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Actors Making Faces
This article from Vanity Fair has pictures of 34 actors doing lots of expressions.
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Inking Tutorial by Anton Emdin
An excellent overview of brush technique, with video.
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Aaron Diaz on Character Design
Dresden Codak creator Aaron Diaz has some excellent insights into character design. Don’t miss it!
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Tutorial 3: Ames Lettering Guide
It’s easy to underestimate the impact of lettering on a comics page. After all, we all know how to write, and with a little effort we can even make it legible. However, uneven freehand lettering will make a page look amateurish, even if the artwork is spectacular.
The Ames lettering guide is a tool for laying down lines to write in between. It’s easy to use, but how it works is not obvious at first glance. This tutorial will walk you through the process.EXERCISES
1. RULING LINES FOR 5 PT LETTERING
1. Place your page on a drawing table. Lay down a t-square and make sure the horizontal panel borders line up to it.
2. Once your page is aligned, tape it down.
3. Locate the series of whole numbers along the edge of the wheel on your Ames guide (C). Rotate the wheel until the number 5 lines up with the indicator on the bottom (D).
Rotating the wheel adjusts the vertical spacing between the holes. 5 pt will give you slightly larger than average lettering when the art is reduced by 50%.
4. You’re going to use one of the rows of holes with pairs joined by little arcs (B). To begin, line up the Ames guide so that the hole above the top pair (A) sits on your top panel border.
5. Place your pencil in the top hole of the first pair (B). Slide the guide across your paper to rule your first line.
6. Now move your pencil to the hole at the lower end of the arc. (You will jump over one hole that sits in between the pair joined by the arc.) Slide back across the paper to get a second line. The holes joined by the arc define the height of your letters.
7. Move your pencil to the next hole down; the top of another arc-sharing pair. Slide across the page again. The holes are arranged to leave a space between lines of text, roughly half the height of the letters.
8. Repeat until you have drawn six lines, using the three pairs of holes joined by arcs. You are now ready to write three lines of lettering.
9. To get a fourth line of lettering, slide your t-square down until the topmost hole in the row (A) sits on the last line you drew. Then start again using the top pair of holes (B). The spacing between lines will match.
2. BREAKING UP YOUR RULED LINES WITH VERTICAL OFFSET
It’s fastest and easiest to rule one set of lines for a whole row of panels. However, you may find it’s better for the flow of your narrative to vertically offset text from one panel to the next, or even from one balloon to the next within the same panel. As you are writing in your text, don’t be afraid to erase a large portion of your ruled lines and re-draw them in a better position.
3. EXPERIMENTING WITH LINE SPACING
Now that you know how the Ames guide works, experiment. Rotate the wheel and try out different spacings to give you different sizes of text. If you plan to reduce your artwork for printing or web display, apply the reduction to different sizes of text and see how readable they are. Find a size that best suits your artwork.There are more applications of the Ames Lettering Guide. For instance, tape your paper at an angle and you can rule lines for text off the horizontal axis. Adjust the spacing to vary the lettering size within a single page. However you use it, the ruled lines and even spacing you get from the Ames guide will always add a touch of professionalism to your lettering.
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Tutorial 2: Line Quality
Line Quality refers to the visual characteristics of the lines used to make up a drawing. How thick or thin a line is, how rough or smooth, how long or short, whether it curves evenly or angles sharply, the line’s overall shape, and even the line’s direction all have an effect on the viewer’s perception of the drawing’s content.
Cartooning is an art of economy; with every object, character, and scene, the artist must determine what visual information to include, and what to leave out. Cartooning styles run a wide gamut from highly detailed to minimalist representations, but in all cases, the artist must make every line count. For a fully realized drawing, the visual nature of the mark itself is just as important as accurate placement.
EXERCISES
For these exercises you may start with pencil sketches, but you will need an inking tool that gives you a thicker line when you apply more pressure. Most cartoonists use either a brush or a nib pen. You can also use a marker with some flex to the tip, such as a Sakura Graphic #1. Do not use ball point pens or fine-tip markers.
Once you have completed an exercise, please share your results with us. Use the “Submit Artwork” button at the top to post a drawing to this site.1. USING LINE THICKNESS TO SHOW VOLUME
Draw a complex object (such as a head) from life or a photograph.
Don’t apply any shading. Instead, use thick lines along surfaces in shadow (i.e. undersides), and thin lines along surfaces that are highlit. For the brightest surfaces, allow your line to break up and disappear.
Using line thickness this way, you can infuse a simple line drawing with a convincing sense of 3-D solidity.
2. PRACTICING EXPRESSIVE LINES
1. Draw a simple inaminate object within a panel.
2. Draw the same object in six more panels. In each panel, use line quality to assign a different emotion to the object. (For example: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, suprise, disgust, etc.)Try to express the chosen emotion in the lines used to draw
A) the object,
B) the panel border,
C) an abstract background pattern, or
D) some combination of the above.3. EXPRESSIVE LINE AS NARRATIVE TOOL
Draw a short comic (6-12 panels) that tells a familiar story, such as Red Riding Hood.
Don’t include any text.
For characters, use simple, abstract shapes. Don’t draw any facial features, body parts, or articles of clothing. Express the actions and emotions of the characters using only line quality.
For an extra challenge, also render all backgrounds and props as abstract shapes. Use line quality to express the objects’ weight, volume, and texture.It takes practice to master the brush and the nib pen. In future tutorials we will offer some tips for using these tools. In the meantime, keep experimenting with a variety of brushes and pens. As you expand your range of line qualities, you will discover the tool that best expresses your personal style.
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Comics Resource blog
Information and tips from a variety of comic professionals
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Caricature study for Comic Book/Graphic Novel.
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Caricature study for Comic Book/Graphic Novel.
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Caricature study for Comic Book/Graphic Novel.
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Webcomics Weekly
Podcast about webcomics as a livable career, by the writers of How to Make Webcomics
