(When I say "you" -- that's just me talking to myself.)
1. Know your process. It'll help you create images you like with efficiency and consistency. One process per project.
1. Know your process. It'll help you create images you like with efficiency and consistency. One process per project.
2. Adjust your process. You'll
build a bigger, better toolbox to draw from by playing with different
approaches.
3. Find the drawing gestures you want to
make and make them. Your muscle memory will build and expand
its own visual language and style. Make curly-cues and shark-teeth as
often as possible.
4. Find the good stuff and
study. Who's on your Mount Rushmore of comics? Figure it out,
tear it down, build a new one. Never meet your heroes. Obviously,
read more than comics and fiction. Get over the crippling social
anxiety that made you a cartoonist in the first place and mix it up
with reality...maybe later? Maybe later. At the same time, comics is
your medium of choice for a reason--read as many kinds of comics as
you can and build a reference file--mine's on tumblr:
http://thousandwordcomics.tumblr.com/
5. Contrast devices against
grids. If every layout-move you make is a special effect then
nothing is really special. Only Sam Kieth can get away with this kind
of thing and you're no Sam Kieth. Grids and right-angle-centric
layouts are great for setting the meter; once you do that you can
break the meter with soooommmettthiiiinnng craaaazzzzyyyy.
6. Use the tools you want to
use. Pencil and crayon? Pudding and dirt? I knew a guy who
drew a book in his own blood! It was disgusting! Go for it,
Rembrandt. You're the man now, dawg.
7. Balloons and text are a part of
compositions. You're gonna waste a lot of time and
good compositions by shoehorning text into images if you don't plan
accordingly.
8. Letter
first, balloon around. Squashed lettering is strictly
amateur-hour...but I still did it a few times in my new book.
9. Edit text to accommodate acting. If the speaker you've drawn isn't saying the words you've written then redraw that face or change that text. Unless your character is a ventriloquist then their mouth should be open when they speak.
10. Image/text balance. If you have a ton of text in a panel then you need to pair it with either a simple image of the speakers (like a silhouette) or an image that isn't of the speakers. When you combine effectively drawn body language with text that reads as an image, a voice is produced in the readers' head. When you have too much text, that voice is diluted. Conversation panels with multiple dialogue exchanges back and forth between characters produce no voice as characters change their tones and conversation shifts. Don't be lazy, give every moment its due or cut some of that dialogue.
9. Edit text to accommodate acting. If the speaker you've drawn isn't saying the words you've written then redraw that face or change that text. Unless your character is a ventriloquist then their mouth should be open when they speak.
10. Image/text balance. If you have a ton of text in a panel then you need to pair it with either a simple image of the speakers (like a silhouette) or an image that isn't of the speakers. When you combine effectively drawn body language with text that reads as an image, a voice is produced in the readers' head. When you have too much text, that voice is diluted. Conversation panels with multiple dialogue exchanges back and forth between characters produce no voice as characters change their tones and conversation shifts. Don't be lazy, give every moment its due or cut some of that dialogue.
You can view Ben Granoff's work at: http://www.picturesforstories.com/
