Comics for beginners, part 2

Last time, I said I would talk about how to find good figure drawing classes, and also how to get good resource material for drawing.  I will talk about this today, but I will also talk a little about one of the great comic book artists and writers, Phil Foglio, in my next post!  But first, the art stuff.


There are really 2 types of drawing classes: regular drawing classes (from simple to advanced), and figure drawing.  Most student love to take figure drawing, but you almost always start with drawing still-life...  that is, the boring pictures of fruit and cubes.

Still-life isn't always boring, and many artists have demonstrated a perfect knowledge of color, lighting, and shade by using still-life.  The advantages of still-life over figure drawing is that an apple doesn't need to breath or scratch, an orange doesn't need to take a break, and a wooden cube rarely charges by the hour.  So these are perfect for learning how to draw, when it comes to understanding light, shadow, form, and relationship.  As regular drawing classes progress, they often explore deeper topics.  Sometimes it gets so deep, they start to explore the relationship between drawing and painting.  What is the difference?  Why does it matter?
Once you get up to figure drawing, you start to learn the way the body is shaped, the connections and relationships, the inner-workings and the elegant lines of the form.  It is necessary for all good artists to understand the human form on a deep level if they wish to ever draw a human.  That often means drawing bones, muscles, and skulls.  But it also means drawing from live models.
My school was lucky enough to have the art department situated next door to the dancing department.  I had the pleasure of drawing many attractive young women, which is ideal for art.  Unfortunately, there were very few attractive young men who were interested, so I had only 1 class with a young man.

When you are looking for a figure drawing class, there are 2 places to look, universities/colleges, and art groups/clubs or galleries.
In order to take classes at a university or college, you first have to be enrolled in the school, often in the specific field of study, and paying your dues and fees.  Because college classes need to budget ahead of time for their term, they usually have to charge students an extra fee to help pay for the models, who do not come cheap.  This usually means there is an upfront cost, which can easily be over $100 for a term.  Not all university classes will be able to use young, attractive models either.  When young models are not available, there are plenty of older people ready to take their place.  (I swear, as an art student, you start to wonder if the only thing people do when they retire is pose naked in front of other people.)  Now drawing older people is very good too, and you can learn a lot about drawing different body types, different details such as wrinkles, and how the body ages.  I did find that most of these older models were quite good.
However, unlike colleges and universities, art groups and art galleries can chose to allow anyone to participate, provided they are willing to learn and pay to participate.  Sometimes there is a membership fee, sometimes it is an up front class-by-class fee, sometimes it is a term fee.  While I have not priced them myself, I have heard that models can easily make $100 an hour, and they will pose for several hours at a time.  That is easy money, if you think standing still in a room full of people staring at you naked is easy.  So classes of all sorts need to compensate their models for their time and service.  You may also find that some colleges and universities will offer figure drawing classes to anyone interested as well.

You will find that most figure drawing classes advertise in local art publications, local art galleries, art stores, and even online.  Art clubs and other art groups will often hold a figure drawing class in a studio, where they will either have a series of instructions for those who pay to take the class, or they will have a free form drawing session, where they provide the model, and you draw whatever you want, however you want.  That way, they do not instruct the class, they merely provide a service.  Usually, these classes range from weekly to monthly.  The average cost for these classes seems to be around $10 per class.  They will also often advertise the types of posts they will provide.  Sometimes they have long poses, that can last up to an hour, or short posts, that may last 5 minutes or less.
One exercise is to do gesture drawing.  This is where the model posts for about 30 seconds, maybe less, and changes between different poses one after the other.  The idea is that you have only enough time to get a feel for the motion, the gesture, the essence of what they are doing, how they are moving, and to get that on paper without any actual detail.  This usually allows for a good idea of motion, but it also lets you see people in motion, standing in an uncomfortable position, something you can not do in a long pose, where the model has to be as comfortable as possible.  When they have to sit or stand for 30, 45, even 60 minutes, they often needs breaks, have to be as still as they can, markers are often left where their limbs were so they can get back into position after their breaks, and maybe even need heaters to keep them warm.

Now the biggest and best advantages of drawing from real life, is that you have a person you can communicate to for your pose.  If you need them to lower their hand, or change their balance, or shift their weight, or anything else, they can do it for you.  You also have a 3D life-size model in the room, that lets you walk around them, chose your best position, and even take compliments when they do a good job.  The disadvantages are important to know as well, but are workable.  First, they are not cheap.  Also, you have a human, who moves and itches, and scratches, and has gas, and gets cold, and can sweat, and needs to breath, and take breaks.  This means they are going to be moving, even if just a little bit, which could be enough to throw you off, if you are still learning.  Sometimes the model will be perfect, other times they will be troublesome, and if you have never worked with the model before, you have no way of knowing.  Finding the right model can also be hard.  If you need a middle aged woman to pose for you, but all you can find are old men, you are out of luck.  However, the way I see it, all the great masters managed to create the most beautiful art using live models, long before still-pictures, aka photography, was invented.  If they could create these great works of art, there is no reason we can not follow their example.

Luckily, thanks to the modern science of photography, drawing from a picture is a very good experience as well.  Here, you can draw someone who is in a pose that a live person can not possibly hold, such as in the middle of the air or some other action.  You will also find photographs don't move or take breaks.  There are also a large variety of books and other resources, giving you a plethora of choices for your model and position, and usually books cost less.  However, there are some major draw backs to drawing from photography.  First, the camera.  When you are drawing from a photograph, you have to remember that a camera does not tell the truth, it tells only what it sees.  So nothing is in 3D, you cannot walk around the model and chose your position, you can not chose to readjust the focus, the lens and aperture and film and such all can affect the way the model looks.  Most images are printed at a set resolution, usually around 300 dpi, which means you are stuck with the details presented on the page, and you can not get a close look to get more information.  Whats more is that, while there are a plethora of options, sometimes it isn't enough, or it takes too long to find exactly what you want.  If the model is not right, you have to find one that is close, or keep looking.  If the model is in the wrong position, you can only change what you can figure out, but you can't reposition the model.  If the camera is at the wrong angle, there is nothing you can do to fix it.

That being said, there are a lot of good books available for figure drawing resources, that are a great help when you don't have a live model available.  This is better for if you are trying to draw something for a comic, because you can use stylization and like to compensate, but not so good for leaning if you are just starting out.  If you already can draw people, and have already had classes, these books are great.

Pose File.  From what I can tell, are are 2 series of Pose File books.  The American pose file books are good mainly for costumed super-hero and anime/manga themed comics.  All of these models are dressed, either fully, or at least in underwear.  The often are dressed in costume as well.  The book itself uses a series of camera angles for each pose, showing all of them on one page.  However, if you look at the included CD, you will find that they actually took many photos from a series of angles, with even more positions than the book has.  Since they specialize in costumes, you can see anything from superhero costumes, to schoolgirl outfits.  And of course, they pose as these comic characters should as well.  They provide various flying poses, fighting positions, weapon forms, and so on.  You can even see some detailed shots of the weapons they use.  It is good for getting some unusual shots and positions most reference books just do not do.  They have a series of them available, mostly involving action and combat poses.
Besides the American Pose File books, there are the Japanese ones.  I have not had a change to look at one of these myself, but I can say that they are available on Amazon, and usually involve nude models in various poses, including sports, dancing and martial arts.

The Nude Figure.  There are a few books by photographer Mark Smith, which explore the nude figure.  While he usually works with female nudes, you can also find men, couples, pregnant women, and unusual poses.  He has books with models jumping and dancing and moving.  His photography is excellent, with each model well depicted.  Since this is a traditional reference book, he does not provide costumes or props, and does not cater to the comic artist specifically.  However, he does an excellent job choosing which photographs to use, and provided top quality, detailed images.  His books are usually black and white, but some of them (such as this one) is in full color.  The one drawback to his work is that he does not provide panning or revolving perceptive.  He only takes the images as they are, from his perspective, and from no other position.  I find that, because of this, these are very limited in use for something like a comic artist, since we often need to have the characters in just the right position, from just the right angle.

People and Poses.  There are actually 3 books in this series.  Each one of these has a different theme, which is specific for the comic artist.  There is People and Poses, Men and Boys, and Women and Girls.  While there are other reference books by the same artist, these are the only ones that follow this theme.  He tends to photograph specifically for the comic artist, choosing which angle to present in the book.  These are in full color, and use a series of camera angles for each shot, similar to the Pose File books, but unlike the post file books, he does not represent them all on each page.  Often, these books use a single dynamic shot, one that would be ideal for a comic layout.  These each have flying shots, jumping, weapons, fighting, and more.  they use dynamic photography to give you those head on, close up, and angled shots you love to see in comics.  They even include pages from actual artists that used these models in their art, often with a presentation on how they made the shot.  The best part is, these also include a CD, which has a huge variety of poses, weapon close ups, angles, and more.  All of these use excellent side lighting to see the best details of the models, and they are all in full color.  Unfortunately, while they provide a few costumes, there are no nudes, and the models are all fully dressed or in underwear.  However, this is a minor drawback as these offer some excellent photographs, with some excellent tips and advice.

Facial Expression.  This is perhaps one of the best tools for any artist.  While you may be limited to using a mirror for your own face, these image provide you with a series of models posing in a large variety of expressions, often exaggerated for effect.  The models are listed in order from youngest to oldest, and include everything from young attractive men and women, to acne riddled teen, to the wrinkly old woman.  They include all face types, and the photographs are taken from 3 different positions surrounding the face.  They include side shots, overhead shots, 3/4 shots, straight on, and several in between.  The end of each model also has some art inspired by the expressions of that model, which are often creative and expressive.  This is an excellent way to see how other people react, how emotions are portrayed on the face, and how the age and gender and race can differentiate how we look.  As my good friend would say, it is also the favorite book of her kids, who call it the "funny face book".  The best part of this book is that it includes not only a huge series of expressions from many angles, but also a sequential expressions gallery for animators, a kissing gallery (woohoo!), a hats and headgear gallery, and a Phonemes gallery (that is the shape the mouth makes when you say words and make certain sounds)!

This is only the tip of the iceberg for reference photo books.  There are literally thousands of them out there.  There are entire websites that are dedicated to giving you the best reference picture you can find.  Some of them specialize in live models in various poses for your drawing benefit, others give you samples of various parts of the body for 3D modeling and the like.  There is even a program out there that gives you a full 360º rotation around the model, for best viewing angle.

So for the best reference material out there, you have to get to a figure drawing class or session. The more live model practice you get, the better you will become at drawing a figure from your mind, or from a small reference material like a book.  Book and photograph reference materials are also great, but only if used right.  Don't forget you can use the internet, such as google, to search for a pose, a figure type, even a costume, if you need help.  And while the photographs at websites like istockphoto, corbis and gettyimages are not free, you can often download a watermarked image with their giant logo on it, and use that for your reference for your drawing.  Just make sure you don't draw their logo with it.


Next time, Phil Foglio, and Girl Genius!

Comics for beginners

Time for another update again!
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.

Update (About Time)

I know last post seemed like a complaint, and ever since then I haven't made any posts or updates.
Well that is simple.  I have been really busy, and haven't been working on any animation or drawing projects at all.

Well I am desperately trying now to get back into my creative mode at full force now.  About 2 weeks ago, I started picking up the guitar.  I have actually been learning to play both the classic acoustic guitar, and the electric bass guitar.  Since both work on a similar principal, I have slowly been teaching myself both.  I have also decided to start learning how to sight-read music, a skill that is most useful in the music world, and something which far too many people lack.  While many accomplished musicians never learned to read or write music, I find it is not that hard to do if you let your hands do the learning before your mind.  By that, I mean let your fingers figure out the muscle movements before you memorize what all the note names are.  Sure, knowing the names of the notes is important, but it comes second, in my opinion, to your ability to play the music you see.  Once you can play it, you can better understand the technical side as well, such as the note names.
So WHY am I talking about music in an animation blog?
Simple.  Music, just like drawing and animation, is an expressive art form that takes practice and determination, as well as skill, to master.  While I will never be a master guitarist, I find that getting my creative juices flowing again is a very good habit.  By thinking in a creative, and eager to learn way, I am readying myself for the next step in what I am trying to do.  Drawing.
My drawing skills have very much been a roller coaster.  At times, I can barely draw a person, even if they are standing in front of me.  At other times, I am able to draw very well, especially from a model.  I admit my weakness if drawing without a model, so I am constantly looking for reference shots to help aid my drawing.  But that only works so well.  Lately, being mainly out of practice for a long time, I find my skills are lacking, and I need to get them back to where they belong.  Drawing is not like riding a bike.  It takes constant practice, otherwise your skills decrease and you find yourself at square one again.
I am looking into a few books to help me out, as well as a few tutorials.  However, most importantly, I am back to drawing again.  The animation right now, "Weak 1", will be put on a temporary hold so I can work on the prologue to a web comic my brother and I have been working on.  It isn't up yet (obviously), and we want to have the first 8 or so pages finished before we go any further, but I am using this opportunity to get back in the habit of drawing.  I need to do a lot of drawing, in practice and study, as well as in real-world applications.  Here, I am going to using this project for both.  I am going to be setting up a deadline to finish so many pages a month, I am shooting for 1 entire drawn, inked, and colored image every week.  This is to allow for a timely and regular schedule on a web comic, something most people rely on if they like to read web comics.
So why web comics?  Again, it is part of my attempt to get myself back into my creative mode, and the best way is to do creative things.  Writing stories, playing music, drawing, all these are important creative processes, and all of them can help with animation.  The better you are at drawing, the better you will be at animation of any kind.  So I must start from the basics, and improve from there!  Besides, most of my readers enjoy web comics, and probably have found this site, if not directly through me, than through Tangent Artists, a web comic site that I am a part of.  In fact, this very comic, when it is ready to be uploaded, will be featured there, but I will be updating more on that in the future.

Now most comics will update at the very least once a week, but many update far more often.  I have seen ones from 1 or 2 a month, to one or 2 a day.  Sometimes they keep no schedule and update when they are ready, other times they have a regular update at a specific time which they stick to.  I find that those comics that update regularly have a better readership, and a lot more content to play with.  The artists also improve the most in their drawing style.  While many start simple and crude, some eventually become truly impressive as time goes on.  I am hoping that, by spending a week per page, I give myself plenty of time to practice, draw, ink, color, and finalize one page, while still leaving time for everything else I need to do.  I hope that this will help me improve draw better and faster fairly quickly.  Without a set deadline, I will slack off and not follow through.
For now, I am still in the process of drawing the first few pages.  I have been experimenting with inking and scanning techniques, and will be moving onto color soon after.  I have a few ideas on what I want to do, but this is really meant to be a learning experience for me, as well as a tool to help me practice and get better at drawing.
Of course this means the beginning will look rough, stiff, awkward, and even bad at times.  I am always hard on my own work, but every good artist is.  I hope that by using a few books, models, and (someday) classes, I will get significantly better.  This comic will help with that, and I hope that by the time the entire comic is complete, anyone who compares the first chapter and the last chapter will see a world of improvement in the art style and drawing.
Most comic artists improve their style of drawing, but they use a very stylized form, and often encourage that in their art as they develop.  Sometimes this works out wonderfully for them, other times they find they can only draw that style of character, and nothing else.  I plan to use characters that, while inspired by Japanese manga (comics), is clearly not mimicking them, and trying to use fairly accurate depictions of people, in such a way that I can apply the principals of figure drawing to this comic, despite the awkwardness and time consuming process this will create.  It may start hard, and I may never be as masterful an artist as many of my artist heroes, but with this knowledge, I plan to take a new look at my short animations, and start making quality work at a fast pace.

So, for now, my animations are on a short hold, while I work on this comic.  It will be called "A Twist of Feyt", which is a play on the Celtic inspired fey-realms and fairy creatures.  Once this comic is completed, I have plans to work on a sci-fi comic next.  I am hoping to write a story where I can combine cyber-punk and steam-punk, but that is still a long way off.  So for next time, I will be posting some drawings of my latest comic pages, with some of the techniques I will be using and some of the things I have learned.

Look forward to it!