Storytelling 101

[F0NG00L]

Great thread! Though I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Will Eisner's Comics & Sequential art and Sequential Storytelling books! (Maybe that's just considered a given?)

These things are the Bible for comic artists. I'd also encourage hunting down copies of the 1970's Warren magazines SPIRIT reprints. Will pioneered many of the techniques that you see today and seeing them up big in magazine format and in black & white really makes for great study. (I think the hardcover Spirit Archives won't catch up to where Will returned from the war and started his amazing run until vol. 12...)

For more modern page layouts I'd suggest studying the work that Bissette & Totleben did in Swamp Thing back in the late 1980's. They did some amazing layouts and show better than anything else I can think of off the top of my head, how art can synchrionize with text to create "eye-flow" through a page. They also show extremely impressive use of anchor panels and all the other concepts that have been talked about in this thread.

These are just some things I've found useful to study and thought I'd mention.

Steve

[EddieChingLives]

I'm a huge Eisner fan and do own quite a few of the reprints. But I started this thread as my personal tips that I've discovered (thru books or experimenting or studying). My mental jumping jacks that help me layout a page. And I'm still not a pro and still strive to achieve the PRO quality.

These are just the tips I've been learning along the way to figure out this whole comic thing. Stuff that I wish I could go back through time and teach myself to save quite a few years.

Naming books is helpful, but for this thread I think naming examples from books would be more appropriate.

Thanks for the SwampThing example. I'll try to hunt down that stuff when I get the chance.

[EddieChingLives]

Now let's talk about INKING.

It's not simply tracing. It's TRANSLATING. Check out Bob Mcloud's website. His before and after examples shows just how much the artwork changes durring the process.

http://www.bobmcleod.com/befaft.html

He adds so many blacks to balance the page, and does the little things to improves John Buscema's pencils. Definately inspiring. Does it still look easy? Try it. And see how just tracing the original pencils just doesn't work. You gotta know how to put on the finishing touches on that page to see print.

I emailed Bob to ask for his permission to use his link, and luckily he let me know about another site, that had various inkers before and after, but I just checked rescently (5-29-2006) and the ink section is gone.

http://www.larrydempsey.com/

This site had different professional inkers, among them Penciljack's very own Robin Riggs. All the inkers describe the process they went through to inking a page. Super informative stuff.

However, be sure to check out Methane's tuturial. He covers pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about doing a full sequential page. Very informative.
http://home.comcast.net/~dashmartin/...ing/index.html

[Paul Brian DeBerry]

this stuff is really great. ever think of dedictating a web site to this?

[Paul Brian DeBerry]

my bad just noticed that you did just that...

[EddieChingLives]

The website is just a ruse so they don't think I'm just storing files on their server. And it's another way for people to find out about my "project".

I'm glad you like it. Each new positive response keeps me going at this. And it's a very cool feeling that this is actually helping some people.

If I can get around to it, my next update will hopefully be about body posture. Will I have time on my day off? Find out in a few days.

[EddieChingLives]

Hey, I got around to it. Wow.

Ok. Here's another crappy MS Paint example (good lord, I need a scanner) hopefully illustrating how BAD POSTURE and SURFACE CONTACT help your poses come to life. I think it adds that extra touch of realism and it helps keep your poses from allways looking so stiff.

Our bodies are on a constant battle, fighting the evil forces of gravity. We can't all have perfect posture all the time.

As for surface contact, riding a bus to work, I can view people waiting for the bus. Some stand with arms folded. Some lean on poles or walls. Some sit.

When I draw, my arms touch the surface of the table I draw on. When you stand, your feet obviously make surface contact with the ground.

On a side note, this also illustrates how using drop shadows (and using NOISE as tones) can help pop out artwork. And how blacking out some things help balance out a page.

[J.Glover]

I dont know who told anybody that not centering is a rule. I think this is rather silly. If anyone cares to do so check out the film the Royal Tenanbaums and watch how may times the characters are centered. I think you will be pleasantly(or not so pleasantly) surprised.

If you want to check out some major directors who use centering copnstantly try George Lucas, Darren Aronofsky and Akira Kurasowa.

Study these people people! Film making follows the same set of rules that sequential art does.

[Inkthinker]

Originally posted by EddieChingLives

On a side note, this also illustrates how using drop shadows (and using NOISE as tones) can help pop out artwork. And how blacking out some things help balance out a page.

ONe of the ways to use Noise as a tone for separating surfaces is by illustrating it (I mention this only because the tone in Eddie's examples here almost resemble computer tones or Zip-tone). Just the use of small hatch marks, stipple or hatching/crosshatching can create effective surface textures and tone that separates surfaces.

[Saturn Lad]

Originally posted by J.Glover
Film making follows the same set of rules that sequential art does.

This is true to a limited extent, but there are a number of areas in which they differ. When dealing with static, unmoving images there have come into being a number of "recommendations" to follow in composing an image. For example, the rule of thirds, where an image is broken into thirds both vertically and horizontally. The center of interest is then placed on one of the intersecting points, which often creates more visually appealing compositions.

Another is the "golden rule", which states that the most important area of an image is located near the bottom right corner of the picture, roughly one fourth of the image height up and one fourth of the image width to the left. This takes advantage of the viewers natural tendency to start from the upper left and work their way down to the lower right, where their attention will be unconsciously held for the longest time.

Neither one of these "rules" is relevent for moving pictures, but they are critical for a graphic artist to learn from. While I agree that the cartoonist can learn much from the film-making craft (I have several filmography books myself), it is as important to see the differences as it is to see the similarities.