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Work In Progress is a blog that shows comics pages coming to life from initial sketches to finished piece, with various stages in between. The images are all in Flash, and we see them blend seamlessly into each other, which makes for an interesting effect. The blog is in Spanish, but you certainly don’t need to be able to read any of the words to appreciate the work here.
Shown here, the work of Enrique Fernández.
In this 10-minute interview with cartoonist Doug TenNapel talks comics, storytelling, argues ink-vs-digital, and teaches you how to wash your brushes.
(via Kazu Kibuishi on Twitter)
I have certainly used InDesign to package finished comics projects, but since it’s primarily a page layout tool, I have never seen it used for any sort of drawing. In this video Gareth Hinds shows how he uses InDesign’s vector pencil tool to do the rough sketching and layouts for his comic book adaptation of The Odyssey.
This is the first in a series of videos for which he plans to share the other steps in his comic-making process.
Paper folder Won Park makes seemingly impossible works of origami out of American dollar bills. Check out the koi; not only is it shaped perfectly, but Park managed to even give it eyes and scales.
What’s more, he offers up downloadable instructions (PDF) and a series of instructional videos on how to fold your own dollar koi.
I got a real kick of out of this series of illustrations on Christoph Niemann’s site that describe how his illustrator’s mind works.
If you use watercolours or gouache, and Matt over at the Comic Tools blog offers up a handy tip. He shows how using a sponge, some watercolour paper, and a plastic container, you can build a cheap do-it-yourself stay-wet palette.
Focal Press have given us permission to reprint a few lessons from their great new book, Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes, Volume 2: The Walt Stanchfield Lectures. Check out the first lesson on Perspective Drawing here. Here’s the second lesson on figure drawing in perspective… Enjoy!
Walt Stanchfield:
Isn’t this a beauty! Of course, you’d have to go out of your way to draw something so third dimensionally screwed up. Even a non-artist could come closer to reality than that, because a box is a relatively simple form.
A box takes place in space, and as we draw it, it’s easy to think of it as occupying space, especially with the help of some elementary perspective.
The human (or animal) shape exists also in space and, though much more complicated, the idea of it displacing space is the same. However, quite often when drawing from a model we switch into a different mode than when drawing a box. With a box, it’s easy to see the space inside and around the shape, but with the more complicated human figure that aspect is not so obvious.
Let’s try to establish a clear concept of seeing the figure in space by using what might be called the “shock treatment.” Here is a screen with a 2-dimensional shadow of a figure cast on it.
Now the screen is suddenly pulled away and there before us, without 3D glasses, is the same figure in glorious 3D. (Drawing by 3D advocate, Mike Swofford; modeled by third dimensional Allison Mosa.)
Look from drawing to drawing and you can see it happen. That gratifying and fascinating realization of 3D that overwhelms you — which should be your normal realization at all times while drawing.
Superimposing the box onto the figure illustrates how they both relate to space in a similar way.
Also of interest:
Download the rest of this tutorial (PDF)
20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes, Volume 2: The Walt Stanchfield Lectures (Amazon)
Perspective Drawing Lesson by Walt Stanchfield
Focal Press have given us permission to reprint a few lessons from their great new book, Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes, Volume 1: The Walt Stanchfield Lectures. So here’s the first one on Perspective Drawing. More to come…
(Download the full PDF for the Perspective Drawing chapter here.)
Walt Stanchfield:
You may recall me mentioning a tendency to straighten everything up in a drawing. You know, the crooked-picture-on-the-wall phobia. This tendency goes beyond straightening things up horizontally and vertically, but also depth-wise. That would be like taking the lines in Plate 1a and straightening them up like Plate 1b, which you can see, destroys all illusion of depth.
I am relentless in my crusade against this kind of seeing and drawing. You all have at least some knowledge of perspective, but sometimes the mind wanders and you fail to make use of what you do know. To further complicate matters — beyond just knowing the rules, you have to carefully observe (and feel) the pose so that you can put the two together. So much depends on perspective — not just what is called linear perspective (see Plate 3), which is a system for linear depiction of three dimensions, but also what I will call Spatial Perspective.
In drawing human or animal figures, which are loaded with complicated planes, there would be so many vanishing points you would need a computer to keep track of them. But take heart, there is a simpler method, thanks to Bruce McIntyre, former Disney Studios artist and subsequent drawing instructor. This method involves a few very simple rules which, once understood, are easy to apply, effective, and fun to use.
Here in Plate 2 are the six principles of perspective.
Take the hands first. They illustrate the second rule (see Plate 2), Diminishing Size . The hand farthest away being the smallest. Next, the left hand overlapping the forearm, the forearm overlapping the
upper arm, the shoulder overlapping the chest area, the front of the neck overlapping the far shoulder — all illustrate the fourth rule, Overlap . The way the forearm delineates the contour of the arm as it overlaps the upper arm, and the left shoulder follows the contour as it overlaps at the trapezius muscle, illustrates the fifth rule, Surface Lines. Plate 4b further explains the Surface Lines rule.
The last rule, Foreshortening, is present everywhere in every third dimensional drawing. It should be felt rather than diagrammed, although at times, a few perspective lines may help. Here Donald demonstrates how that particular perspective rule has been pushed to great extremes. This is called forced perspective and is universally accepted as normal.
Related:
Amazon: Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes, Volume 1: The Walt Stanchfield Lectures.
Download the full PDF for the Perspective Drawing chapter here.
One of my new favourite crafty blogs that I’m excited to read every time a new post appears in my RSS reader is Geninne’s Art Blog.
She posts watercolour paintings:
Journal pages:
And hand-carved stamps like this one:
Don’t miss her Hand-carved stamp tutorial. I can’t wait to make some of my own stamps like this.
Check out this collection of scans of Basil Wolverton’s The Culture Corner, a series of silly how-to comics originally published in Whiz Comics during the late 40s and early 50s. The site is offering up the scans individually, as a PDF, and as .CBZ files.
The inimitable Michael Cho has posted a 3-page handout he had prepared for teaching a beginner’s class on comic book inking — specifically using blacks to create shadow, form, and mood. Awesome!
Michael’s also one of the most engaging illustrators on Twitter.
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