Underdogs

Underdogs

Standard Proportions Of The Human Body

— Made by Devin Larson

Read the article, then download the worksheet! It will help to reinforce this information.

Proportion Practice: Read the article, then download the worksheet!

Figure drawing is a challenging pursuit. To be competent at drawing the body you have to seamlessly integrate knowledge of gesture, weight, anatomy, and perspective. It’s challenging… but it’s also rewarding. You can’t escape learning the principles of figure drawing unless you’re making a comic about an inanimate object, so in the end, difficulty is somewhat of a moot point. You will learn to draw the human form (if you haven’t already) so you might as well discover how to love it now. Take heart! We here at Making Comics will be here to help every step of the way. The first step is learning to see the body in terms of basic shapes, and how those shapes relate to one another in terms of relative size (also called proportion).

This is not a guide about how to draw the figure. This is a guide about how to see the figure. In future articles we will be addressing the actual process of drawing the figure in detail. (more…)

Underdogs

Should we “Ink” Digital Comics?

— Made by Peter Donahue

Inked linework is an iconic element of comics. Duh.

But have you thought about why? I guess because of the whole history of how the art form evolved; I’m not an expert on that. But it makes sense to me that Doré et al. etched rather than painted for book illustrations, and that Outcault et al. inked cartoons in a way that could be reproduced on plates. Pencil, pastel, and paint and other media just don’t play as nice with printing presses as clean linework does.

[Tweet “Pencil, pastel, and paint and other media just don’t play as nice with printing presses as clean linework does.”]

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Underdogs

Overview Of The Comic Creation Process

— Made by Devin Larson

Casual consumers of comic books around the world often have no idea of the work involved in producing the entertainment they enjoy. Effort and workload aside, merely the size of the team required for an idea to manifest can boggle the mind. Dozens of people handle specialized roles from writer to penciller, inker, colorist, letterer, and editor. Printers are needed to produce the physical copies and a distribution network is required for those comics to end up in your local comic shop.

Or maybe the comic in question is of a new breed — a webcomic — and most of the jobs are handled by one person.

This article is intended to be a quick reference for the most common methods of comic creation, both from the professional side of things as well as how those methods scale when applied to smaller projects.

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Underdogs

Defining Scope

— Made by Patrick Yurick

Read the article, then grab the activity sheet!

60 Pieces In 60 Minutes
Read the article, then grab the activity sheet!

When beginning any project there is always this moment of “oh man, what do I do first?” For the longest time I would start in the worst way possible by diving head-first into projects and working only on the parts that excited me the most. I consistently ignored the big picture in order to focus on the details. I learned a couple of things from trying to work this way for nearly a decade:

  1. I never finished a project working in this manner.
  2. I still do this and always risk failing to complete projects as a result.
  3. It wasn’t until I worked on defining the scope of my project that I understood what I needed to “hyper-focus” on.

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Underdogs

What To Read? Touchstones For Comic Makers

— Made by Kevin Cullen

Samuel Beckett hit the nail on the head when he said: “The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading.” Indeed, it’s only after we’ve studied the work of masters that we are able to amass a foundation from which we can create our best material. However, if you’re new to the world of comics, you may find some of the “classic masterpieces,” such as Watchmen or Maus, a bit advanced as teaching aids or references. I know I’ll get some hate mail for excluding these classics from the list, but hear me out. Though they are definitely ranked among the more important comic books, it takes time to really appreciate exactly what it is that makes these comics so important that they’re studied even in ivy-league colleges. For this reason I think it’s probably a good idea for newer readers and writers to begin their journey by sampling the best of a diverse array of genres. The goal is, of course, to saturate yourself with quality content by deconstructing the the comics themselves and finding out what makes them “tick.”

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Underdogs

Teach Yourself How To Learn

— Made by Devin Larson

I’m about to drop some zen thinking on you, so listen up. Ready?

What separates the mindset of a seasoned artist from an amateur?

The amateur has fewer questions.

BaBOOM! (drops the mic)

…OK so… maybe that bears explaining a bit further. Everyone starts off with more or less the same vacuum of knowledge when it comes to art and the rules that govern the visual world. Beginners tend to focus on the immediate questions (how do I draw Batman jumping off a roof? What does his costume look like?) whereas experienced artists see the task before them with greater nuance (what’s the most effective composition? Is Batman foreshortened correctly? Is the lighting accurate?). The experienced artist realizes the depth of complexity even the most basic image can present in a way the beginner does not.

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Underdogs

Starting A Comic With Conflict

— Made by Patrick Yurick

Find the conflict.

Not every comic book story starts with conflict. Some creators look for places to start that are non-intuitive like the ending of a story. Check out your favorite comic. Open it to the first pages – what do you see? You will start to notice that almost all stories begin with conflict. Now sit down and take your own characters (or invent new ones) and imagine them in the same situation. What happens when you put these new characters in a similar conflict? What elements need to change to make sense?

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Underdogs

Exercises to Build Positive Habits

— Made by Jared Cullum

Walt Stanchfield, a hero of mine, once described the act of drawing well by comparing it to driving a car- many small considerations and corrections need to take place in order for the composition to go in the direction you want. To pursue art requires great discipline and strength. Discipline and strength require regular maintenance- like the engine of a car- and occasionally while “driving” it’s good to take some time to fuel up. The best way to do that is by developing positive habits that encourage yourself to grow as an artist. (more…)

Underdogs

Warm-Up Exercises!

— Made by Devin Larson

Warm-up Activity Sheet

Read the article, then grab the activity sheet! It provides guided examples that students can use to establish good warm-up techniques.

Warm-up exercises are a critical component of the art process. In sports, professional athletes know that in order to achieve peak performance from their muscles it’s necessary to gradually work up to the demands that are placed on them. Art is no different, save in one respect. Muscle control is certainly a factor but the real benefit of warm-up drawing exercises is the way they engage your mind.

Confused? You may have heard of the famous Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. It theorizes that the two hemispheres of the brain control separate thoughts processes. In most people, the left brain is active much of the time, allowing you to verbally and logically navigate through the world around you. But the right brain is where visual and creative processes reside and it’s that part of the mind we are trying to engage when we draw. These warm-up exercises will help you to work up to thinking visually and should be used daily.

Everyone has to start somewhere, and if you’re interested in drawing this is it.

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