How To Draw Comics

How to Draw Comics: A Step By Step Guide

Before you can draw a comic, there are a few things that you should know and keep in mind. This step by step guide will teach you these important aspects of drawing as well as give you the basic rundown on how to draw a comic.

Materials:

First, we need to have the right equipment to be able to do the job, so here is a list of the materials that we need:

* Pencil: Hard or soft lead, it is your choice.

* Pen: A simple drawing pen, a thin point is your best bet.

* Brush: For inking, you should get a sable hair #3.

* Erasers: You should get two, one art gum and one smooth kneaded eraser.

* India Ink: India ink is India ink, any brand is fine.

* White Opaquing Paint: Just in case you make a mistake when inking.

* A Glass Jar: This is for cleaning your brushes in the water that it holds.

* Drawing Board: Any flat surface that you can rest your paper on.

* Pins: These will keep your paper from slipping off your drawing board.

* Illustration Paper: Get this if you want to be professional.

* Set Square: This will help you draw right angles and keep things in perspective.

* T Square: You need this for drawing boarders and keeping lines parallel.

* Ruler: How else are you going to draw a perfectly straight line?

* Pencil Compass: Circles?

* Ink Compass: You can gather that it is the same as a pencil compass except with ink, can't you?

* Rag: You use this to wipe your pen tips, brushes, and whatever else you want.

Okay, now we are ready to start!

Form:

Form is a very important in any kind of drawing. It makes things look real! Any Joe Blow could draw a circle or a square, but can he give it proper form? Many artists concentrate too much on height and width while missing the ever so important depth. If something is drawn in 2-D and is meant to be solid, it wont appear to be. Just remember, everything has sides as well as a top and bottom. Later on, you will find out that most objects are comprised of three generic shapes: a sphere, a cube or a cylinder. Below are some examples of these generic shapes. Well, that is it for form!

Perspective:

As form is very important in making an object look real, so is perspective. Think of it in this way - form and perspective come hand in hand: without one, the other is nothing. Perspective is vital in making things appear to be correctly placed in the foreground, background, and all the other places. There are three principles of perspective, they are: one-point perspective, two-point perspective and, you guessed it, three-point perspective. In one-point perspective, everything converges towards a singular point. In two-point perspective, everything converges towards two points. And yes, in three-point perspective, everything converges towards three points. Below are some examples of all these principles of perspective. Although this may seem simple, it is anything but! Remember my friend, looks can be deceiving!

The Figure:

Well you've waited it out this far, and this is what you have waited for! Well, let's get cracking! Most men are six-and-a-half heads tall and women would be shorter than that, but if we were to draw a superhero this tall, they would look skimpy on the page so that is why we draw them eight-and-three-quarters heads tall (for both men and women). This is how the body is split up for both men and women (top to bottom): First is the head, then the upper body, then the gut region, then the groin region, then the upper thighs, then the knee region, then the calves, then the ankles and finally, the feet. Another thing to remember is that for both men and women, the elbows fall just a little below the waist and the end of the fingers should fall mid-thigh (if the arm is just hanging straight down). For the men, it is essential that the shoulders and made sturdy and wide, and the hips real narrow - all drawn in a very angular way. For the women, the muscles are not emphasised (unless she is weird), and the hips are much wider in relation to the shoulders (compared to the men). It is found that the women characters are drawn slightly smaller than the male all over, except for the bosom. Well that is it for getting the proportions of the figure! And remember, the superhero is always larger, with broader shoulders, with more muscular arms and legs. Also, stance is everything. Don't be afraid to exaggerate, but don't over exaggerate because it will just look stupid. A superhero must have an impressive stance if he is to look impressive, duh!

When coming to draw the figure, you should start of with a simple stick figure, figuring out the stance and proportions. Then all you need to do from here is flesh it out, adding cylinders here and spheres there. After the fleshing process, all you need to do is add the detail!

Remember that section before about perspective? It is very rare that you see a figure in a flat perspective, so just remember, the object or person will seem to get shorter as it is tilted towards the front. And also, if the picture is in any kind of perspective, one, two or three, the figure will be in the same!

Action is the name of the game! Just reiterating the point that in order for your superhero to look spectacular, his actions must be exaggerated! Below are some examples if you're a little lost about what I'm