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Starting my own Comic
ComicNub
Registered User new member
Registered User new member
The last few years, I've gotten really into comics, and now want to write and draw my own when I'm older. I decided I wanted to start now, but I don't know really how to start. These will probably start out really short (1 sketchbook page) and progress to be longer as my writing and art improve. These will be in my sketchbook, and I'm always open to constructive criticism!
Art- I have been drawing for a little over a year, and I say that I know some basic anatomy. I generally draw from poses, and I do basic shading.
Writing- This is where I really need help. How do I write comics? How do I get inspiration for comics? I would say that my writing is okay, at best. How do I make characters that are easy to relate to? How can I make a creative comic, without making it boring? I have a lot of questions, and I will most likely need a lot of help.
Art- I have been drawing for a little over a year, and I say that I know some basic anatomy. I generally draw from poses, and I do basic shading.
Writing- This is where I really need help. How do I write comics? How do I get inspiration for comics? I would say that my writing is okay, at best. How do I make characters that are easy to relate to? How can I make a creative comic, without making it boring? I have a lot of questions, and I will most likely need a lot of help.
+2
Posts
Scott McCloud is probably the best place to start, as his books on comics are possibly the most focused and informative on the medium itself. Feel free to post actual comics in the AC for critiques, or questions in the question thread: (http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/149588/questions-discussion-tutorials#latest) we also have some links to other art related things over there: http://forums.penny-arcade.com/categories/art-assignments-and-resources
also some cool stuff here: http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/198595/comixperimentation-lab/p1
Not to try and drag you away from GV :P
But this book, Invisible Ink, is a pretty good starting point for figuring out story structure and the like.
XBL: JyrenB ; Steam: Jyren ; Twitter
After the McCloud books, my only real go-to resource books for comic making are Framed Ink and Invisible Ink. After that, in my mind, it's really all about just doing it badly until you're doing it slightly less badly (along with reading a ton of books and comics to absorb as much about storytelling as you can).
XBL: JyrenB ; Steam: Jyren ; Twitter
This! He's hands down the best teacher I ever had. I'd also recommend Comics and Sequential Art by Will Eisner.
Other than that, there's not really a secret to it - just read, read, read and draw, draw, draw. If there's a gap in your knowledge (I always used to suck at drawing hands and feet), don't avoid it and hope you'll get better automatically - figure out what you're sucking at and teach yourself to draw those goshdarn hands and feet.
I'd recommend just having a bash at making comics and putting them online on a blog or some forums or wherever and get chatting to other artists about your work and ideas.
Exactly. Everyone was rubbish once!
Writing: always keep in mind that comics are a medium not a genre, they can be about anything even if a large part of American comics are superheroes (luckily non-superhero comics have been spreading a lot this past decade, so the impression that comics=superheroes is disappearing).
Try to start small, I've seen many writers/artists deciding that they are going to do a large sweeping fantasy epic, but never getting further than a few issues into the first act.