i plan on writing a comic, do you know any tips that could help me with that?
(As an art focused blog I’m going to take it that when you say ‘write’ you mean doing the entire thing and not just writing the plot and dialog.)
Well, I don’t draw comics that much these days, but I’ll give you what advice I can. I’ll also point out some helpful tutorials those who do draw comics have done.
You’ll probably have an idea of where you want to go with your comic- but plotting out your story and characters should come first. Have a sheet handy for each character that includes a simple turn around (front, back, and side view) so that you can reference it and keep the character consistent looking. (Especially if the character has a more complex costume.) On this sheet also include a few character basics that you may need to remember like height, talents, or even favorite food. Basically stuff that you might otherwise forget when you’re in the middle of a story.
http://fuckyeahcharacterdevelopment.tumblr.com/post/130822316533/the-character-turnaround
2. Thumbnails and Composition
Even in regular art sketching out a small fast composition/layout of your image before you start building on it is good practice. For comics I should think its even more important. Consider that your panels’ shapes can evoke mood just as much as the content you put inside them and play around with the layout and composition of your comic page.
http://ucresearch.tumblr.com/post/52827769865/the-visual-linguistics-of-a-comic-book-page
http://giancarlovolpe.tumblr.com/post/31936449650/i-did-some-compositional-how-tos-in-my-early
http://giancarlovolpe.tumblr.com/post/32159024946/heres-some-guides-i-did-to-point-out-the
I hands down am no good at backgrounds so I’m going to just direct you to some other people. (Sorry!)
http://arttutorialparadise.tumblr.com/post/128788977877/as-warm-as-choco-a-master-post-of-thomas
http://yakovlev-vad.tumblr.com/post/105009670983/other-guide-%D0%BD%D0%B0-%D1%80%D1%83%D1%81%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BC-also-you-can-look-through
http://eyecaging.tumblr.com/post/132954811495/the-class-im-currently-taking-and-will-probably
4. Creating Mood Through Art
Don’t tell. Show. Perspective, color, and lighting can also evoke emotion to help move the story along. Use these to tell your story more effectively in areas without text. Is your character sad and vulnerable in this frame? Consider a slightly downward looking angle over the character and color the frame with shadows of blue tint. Keep the lighting sparse and broken up or even just from a single light source that barely reaches over the character. The angle makes them small and vulnerable, the blue tint makes their sad feelings more apparent, and the small bit of light highlights the fact that they’re in shadow (sad) instead of in the light (happy).
http://z-raid.tumblr.com/post/73920323805/fucktonofanatomyreferences-a-glorious-fuck-ton
http://tycarterart.tumblr.com/post/59196632709/ty-carter-art-thoughts-on-color-part-1-2
Perspective helps with this as well, but really push your characters to create a feeling of movement and dynamism. Do this by drawing a line of action before you sketch out your character. An example of someone really good at this would be Nargyle: http://nargyle.tumblr.com/post/130911292126/collection-of-bunny-girl-ennas-this-week-follow
And here are some other great resources for action lines:
http://grizandnorm.tumblr.com/post/82493964139/tuesday-tips-super-week-push-it-clarity-is
http://arttutorialparadise.tumblr.com/post/84925511977/ashasaurus-rappinpicard-always-some-good
http://dammek.tumblr.com/post/111813031572/gonna-use-buddy-boy-here-for-another-thing-i-got
Anyway, that’s all the advice I have, so here’s some from a few other people and feel free to look around in this blog’s archives for other resources and tuts you may need. :)
http://faitherinhicks.tumblr.com/post/115222022285/how-i-make-the-comics
http://kierongillen.tumblr.com/post/137340673792/comic-writer-masterpost
http://gigidigi.tumblr.com/post/101404096071/anonymous-said-how-do-you-manage-to-put
http://arttutorialparadise.tumblr.com/post/128801892137/the-relative-color-and-the-absolute-color
I hope this helped and good luck with your comic!
PS: Don’t forget to take care of your wrists as well!http://arttutorialparadise.tumblr.com/post/137176735622/flatbear-foervraengd-every-artist-who-sees