Comics for Beginners

How to Write & Draw Comics

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How to become a better artist

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Do you think top athletes just decide one day to go and win the olympics? Well, maybe they do, but they don’t get there without a lot of work.

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.

Drawing Every Day – Comics for Beginners podcast episode 17

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In this episode I share some tips and suggestions for becoming a better artist. Drawing every day and everywhere is one thing, but what if you find yourself hating the end result? How do you get good at drawing and make it a habit? Well, click play and find out!
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5 great online resources for comics creators

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You can spend hours, days, even months scouring the web for information or resources on how to make comics. Here are five good places to go (other than this site, of course!)

Jimzub.com

Comics writer Jim Zubkavich (Samurai Jack, Skullkickers) dishes out a ton of great advice for aspiring writers and artists, both on the craft and the business side of comics. I interviewed him for the podcast at New York Comic Con 2013 on why he creates these tutorials and gives away all this valuable information – and trust me, it’s gold.

Blambot.com

A good comics font can be hard to find – and even harder to create from scratch – but the folks at Blambot have done the hard work for you! Their fonts are not all free. Some are license, so you pay a one-time fee, usually $20-25. A good deal for something you could end up using daily.

iFanboy makecomics podcast

Short podcasts about the craft, featuring Andy Schmidt (no relation!) of Comics Experience. The podcast sound quality isn’t always great, but there’s a lot of food for thought for creators, both newbies and seasoned pros. I sat on a panel with Andy at this year’s SDCC and he was every bit as smart and nice in  person.

Remind blog

Writer/artist Jason Brubaker shares his experiences and tools for creating his comic reMIND. Brubaker started the site Making Comics as well, where I did a few guest posts, but I would recommend going to remindblog.com first and devouring all you can.

Posemanics

A great online resource for artists who don’t have access to life drawing classes is pose maniacs.com. There are tons of reference models on the site and a timer function for doing 30 second sketches from random images. There is even an app for it and the resource is FREE.

ProFile: Mike Cavallaro

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ProFile-Mike-Cavallaro

Mike Cavallaro is from New Jersey, where he attended the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon Art, and has been a working cartoonist for over 20 years. His clients include DC Comics, Marvel, Image, First Second Books, Archie, MTV, Warner Brothers, Cartoon Network, and others. Mike’s comics include Parade (with fireworks), Nico Bravo & the Celestial Supply Shop, The Life and Times of Savior 28, with J.M. DeMatteis, Foiled and Curses, Foiled Again, with Jane Yolen, Recognition for Mike’s work includes YALSA’s “Great Graphic Novels For Teens” list, a Will Eisner Comics Industry Award-nomination, a Junior Library Guild selection, and others. Mike resides in New York City and is the vice-chairman of the National Cartoonists Society, Manhattan Chapter.

What made you decide to work in the medium of comics?

I was always interested in art, primarily illustration, and the more fantastic and unreal, the better. By the time I was graduating high school, I had already been working at my local comic shop for four years — it was my first job. My favorites were artists like Barry Windsor Smith, John Buscema, Frank Frazetta, Joe Kubert, Los Bros Hernandez, and of course many others. It was obvious that I was going to pursue some kind of art, and I guess I chose the one I was most influenced by at the time: comics. While other kids were applying to various colleges, I only applied to one place: the Joe Kubert School. After that, it was all comics, all the time, for the next couple years, and I guess it’s been that way ever since — pretty much the last 20 years.

What part of the process is the most challenging or frustrating to you?

All parts! Seriously, I suppose there are different degrees of “frustrating”. I mean, I’m frustrated by lettering because I don’t really want to do it, so it feels like sort of a drag to me. But, on my creator-owned stuff, there’s no one else to do it, so I gotta. But that’s more about tedium than anything else. There’s the frustration you feel when you can’t draw something the way you want and you’re erasing a hole into the paper and wasting time. But that’s somehow different. It’s not tedium, it’s coming face-to-face with your limitations and learning how to either exceed them or circumvent them in some way.

All-in-all though, the thing I find most challenging with comics is the writing. There was probably a point when I was discovering comics where I’d buy something just because it looked amazing. That’s not enough for me anymore. I need a story I’m interested in or I can’t be bothered. So I believe story (not just writing, but STORY: art and words working together) is the most challenging and important part of the whole thing.

If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring comics creator, what would that be?

Be versatile. Don’t just do one thing, one way. Be able to shift gears, employ multiple techniques and styles, and have a command of all aspects of comics making: writing, pencilling, inking, lettering, and coloring.

Follow Mike’s work at  mikecavallaro.com

Q & A at TAW

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As you may know, I taught a comics course at the Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark last week. I’m planning a podcast about the course, that will probably go up later this week, but I also got some questions from students that I thought I would answer here. Perhaps there is some value in it for the Comics for Beginners community.

Q: When you’re working on a comic, don’t you ever want to change or ditch your story completely?

A: Yes, absolutely! Every time. But if I listened to the voice inside my head that tells me it’s not good enough, chances are I’ll never finish anything. I may decide NEVER to use this pen again or NEVER to make that same story mistake, but rarely do I change horses in the middle of the stream. That doesn’t mean I have no sense of self critique (at least I hope not), I just try to act like a pro and get it done. And whatever I learn, I take with me to the NEXT project.

I talked a bit about my collaboration with writer Chris Miskiewicz. I feel very fortunate to have met Chris and we get along very well creatively, with complete respect for each other’s work and a common goal to make the end result even better. When I described our working relationship, I got this question:

Q: How do you find a partner like that?

A: It’s probably different for everybody. First off, you don’t meet anybody if you just stay at home at your drawing board. You have to get out there. I met Chris at the MoCCA Festival in New York and we got along instantly. AND I liked the work he did. He lured me in with a smaller project, a short comic for his Everywhere! anthology on Act-I-Vate. Doing a little something together is probably a good idea to see if you’re on the same page. Test the waters. Meeting in person (and getting drunk together) is also something I would very much recommend, as it just takes the relationship to a whole other level than an online friendship. It frees up the communication.

Another question that was asked was about making a living as an artist and starting out:

Q: When did you decide to become an artist?

A: I didn’t, really. For a looong time I didn’t even ALLOW myself to think it was possible. I didn’t know anybody who made a living drawing, and my parents certainly didn’t either. So like the good parents they were, they persuaded me to get an education and/or a REAL job. Well, I botched thatcompletely. Never got a degree, but was working on illustration, comics, fanzine production while pretending to be a good student at the university and later the school of architecture here in Copenhagen, Denmark.  It wasn’t until I met Peter Snejbjerg (artist of Books of Magic, Starman, Preacher and numerous other US books), that I realized being an artist could be a profession and not just a hobby. Starting at Gimle Studios alongside Peter and a bunch of other pros made me what I am today. If not for them, I probably would have given up. So finding a peer group and a studio spot was key for me. AND running out of money, so I HAD to make it work!

It was a great experience to meet all the talented young  people in Viborg. Thanks to Aske, Fie, Kristian, Muir, Bob, Maria, Emil, Cathrin, Siri, Jacob, Eydi, Jam, Albert, Mathilde, Line, Clara, Julie, Nilas, Mette and Sofie for the opportunity to offer some guidance. Soon I’ll be asking YOU for advice!

 

Tip of the day: PLANNING

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Being my own boss, there's no one to give a PASS but myself.
Being my own boss, there’s no one to give a PASS but myself.

You know the term KISS – Keep It Simple, Stupid?

Today I invented the term PASS – Plan Ahead, Stupid, Stupid. (Well, it had to be four letters I think). That note is going up on my wall.

I’m kind of between projects at the moment, and I did the mistake of NOT having anything planned for today’s work.

So what happened?

Kitchen talk at the studio for half an hour and the wasting an hour on YouTube. Saw some great clips with comedian Ricky Gervais, but how does that help my work life?

So my Tip of the Day is a no brainer, something I usually practice: Plan ahead. Know what you will be working on next day, have a prioritized to-do list. An empty desk and an empty calendar is not very motivational and even though I have PLENTY of stuff I COULD do, I end up spinning the wheels all morning, going nowhere.

Perhaps I’m being too hard on myself. But who else is gonna be, right?