So getting back to my current artistic life...I am working on another dog portrait right now. This one is of two dogs laying out on their deck. They are very cute. Although the composition of the photo is rather uninteresting, I am trying to use light and color to improve the composition and draw the eye around the piece correctly.
I have been reading several books on composition lately and have especially enjoyed Ian Roberts' Mastering Composition. Although Roberts is an oil painter, his easy to understand text and visual examples have made me want to work to improve my compositions. One of the exercises he suggests is called "A Composition a Day." Each day you create a small 4" x 5" composition in pencil on paper. The objects you choose can be simple and easy to find around you. The point is to do it every day not as busywork but as a stretching exercise for the mind. I'm excited to try this when I get a free moment. In fact, as I'm also trying to improve my watercolor skills, I may just combine the two exercises into one. I'll let you know and post some of my compositional sketches here.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Technique Files: Creating a comic/webcomic
Part 8: Closing a Creative Chapter
I am a storyteller by nature and whether that means words or pictures, I love telling stories. As a writer and illustrator, using the comic/graphic novel/webcomic medium feels like a natural fit for me. So why did I get involved in a collaborative effort in the creation of Privateer Princess? The easy answer is…it was really fun! Our point was never to have the most famous of webcomics but instead to create something that we really enjoyed doing. Although the collaboration proved difficult, Matt and I are both proud of the accomplishment. So would I do it differently if I had it to do over again? Probably. Well...almost certainly, in some ways. In others I’d do it just the same.
Each time you create a piece of art you learn something from the process. If you stick with one technique long enough, you improve and begin to experiment. We worked on our webcomic long enough that I felt confident experimenting with the art, layout, and design. What I learned from that left a deep impression on me. Ultimately, it as a worthwhile, if incomplete project. But maybe I should reframe that last statement. Incomplete…? I don’t think so. It was a chapter completed. If we ever begin it again it will be the start of a new chapter in its life, and ours. In my experience, that will probably bring forth both new energy and a new direction. That’s how life works, after all. New energy in the Spring for renewal and the growth of new things. Whether in art or in life, that sense of renewal is what keeps us moving forward.
So what about the return of Privateer Princess? Maybe someday…but in the meantime it's onwards and upwards to new things!
I am a storyteller by nature and whether that means words or pictures, I love telling stories. As a writer and illustrator, using the comic/graphic novel/webcomic medium feels like a natural fit for me. So why did I get involved in a collaborative effort in the creation of Privateer Princess? The easy answer is…it was really fun! Our point was never to have the most famous of webcomics but instead to create something that we really enjoyed doing. Although the collaboration proved difficult, Matt and I are both proud of the accomplishment. So would I do it differently if I had it to do over again? Probably. Well...almost certainly, in some ways. In others I’d do it just the same.
Each time you create a piece of art you learn something from the process. If you stick with one technique long enough, you improve and begin to experiment. We worked on our webcomic long enough that I felt confident experimenting with the art, layout, and design. What I learned from that left a deep impression on me. Ultimately, it as a worthwhile, if incomplete project. But maybe I should reframe that last statement. Incomplete…? I don’t think so. It was a chapter completed. If we ever begin it again it will be the start of a new chapter in its life, and ours. In my experience, that will probably bring forth both new energy and a new direction. That’s how life works, after all. New energy in the Spring for renewal and the growth of new things. Whether in art or in life, that sense of renewal is what keeps us moving forward.
So what about the return of Privateer Princess? Maybe someday…but in the meantime it's onwards and upwards to new things!
Bye for now from Snow Wolf and Heart
Friday, March 12, 2010
Technique Files: Creating a comic/webcomic
Part 7: Learning from the masters.
There are many styles of comics on which to model your comic/webcomic. Often comic creators have favorite comics or comic book artists/manga-kas they wish to emulate. I know I do. If given my choice I would like to be an artistic combination of Yuu Watase, Chie Shinohara, Shoko Conami, Kaori Ozaki, with a dash of You Higuri thrown in. Impossible, but a dream nonetheless. In my case, all of the artists I have just mentioned are very famous shojo manga artists from Japan. They generally create black and white comics published in serialized chapters for Japanese TankÅbon, phone-book-sized weekly or monthly anthology manga magazines. But that’s only one style. There are many other styles of comics. I was actually raised on Western comics like the “X-Men” and “The Sandman” and had never even read a manga until a few years ago.
There are many models out there for newbie comic artists to emulate and that is a great way to learn. Study your favorites and imagine how you might do the same (but better, of course). There is nothing wrong with learning from masters of your craft, even though in this country, oddly, there is a certain prejudice against it.
What about color? Many people think a comic must be in color in order to interest people. I don’t believe that. I am an old school illustrator. For many years most newspaper comics and comic strips were published mainly (or totally) in black and white. Good art is good art in my book. It’s actually quite an accomplishment to create really great illustrations in black and white and there have been many suburb illustrators in the past who have done it. From Winsor McCay’s “Little Nemo” and “Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend,” to Hal Foster’s “Prince Valiant,” magazines and newspapers in the early and mid 20th century were packed full of wonderful black and white comic art.
Today, many people make the mistake of thinking that color can and will make up for weak art. This is not the case. Strong drawings will always shine, not matter whether they are in color or not. Ultimately, though, no matter what you put down on paper take the time to make it the best you possibly can. That way you will always have something to be proud of.
Next up: Closing a Creative Chapter
There are many styles of comics on which to model your comic/webcomic. Often comic creators have favorite comics or comic book artists/manga-kas they wish to emulate. I know I do. If given my choice I would like to be an artistic combination of Yuu Watase, Chie Shinohara, Shoko Conami, Kaori Ozaki, with a dash of You Higuri thrown in. Impossible, but a dream nonetheless. In my case, all of the artists I have just mentioned are very famous shojo manga artists from Japan. They generally create black and white comics published in serialized chapters for Japanese TankÅbon, phone-book-sized weekly or monthly anthology manga magazines. But that’s only one style. There are many other styles of comics. I was actually raised on Western comics like the “X-Men” and “The Sandman” and had never even read a manga until a few years ago.
There are many models out there for newbie comic artists to emulate and that is a great way to learn. Study your favorites and imagine how you might do the same (but better, of course). There is nothing wrong with learning from masters of your craft, even though in this country, oddly, there is a certain prejudice against it.
What about color? Many people think a comic must be in color in order to interest people. I don’t believe that. I am an old school illustrator. For many years most newspaper comics and comic strips were published mainly (or totally) in black and white. Good art is good art in my book. It’s actually quite an accomplishment to create really great illustrations in black and white and there have been many suburb illustrators in the past who have done it. From Winsor McCay’s “Little Nemo” and “Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend,” to Hal Foster’s “Prince Valiant,” magazines and newspapers in the early and mid 20th century were packed full of wonderful black and white comic art.
Today, many people make the mistake of thinking that color can and will make up for weak art. This is not the case. Strong drawings will always shine, not matter whether they are in color or not. Ultimately, though, no matter what you put down on paper take the time to make it the best you possibly can. That way you will always have something to be proud of.
Next up: Closing a Creative Chapter
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Technique Files: Creating a comic/webcomic
Part 6: Creating characters/Character design
Once you’ve created a place to put them, your story will need characters! How do you decide what they’ll look like? How many do you need? Sound overwhelming? It needn’t be.
The very simplest way to design characters is by making them similar to people you already know. Characters frequently bear some sort of resemblance to their creators and people their creator knows well. As artists we sometimes can’t help it, we need models and friends and family (not to mention ourselves) work cheap!
Some people really love designing characters and can quickly create a whole lot of them. But can you use all of them in your comic? Another caution here. Too many characters in a story can cause a lot of confusion for your readers, especially if they have foreign or strange-sounding names. Of course YOU know who they are but try and have mercy upon your poor readers. Beyond the main character(s) and a few best friends and/or helpers, try and keep the rest of the cast down to a reasonable number. That way each important character gets more “screen time” and you can tell a better story.
Take some time developing your characters. Think of them as the actors in your own TV series. Just like in a TV series, characters change and develop throughout the season(s). The same will be true for your comic characters. Expect them to grow and change too.
Sometimes certain characters will get their own ideas about how much screen time they would like to have in your comic. Be careful with these attention hogs. They may even start upstaging your hero/heroine. That’s not good! It’s not their comic after all. We had one of these characters in Privateer Princess. His name was Big Atom and for some reason this minor character started appearing more and more often and even began to look like a rival for heroine’s affections as time went on.
This took us completely by surprise but we quickly realized that sometimes it’s ok to allow certain characters grow and change in service of the story. Even if you didn’t plan it initially. Remember that a story is an organic thing that sometimes takes turns you don’t expect.
Next up: Part 7: Learning from the masters
Once you’ve created a place to put them, your story will need characters! How do you decide what they’ll look like? How many do you need? Sound overwhelming? It needn’t be.
The very simplest way to design characters is by making them similar to people you already know. Characters frequently bear some sort of resemblance to their creators and people their creator knows well. As artists we sometimes can’t help it, we need models and friends and family (not to mention ourselves) work cheap!
Some people really love designing characters and can quickly create a whole lot of them. But can you use all of them in your comic? Another caution here. Too many characters in a story can cause a lot of confusion for your readers, especially if they have foreign or strange-sounding names. Of course YOU know who they are but try and have mercy upon your poor readers. Beyond the main character(s) and a few best friends and/or helpers, try and keep the rest of the cast down to a reasonable number. That way each important character gets more “screen time” and you can tell a better story.
Take some time developing your characters. Think of them as the actors in your own TV series. Just like in a TV series, characters change and develop throughout the season(s). The same will be true for your comic characters. Expect them to grow and change too.
This took us completely by surprise but we quickly realized that sometimes it’s ok to allow certain characters grow and change in service of the story. Even if you didn’t plan it initially. Remember that a story is an organic thing that sometimes takes turns you don’t expect.
Next up: Part 7: Learning from the masters
Monday, March 8, 2010
Technique Files: Creating a comic/webcomic
Part 5: Finding the right visual balance while telling your story
Matt (the writer) and I (the artist) learned the hard way that it’s not always easy to agree on how much dialog and descriptive writing to use in a comic. When all else fails it helps to remember a simple rule for graphic-based stories – show, don’t tell. (This is also true for writing, by the way.)
However, depending on the sort of graphic story you’re planning to tell this can mean very different things. In shojo manga the emotion of the story is very important. Each page frequently has less words with more (and larger) images to better capture the emotionality of the moment.
Other styles of comics, like most superhero comics, have much more exposition and dialog per page. They will also have more panels per page with art that is relatively small.
In our web story, we used a hybrid form of shojo story-telling. This was a compromise that Matt and I made when we couldn’t agree on what style of story to tell. Shojo – with its larger images and more leisurely storytelling style? Or more western superhero – smaller panels/artwork, more exposition/dialog, and a faster storyline? It was a tough call that eventually led to our compromise, which, unfortunately, neither of us could ever completely get behind. So when working in collaboration, even with someone you work with very well, remember that compromises will sometimes need to be made.
Despite our disagreement over style, Matt and I did have an important storytelling rule that I'd like to share. One of the ways we checked how well our story was progressing was by making sure to change the scene or introduce a new element every sixth page. That way readers wouldn’t feel like they were stuck in the same room with the same people for too long and get bored. This rule wasn’t always easy to follow but we felt it was really important.
Next up: Creating characters.
Matt (the writer) and I (the artist) learned the hard way that it’s not always easy to agree on how much dialog and descriptive writing to use in a comic. When all else fails it helps to remember a simple rule for graphic-based stories – show, don’t tell. (This is also true for writing, by the way.)
However, depending on the sort of graphic story you’re planning to tell this can mean very different things. In shojo manga the emotion of the story is very important. Each page frequently has less words with more (and larger) images to better capture the emotionality of the moment.
Other styles of comics, like most superhero comics, have much more exposition and dialog per page. They will also have more panels per page with art that is relatively small.
In our web story, we used a hybrid form of shojo story-telling. This was a compromise that Matt and I made when we couldn’t agree on what style of story to tell. Shojo – with its larger images and more leisurely storytelling style? Or more western superhero – smaller panels/artwork, more exposition/dialog, and a faster storyline? It was a tough call that eventually led to our compromise, which, unfortunately, neither of us could ever completely get behind. So when working in collaboration, even with someone you work with very well, remember that compromises will sometimes need to be made.
Despite our disagreement over style, Matt and I did have an important storytelling rule that I'd like to share. One of the ways we checked how well our story was progressing was by making sure to change the scene or introduce a new element every sixth page. That way readers wouldn’t feel like they were stuck in the same room with the same people for too long and get bored. This rule wasn’t always easy to follow but we felt it was really important.
Next up: Creating characters.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Today's sketches
I’m taking a short pause from the webcomic information to take a brief look at some current artwork. After a long time I’ve started back into watercolor sketching today. It felt fabulous! To start out my new notebook I had do a page of my horse Percy. Here he is in several poses.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Technique Files: Creating a comic/webcomic
Part 4: What kind of story do you want to tell?
Many webcomics are not based around story so much as episodes or single page incidents. On the web these “ultra-short” stories or incidents work really well because they make it easy for you to read quickly and not invest too much time.
If you want to tell a longer story you really need to think about it carefully before you start drawing. Why? Because, and trust me on this, it’s really easy for a comic story to get out of hand. A written story is very different from a heavily illustrated one. A graphic novel or webcomic takes longer to tell. It must because it’s telling a story with many, many pictures. As a webcomic artist (and previously a children’s book illustrator) I love telling stories with lots of pictures. But, if you write a novel and then want to turn it into a graphic story or comic, things are going to get ugly really fast. Where do you put all of those words, eh? If you have a long story it’s going to take a really long time to tell when you add all those really great pictures. In fact, it might take several issues (or volumes in manga) to tell it. Do you have the patience and fortitude for that? Think about it carefully before getting in too deep. A shorter, simpler story WILL be easier to tell in a comic format, especially for a novice. I know what I’m talking about here folks.
Many webcomics are not based around story so much as episodes or single page incidents. On the web these “ultra-short” stories or incidents work really well because they make it easy for you to read quickly and not invest too much time.
If you want to tell a longer story you really need to think about it carefully before you start drawing. Why? Because, and trust me on this, it’s really easy for a comic story to get out of hand. A written story is very different from a heavily illustrated one. A graphic novel or webcomic takes longer to tell. It must because it’s telling a story with many, many pictures. As a webcomic artist (and previously a children’s book illustrator) I love telling stories with lots of pictures. But, if you write a novel and then want to turn it into a graphic story or comic, things are going to get ugly really fast. Where do you put all of those words, eh? If you have a long story it’s going to take a really long time to tell when you add all those really great pictures. In fact, it might take several issues (or volumes in manga) to tell it. Do you have the patience and fortitude for that? Think about it carefully before getting in too deep. A shorter, simpler story WILL be easier to tell in a comic format, especially for a novice. I know what I’m talking about here folks.
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