Comics for Beginners

How to Write & Draw Comics

making comics

ProFile: Jason Copland

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ProFile-Jason-CoplandJason Copland has produced art for various companies, including illustrating The Perhapanauts: Molly’s Story for Image and short stories from Trickster: Native American Tales and Postcards: True Stories that Never Happened. He recently provided art for a story in Ed Brisson’s Murder Book, and is currently working on the online comic Kill All Monsters. He also runs an experimental comics blog called Poutine alongside fellow artist Noel Tuazon.

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

The discovery of comics at age 13. There was so much awesome work coming out from artists like Frank Miller, Walt Simonson and John Byrne that it inspired me to start drawing comics. Miller’s RONIN in particular really opened my eyes to what could be done in comics.

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

Inking. I try to do most of my drawing in the inking phase. I keep my layouts/pencils pretty loose and then start inking over those so that the lines I put down are more spontaneous. I think the act of drawing should have a little fear infused into it. There should be risks taken. Needless to say, I use a lot of whiteout.

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

Don’t be afraid to fail. Drawing is an adventure and should have the risk of failure present. Don’t let mistakes stop you from pushing on. It’s only lines on paper; there is nothing to worry about.

More at http://jasoncopland.com/

8 Steps to Comics Success – Comics for Beginners podcast episode 24

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As you may know, my first monthly book Thomas Alsop is out from BOOM! Studios and is doing very well. Hooray! But how do you get there? In the first episode of this podcast, I discussed the three biggest mistakes of my comics career. But it was a different time back then. In this episode I go into what I would do if I was starting out making comics today. Follow these 8 simple steps and your comics career is guaranteed! Er, no… But there are some good tips in this episode, that’s a promise.

Related podcast: The Three Biggest Mistakes of my Comics Career

 

Finding time to do comics

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A lot of us struggle finding the time to make comics. There just aren’t enough hours in the day!

Though some of us are richer or more talented than others, there is one area were we are all equal: we all have the same 24 hours in day. Here are a few tips on how to make your comics hours count.

Get up earlier.
An hour a day can really make a world of difference. Small steps towards your goal is better than none.

Plan ahead.
Before you go to sleep at night, decide what piece of the big picture (page, panel, scene, character) you will be working on the next day – Or whenever you get a time slot. Oftentimes small breaks pop up during the day, which we end up wasting on Twitter or goofing around. Have something ready that you can just pick up and work on whenever the opportunity arises.

Focus on one little step at a time.
When we think of our comics as a whole, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of work that lies ahead; outlining, scripting, thumbnails, rough sketches, research, more sketches, character design, pencils, inks, color, lettering, promotion… Arrgh!

Stop, take a deep breath and focus. One thing at a time.

Just say no.
If we all have the same amount of hours in the day, how come some people get more done than others? My guess: They either have enough money that they don’t have to spend all their time shovelling coal. Or: they prioritize. If you really want to make comics, you will probably have to sacrifice some things to clear your schedule. If you can’t cut down on working hours, maybe cut down on the hours you spend playing videogames or watching tv.

What are your tips for making more of the time you have available? Please share!

Related podcast: Getting Stuff Done

ProFile: David Lloyd

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ProFile-David-LloydDAVID LLOYD is the well-known illustrator and co-creator of the globally successful, V For Vendetta, who’s also worked on the Hellblazer series, Aliens, Global Frequency, War Stories, and many other projects.  His acclaimed crime graphic novel, Kickback, is now available as an app with all kinds of extras including a commentary. He’s collaborated on an Asterix collection ; produced his first limited-edition print,‘ The Prizefighter ‘; and written and drawn a book on Sao Paulo.  His most recent work in print is a retrospective collection of short stories – Materia Oscura – which was published in Italy and Spain. He also helps manage the educational website, Cartoon Classroom,  which aims to centralize all information available on the study of cartooning and sequential art in Britain and Ireland. His current occupation is editing and publishing an exclusively digital comic art magazine, Aces Weekly, which features top talent from around the world.

More information on David’s past and present projects can be found via www.lforlloyd.com,  on Deviantart.com, and on his Facebook page.

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

I was good at it, loved telling stories and expressing myself that way – in the same way that any artist has to paint, I had to create these things once I realized that I could – and had seen how effective they could be! If you can write, you write. If you can draw, you draw. If you can write and draw, you naturally produce sequential art! If you want to.

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

None of it. Damn publishers sometimes not selling it or printing it badly is the only challenging and frustrating part of it.

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

Work hard to be the best you can be at it.

Seeing the images before drawing them

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I got a really good question in an email the other day. A subscriber in Nigeria (Hello, Africa!) asked me about conceptualizing: “How do you see each drawing before you actually put pen to paper?”

My gut response was: Well, it just pops into my head.

I realize that’s not very helpful – although it’s very close to the truth! The whole truth is of course more nuanced.

The reason why these images just pop into my head on a very intuitive level is because I’ve put them there. Not on purpose, not by design. But by watching a whole lotta stuff over the years. Comics, painting, movies, real life – all of the things I’ve seen with my eyes, my brain remembers. All right, maybe not ALL the things I’ve seen. But you get the idea. The more you look at images, the more likely you are able to remember and replicate an image.

But again that’s not the whole truth.

Drawing these images vastly improves your ability to remember and replicate them. The more life drawing, the more copying you do, the more images you solidify in your subconsciousness.

The images that pop into my head probably do so, because I’ve seen them or drawn them before. Not that exact image, but something similar.

A few exercises:

  1. Watch movies. Pause the dvd, draw the image on the screen. As fast as you can. Study the composition, the lighting. Save your sketch for later. Steal from yourself.
  2. Read comics. No, in fact just pick a few comic books off the shelf and flip through them before you start your work. Put some images in your head (but don’t copy them!)
  3. Sketch. A lot. Try out several versions of the same image, different angles. Do thumbnail versions of your pages and be conscious about varying the sizes of the panels, shift between close ups, tilted shots, silhouettes – whatever you can do to shake things up.

The image the Nigerian subscriber mentioned as a reference was this one.:

DC-excerpt

I can see why it looks seducingly easy, like I’m some comics genius. But I probably made half dozen versions of this image before landing on this one. At least in my head. That’s where the images usually come from, as I’m writing the script.

It’s not easy. But it get’s easier. The more images I see, the more images I draw, the more I have to replicate from.

And you know that feeling of having an image inside your head and not being able to get it down on paper? Yeah, I get that too. But I’ve learned to ignore it. The image in my head washes away and is replaced with whatever is on the page, and that’s OK. It’s just one drawing out of hundreds, thousands. I get less attached the more I draw. I feel like that’s the secret to making comics in some weird way. Not caring so much for the individual image but caring about the flow of the story.

Hope the longer answer is more helpful!

Related podcast: Drawing Every Day