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Gannon Beck
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4mo
added comment inSome discussion about my personal project
I just want to echo what Patrick said about doing short stories first. Every page of making a comic book is an ordeal. Even a short story is a big undertaking.
Short stories are a good way to experiment with process and style before you hem yourself in on a longer project. You don't want to be twenty pages into your magnum opus when you think of a better stylistic approach and have to redo the first part of your book.
All that said, I encourage you in your endeavor. Making comics will hone you as an artist like nothing else I know of. If it's in the script, you have to figure it out--panel by panel, and page by page. After you solve that many drawing problems, you will not be the same artist at the end of the project. It's an amazing journey.
Yashwardhan Singh
4mo
I don't mean it as an insult but, you are assuming way too much about where I stand and what I am doing.
It's not like I would somehow end up drawing TWENTY PAGES without knowing what I am really doing.
Yashwardhan Singh
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4mo
I am assuming you are completely new to drawing and painting with no experience at all. In case I am wrong, you can elaborate as to how long have you been practicing and what you have studied so far.
And of course you need to start with basics, that much should be obvious. But a newbie would usually have no idea what that means, because they have no experience. One of the hardest things about getting started is that, art isn't exactly something that can be taught. Even with all the help and guidance one can get, one still has to understand it by themselves.
Another important thing to keep in mind right now is patience. If you are wondering how long it will take; it usually takes about 5-10 years of dedicated practice in order to reach mastery of the craft.
This platform sure has a lot of material specifically for beginners which could be a good starting point. I had started my own studies with the western classical approach, which forms the basis of most courses on this platform. It's a very good place to start as the exercises will directly help you practice some basic skills.
But one mistake I had made back then was that I had kinda locked into this approach. With western classical, the approach to drawing seems to be very "Constructive" or "Technical" I would say. You may not understand what I mean because you are new. But I will still try to explain it.
Whenever I approached any kind of subject, I would start thinking how to "Construct" it. Let's say I am doing a character illustration. The first thing I will think about is how to construct the figure. The first step would be to draw some boxes and cylinders for the head, neck, ribcage, hipbones and limbs. Then I'll draw the anatomical details over that. And finally I'll draw the clothing and then I'll shade in the shadow shapes. That's how I would "Construct" the character.
Along with this I had also locked on to realism, another common thing in western classical. After a couple years of practice, I found it very difficult to draw intuitively in a more cartoonish style. It took me a while to break out of that mindset.
Now if you want to draw this way, then that's good for you. But I am just giving you a heads up from my own experience as to how one can get locked into certain mindsets.
As for "learning order", I don't think there's such a thing beyond the basics. Once you have got the hang of the basics, then you'll have to decide for yourself what you want to do and move forward accordingly. Like you said you are interested in Manga, so you will definitely study the human figure. You will also need to learn scenery drawing for drawing backgrounds. And let's say there's a pet cat in your story, then you have to study cats as well.
Lastly, good luck.
I am very lucky to have such great feedback from people like you! Thank you so much.
I consider myself very new to drawing. I have a job unrelated to drawing (I am 30+ y.o.) but also a dream since I was little, I wanted to draw a story that would give others the same emotion I would get when I read manga, so I have continued to cook stories in my head and draw characters (which is what many people end up doing, I think). A few years ago I decided I wanted to move to the next level and find an art teacher, and I did, and she taught me a lot of things and I drew a lot at that time, but once covid came my classes stopped and I never got back to it. I have recently decided to get back on track with online classes and so I am here. My issue with the fundamentals is that I never really understood what is considered to be fundamental, hence my question, although I think my teacher tried to teach me, but I didn't frame it like that. I think my biggest mistake is the opposite of yours: I keep doing an unstructured way of drawing and it's very hard for me to do things "correctly". I think I really need that structure. My next problem is how much a blank sheet of paper frightens me (am I the only one?). I don't have a natural motivation to start drawing, it feels daunting to start something, so looking at a blank sheet makes me stop. I am thankful for your feedback about learning as the need arises (that works really well with programming for example) and I think that will work, but it means I need some projects and to break the fear of a blank sheet.
Hey, there! Glad you're starting to plan out your personal comic project! Personal projects are great ways to level up your art! These are some pretty ambitious goals you've set for yourself, which is great to see! If you're not able to jump in right away, you might want to start with a smaller project goal in mind to get started before jumping into a 200 page story. If you have a main character you're going to focus on throughout your story you could introduce each of your characters with a 4-6 page short story so you can start to learn who your characters are, explore the comic storytelling format, and dial in your artistic process. Do you have any favorite comics that are similar to the Fantasy/Fairytale comics you'd like to create? You might want to do a breakdown of a favorite fairy-tale/fantasy comic to learn how that story translates into comics so you can bring that framework into your own stories. There are a bunch of free lessons from the Marvel Art of Storytelling course, and David Finch's Creating a Comic Page that may help get you started! https://youtu.be/s5vqw2ueaJc?si=HgLHragR62haa0lo
https://youtu.be/L7-kfEwRbu4?si=19Jt4PYDEKxgveP4
Hope this helps! Looking forward to seeing your comics!!
Hello and thanks for replying.
Your advice on going smaller does seem sensible, but I don't want to do things that way. 4-8 pages is way too short honestly. It's like I only have a couple of paragraphs to tell the story. 20-50 pages seems a lot more natural for telling a complete short story.
I wanted my first book to be a collection of short stories because that seems like an obvious first step.
But then I started thinking how would I actually get it published? I have explained my dilemma in detail in the original post. I could go the self-publishing route, but I have zero experience in that department along with marketing and self-promotion. Working with an experienced publisher at least for my first book would be helpful.
On a side note, I had posted my question in this category without realizing there's already a category for Comics; where this post should've been I guess. I wonder if it would be okay to repost there.
I have decided to started working on my first comic book. I am not sure what will really come of it but I want to do it anyway. I am caught in something right now, so I am waiting until next summer when I will finally have time to work on it. So far I am only sure about two thing -
One, the length; I want it to be a single volume book, about 150-200 pages. I think that should be manageable for my first project. And I am guessing it would take me about a year to finish it.
Two, the theme; I want to draw fairy tale-esque fantasy stories.
I do have a lot of other things going on in my head, but these are the only two things I have locked on.
There is one other question that I think I should decide on right now. That is the format.
At first I had thought of doing a collection of short stories, called "one-shots" in comic book terms. Each one-shot would be 40-50 pages and 3-4 stories will fill a volume. I could pitch individual one-shots to be published in comic magazines or similar publications before being compiled into a volume. It might be easier to get published for a newcomer in that way.
Alternatively, I could just do a 150-200 page long story. It will be somewhat comparable to a movie. These kind of stories are called "graphic novels" in the west (I don't like that term). Seeing how there aren't many "comic magazines" in english, this format might actually have better odds of drawing a publisher's interest.
I am still brainstorming story ideas and haven't decided on anything yet. Then it suddenly occurred to me that the format I am going for (collection of short stories) might not find many takers. So I am trying to settle this question first.
Elk
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3yr
Hello! I have a question that is in need of answering. I'm still new to gestures, and I don't use them at all when I draw either people or animals, but my drawings and/or paintings still turn out the way I want them to. Should I still practice gestures even if I probably won't put that skill to use?
You should try to understand why other artists use gesture or rhythm in their work
