Kav's Tips for Comic Artists - Drawing System
by A. "Kav" Kaviraj
Comic book artist, A. Kaviraj, continues his series of providing useful tutorials for comic book artists.
Okay, every artist has his or her own system for drawing. The system is what allows the artist to produce pages like a machine-assembling the images in a particular order for maximum output. It's inevitable that an artist organizes his drawing time into a system of some sort. Like woodworking or unloading products, a certain order and way of doing a job maximally efficient.
I came upon my system after about 130 pages had been drawn. It was created mostly by seeing how other artists constructed pages. When I first started seriously drawing pages, my system was to pencil everything then ink in the black areas, and then, in a connect-the-dots fashion, draw the lines. It worked pretty well, but things got inevitably a little crooked as the black edges didn't quite line up exactly. I also inked with a brushtip Copic pen then added fine lines with a micropoint Copic pen when everything was mostly done.
Then I saw how Sean Phillips approaches inking (see below). It was an eye-opener. He draws first with a blue non photo marker or prints down digitally blued photos onto the Blueline paper. (I like Blueline #bl1003-it seems to have the best all around surface. Bl #1001 is a bit too thick and doesn't accept pen lines as well as the thinner paper, and it's a bit smoother and hard to erase if you're using pencil. The smooth paper when erased seems to lose More ink than the thinner paper, leaving the pages not as dark as you want.). Then he draws all the lines with a pitt pen, as you can see. Then come the blacks.
I never knew you could ink like that! It was so easy and looked so much more professional than my previous system. Just recently, I attained a level where I can draw with the blue pen instead of having to use a pencil. The advantage is that you don't have to erase, which gets tiring pretty fast and also removes some ink. The disadvantage is that you pretty much have to draw it right the first time because you can't erase it and start over.
After everything is inked, I go over the mistakes, add stars, etc. with white gauche. Large areas or entire panels that need changes I use sticker paper.
One thing you don't want is the comic book drawing style where all the faces look the same; just hair, glasses, beard, etc. are changed. Make everybody look like an individual, and your story will triple in realism. You can lightbox faces of actual people, or if you are really good, just look at them and draw them. But don't get in the habit of drawing a standard 'face'. Same goes for drawing bodies-don't draw the same mesomorph every time like so many in the industry. Draw skinny people that look actually skinny, etc.
Once I scan at 600dpi I go to Photo Gallery and adjust image -auto adjust to make sure everything is nice and dark. No one wants to see brush or pen strokes. Sometimes I have to bring down the shadows to get it dark enough.
One of the last things I do is hold the finished page in the Mirror. When you do this all the mistakes will pop out-crooked eyes, misplaced noses, anything your tunnel vision while drawing didn't catch. Then you fix them by adding lines, whiting out, sticker paper or whatever means necessary. Another good idea is to have other people look at it and point out whatever they see is wrong. Luckily I had a particularly caustic friend who loved pointing out anything I did wrong and I learned I was making my eyes too small and chins too big. Thanks, dude!
For encouragement I'm attaching a page I did in 7th grade from my masterpiece "nebulan" so you can see how sucky I once was.
Enjoy!
A Kaviraj
http://www.championcitycomics.com/
A. KAVIRAJ: Kav is an artist, teacher, and biologist who lives in Sacramento, California. He is the artist forThe End of Paradise, Rapid City, and Dr Death vs The Zombie. He is the writer and artist for Dr. Death vs. The Vampire. E-mail: ddkaviraj@aol.com
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