Tutorials - what would people like to see?

ztoical

Hi all,

so we've got our production forum going and its been humming along but I know on the things both Fysh and myself wanted to get together was a series of tutorials to help people in whatever area of comics production interested them. Long term I'd like to see a few workshops or the likes put together but for now how about some shout outs from people on what they'd like to see covered as forum posts and we'll work from there

Fysh

Good call on this thread - I have a map of the main topics I think are worth covering in individual threads, but unfortunately I don't know enough to be able to write them all myself. I'd suggest the following as a starting point:

Drawing/pencilling : basic do's & don'ts, stylistic considerations, suggested materials and further reference sources
Inking : Everything from how to do it through what materials to use and considerations of how much (if at all) the inker should change the pencilwork
Colouring : A general basis of how to put together colour schemes and balance them together, along with more specific digital colouring and traditional colouring tips.
Lettering/speech balloons : Worthy of a tutorial of its own, given how much more there is to lettering than many people realise. Things like how to create your own fonts, discussions on how to place text blocks and shapes, and how to create speech shapes that match the artwork of the comic.
Print Publishing : Everything from getting images at a sufficient quality to print through laying them out and the relevant benefits of digital and lithographic printing.
Visual storytelling/layouts : How to guide the reader's eye, how to structure a page so that the panel flow works, do's and don'ts (preferably with a few simple examples).
Writing : Considerations on writing to the format - episodic dramatic writing, episodic humorous writing, longform writing considerations. Characterisation, story beats, timing, storytelling engines.

If you have any further suggested topics please post them here along with a brief overview of what kind of material you would like to see covered. It's worth pointing out that anyone can submit a tutorial - the idea is that we can compile everyone's suggestions and information on each topic into one comprehensive guide, and subsequently have a reasonably complete guide to "making comics".

livingtargets

I personally would like to see some tutorials and advice on the subject of printing comics and maybe some quirky ones about subjects I wouldn`t really give that much thought to like different types of binding techniques and stuff like that.

ztoical

I started writing one on materials as people have asked alot about what ink/paper/nibs to use. I got distracted getting files ready for print but I'll try and finish it shortly.

I'd like to write one on inking thou I'm not sure how to describe inking, its something you really need to demo to get right but I'll see if I take some photos or something. I'm going to be posting a silkscreen guide on my blog shortly that I'll link to and I'll be teaching a workshop in book binding with a gallery in Kilkenny at the end of october that I'll try and take loads of photos at and put something together.

Nathanual

Maybe one on promoting the finished product. When I started publishing, with the childrens book of Rosemary, the hardest thing to find out was what to do when the finished product was sitting in front of you.

After about 1000 emails and about the same amount of postage letters, the book did very very well. All the tactics that I used for a novel are totally useless for a comic so, it would be nice to see someone put down some ideas that do work and don't work.

Just a thought... don't shout at me...
Stephen

Ger_Hankey

How about a sort of "Problem page" type thread, where somebody might have a specific question they would like to put out to more experienced heads?
For instance, somebody asks: "I can't make cats I draw to look right/my picture scans look crap/I have this funny rash..." and somebody who has had to deal with that problem or knows the answer can reply.

Nathanual

Ger the rash will go away when you shave, I've told you this...

The problem page sounds like a great idea.

Stephen

ztoical

Ger_Hankey wrote: »

How about a sort of "Problem page" type thread, where somebody might have a specific question they would like to put out to more experienced heads?
For instance, somebody asks: "I can't make cats I draw to look right/my picture scans look crap/I have this funny rash..." and somebody who has had to deal with that problem or knows the answer can reply.

my only issue with that is I think alot of people won't notice it and will start a new thread and the mods will keep merging the threads and then will get loads of "what happened to my post?" posts. I feel like the whole comic production board is a problem page. We could have a sticked thread of "answered questions/problems" if we start getting the same question asked over and over.