Hey guys, let's be artist artists. Comics can be a lot of things, but mostly we know them only as a strictly narrative art form dealing with concrete narratives that make sense. Sometimes I think this intense focus or expectations laid on story can be a bit tedious, and perhaps it's holding a lot of people back from doing cool stuff, not to mention limiting the potential of the comics medium itself. I say we ignore the conventions for a while and explore comics as well as drawing in this thread.
Maybe you'd like to experiment with the form itself
, or maybe you'd want to do something more abstract about a feeling
or something that is just an atmosphere
Just come up with something interesting. It doesn't have to be cool looking (hell, I encourage you to try and draw something ugly), there doesn't have to be a story, it doesn't necessarily need panels, shit it doesn't need to have anything you think a comic needs to have. Also, you don't even have to draw yourself:
!
I realize telling you guys to try and draw ugly, or stray away from conventional storytelling is a hard thing to do. When I began studying comics I was very adamant about making traditional stories and realistic artwork because I wanted so desperately to show off my skills, but it
is awfully liberating to just let go of that pressure to create something intensely polished, and just fuck around on a piece of paper. So I guess this thread is also an exercise in trying to become more creatively loose and open minded. So yeah, just fuck around and have fun with this.
Some cool inspirational links:
http://lalewestvind.tumblr.com/http://grantreynolds.tumblr.com/http://clavcity.tumblr.com/http://www.michael-deforge.com/
edit: also: pop-up comics, god I wanna see more pop-up comics.
Posts
Lately I've been very into playing around with the physicality of the panels themselves, deliberately making tangents and treating it as an object. It has very weird results sometimes. That's pretty much all I thought about when making this comic, the rest was just on intuition. I've been way too cerebral lately in terms of storytelling and artwork, so this is a nice change of pace.
edit: on critiquing - since the merit of these works essentially relies on intention or whatever emerges from the work, let's keep crits to that. Say either the artist has an intention that can be portrayed more effectively, or something interesting emerges from the work that can be pushed further.
comics are cool and stuff
some more necessary resources
http://altcomics.tumblr.com/
http://comicsworkbook.tumblr.com/
http://franksantoro.tumblr.com/
http://gingerlandcomics.com/
http://www.panelpatter.com/2015/01/a-look-at-coloring-in-dash-shaws-doctors.html
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/09/14/glorious-spx-dash-shaw-and-frank-santoro-say-comics-are-a-pop-culture-collage/
I do not know what it is the man in the bowler hat did to deserve it, but he certainly seems surprised. I shift+clicked a few panel borders, then drew each panel in order from left to right with no real thought as to what was coming next. I corrected a panel or two, but didn't stray all that far from the original sketch. Though it did turn out to be a coherent story, somewhat, so I don't know if I missed the point or what.
a small selection of quotes:
Boulet's Long Journey is one of those comics that like "A Day At The Circuits" really takes advantage of the format itself and plays around with it. Good fun. Boulet in general is insane, check out the stupidly well made 24 hours comic he made, it's like this shit just flows right out of him.
Being digital the format also presents some cool new opportunities, such as parallaxing, used by David Helman simply but neatly here.
To me reading them while scrolling on my mouse is probably the biggest drawback, just the sound of it is so fucking annoying as well as the jittery speed at which it scrolls and using a trackpad isn't much better. I suppose the ideal way to read these would be on a tablet or on your phone, since the speed at which you're scrolling feels so much more intuitive.
Another thing about scroll comics that only have a single row is that you'll probably have to think more like a filmmaker than you used to. Say, stuff like match cuts - where you cut from one object to another with the same basic composition - could go and cause problems or create opportunities. The opportunities being in making the effect of the camera moving around or zooming feel more natural to the medium, while problems arise when you have a match cut in a conversation between two characters, and the reader will briefly mistake one character for the other.
I used it in this case because it was simple and quick to draw. I had one canvas, had all of my color swatches set up, had no panels to work out, just a single space to fill (as many times as I wished) and could then save each one as it's own image. I could probably continue that little comic indefinitely, with little planning.
definitely a different experience scrolling vertically than turning pages (it was designed for print)
pretty much the most finished comic i've done so far, but the first one with just pencils—after getting acquainted with sam alden i was like 'wait. you can do that?'—so it's definitely something i want to experiment with more (need to try to loosen up, too, i have a habit of wanting to micromanage every single line)
i could talk about this one for a while but i won't, got some smaller scale comics in the works so hopefully i'll have more stuff here soon
semi-permission to nag, I guess?
Uncanny Magazine!
The Mad Writers Union
Been wanting to try out a mix between traditional and digital lately. So this is the perfect place to try it out. Thanks so much for the opportunity.
Feels like a great way to practice some basic foundation- I know I've done better "fast" drawings, but this medium adds a different sort of pressure.
Oftentimes when you feel like you're stuck for ideas, what it is really is that you don't really have a place to begin or whatever, and having the framework of obstructions really helps you keep thinking of possibilities.
If anyone wants an assignment to get going with this, here's one:
make a 6, 9, or 12 panel grid on a piece of paper. Walk around your house, neighborhood or whatever and include at least one of each of the following:
- a space
- a close up
- a long shot
- movement
- a pattern
Now add some text, it can be your own or you can take it from wherever. Honestly, it can be that easy.
Mostly different sources of white noise.
Hope it reads. He's sculpting! The most compelling things about faces to me seemed to be laughter and aging. Aging won out.
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
just to remind you that you want to do this! Remember, don't try to impress, so don't think too hard about it if that's what's stopping you.
I'll try and get some extra energy off to doodle some dumb comics. It is shark week.
I took these with my phone camera in candle light, they maybe huge and blurry. I guess 3am is probably a good time for dumb comics.
I was going to hand write the text behind the pictures but I was worried I'd mess up and accidentally write something terrible. So it's this instead!
It says (according to google translate, which I have to take for granted, which is appropriate given the subject):
It is difficult to get around.
I'm smarter in English.
It is strange not to know anything.
I feel like a child.
I am not able to read.
I can hardly talk.
I have only basic etiquette.
At least everyone is really friendly.
Very helpful and very patient.
And the food is delicious.
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
Also, Iruka, keep drawing dags till you drop dead, love em.
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt