Skills for comics artists

I got an email asking me if it's necessary to go to art school to become a good comics artist. I thought I'd post the correspondence here.

XXX@XXXXXX.com wrote:

Comments - So I found this page on Google... I was wondering if i really needed to be at college to one day become a comic book artist. I'm dreading school right now, it's not my thing, working with charcoal and paint is fun and all, but not my thing. I thought I needed a degree a diploma or something, but you say I don't, and I want to base my life around it. It comes down to skill and talent, not a piece of paper.

While it's important to have talent, you'll never reach your full potential unless you constantly practice and learn new lessons. I'm a great believer in feedback loops. If you want to improve you need to figure out where to improve.

Art school is a great way to have lots of people tell you where you've gone wrong. You bring in your homework, it gets posted on the chalkboard, and everyone gets to gripe about or praise each piece. It can be brutal but you learn where you might be wrong. You also learn to listen to the occasional idiot without getting worked up.

It's also nice that they teach you new techniques.

If you can find either A) someone very skilled and talented to give you advice, or B) a series of people, of increasing gifts, who can give you advice as you grow, you don't need art school. If you're really honest with yourself and motivated to improve you can keep getting better after you run out of teachers and mentors. At that point it's good to have talented colleagues.

Here are some good skills for comics and other fields where comics artists often drift into:

Color theory (How do a green man and a peach colored man look in blue neon light?)
Perspective (Can you draw a full rotation of a Ford Thunderbird?)
Figure drawing (Can you convincingly draw a mom dressing her 6 yr old?)
Clothing and drapery (Can you draw a woman in a long dress punching an unsuspecting man in a suit?)
Graphics software (One of my weaknesses. Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Ooh, and SketchUp)
Pre-press (Another of my weaknesses. Do you know how to submit and proof files for publication?)
Painting (Can you make a full color image of a pitcher of lemonade on a kitchen counter, looking out into a garden?)
Animation (Yet again, something I can't do. LOTS of guys do work for animation studios)
Graphic Design (I used to be good at this but my skills have weakened. Can you design a cool looking cover logo, letters page and other layouts for a comic book?)
Fiction writing (I don't mean the lame memoir and poetry you learn in creative writing classes. Can you write a well structured fictional piece with well motivated characters, a good buildup of suspense and character crisis, and a believable plot?)
Film Theory

Keep in mind that even most art schools won't teach you all of these skills properly. Go to an art school's graduate show and you'll see great variety in both style and accomplishment. Some people teach themselves stuff the school doesn't bother doing.

You don't need all of these skills to break into comics. If you can draw ANYTHING convincingly and have good storytelling you can do fine (Frank Miller can't paint or animate but he can tell a great story involving a guy in a trench coat driving a convertible to a cathedral). But if you want to prepare for a long career in comics and related fields, these skills are a good start.

Best of luck. I'll be at the 2008 Calgary Expo. If you're there, say hi!

Gene

Quick sketch (5cm x 5cm)

Chuck Norris endorses...

If you were having trouble deciding who to elect US President a year from now your troubles are over. Chuck Norris headed over to WorldNetDaily, endorsed Mike Huckabee, and then killed five COBRA terrorists:

Mike Huckabee doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants. Mike Huckabee's tears can cure cancer. Too bad he never cries. Ever. Mike Huckabee thought up some of the funniest Chuck Norris facts ever, but he hasn't submitted them online because he doesn't believe in any form of submission. Mike Huckabee will stop illegal immigration by moving the White House to the Rio Grande and staring the criminals down.

Okay, enough fun. He actually wrote a clear and concise summation of why he likes Arkansas Governor Huckabee. It feels weird reading conservative political writing that doesn't include NRC talking points. Chuck is like John McCain in 2000, before Bush kicked his ass and made him ask for another.

Mike is also a respected and fearless leader, and he does not cower to the cries of any majority or minority. He doesn't abandon his values for what's expedient. Like our Founding Fathers, he's not afraid to stand up for a Creator and against secularist beliefs. At the same time, he doesn't fear offending Christian leaders who give up their values in pursuit of electing their "team leader" just like everyone else.

I don't agree with Chuck, but it's good to see someone write what he believes instead of spin doctor attacks. I do agree that Governor Huckabee is the only forthright and competent man in the GOP field. Which is why he won't be nominated and why Hilary or Barack will be President.

Scott Dunbier, Online! and the 2007 Fall Con

My closest editorial buddy is back again! Scott Dunbier has a MySpace and a Blogspot. Check 'em out if you want to see how a great editor thinks. Scott never abused his position, but being a comics editor is one of the better ways to get a comics writing job. . . .

Two more things. He's lost a lot of weight since Jeff Campbell drew that portrait of him. He's staying healthy for the kids. And expect great things from him. Comics needs movers and shakers and he has that healthy dose of ambition common to NY kids.

The MN Fall Con was especially crazy this year. I give the option of either paying for sketches in MN or taking a dare. Almost everyone just took the dare. Sonia was a living billboard for Transylvania TV (TVTV) for a whole con day. You can't see it in the photo but I wrote their URL across her cheeks.

Sonia as the Vampire leShoc

The real Vampire leShoc. Uncanny, no?

The biggest dare was done for this sketch. I dared him to dress up as Gandalf and reenact a scene from the LoTR (either the books or the movies). If you want to see how he did click the YouTube video.

I traded sketches with Kurt Busiek. I did the following drawing of a gorilla in a baseball cap, and he wrote a script sketch (containing one story beat) of Superman and Lois buying an unusual house. I handed that sketch off to Doug Mahnke for him to interpret. Hoping he sends that back soon. I'm dying to see what he did!

I also did a sketch of Kitty Pryde and a sexy Engineer. I'll post up the Kitty sketch if you're interested but the Engineer came out a bit too sexy. . . .

I sat next to Zander and Kevin Cannon for the whole con. A nicely dressed woman came up to me looking for an artist who could draw technical subjects. Considering Zander's remarkable work on Space Junk and Space Weather I sent her down the row to him. I figured she was either rich or crazy. Poor Zander said she was just crazy.

Zander at the Fall Con.

Comics Journal question

I received an email from Comics Journal asking what comics related gifts I'm giving this holiday season. Here's my response:

Dear Kristy and Michael (ie Comics Journal),

I've got a gift I'm giving to two friends who can't make it to conventions as often as I do. I'm giving them small sketchbooks.

I'm taking the sketchbooks with me to conventions. For each book I choose one writer and one artist at each show. I ask the writer to "sketch" a short one page script. The next page goes to the artist, who does a drawing based on the script sketch.

Writer Marc Andreyko (Manhunter) and I came up with this at a convention in Spain. The first writer-artist combo was Marc and George Perez.

I'd love to see this idea spread because writers don't have much to sell at conventions. Hopefully this means up and coming writers can finance trips to more shows!

Happy holy days (how's that for a politically correct greeting?),

Gene Ha