Art Director at ASSIST
Put the ART in SMART!
Read time: 2 minutes
Don`t ever start a comic book with the thought of fame! Focus on your art and do it with love. It is your passion after all, isn’t it?!
Zelgor,a mobile game development project is all about the conquest and accomplishing your goals. Mystery and action. How did you expect its comic pages would be?
First step
Imagine a plot. An awesome plot! Not just for kids that will like a lot of action and wouldn`t mind the absence of a well grown story. Inspire yourself in order to create. Seek deep down in that fantastic universe called your brain and bring it out. Build a script and see the images contour in front of your eyes before you pour the ink on paper. Think about them. Take your time. Don`t rush yourself from excitement. It`s hard, I would know! Trust me! Give your ideas and thoughts time to settle and your art will be the “thank you”.
Comic artist ≠ Comic reader with ideas
One important step is to stop thinking that you can draw comic books just because you`ve read thousands! Every comic artist has at least some professional training. And even then almost every time you have a long way to go before you`re happy with your art.
You need to study the human anatomy. You need to know how it moves and looks while it moves. Facial expressions are included!
Backgrounds and details. Vital!
Boring? Maybe! Needed? Very!
It indicates to the reader where some scenes are taking place but don`t over do it and take the focus from the action with the background every time. Action scenes have very little background unless it is part of the action.
If you want to draw a truck, search for a picture of it on the internet. Everybody needs a reference picture to be more accurate. And yes, details do matter. A lot!
Perspective vs. graphic design
Perspective equals depth equals placing the reader in the middle of the action scene. Put your story into perspective! Literally!
Create thumbnail sketches for every page. This means drawing quickly how you want to lay out the illustrations and/or the dialogue balloons. Sometimes I do 2 or 3 thumbnails, sometimes I need to see more possibilities and so more than 5.
Materials!?
All you need is paper and ink. Or maybe paper and pencils. You know what? Use what media you feel comfortable with, but be sure to try everything out first and then choose.
