Today, I will talk about the basics of web comic creation, from a beginner, to beginners. As they say, there is no better way to learn than to teach. So, I am going to go over a few books, and tools, that I find useful, as I try to figure out how best to tackle web comics.
If you have not already seen my post on drawing tools, check it out here. I basically went over Paper, pencils, computers, tablets, Photoshop, and so on. Here, I want to talk about drawing technique and style.
While I am no professional illustrator, I have taken several classes in college on drawing, including large format (such as 6 foot tall canvas drawings), and figure drawing. I HIGHLY recommend to anyone who is even remotely interested in learning to draw, to draw from real life, especially figures. Take a drawing class, and more importantly, take a figure drawing class! This will teach you the basics of the human anatomy, the shapes and contours, as well as the weight, the movement, the form and function, and so on. One class (as in a semester, not a single session) is really not enough, and I am actively seeking local figure drawing classes. Even the great masters of our past learned to draw from life, and often used models for all their work. In one amusing case, the artist could not find any female models, so he has to work from men, and the result? Rather masculine looking women... with coconut shaped chests.
Regardless, learning to draw from real life, not just photographs, not just internet, not just books, is the best way to learn to draw people.
Now then, on to the books.
Currently, there are several books that are in print that are excellent for both comic art, and figure drawing. There are many more that are very poor as well. Finding the right book for you might be difficult, but there are a few things to look for.
Are you trying to learn a specific style, or just enhance your skills? Are you trying to imitate someone, or develop your own style? The best answers to these will be to enhance your own skill, and your own style. Anyone can learn to draw like someone else, but to have your own flare, your own look, your own style with influences from many sources is what makes good art. I am no master, and my style is still being developed, and still emerging, but I have seen it peak out from behind my pencil lines every so often, and I want to encourage it.
The best way to do this, is to study the classics, the style of art that best represents the human anatomy, and artistic schools of thought. There are many different things to think about when it comes to drawing even a simple picture, including perspective, horizon lines, depth, weight, form, and so on. Any good art book will show you all these things, and more, and integrate their study into what you are trying to learn to draw.
One such series of books are by the artist Burne Hogarth. His series of books, which include Dynamic figure drawing, Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery, Dynamic Anatomy, Dynamic Hands, and so on, are all excellent books that cover all these elements and more. They teach you the relationship between each part of the body, the full range of motion, the reaction of cloth and clothing on the body, and so much more. He is a true master artist, who has thoroughly studied the classical style and very accurately and effectively relayed his knowledge into these books.
While I own some of these books myself, there are a few more books that everyone should know about as well. Unfortunately, these are no longer in print, but luckily they ARE available online, if you know where to look for them. The artist that made these? Andrew Loomis.
Loomis was an artist in the 30's, 40's, and 50's, even stretching into the 60's. His books are hard to find, although some are available through Amazon. However, luckily, a simple web search can reveal many (if not all) of his books in their entirety ready for download from various sources. His method is very thorough, and covers all of the things that Hogarth discusses, and more. His style is classical, but is also the influence of many other artists, and can be seen in such classic characters as Superman.
These are some excellent books for learning the classic art style, and for bettering yourself. You must make sure, however, that you actually read these books, and don't just look at the pretty pictures. Sure, they are full of pictures, but they also often discuss how to do variations of their technique, or how many times you should work on this specific problem they illustrate, and so on. Yes, artists need to read, not just draw or look at art books and comics.
Speaking of comics, there are several more books, which also require a fair share of reading, that are absolutely perfect for comics, and web comics. They discuss the more visual and theoretical aspects of comics versus drawing. Anyone can use these Hogarth and Loomis books to learn to draw anything they want, but the books I will discuss next talk specifically about the art of the comic.
In fact, there are 4 of these books, all by the same artist, Scott McCloud. McCloud is the creator of Zot!, a poplar comic from the late 80's and early 90's. McCloud decided that he would fully explore the theory behind comics, in an attempt to better learn them himself. Thus, he wrote a book all about them. He discusses everything from the boxes that we limit our sequential story telling to, to the complex relationship between the elements within each frame. He gives hints, tricks, and advice to all the major problems artists face, and provides excellent real-world knowledge of the comic making process. It become so popular, he actually went on to write 3 more books, which discuss everything from understand and creating comics, to how the internet has changed the face of comics, and even a book on how to make a full issue comic in only one day.
These are truly invaluable sources for both the professional level artist, and for the aspiring artist. In fact, I find these so interesting, I would suggest these to people who have no intent to every put pencil to paper, and only read comics. Understanding the full art style of the comic is far more intriguing than one would imagine, and is actually more entertaining than many comics.
For people are interested in drawing in the very popular "anime" or "manga" style, there are a series of books that do an excellent job of showing how this style differs from classic study, and so on. I highly recommend learning the classic art style first, as this is a specific variation that is best studied when you can already draw pretty well. The "How to Draw Manga" books cover a huge variety of anime and manga topics and styles. They include everything from how to get started, to how to draw specific costumes and genres. There are also a variety of similar books, which are by different companies, and tend to range in quality as well. I will say that, from my experience, learning to draw anime and manga is best left taught by those who are from the country of origin, Japan or Korea (Manwa is the Korean equivalent of the Japanese Manga, and follow the same rules). One artist to avoid, who is actually quite good at drawing American style comics, is Christopher Hart.
I am not bad mouthing Hart, or saying he can't draw, cause he can, and many of his books are excellent, but he does not draw manga style effectively at all, even though he sells many books on the topic. I highly recommend looking at his book Human Anatomy Made Amazingly Easy
, it has amazingly simple and useful techniques for simplifying drawing people. However, avoid his books that focus on manga and anime, as his style wreaks of Americanized copycat, which does not stay true to the Japanese form, and actually fails to accurately depict any sort of Japanese style.Now aside from books like these, which teach you how to draw in various styles, there are also books that do not teach anything, but are just as useful to an artist. These are reference books. As I said before, working from a model is second to none, but when a live model is not available, which is most of the time, a book photo reference book is an acceptable replacement.
Next post, I will discuss reference books, and finding live model classes.
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