this site, my own comics or that novel I’m working on. Every day I come in to work, I don’t answer the phone or check my email or put out that brush fire. It can wait an hour, surely.
I also believe in the power of commitment, of accountability. So now that I have told you, I guess I have to keep my promise to myself, right?
What’s your resolution? Please share! Maybe there’s an idea someone else can stael to make their 2015 the most productive and epic creative year ever.
I got an email from a VIP subscriber who had a bunch of questions regarding his process. What program or software do you suggest for paneling or arranging the images with boarders on a computer? How much bigger should I do my drawing than the actual panel size? Is It important that all my drawings be consistent with that rule? Should I draw out panels into the page and start working on that or draw separate images and put them together on the computer?
I try to answer these and other questions in this podcast.
