How to Draw Comics the Marshall Way

Good advice for anyone interested in drawing, at any age: find the time and stick to it. That’s really all there is to it.

Vintage comic book reviews and reading orders for Spider-Man, X-Men, Batman and other comic book collections.

A handy tool for those who want to catch up on superhero comics, which have grown increasingly fragmented over the last few decades thanks to reboots and side-series.

puptracks:

Being a cheepscate and in general just having a hard time deciding what art program to use, I’ve developed a process that should work on just about any art software. All it needs is the ability to use layers, and Multiply and Overlay layer modes. That’s it. In this tutorial I’m…

Figures for Drawing Nudity warning My goal for this blog is to create a place for anyone to come and quickly find solid Figure Drawing References and inspiration. This blog equally posts male and…

NSFW, but very handy for those of us who could sharpen up our figure drawing.

The Richard Williams Animator’s Survival Kit iPad app that we announced a couple months ago is out today. It’s available for $34.99 on the Apple Store, a…

Obviously aimed more at animators than cartoonists, but I suspect the lessons could be very useful for everyone who needs to design characters, draw expressively, etc.

Many artists, ranging from emerging or amateur artists all the way to fully established professionals, create commissioned works for clients. The idea of a commission is that the purchaser has some…

Looks handy!

I’ve become a big believer in reference myself and am a better artist for it. Good advice here.

Very cool idea. Estrada has released a script under Creative Commons licensing for people to adapt as they wish, within the bounds of the license.

Seems like it could be a handy reference.

Comics pro Amy Reeder offers an in-depth series of posts about the use of perspective in storytelling to move the action forward. Very useful.

Very sensible stuff, especially for anxious beginners.

As recommended on Dan Berry’s excellent podcast Make It Then Tell Everybody, a free 3D modelling program that you can use to create models for reference. I’m going to give it a try.

Very useful looking site about the legal end of making creative work.

Very cool, useful tutorial on drapery and folds. 

Joe Kubert illustrated this 1970s tour of a magazine printing plant. Good times.

The comics of Faith Erin Hicks were one of my favourite discoveries of 2012. One of her new books, Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong, is currently being serialized by Oni press. I’ve read and enjoyed the whole thing, but what I want to draw your attention to tonight is her blog post in which she answers a reader question about perseverance in the face of criticism and self-doubt. Ms. Hicks has her head on straight.

This looks like a very appealing alternative to the Wacom Cintiq, especially for those of us on a budget. 

Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover’s Bandette is one of my favourite new comics of the year, and one of the big factors in its charm is its vibrant colour.  Coover shares her Photoshop and general tips here.

The Octopus Pie creator answers a reader question and gets specific about how she uses Manga Studio. 

One of my favourite cartoonists speaks about the challenges of keeping things fresh and interesting. 

Honorary Canadian and diary comics creator Dustin Harbin has some “handy” tips for artists.

(Sorry.)

I know I need to do this sometimes rather than buy or find a giant scanner - in fact, I don’t have a scanner at all anymore. Handy tips here for those of us who don’t know photography as well as we should.

As recommended by pros like Michael Cho and Tom Fowler, a great resource for stuff that you might not be able to find at your local art supply shop.

I used to be pretty lukewarm about The Oatmeal back when it started, largely due to the crudeness of the drawings, but as the years have passed I am firmly pro-Oatmeal and have a lot of respect for Mr. Inman, both for the site and for his wonderful smackdowns of trolls (not to mention kickstarting a Tesla Museum!)  Anyway, there is a lot of truth in here.

Very illuminating stuff about what the professionals do to “trap” line art before digital colouring for press.

For those who want to make motion comics or comicbooky animations, this looks like it might be handy. Currently available in beta with full version coming in the new year.

Handy little tool that helps you create a nice simulation of a text conversation on an iPhone screen, if for some reason you should need it. Scales up in Photoshop decently too.

From kalidraws:

Today I gave my students a quick presentation on some of the basic considerations for composition, which I am now sharing with you! I’ve given them separate talks about color and tonal value/contrast, which are also super important compositional concerns. (I’ll be sharing those presentations too once I properly format them) I personally love learning about different compositional techniques. It’s fun to think about the ways that the brain views & sorts images, and how we can trick it into feeling a certain way or looking at certain aspects of an image first! It’s easy to fall into compositional ruts (which I am also guilty of) because a lot of art gets by with mediocre, though serviceable, compositions. If you can generally understand what’s happening in an image then it’s generally fine. However, it’s the truly great compositions, where everything in the whole image has been considered and ‘clicks’ together, that bump up an illustration to a visual slam dunk. NC Wyeth is one of my favorite artists for this reason: his compositions are rock solid, varied based on the image’s intent, and always enhance the mood or action he is depicting. For extra reading, some online compositional resources that I’ve found helpful or interesting include: Creative Illustration by Andrew Loomis (download it for FREE. Such a great book all-around.) Gurney Journey (check out the “Composition” tag, but really everything he posts is great) The Schweitzer guide to spotting tangents Cinemosaic (a blog by Lou Romano with some truly WONDERFUL compositions captured from various films) Where to Put the Cow by Anita Griffin Happy composition-ing!

Splendid tips from a professional about the importance of anatomical knowledge and keeping things simple. Includes examples from the likes of Vera Brosgol, Bryan Lee O’Malley, and Meredith Gran.

Very cool. “Be a river and accept everything.”

Very good advice for those who, like me, want to make comics that people look forward to reading and might even pay for one day. Gene is the author and artist of some great books, including American Born Chinese and The Eternal Smile. 

Reblogged from eschergirls:

nechayano:

Ok I was recently reminded that this exists (i-I think someone DA-famous linked it or something because WHAT) and I think this may be relevant to tumblr’s interests so here’s my~female body variation tutorial~ whoo~

This came from some things I scribbled down when I was trying to keep my character designs consistent, and I realised that it kinda made me see bodies/proportions somewhat differently so I pasted it into this smarmy old tutorial, now cut up into (I hope) tumblr-friendly chunks so right-click for full size I think? (disclaimer: I don’t know anything and it is so far past my bedtime that it’s been tomorrow for a whole day so I’m going to nap and then maybe regret posting this.)

Because one of the most common requests I get is for tutorials on how to draw women. :)

Another useful blog on practical comics making. Thanks to Christian LeBlanc for the tip!

Can’t believe I haven’t seen this site before. Lots of useful stuff by the look of it, like the very detailed post on printmaking.

Inspiring stuff! One thing that I always fret about is the loss of “energy” if I ink my own pencils, so I wind up perhaps overworking the pencils, making them too tight. Stewart inks straight from roughs! 

Check out his webcomic, Sin Titulo, and his other stuff. Talented guy.

faitherinhicks:

Sorry tumblrs, I didn’t know you couldn’t reblog questions, and also it’s probably mean of me, exposing that girl’s question like that. So here’s the whole blog post in reblogging format.

Long story short, someone (politely) inquired if I would do character design for them, and then draw their…

An astounding graphic novel by young artist Adam Hines, available online. Not recommended for young readers.

Ooh, this looks pretty cool. I might need to get one for portable drawing.

Very handy tool from Adobe for browsing through colour schemes.