Introduction
STORYTELLING FOR THE ARTISTICALLY CHALLENGED
by Mat Nastos
INTRODUCTION: A Few Observations on Drawing
One of the truly amazing things about comicbook artists is that we can draw anything and everything we can imagine. What outsiders don’t realize is that comics are generally made up of approximately 120 panels per issue…that is 120 separate illustrations each and every month! While an animated feature may outnumber a comic in the number of drawings, a comic artist has to do full illustrations in each panel - figures, cars, buildings, dinosaurs, backgrounds, foregrounds, middlegrounds and everything in between. Not only is it a lot of work, but it’s done under rigorous deadlines every month. This sheer amount of drawing is what makes comicbook creators some of the most skilled artists in the world!
What you also have to realize is that most comicbook figures are drawn from the artist’s imagination (from “out of head”). To do this successfully, the artist’s brain needs to be “programmed” with enough knowledge to be able to draw a wide variety of figures and poses. Each artist, through experience and practice, will develop his own shortcuts on how to do things.
The best way to accomplish this is to do a lot of drawing from life and reference. Much of the knowledge gained from life drawing will be in the form of symbols or ciphers the brain has been programmed with to represent the subjects previously drawn. You notice that I didn’t say anything about using models or photographs as source material for your work? That’s because using photo-reference for every panel of a comic page would not only multiply the amount of time it would take you to do your work (drawing 24 comic pages a month is hard enough as it is without that additional step), but also has a tendency to come out stiff and lifeless. The best, most fluid comic art comes from artists who use life as a starting point and not just as something to trace from.
Most people’s drawing ability stops progressing after about age 9 or 10 - so most adults draw like 5th graders. The ciphers of reality in their brains did not get more sophisticated because they quit upgrading the programming in their heads. This frustration is usually caused by the strong unfulfilled desire to be able to draw “realistically.” Because most people don’t naturally know how to observe and draw “realistically” from life, they get frustrated and give up.
A good comic artist has to draw everything on and off this planet with a convincing level of skill. Most other “fine” and “commercial” artists end up specializing in one or two subjects (such as head portraits, flowers, product shots, and so on). However, a comicbook artist has to draw a variety of figure types, city scenes, cars, animals, fantasy creatures, and son on - all with an equal level of ability. If an artist draws people well but his/her horses look very weak, the difference in drawing levels will make the weaker drawing stand out that much more and will distract the reader from the flow of the story.
A comicbook artist must become a master of the line, as most comicbook art is rendered in line. We should therefore give some thought to what our lines represent. Andrew Loomis said, “The eye perceives form much more readily by contour or edge than by…modeling. Yet there is really no outline on form; rather, there is a silhouette of contour, encompassing as much of the form as we can see from a single viewpoint. We must out of necessity limit the form in some way. So we draw a line - an outline.”
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The King Sez:
“A quick aside: Yeah, Andrew Loomis was a God. Any chance you, as an artist, have the opportunity to study some of his work, DO IT! He wasn’t an actual comicbook artist, but he worked in a form and format very similar to what we do. While his groundbreaking books, “Figure Drawing For All It’s Worth” and “Successful Drawing,” are out of print, you can still find his instruction available in a number of the large-format drawing books by Walter Lance. Check ‘em out! “
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Line is also used to render forms within the outline of the figure - representing shading on forms from lighting. This is another way of saying that line is also used in a decorative way. Often, to the non-artist, the art that looks like it has the simplest or least line work looks less impressive than art that is highly rendered with lots of lines. However, the lower the number of lines an artist puts down, the more important each line becomes. This is because much more information has to be transmitted to the viewer through a line when there are fewer of them. Artists like Alex Toth are masters of this. A less skilled artist can make a passable drawing of a cheekbone by cross hatching the area - even if the artist isn’t exactly sure of the underlying bone and muscle structure. The skilled minimalist can convey the structure in one or two perfectly placed lines.
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The King Sez:
“Check out below for a great example of two artists who have mastered the line in two very different ways — one highly detailed, the other much more silmple but just as effective.”
Art taken from Cadre #1 and Origins of the Cadre #1.
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Lines can be thick, thin, mechanical, loose - anything. There is an almost limitless variety to line. Artists in training should try to sketch using a wide variety of lines to gain familiarity and confidence with a variety of approaches.
Finally, a good* comicbook artist has to know how to tell a story visually. I won’t get into that here because we have this entire tome to talk about it!
*On the subject of the word “good.” I had a teacher at the Kubert School named Ben Ruiz. I’m not sure if Ben is still there or not, but he was a master of anatomy and the human form and one of my favorite teachers. One of the things that would rile Ben up more than anything else was when a student would say something was “good.” He’d go on a tirade about what is “good,” and how do you define it.
Ben was a character, but he was also one of the best instructors I have ever had. He helped me to realize that having someone say you are talented is in insult. It undermines the thousands of hours you have spent perfecting your art and ignores the true determining factors of a “good” artist, skill and experience. To my dying day I will believe that was most people consider “talent” is just desire and dedication.
I’ll end my rant there…back to our regularly scheduled instruction book.
Next: Introduction: How Comic Books Are Read
Previously: Forward/How To Use This Book
