If you are planning to create your own comic book, want to draw your own story - fictional or something that actually happened - graphic illustrations for the book, we will help you with this.
With us you can realize your creative ideas at a good technical level, even if you have never drawn before. To do this, you need to carefully read this review and familiarize yourself with our other drawing lessons, where we cover individual technical nuances and the techniques you'll need to create a comic.
For greater clarity, we will analyze the technique of drawing comics and, naturally, the unique technique developed for this purpose by Aaron Schnorbitz, on specific example online comics"Aaron Schnorbitz: The Beginning".
You can find the full Russian version of this autobiographical comic-retrospective in our section "Comics. The original English version of the comic is here.
To make it easier to assimilate the material, we will divide the process of drawing comics into several stages and analyze them separately. However, first we want to remind you:
Although we consider comic book creation in graphic editor Illustrator CS5, you can draw them by analogy in other versions of this editor, graphics programs and even on paper, using our tips in the article "Drawing lessons from A to W". We strongly recommend that you familiarize yourself with this material, which will allow you to better understand the very essence of our method.
So, if you have looked at the articles to which the above links lead, you have already realized that to graphically implement our ideas we use two main techniques - collage and tracing. We will use the same techniques in a similar sequence to create a comic and divide this process into the following stages:
For this we need:
a) Graphic editor Illustrator CS5, b) Internet connection, c) a brain capable of thinking logically, d) patience and desire to create
If the first two conditions (a,b) are optional, since you can create a comic by analogy using pencil, paper and a printing press, the last two conditions (c,d) are mandatory.
Development of an idea for a future comic book
The very first and important stage. You have to specify and clarify (both from a general author's and technical point of view) the main points of your future comic.
First of all, you should take a good think over characters your comic, their features, habits, actions, scene. You must accurately imagine the character of your hero in order to build a correct and natural line of behavior for him, his appearance, manners. You also have to choose the right context and setting (including other characters) where the action will take place.
Then you should think through the narrative itself- from start to finish and choose which events you want to highlight, that is, display on the page in separate cells. At the end of this stage, you should already have a clear idea of what you want and how approximately you want to display it on the pages. If you are new to this business, you should avoid ideas that are technically difficult to implement, such as comics with a large number of characters, or, for example, with detailed and complex landscapes (background images) or plots that require photographic accuracy of characters and the display of complex emotions and gestures.
You should approach this stage extremely carefully, since any mistakes here can turn into real problems later in the drawing process (when you have already done quite labor-intensive work).
For example, having conceived an overly complicated plot and drawn a few pages, you may suddenly realize that to complete your story you need to draw another 100 pages. In addition, if you choose a battle theme as a plot, you can very quickly get tired of the overwhelming drawing of thousands of small people. Another fatal mistake may be yourself main character, which requires complex facial expressions.
Therefore, to begin with, choose a short plot with a minimum of characters and simple decorations (background pictures).
Now let’s explain this stage of comic book implementation using a specific example of the first two pages online comic book “Aaron Schnorbitz: The Beginning”
Our task was to depict on the first two pages of the comic the events from the moment Schnorbitz's fifteen-year-old father was arrested by FBI agents during the assassination of President J. F. Kennedy in Dallas to his (father's, of course) marriage at age 23 in exile in Billings!
At first glance, this is an impossible task. Display 8 years of a person's life in just two pages! A man known to us only from fragmentary descriptions of his ever-messy son.
However, in practice, with a sound and consistent approach, everything turned out to be quite simple.
Characters: 15 year old boy. Since the comic reflects real events, we also made the behavior of our young hero extremely realistic. This is not a mutant hero with superpowers like Spider-Man, but a simple guy who fell under the millstone of a merciless system because of his curiosity. When confronted by the FBI, all he could do was fear, submission, resignation, and lamentation. The line of behavior here is extremely predictable and natural for such a situation. The appearance of the hero is ordinary.
The people around him are FBI agents. We also decided to make them as similar as possible to the real ones - cold-blooded, callous, dull, in classic black suits and glasses.
Location: Dallas, where Kennedy's assassination took place, and Billngs. We immediately decided to either limit ourselves to depicting the general panorama, individual places and attractions, or simply provide a text description to make our work easier.
Narration: We clearly understood the sequence of events and clearly knew which of them should be emphasized, and which should only be mentioned in the text of the narrative. We also understood perfectly well that, covering such a large period of our hero’s life, the main part of the story should be presented using accompanying text.Development of a preliminary comic script, writing text
At this stage, you need to sketch out sketches of the pages, roughly divide them into cells for illustrations, think through the script as deeply as possible, and write the text.
That is, you should already have an idea of what specific narrative episodes (or actions) you will illustrate, what plans you will use (large, general), how you will arrange these episodes and the corresponding text on the page.
You should understand clearly that a comic is a story told by a certain sequence of pictures with text (usually). Text can be divided into "voiceover" (narrative text), direct speech (statements and thoughts of characters placed in classic "bubbles") and text illustrating various sounds.
When writing the script, you need to take all this into account. You must think through everything so that all your illustrations fit on the given pages, so that they are arranged in a logical sequence and are not, for example, too small, and also, importantly, leave space for text. The text must be readable(both in location, size, and content).
It should be noted here that the text in the comic should be read like in a book. from left to right And top down. Any liberties with this iron rule can lead to confusion. Always place text bubbles with this rule in mind.
Now let's look at our example:
In our narrative, we immediately identified the key episodes that we wanted to display. They had to look impressive and succinct, that is, clearly and clearly illustrate the overall line of the story, even without accompanying text. We decided to arrange the cells in the appropriate sequence:
1st page: A sniper, the president's motorcade in sight, the frightened face of a hero-witness, arrest, imprisonment, release.
2nd page: arrival in Billings, FBI guardian agents, three static shots of a bored teenager at a gas station, the beautiful face of his future wife, newlyweds.
To better tie all these illustrations into one storyline, we supplemented them with a voluminous narrative text, which should explain to the reader the quickly successive pictures and reveal the twists and turns of the plot. It is for this reason that we immediately laid out a lot for him on the pages of the comic. free space.
Then we wrote a text that corresponded in volume to the space allocated for it, roughly placing it in the cells. In order not to be too small, we decided to place no more than 6-7 cells with pictures on each page. With such a density of drawings, the A4 comic book page looks optimally rich and detailed.
Finding the required material
Now that we have a preliminary page-by-page script for the comic, we need to prepare the groundwork for drawing it.
As you already understand, if you followed the links at the beginning of this article, we use Aaron Schnorbitz method, which implies that you have the most minimal artistic skills. This means that we will minimize the need to draw and will mainly focus on stroke(tracing) ready-made images, which we will “adjust” using collage for our specific scenario. Well, for this you need to find these images.
Essentially, this process is similar to finding and preparing material for drawing a print on a T-shirt. In the article "How to draw a cool print on a T-shirt yourself. Part 1" We cover this process in detail, so you It will be very useful to read it!!! However, we will once again briefly describe to you our task at this stage and its solution.
So, having placed in front of you a script-sketch of your comic, you must use Internet search engines to find images that most accurately correspond to those that you want to see in the cells of your comic, while immediately figuring out how you can fit them to your script during subsequent stroke.
Now this seems complicated, but in our specific example you will now be convinced of the opposite.
Consider the first page of our comic. We decided to place the following images on it in the appropriate sequence: a sniper, the president's motorcade in the crosshairs, the frightened face of a hero-witness, arrest, imprisonment, release.
Let's start by looking for an illustration for the first picture cell of the comic - a sniper.
We open the browser and in the search engine in the search bar simply type the word “sniper”, press enter and switch to the “pictures” category. In order not to experience difficulties during further drawing, we select pictures of the middle and large size(in Yandex - column on the left). They clearly show details that will be useful for us when tracing. After that, all we have to do is choose the appropriate picture.
When selecting a sniper for our picture, we were, first of all, guided by the fact that he should be depicted in profile (we initially wanted to point the barrel towards the right cell with the picture of the motorcade in the sight), his image should be wide and low, so that he fits organically into the narrow the height of the cage. We also tried to find a 1960s sniper to match the time period in which the story is set, but as you noted, we deviated a little from the rules and let the imagination run wild, making him more modern.
When the first picture was found, we proceeded in the same way to search for the second, and so on for all subsequent illustrations that we wanted to place on the pages of the comic. In the end, we collected all the images necessary for subsequent work. Below we present all the pictures we collected for the first page of the comic:
Finalization of the script and composition of the comic (collage)
Thus, having selected all the illustrations necessary for the comic on the Internet (or in the printed press), you can begin to finalize the script and finalize the composition of pages and drawings in individual cells. To put it simply, now from the photographs and illustrations you have, you need make a collage according to your idea - script, which you have already developed at the preliminary stage.
If you approached the creation of a comic consistently and thoroughly, as we recommended, you should already have a good idea of how to arrange these drawings and text bubbles. All you have to do is adjust them to each other so that they look on the page the way you intended. And to do this, you need to trim off the extra edges of the images, change their scale and orientation if necessary (if this, again, is necessary) and fit them into the work area, that is, the page.
Working in a graphics editor Illustrator, you can crop unnecessary edges of photos using the tool Clipping mask (object > clipping mask > make), scale using Scale tool (S), do mirror image drawing using Reflect tool (O).
With the help Rectangle tool (R) And Ellipse tool (E) By making the background white and the stroke black, you can draw bubbles for the text. As a result, if, for example, we talk about the first page of our comic, from the collected drawings above, you need to get what you see below on the right - already collage ready for tracing, which looks almost like a finished comic book page (below left).
Here we will not go too deep into the pure technical details implementation of a collage for a comic book page in a graphics editor, since they are almost similar to those discussed in detail in our article "How to make a cool design on a T-shirt yourself. Part 2". You simply do everything by analogy with “adjusting for the wind.” We will just tell you what points you should pay attention to using the example of our first page of the comic:
We placed all the photos we downloaded using the Place command (file > place) on the desktop - layer layer 1 (by default). In the document parameters, we chose the A4 format and, thus, immediately identified the boundaries of our page and received a clear picture of which photographs should be cropped, reduced or slightly enlarged relative to each other so that they fit into the work area, taking into account the margins and spaces under the "bubbles" with text.
We divided the text into parts (by bubbles) and placed it in the same layer. We needed text in this layer primarily in order to more accurately determine the size of the “bubbles”. In particular, for this purpose we immediately selected the font and its size, and also based on the considerations listed in the previous sections of the article.
Having previously arranged the photographs in the A4 workspace, we began to adjust them, starting with the first image - the sniper. We placed it in the upper left corner under the large white square “bubble” field, where the introductory and rather voluminous part of the text was supposed to be placed. We cut off the lower and unnecessary part of the photo. Another “bubble” with text took its place. Thus, we sequentially composed our page from the upper left to the lower right corner, actively using the zoom tool.
To be honest, the collage of the first page of our online comic was easy to implement, since the well-chosen images did not require any more complex changes other than scaling and mirroring. However, if this were required, as for example, on the second page of the comic (see the picture below - the top two cells made up of several images), the process itself would only become slightly more complicated (we would have to first make a collage of the individual cells of the comic), but not at all wouldn't change.
Outlining and adjusting the collage
Having created a comic page from photographs and illustrations matched to each other, as well as “bubbles” with text (see picture above), you need to start drawing your comic, or rather, outlining the resulting photo collage and making the necessary changes to it (sequence of actions and technique completely similar to those described)
By and large, everything we did before was painstaking preparation for this outlining process, which underlies our drawing method and allows us to obtain classic pages comics. The more responsibly and thoroughly you approached the previous stages, the easier it will be for you to draw at this stage, since the key to creating beautiful drawing at this stage, these are the most accurately and intelligently selected photographs you previously selected for outlining, which, with the right approach, require minimal changes when drawing.
What changes will we make? Conventionally, they can be divided into important and cosmetic:
Important changes are those that define the plot, the appearance of the characters, and especially the main character. In other words, these are changes that allow you to link all your pictures into a single story, and without which your comic will be incomprehensible.
For example, if you take the collage to our first page of the comic (see the picture above), you will see that the person who is the prototype of our main character is different in all the cells, but we need to make him the same, since according to our scenario this is the same person - teenager. Therefore, we need to make important changes when tracing. To make things easier for ourselves, we gave our teenager a distinctive hairstyle, which, in principle, defines him appearance, especially with general drawing. In addition, we tried to slightly narrow its contours to give it a more subtle and fragile appearance.
Among the important changes we can also include the black suits of the FBI officers, who are wearing original photographs there wasn't. The picture below clearly shows this, as well as the changes we made to turn the old man into a teenager.
Cosmetic changes include amendments that do not affect the plot and its perception, such as adding background details, small elements clothes, etc.
Advice: As a rule, all comics have a main character (or several), who is depicted in a variety of plans and angles on almost every page of the comic, since the story is essentially built around him. The more recognizable he is among all the other characters, the more monolithic and convincing your comic will look. To do this, you should make the hero’s appearance more noticeable. Put it on special signs. This could be an unusual hairstyle, beard, glasses, characteristic clothing, etc. depending on your story. You can even simply highlight his clothes with a special color, which the reader will automatically associate with your character throughout the story.
Important! Calculate your strengths before making changes. Don't try to finish drawing something complex that requires artistic skills from you. All finishing touches should be simple and obvious.
Filling out comic text fields
Stayed last stage: filling out text fields - the so-called “bubbles” of the comic. Let us remind you that the text for your page should have been ready and edited at the second stage of creating your comic, and also divided into separate blocks, since based on their volume we calculated the size of the bubbles, substituting them for “trying on”, and accordingly We adjusted the drawings in individual cells and the overall composition on the page. However, we did not immediately place the text in the bubbles, but left them empty for now for a number of reasons:
First: As a rule, even after careful study, the text is often edited subsequently. No matter how you check it, sometimes even obvious errors creep into the text. In addition, after reading it with a fresh mind after some time, the author often makes stylistic changes to it so that it sounds better, more natural.
Second reason: Even if the text is not further edited, it may arise in the future need to translate it into another language, for example, to participate in international competition or an exhibition.
Third possible reason: Changing the font, particularly when printing a comic on smaller paper, or downsizing digital version, sometimes it becomes necessary to choose a less beautiful, but readable printed font.
This factor should be immediately taken into account when initially choosing a font for a comic (see at the beginning of the article) and avoid capital and overly intricate fonts, which, when reduced, will turn into unreadable curls.
So, taking into account all the above requirements, we create in Illustrator new top layer specifically for text. This is done so that by locking the main layer with the drawings, it will be more convenient for you to separately format and edit the text of the page, without fear of accidentally making unwanted changes to the drawings, or accidentally erasing something.
In case you are drawing a comic on paper, you should simply leave the bubbles of the original page blank, make several photocopies in high resolution, and fill the bubbles with text in them. This way, you will always have a clean template at hand for working with text.
And lastly: Try to format the text in such a way as so that there is always more free space in the bubble than is necessary. This way, you are more likely to insure yourself against lack of space during possible future editing or translation of the text.
Good luck! If you have any questions, leave comments, we will definitely answer them. You can also join our VKontakte and Facebook groups by clicking on the corresponding icons on the page CONTACTS.
Paul Holden Irish artist, talked about his drawing techniques and tricks, and also gave some tips to help you create your own comic in Manga Studio.
Drawing comics is a unique skill that requires knowledge of anatomy, light and shadow, architecture and many other things, all of which work towards the same goal - to tell a story.
One of the dangers is the possibility of getting lost in details. You'll often find that you fell in love with some element of the comic, but in the context of the story, that element doesn't work.
1. Read the script!
It always starts with reading the script because you need to understand the essence of the story. To become familiar with it and get used to it, it's worth reading the script several times until you feel like you're ready to paint the miniatures. Since a comic is supposed to convey the story to the reader, you must thoroughly understand the story you're drawing.
2. Miniatures
It is necessary to break the script into miniatures. At this stage, try to work with the placement of the characters in the frame and the size of the comic itself.
Typically, the more dialogs there are in one window, the larger it should be. Treat this stage with due responsibility, as you should not miss any details.
3. Layout
It's worth working with the miniatures a little more. Layout is a bit boring, like the rest of the early stages of a comic's development. But it's worth spending time on.
The page needs to look like a complete and independent story. To do this, you can make a long and large panel for one of the frames. Although, after reading this panel, it will quickly fade into the background and will no longer play a role.
4. Character Design
Usually character design comes after reading the script. For those characters that appear once or twice throughout the comic, you don't have to spend a lot of time on them, since you don't have to think through their emotions and personalities. Well, the main characters, of course, will require much more effort.
5. Create a page
Never forget about page sizes. If they are indicated in your assignment, make sure you enter the correct numbers. If you are not sure what size the comic should be, then it is better to ask the customer about it.
We set the resolution to 600DPI, which is higher than usually required, but you never know whether your work will be published again. And technology is moving forward at a breakneck pace, so it's better to be on the safe side.
Hotkeys: Move the page using Shift+Space (PC only). Hold these keys and use the mouse or graphics tablet to move the page. Very convenient for drawing.
6. Rough markings
Sketch a couple of scenes. Roughly arrange everything you want to put on your page. Break the page into panels and, starting with the first, work through the scene.
Still be mindful of the script at this stage and that the scenes need to have enough space on the page.
7. Cut the page
Using your layout as a guide, create a new “Frame Folder” in Manga Studio, and cut the page using the “Cut Frame” tool.
This will split the page into comic panels. Each panel will have its own folder, capable of having multiple layers within it. You can adjust the width of the panel border to your taste.
8. Set the frame
At this stage, you are working on setting the shot. This is very important if you want to draw the reader into your world.
Since we decided to make one panel a page high, let's start with building the city: setting up the perspective grid is very easy and quick if you use the Manga Studio rulers.
9. The Old Man and the Tree
Now you should focus on the old man's expression. The tree helps frame his face, while the man's head and shoulders help frame the robots behind him.
10. Text
Dialogue in comics runs from left to right, so you need to make sure that scenes and characters are arranged correctly, keeping this rule in mind. If you neglect this, you risk ending up with overlapping dialogs or, even worse, with the wrong dialog for a given panel.
11. Panel to panel
Panel four is a small replica of panel two, while panel five is a scene change, a two-way mirror that allows you to see the transition from one panel to the next.
Remember that the background of each panel should match the scene and show that the scenes are related to each other. In short, the background should follow the overall story.
Hotkeys: You can switch colors between the foreground color and the background color using the X and C keys (PC only).
12. Turn off the lights!
The robot enters more dark room. By leaving this panel in shadow and adding a silhouette, we easily make it clear that the scene and the mood of the comic have changed. Assuming that the robot is coming out of the door and the old man is positioned in a large window, we can say that what is depicted is some kind of testing room.
13. Robot in the shadows
The original idea was to show the robot's full face. But then it became clear that by leaving some mystery, we would make the robot a more powerful character. Therefore, it was decided to leave his face in shadow, thus creating a feeling of mystery.
14. Full stop
The last panel of the last page of a comic should resonate—it's the final punctuation mark of the entire story.
The plot and layouts were about an old man who takes care of his tree, but last moment it was decided to use a stronger image, which depicted the tree itself. This is a powerful image that suggests that the old man is no longer capable of caring for the tree.
15. Changes
At this stage, you show your work to the customer and make changes to it. Perhaps it will be possible to come up with a different development of the plot, perhaps there will be new idea. Also, sometimes it turns out that you have gone to a completely different steppe, and your comic does not correspond desired result. Then everything will have to be redone.
16. Ink
We've done everything in pencil and it's time for ink. We will work on the drawing using Turnip pen.
Working on the wood is the most enjoyable part. You can work through its trunk and look television show at the same time. While working on the tree, I decided to remove the panel borders as the frame looked better without them.
17. And even more ink
Using ink you can work out light and shadow, add volume and texture to your shots and characters. You can add some effects using a Splatter pen, but here you must completely rely on yourself, working out the drawing so that it looks decent.
18. Adding touches
One of the main features of manga is shading using elements such as circles, dots, etc. In Manga Studio, you can add texture by simply dragging the desired tones from the Materials folder. This allows you to highlight foreground elements without filling them with black, but simply giving them texture.
19. Letters
No comic would be complete without text, so you need to type out dialogue and commentary from panel to panel using lettering tools.
Make sure the text does not dominate the image. Lettering is an art form that requires skill in itself. By adding text, you can finally evaluate your comic and see how good it turned out.
Special Brush: Pencil Side On
This tool allows you to draw hard elements and fill the necessary spaces with black.
Special Brush: Spray Pen
This brush uses scanned ink splatters to create an interesting effect. This brush is great for painting stars or adding textures.
A true artist expresses what he thinks, without fear of facing age-old prejudices. Auguste Rodin
So, friends, this lesson will be devoted to such an important topic as - comic book rules. Maybe you already have several characters that you draw freely. Perhaps you managed to come up with your own heroes. Now is the time to make them part of the comics. Next, I will outline the basic rules that will help you create really good, interesting stories in pictures. Inventive cartoonists violate rules for constructing comics. But you still need to know these rules - at least in order to selectively ignore them.
Most comics are laid out with three or four interconnected panels, but you don't have to start out that way. Master the basics with just one panel. When you gain confidence, try lining up three panels one after the other, getting coherent story, and along with it a full-fledged comic book!
Because this type is shifted too much to the right, it ends up being squeezed by the panel borders. He literally can’t breathe, and he doesn’t feel comfortable.
Better... but a bit boring. Everything that is located in the center looks somehow bland and sluggish.
Eureka! Now there is enough space not only for the character, but also for the dialogue ball (or oval). Since people read from left to right, a character placed on the left side of the panel will direct their gaze to the rest of the passages.
Now look what we get by placing your character in frontal view. In this position, it will no longer direct the reader's gaze from left to right, so it can be on both the left and right sides of the panel - it no longer matters much.
But it should not, after all, be in the middle: such placement does not leave room for a dialogue oval.
Everything is fine, but remember that this arrangement is not suitable only for cases when the character is turned strictly from the front.
It's funny how one line can create the perspective of an entire scene, but that's exactly what it does. skyline- This is literally the border of the earth. In fact, it determines the position of the sky, because everything that is above the horizon line is perceived as the sky. Of course, if you add mountains and buildings, this simple direct connection between earth and sky is broken.
The horizon is too low. The character seems to be walking on a tightrope.
The horizon is too high, such an inflated horizon line creates the illusion that the background is moving towards us, and at the same time the drawing looks flat.
Here is the most acceptable formula: two thirds are given to heaven and one third to earth.
Almost all of us are influenced by movies and television, and comic book creators are no exception. Previously, each panel featured the entire character - from head to toe, but now everything has changed. If the character's facial expression is very important in the story, you may want to show only his face. This is a close-up. On the other hand, if the key point for the panel is the character's movement, you can show his entire body - a long shot or a long shot. And if, for example, the character is interesting, and not his legs, you can choose a medium shot. Medium shot good for changing the pace of the story, and it often serves as a bridge between long shots and close-ups. A sharp transition from a wide shot to a close-up can lead to visual dissonance.
Long (or wide) shot: the whole body is shown.
.
.
Special personnel
Special shots serve, as their name suggests, to convey special effects. They shouldn't be overused, but you shouldn't be afraid of them either - sometimes these shots are really funny.
.
Such a frame can wake up a sleepy reader. This is where you bring your character face to face with the reader.
A close-up of what was discussed in the previous panel. If the object in in this case bone, is important for the perception of the joke, you can only show it, and the reader will not forget about it.
Another way to change the pace of the story. In such a shot, a high horizon line is appropriate.
Silhouettes are a great way to introduce visual changes when detailed action is not required at some stage. Silhouettes are usually reserved for the middle panels; if you put silhouettes in the first panel, the reader won't be able to see the characters' faces and may lose interest.
When using silhouettes in the ending, the reader may not catch the punchline of the joke or the other characters' reactions to it. Silhouettes are most effective in very long-range shots.
Horizon lines can be used in shots of a wide variety of shots (with the exception of very close-ups, where the face takes up all the space). Notice how the horizon line adds depth to this shot close-up with a character in a helmet.
When you introduce a second character within the same panel, the result can be either positive or negative. One word will help you avoid chaos in the picture - interaction. By putting two characters on the same panel, you need to show how they are physically related. This doesn't mean that the characters have to touch each other - they can easily ignore each other, but no matter what happens in the drawing, both subjects must be involved in the overall action.
Since the effectiveness of the rear view technique depends on the previously established relationships between the characters, it is used as a bridge between the other two panels. The rear view allows you to focus on one character while leaving the other in shadow. This technique is also used to create the effect of depth in the frame.
Please note that the panel borders on this page are hand-drawn. Although in most comics the boundaries are drawn under the line, you have the right to experiment, choosing the most appropriate style for a given situation.
Nothing makes a comic stand out on a newspaper page quite like a bold combination of white and black. The larger the blackened areas, the more striking the drawings are. But here it is important not to overdo it - a comic with too much black will be too dark and gloomy. In the best way achieving balance is the principle of alternating black and white, that is, the “chessboard” principle. The resulting effect can be seen in the figure shown here.
If there is nothing in the background of the design that enhances the visual contrast of the panel, try improvising. Arched shading is very popular among cartoonists: add a background with an arched border and shade it. Your composition will immediately gain more tension.
Another way to enhance the visual appeal is to add a blackened area right in the middle of the panel.
You can find yourself in creativity at any age. But introduce a child to fine arts not difficult. And it’s even fun when there’s a comic book instead of a boring textbook. Comic?! Yes, let's look into it.
Who came up with this?
"The Comic Book That Will Teach You to Draw" has a very self-explanatory name. You can’t be more precise: the popular American author and YouTube channel host Mark Crilly came up with a graphic story in which the heroine teaches a boy to draw.
A comic that will teach you how to draw 
This is David - the main character
The main character of the comic, David, meets Becky, who is sitting on a bench and sketching in her notebook.
And this is Becky drawing
David is sure that Becky draws better than anyone he knows. Even better than Ryan Pasternak, who can imitate a Lamborghini without peeking. “Do you think that peeking while you draw is bad?” - Becky asks him.
And the reader immediately learns something new: for example, that drawing and copying is normal. And everyone can learn this.
David asks the girl to teach him how to draw. And Becky agrees.
Adventure learning
The book is amazing. Interesting story (it's here) useful tips and unobtrusive humor - on every page.
You read the story and don’t notice how, together with the hero, you remember the basics of drawing: negative space, how to depict a shadow and do shading. Moreover, the author does not seek to create an ideal situation.
David rarely succeeds in portraying something the first time. Like many beginning artists. But it's not scary.
But Becky helps him see and correct his mistakes. Teaches you to notice subtleties. Not just look, but see. And before the reader’s eyes, the first pictures appear on the pages.
What's good about a comic mentor?
Here are some more reasons why learning to draw from comics is cool, effective and fun.
Game+learning. This comic (or even graphic novel) aims not just to entertain a child, but to teach. This is important because children learn many things through play. Unobtrusively. Easily. As if by itself.
Flexible hike. No dry theory or confusing explanations. Everything is very short and succinct. The theory is presented vividly - in the dialogues of the characters. And the exercises do not set boundaries: it is not necessary to depict a bowl of fruit or a chair. You can choose any object and draw.
Quests. After each lesson, the author offers to complete a task. For example, go to your favorite place and find a good composition there. Or draw an object or a landscape in which there is negative space. This way the child will be able to hone his skills and get a taste for drawing.
Illustrations. And of course, pictures. Looking at David and Becky's paintings is a pleasure. And watching someone draw, like contemplating fire or water, is captivating.
Prize. And finally: the fact that the book is special was recognized not only by readers, but also by experts. The comic was nominated for an Eisner Award in 2017. It's always nice.
David's final work
“A comic that will teach you to draw” will awaken a dormant or dormant interest in drawing. Read, laugh, draw: how can you not try this?
Step 1. Script
School Survival Rules
Before drawing, you need to make notes on the visuals, plots and dialogues. Think about what emotions the characters will experience, what they will look like, what tone they will use, what stylistic features Each of them will have speeches.
Here is an example and finished illustrations from the comic:
Pippi, dramatically: “I can’t-o-o-o-o-o-o-o... He probably hates me... I’m afraid to look him in the eyes-a-a -A…"
Mr. Ramirez leans on his desk and says irritably, “Miss Torres, I didn’t call everyone in the art group to discuss your problems!”
Jenson, horrified: “About spots on the Sun?!” They finally..."
Mr. Ramirez, irritated: “No, not about sun spots, Jenson! Sit down!”
Step 2: Storyboard
As Svetlana says, she makes it very approximate, sometimes it’s just sketches of people with stick-like pens. During this stage, the illustrator designs character poses, panel layouts, speech bubbles, and the script itself. Usually he draws on A4 printer sheets - they are easy to find.
Step 3. Pencil
First draw with a pencil. You can draw on plain paper. Try not to get too attached to your tools in case they get lost. Paper and pencil are easy to find at any office supply store, at home or at school.
Step 4: Stroke
Many artists prefer to ink their penciled drafts. Svetlana does things differently - she scans the drawings and applies a non photo blue filter. Then he prints it out and inks it (this is how the illustrator saves pages in both pencil and ink). The good thing about the stroke after non photo blue is that when scanning in Bitmap/BSW mode, the blue does not appear. Therefore, you won't have to erase the pencil lines.
Step 5. Tinting
Once the outlined pages have been scanned, you can color them in a graphics editor. Try using a drawing tablet and graphics program.
2 more tricks
1. When you draw a setting, think about how it relates to the characters.. Thus, in the comic book “Rules of Survival at School,” the classrooms of the drawing and science clubs correspond to the character of the teachers.
Here is the office of Mr. Ramirez - a handsome, absent-minded, fickle, creative man.
And this is the natural sciences room. There is order and cleanliness here, which matches the character of Miss Tobins - the most rational and organized person you have ever met.
2. Think it through minor characters: their stories, troubles, dreams. In this comic we often see guys from two circles and employees school newspaper. So, Maribella Samson is a talented and confident student who is ready to fight for the right to participate in the festival school clubs. And Jenson Graham is a funny, quirky guy who's troubled by sunspots and a story about school cafeteria robots gone rogue.
A comic that will teach you how to draw
If young artist I have not yet had time to develop my drawing skills, it is worth spending time on this. For example, you can learn with David, the hero of the book “A Comic Strip That Will Teach You to Draw” (from artist Mark Crilly). Here are some quick tips:
- Pay attention to the shape of the object you are drawing.
- Maintain proportions.
- Measure by eye. For example, when drawing a watch strap, think: how many dials could fit on one side and the other?
- Notice mistakes.
- Don’t put too much pressure on the pencil (then you’ll be tired of erasing it :-))
- Pay attention to negative space - the space between or around the object/objects of the drawing.
- Show volume with shading (when you need to add shadow, take the tip of the pencil and tilt it under acute angle to paper, speed up to make your strokes look more confident).
- Do not draw the outline right away, but make a sketch - no need to go into details, draw the basic shapes. Starting with details is risky: you can depict them accurately, but the proportions will be distorted, or the technique will change during the drawing process and upper part will be different from the bottom. The point is to work on all elements of the drawing at the same time.
- To draw shadows, find a light source. The shadows will be where he cannot reach. Pay attention to the saturation of the shadows.
Here's another tip: you can easily draw your first comic without computer programs or scanning. Trace the contours gel pen, color the illustrations directly on paper, use colored pencils or felt-tip pens. And when you feel that things are going well, use professional tools.
The cover of the post is an illustration from the book “Rules for Survival at School”