help

jjrules

look im a newbie on making comics and a crap drawer but i wanna make some so i need some tipsif anyone could go to my profile to email me reply here or follow link below to email



josh03@fsmail.net

KlodaX

what kinda comics are you trying to make? I saw a load of class 'how to draw manga' books online ... probably not what you are looking for though.

Fysh

Not meaning to echo Klodax here, but what kind of comics do you want to make? This more than anything is going to affect how you learn to draw. If you want manga/anime, start by getting one of those "how to draw manga" books and working your way through it. If you prefer more western-style action comics, there are books from DC, Marvel and independent groups on how to draw their style. I was given the Marvel one years ago, and have to admit it was quite good having a structured learning path to follow even if I did find "the marvel way" to be very limited in some respects. But if you see books on how to draw that look good to you, get them. It never hurts to have other people's advice on how to draw, so long as you're practicing your drawing at the same time.

The main thing, though, is to find an artist or a comic that you like or whose style you want to emulate and just copy copy copy. Try drawing your own versions of panels, pages, maybe even a whole comic. Then, after a while (and it will take time) move on to drawing your own stuff. Look around online - you should be able to find web tutorials on all sorts of topics quite easily, from how to draw in pencils to what sort of things you can do with a scanned image to make it look even better.

Hope this helps somewhat...

AngryBadger

Fysh wrote:

The main thing, though, is to find an artist or a comic that you like or whose style you want to emulate and just copy copy copy.

That's terrible advice man, i agree you should read the kinds of comics you're interested in writing/drawing, and expose yourself to artist you like, but don't just copy them.

My advice would be, draw,draw,draw,sure go for books that teach you to draw in certain styles, but try not to just mimic them exactly, try to develop some drawing style yourself, by just conatantly sketching,and then assimilate/adapt other techniques you like.

Do not just copy other artists, otherwise I'll have to come to your house and lay the beatdown

.....just kidding about the beatdown

Fysh

AngryBadger wrote:

That's terrible advice man, i agree you should read the kinds of comics you're interested in writing/drawing, and expose yourself to artist you like, but don't just copy them.

My advice would be, draw,draw,draw,sure go for books that teach you to draw in certain styles, but try not to just mimic them exactly, try to develop some drawing style yourself, by just conatantly sketching,and then assimilate/adapt other techniques you like.

Do not just copy other artists, otherwise I'll have to come to your house and lay the beatdown

.....just kidding about the beatdown

Before you can figure out what your own style is, you should be trying to understand and emulate those styles that you like. We're talking about someone who by their own admission needs to start pretty much from the beginning.

Now, I'd love to see someone invent their own style from scratch, but I don't expect it to happen. This isn't just based on how I learned to draw, it's what several art teachers have suggested to me when I've talked to them about drawing in different styles. How else are you going to figure out what you like and don't like about the drawing style of X/Y/Z?

Besides which, you seem to have ignored the bit where I said "after a while, start drawing your own stuff"...

AngryBadger

Fysh wrote:

Before you can figure out what your own style is, you should be trying to understand and emulate those styles that you like. We're talking about someone who by their own admission needs to start pretty much from the beginning.


Besides which, you seem to have ignored the bit where I said "after a while, start drawing your own stuff"...

I just don't see how someone can develop their own distinc style after they've spent ages trying to just copy other artists

][cEMAN**

Well Angry, by his own admission he's "a crap drawer", so he has to learn to draw. The advice to copy others is a sound one. Nobody can really just lift a pad and a pen and instantly learn how to draw. It has to be shown.

Think you managed it by yourself? Do you remember all those times in school where you had art? That's where you learn. Now when it comes to comic art you either hate everything, and you can develop your own style after basic teachings in the human form and drawing bodies, or you can copy people whos art you want to look like, then over time feel free enough to draw without copying, and adjust each picture.

Eg, I consider myself quite good at reproduction art - I can copy pretty much anything, but I have no real imagination in how to create something of my own. So if for example I wanted to draw a certain comic character in my own style, I would first have to feel comfortable drawing them. So I would copy someones drawings over and over from different angles and positions, and keep doing so till I can do it from memory rather than from sight. At that point then, when I feel comfortable enough with the character, I begin to change certain things about it. Maybe the hair, or clothes, or increase/decrease exaduration on certiain body parts.

A good example I would have of this would be "romero" I think it is? I could be wrong, but he did a stint on Uncanny X-men from 300 to about 305. He also did some Cable and spiderman. His art is very much based around blocks and very solid looking characters. This is his own style, but the general type is of a marvelesque body. He simply exadurated it into a more block style and added his own line perspect shading. Now it looks entirely different.

You have to get used to the different positions and angles, then develop your own style. Sorry Angry, but to think you can just draw over and over and come up with something you can use, is wrong. Imo anyway. I used to try that, and couldn't develop a decent character - then I used a certain type of face creation such as drawing an oval, splitting it into the sections (eyes half way down, mouth half way between eyes and chin, nose approx 3/4 between eyes and mouth, and ears same distance from eyes as eyes are from chin etc). Once I started doing this, I found it easier to draw what I wanted by myself.

Emmett

The best advice I could offer you is draw everything. It's way too early to be thinking about having a style....that's something that comes naturally after years of honing your craft. So ,look around you and draw what you see out the window, in your home ,from picture or even yourself in the mirror. As you get better you'll be able to pull stuff straight from your head and that's when the real fun starts.

AngryBadger

' wrote:

[cEMAN**']
Think you managed it by yourself? Do you remember all those times in school where you had art? That's where you learn. Now when it comes to comic art you either hate everything, and you can develop your own style after basic teachings in the human form and drawing bodies, or you can copy people whos art you want to look like, then over time feel free enough to draw without copying, and adjust each picture.

I don't drawy,am compeltely hopeless at it, that not withstanding I fail to see how starting off by copying someone else's style completely will allow anyone to develop a syle of their own.

I take the point that you might have leanings toward one style or another, and so assimilate various techniques into your own work, but surely if you start mimicing someone else's pencils dot for dot, you've almost no chance of developing your own truly unique style. Surely the best way is to start with very general basics, then when you've got those down modify, or adopt other ways of doing things as you see fit, or as you find techniques that appeal to you.

niall mc cann

This isn't coming from an artist, but i found Scott Mc Cloud and Will Eisner's books about comics can really get you thinking about the structure of a comic, and about the possibilities for the medium.

][cEMAN**

Well angry it's all about how you want to have your stuff look.

Just think of it in stages....

Stage 1) Do you want to draw in a style more like manga, or western etc?

If you say you don't want to draw like any style, then what exactly are you going to do? If you've got something else in mind then work on it and draw, as already said, anything and everything in the style you want. Otherwise, if you pick a style, you're already making a mental note to copy other peoples work - as the styles are based on other people.

Stage 2) Are there any particular areas of each of these or people you've seen who you thought "Hmmmm i'd like to do something that looks like that". If so then again you're getting it in your head to copy them and their style.

Stage 3) Start copying their stuff. Drawing in this style over and over will make you feel comfortable with the form and fluidity of drawing these types of characters.

Stage 4) Once you feel you can draw in this style without having to copy from something, and you like the look of it, start experimenting by changing things, and drawing certain things in a way you feel they would look better.

My point is, that by deciding which style you prefer, you're already making a conscious choice to copy someone or something. You just have to accept that, and to develop your own style, copy it till it's part of you, then change it so it's yours, and yours alone.

Look at all the greatest artists of all time (not talking comic artists here, but renaissance artists etc). They all have people who've inspired their work, and if you look at their early stuff you'll see them copying it, then changing it to make it their own. I was watching a TV program recently showing exactly which works Raphael had copied from Leonard De Vinci and other artists, while developing his own style. The phrase "If I see furthar than you it is only because i'm standing on the shoulders of giants" is there for a reason y'know