Your Brain On Comic Creating...

[MARS]

Born from a thought from another thread:

The question:

As an artist, writer, colorist, letter, inker, doodle bug: What is your primary concern when doing what you do?

What are you trying to improve every time you sit down to work?

I will start.

I am most concerned about defining my own style. Nt looking at others. I remember about year ago i could not find a comic book magazine of my favorite artist NOT open on my desk.

Now it's a burnt tarot card, some big boobed anime sculpture chic laying across my desk with a gun in her stocking and some old comic badges dangling about.

So yeah. I'm curious if i'm the only person who is sitting there looking at my skill set from that P.O.V. I'm interested in hearing from the colorist and lettering contingent as well- so please don't be shy. And explain somewhat how it works out in your heads for you.

For good measure throw in a secondary concern. Mine: Backgrounds.

Backgrounds are a problem area that i am working out as i go. It's hard for me because i like to move the camera around alot and warp perspective.

Converse.

Peace,

M.

[chris stevens]

i'm paraphrasing david milch when i say that visions come to the prepared. i'm most concerned in my writing with the clarity with which i can relate those visions, so to speak, to the artist i'm working with on any given project.

thing i'm most worried about? probably plot. 'what happens next' isn't really what drives me as a creator or in the things i really enjoy, so sometimes i get concerned with that. but i just fully plotted a 128 page project and it turned out aces while maintaining the type of storytelling i'm going for in my work, so i've got high hopes my annoyance with plot is turning into a fast friendship.

good thread, looking forward to hearing more...

[NILgravity]

My main concern is always the media. I work in a couple of different ones and they all have their strengths and weaknesses so my first concern is which one will best serve the story. Technical Pen? Ink washes? Pixels? Vectors?
My secondary one is clearity. My stories are psychologically driven, I'm always trying to work on several levels and I'm always worried that the story gets lost.

[j giar]

Everything.....
From an art POV I'm looking to gain that original look. A look all to my own. Or more than likely a warped amalgamation of artists that I admire. I think in my case I felt my work lacked, to quote Bruce Lee, emotional content. There are some artists work that I admire and I look at and, whether it's an ink wash or a fully rendered piece, there's something that oozes from it. And I'm just on the cusp of it. In the last bit of work I've done I can see it, but just can't touch it...yet. I at times worry to much about if it looks like it works instead of making it work. I worry about achieving all this and maintaining clarity. I'm attacking my work with all inhibitions thrown out the window...
From my writing side I'm enjoying a newly developed love for it. The end result is a more thorough understanding of the story and the goal of a writer. My main concern is falling into a "me too" group. Just as in my art, I want my own voice. Fortunately I have lots of support in my peeps here at DW, who have been extremely...EXTREMELY helpful. I worry about pacing...building tension..not losing my reader. The same shit I worry about with my art but on a different level.

[Scribbly]

As an artist I am concerned about my storytelling.
And working with small details in the scenes and references.
Not very concerned about style. It comes by itself.
I like to adapt the graphic style according the script needs.
Working as freelancer I enjoy the variety of styles that I am
challenged to work.

As a writer, concerned about the pacing and climax of the scenes
And the contrast between situations. The management of suspense.
And finding a good resolution when finding black holes in the story.
I like to write with the thinking that someone else is going to draw it.
This way, I don't feel conditioned by my artistic limitations.

I do enjoy inking, and I can't consider it separated of the pencil work.
I rather see the inking as a complement of the pencils.
The ultimate definition.

As a colorist my concern is to improve in the digital area.
I am confident working analogue, with a real brush in hand.
Watercolor, acrylics, pencil color and gouache.
I can not have the same joy when working in the computer screen.
I can do it, but the feeling is not the same.

About lettering, I like to consider the balloons and
text captions as a basic part of the page composition in comics.
The next thing after doing panel placement and before starting with the
Artwork
I rather to draw the balloons and leave the typing of the
letters, SFX and logos for a reliable letterer.

And as doodlebug, the main concern is to find the material
time for working in all of the above.
Between a regular part time job, freelancing, family,
some social life and sleep.
Time is always too short.
But tomorrow will be another day.

[MARS]

I find it interesting that both you Scribbly and Jim are concerned with pacing. Mostly slowing things down.

In animation during the story boarding process i use to "in-between" the shit out of my intended scenes actions.

When i got into comics from film school i noticed i had to edit things down more. Working on your own script helps in managing this issue. But never solves it until you learn to learn to edit yourself i suppose.

Slowing things down ( building suspense, mystery, horror) is hard in comics. I think less is more here. Playing with angles. The first artist that comes in mind that has mastered this is Eduardo Risso.

I'd study up on him if you already haven't.

I've been studying up on John Buscema's stuff. It was the master of getting tons of super hero action moving in his panels without over working them and maintaining alot of energy and movement.

M.

[MARS]

O.

And Marcelo Fruscin is another one. His Hellblazer run is the bomb.com

M.

[j giar]

Originally Posted by MARS

I find it interesting that both you Scribbly and Jim are concerned with pacing. Mostly slowing things down.


Slowing things down ( building suspense, mystery, horror) is hard in comics. I think less is more here. Playing with angles. The first artist that comes in mind that has mastered this is Eduardo Risso.


I'd study up on him if you already haven't.


I've been studying up on John Buscema's stuff. It was the master of getting tons of super hero action moving in his panels without over working them and maintaining alot of energy and movement.

M.

I'm a huge fan of Risso's work as well as Frusin. I've collected them both. Risso's early Johnny Double work and Frusins Hellblazer and later Loveless. Tim Sale and Charlie Adlard are some others I've grown to appreciate and respect. But early on it was Koike and Kojima that I fell in love with. Their work on Lone Wolf is the kind've shit I can just pour over and over. It never gets old. I think a lot of my slower paced storytelling comes from that.

[Lee Nordling]

The question: "As an artist, writer, colorist, letter, inker, doodle bug: What is your primary concern when doing what you do?"

This one's easy: My concern is to find the key to the project.

I'll skip the long explanation, and simply say that, as a writer, a designer, and an artist, (rarely doing all three at once), my goal is to figure out the way INTO the project, to figure out what tools I'll take from the toolbox, visually and editorially. When I find that, and it's ALWAYS what I need to do before I can move through a project with confidence, then I understand the sandbox I'm trying to play in, and it's always different from project to project.

The next question, which is not the same question: "What are you trying to improve every time you sit down to work?"

Simply to do the best I can and solve every damn problem I can see in my work. If I do that, less problems will come through, though some surely will.

The first question is about how I approach a project, and the second one is how I execute a project, so that's why they are, for ME, different questions, though they are obviously not different to others.

--Lee

[DJ Keawekane]

I guess for me it depends on which cap I'm putting on. As someone who is trying everything writing, penciling, inking and coloring ( I haven't gotten into lettering yet but it's coming). But my answer is for each different thing I'm doing I try to get to the heart of the matter. Which is different for each because each process is different but each has it's own way of coming to life somehow.

I'm constantly trying to improve on everything. It's a snails race I know, because comics are quick and out reads but as I see it. I would want to be the guy that everyone wants to work with. So if you're an inker you'll say "OK I can have fun with these pencils."

With that said I realize how much I have to improve on cleaning up my inks for the colorist behind me. But because I jump into different mindsets I can see where I can improve along on the assembly line.

Writing for me is a tough thing to improve on because the only way I'll truly know what to improve on is by putting stuff out there, which I have yet to do.

[Jason Copland]

My main concern is finding a drawing process that makes drawing more fun.

Doing that will push me towards two things I want to cultivate: 1) establishing a looser style that will push me away from the "old school" style I seemed to have developed, and 2) picking up the pace of my drawing, I need to get faster.

I think with the few new drawings I've done (some of which I've posted here on DW, like the Cloak and Dagger, Thing and Hulk drawings), I'm definitely moving in the right direction. I can't fully dive into the search for this new way of drawing as I have a project that utilizes the "old school" style that I have to finish up first. But, once that is finished, the gloves are off, kids. Ink is going to be flying and the work will have a vitality that is, I feel, lacking in my current work.

For some strange reason, drawing became a labor not a love.

In art school, the eraser and/or whiteout were my friends. "Mistakes" were incorporated or obliterated with equal excitement, the paper's surface was an area of investigation and discovery.

When I began drawing comics, though... those same "mistake"s were (are?) something I literally feared, they were blemishes on the paper's surface, proof of my failure. The fear of making those mistakes has kept me from the drawing board on many a night. The fear of failure is a bitch to get past if you don't just work through it.

That is why finding a new drawing process is key for me. To help take the fear away and make it fun, again. It may take a little time to refine the way the marks are made, but I know it will be a fun and challenging process that will only make me a stronger artist.

If it doesn't... I can always go back to my old way of drawing...

[JAQ]

Originally Posted by Jason Copland

For some strange reason, drawing became a labor not a love.

That's what happened to me in late elementary school. Around the same time I started to actually get good at it (i.e. you could pick my stuff out of the row of drawings on the wall) my speed ground to a near-halt. I got bogged down in making sure each hand had five fingers, arms were the right length, the eyes were in the right place on the head, etc. In many ways I still haven't gotten over that.

[j giar]

Originally Posted by Jason Copland

If it doesn't... I can always go back to my old way of drawing...

Old or not, I like the way you draw.

[MARS]

Originally Posted by j giar

Old or not, I like the way you draw.

It's funny. Because when Jason said that my first reaction was to write:

"everything old eventually becomes new again."

I think there is nothing wrong with having that style. Especially since guys like Bruce Timm and Darwyn Cooke have made it cool for like...ever.


M.

[maverick]

to entertain