May

14

Creating Comics #2: Cut Out The Middle Man

Filed Under Creating Comics | 

During my talk at the Lopez Museum, I was asked how one can develop an original style of drawing. It can be done, but it won’t happen overnight.

A lot of artists are very influenced by the comics they are reading. I myself was very influenced by Herge when I was very young, and much later, by Barry Windsor Smith and David Mazzucchelli. So when we draw, we are interpreting the world through these artists’ eyes, and not ours. We are drawing people and things based on drawings by other people. They’re filters, that keep us from seeing the world and interpreting the world with our own eyes. We’re dealing with second hand information, given to us by a middle man, as it were.

The importance then, of Drawing from Life, once again comes into play. To develop artwork that’s uniquely yours, the interpretation of the world through first hand information becomes essential. To see the world as it really is, to see how people really are, how the environment really is, observed with a critical eye, and use that to create your drawings frees your mind and your hand from outside artistic influences, thereby allowing you, consciously and/or subconsciously, to find your own unique way of drawing. If this is done often enough, you have a good change of succeeding.

For example. If I were given a task to draw Harrison Ford, I have a better chance of being able to develop something original if I were to copy his face from a photograph rather than a poster of Indiana Jones by Drew Struzan.

If I need to draw a tree, I’m better off sitting outside and copying from an actual tree rather than one that has been drawn by Charles Vess, no matter how magnificently he may draw them.

If I need to draw an angry face, it’s better to copy a photograph, or better yet your own face in a mirror, rather than copy a drawing of an angry face by Jim Lee or Masashi Kishimoto.

Take out the middle man. Set aside your comics for the moment and look and interpret the world through your own eyes. Practice this. And then practice some more. After you’re done practicing, practice some more.

Creating Comics FAQ
Creating Comics#1: One Step at a Time, Drawing from Life

Comments

18 Responses to “Creating Comics #2: Cut Out The Middle Man”

  1. Ed on May 14th, 2008 8:33 am

    I remember Mico Suayan, when we were in Comics Odyssey for FCBD, he took a picture of his hand to copy coz he had difficulty of the exact position of the fingers. It came out better than the picture he took.

    When I was working with Leinil at Whilce’s studio, he borrowed my shoe for reference.

    See? Even pros need reference. :D

  2. auggie on May 14th, 2008 9:23 am

    Whether we like it or not, unconsciously, ma pi-pick up natin ang style ng mga idols natin. Nothing wrong in that, but the sooner we develop or own the better. Artists that idolized Redondo for example includes: Nestor Leonidez, Rudy Nebres, Tony Caravana, Vicatan, Rudy Florese etc… They developed their own styles over time. But the opposite happened with Federico Javinal. Before he became a Coching clone, I remember his HOKUS POKUS was interesting ang very engaging. But thru the years being a Coching clone , I found his illustrations to be predictable and extremely boring na. Drawing from life is the first step of emancipation.

  3. gilbert monsanto on May 14th, 2008 10:38 am

    I would agree on some part but not all of it. As we(meaning you and me) Gerry, we looked at comics for inspiration. Emulate masters and try to be like them. The magic of storytelling is one the most important part of reading comic books. The only way to know how to make comics is by studying comics. If you tell me that you can learn comics without studying comic itself is kinda off for me. If you want to paint or do portraits or something something. You’ll do that without comics. But people starting from nothing and doing comics? c’mon man. If you did this, I can believe you, but you did not do this through experience, in fact just like me, you did the opposite to learn comics. Now are you saying you made a mistake? Without that mistake in the first place you would not be the Gerry Alanguilan you are now.

  4. Gerry Alanguilan on May 14th, 2008 10:58 am

    Auggie, Gilbert, please take what I said in this post within the context of how to find originality in your art. This does not discount learning from comics, and being influenced by other artists, which happens to everybody including me.

    Think of it as an answer to this question: “How can I try to develop my own style of drawing?”

    I’m not even talking about comics art yet. Before any artist aspires to be a comic artist, he needs to be a good artist first. Looking at comics is definitely one way to learn how to do comics, but that’s a topic for another day. That’s college stuff. We’re still in Kindergarten. Today we’re at the very beginning. Be a good artist first. Worry about learning about being a good comics artist later.

    Having influences is allright. Like I said, I too have them. Inspirations help us grow as artists. Unfortunately, it becomes a trap for many other artists. At the Lopez lecture, one person expressed difficulty in breaking free from his manga inspired art, and was desperate to be able to create something original.

    In a way, this post was made in response to him. One way to accomplish this is to set aside those comics first, because if he keeps looking at them, that’s all he will ever learn to draw. He needs to look at something else, and there’s nothing better than real life, real people, real environments.

    This goes back to the first part of this Creating Comics series, that of leaving styles behind and going back to the beginning. Because if you put styles first before even learning how to draw properly, it would be disastrous for any artist struggling to learn to do comics.

  5. gilbert monsanto on May 14th, 2008 11:23 am

    Okay, I guess you just have tell the readers WHEN he/she should do the diregarding( and not totally) of comics hehe.

  6. Ed on May 14th, 2008 11:57 am

    I also had an experience of getting off the manga style. I was once got really stuck with manga/anime styles. I got worried when I realized I’m losing the style I want to have. I’d like my work to be as close to realism.

    I think watching movies is another way to learn to draw. Our mind is like a camera, we can take pictures in our minds. This is also a good excercise for the mind and hands.

  7. gilbert monsanto on May 14th, 2008 12:38 pm

    Ed,

    I hope this will not be an anti-manga topic again hehe. After you said “I got worried when I realized I’m losing the style I want to have.”

    hehehe.

  8. Jose Mari Lee on May 14th, 2008 12:46 pm

    Well, here’s a very good kicker that all of you might flip.

    In the 70s, there was this komiks artist, and I’m not going to name the SAINT, just his MIRACLE.

    He had an artograph at home. Then, tracing Redondo’s published drawings, he published them as his own.

    Shocking, but true.

    I know there were very good artist in RP komiks, but we also had many copycats and/or RENDERERS. But, this guy was indeed the extreme case of KODIGO.

  9. Jose Mari Lee on May 14th, 2008 12:51 pm

    Ed:

    Redondo admitted that he watched lots of movies to observe actors and the way they’re framed. It is not unusual therefore, why Redondo’s framing of his characters is quite “reminiscent” the way German Hollywood filmmaker Douglas Sirk framed his characters. In fact, Sirk’s influence is very obvious to the world of cinema, including Tagalog movies and tagalog komiks. If you watched Gerry de Leon, Lino Brocka and most pinoy filmmakers’ works, Sirk is everywhere in there. Widely utilized in our old komiks industry.

  10. Gerry Alanguilan on May 14th, 2008 2:01 pm

    JM, I’m not surprised. Having seen hundreds of old komiks, I have seen a lot of copying, sometimes frame for frame. Redondo seems to be the favorite, then Coching next. I haven’t seen anyone attempt to copy Alcala, which would have been difficult because of all the lines.

    Abe Ocampo did say that it was how he learned how to draw comics, trying to do Elpidio Torres.

  11. Ed on May 14th, 2008 2:09 pm

    @Gilbert-
    No, I’m not against it. In fact I still doodle with manga style. I’m just sharing my experience…I also had hard time getting off Jim Lee style and Scott Williams’ inking techniques.

    I’m still in the process of getting off there, so it’ll take some time to get my own style of rendering. :)

    @JML-
    I’m not very familiar with old films and how they made their films. But you know, our mind is very powerful, esp. when a frame of a film is clearly in your mind, you can actually rotate your imaginary camera to creat your own angle to create your own scene. :D

  12. Rod Samonte on May 15th, 2008 2:44 am

    Gerry,
    Interesting conversation with Abe Ocampo. He mentioned a word that I think zeroes in on how to really draw comics, when he said: “Hindi ko nalalaman yung BULTO.” What in the world is BULTO? I think what he means is the figure - the very essence, the life-blood, of drawing comics. If we are still in kindergarten, then this is where everybody should start. Learn to draw the human figure. and well. Unlike fine artists and painters who can resort to models to get poses and drapery correct (Da Vinci to Norman Rockwell all used models to paint), the comic artist can do that too, but most of the time he has to resort to inventing poses, expressions, actions, etc., of the figure, and in order to do that one has to have a full knowledge of the human anatomy. We all know great comics artists from Adams to Coching, to Kubert to Windsor-Smith, are all excellent figure illustrators. Start there (figure drawing), and you can’t ever go wrong in your art career, whether you want to be a comic book artist, cartoonist, illustrator or portrait painter. Style will eventually come, as drawing is like handwriting: each person is different from the next.
    Rod

  13. jim on May 15th, 2008 7:33 am

    as much as i try to copy the drawing style of a particular artist i idolized, i just can’t. my hand refused to obey what my mind wants when it comes to copying styles. i ended up using what little anatomical or other mental references i have.

    as a porn comics illustrator, i was provided lots of photos/videos in different poses so i guess i can say i always drew from life. but other tricks i try to learn from other mainstream comics artists like composition, backgrounds, shadowing, hatching. i felt like a kid copying the smart student’s testpaper during exams, but i figured on my own, i’d probably have learned it myself, but they’ve already provided the solutions to problems that may pop up later in my work.

    the only style i remember i could finally mimic is that of bruce timm’s, but it’s not as easy as it looks. :D

  14. auggie on May 15th, 2008 1:12 pm

    Rod,

    Mataas ang grade ko noon sa Life Sketching. Yun bang ten seconds lang patatayuin yung model, at kailangan mabilis kang mag sketch, at makuha mo agad ang impression ng model.
    Pero sa LIFE DRAWING, mababa. Masyado daw matigas ang drowing ko ng babae, at mukhang lalaki daw. Nakikita na daw na balingkinitan ang model, eh bakit daw Macho ang dating. pero hirap talaga ako sa female figure…..

  15. Gio Paredes on May 15th, 2008 4:31 pm

    Jim:
    “as a porn comics illustrator, I was provided lots of photos/videos in different poses so i guess i can say i always drew from life.”

    Ah Jim, can you lend me some of those for my reference?

    (Joke lang ha. :-))

  16. Rod Samonte on May 16th, 2008 11:43 pm

    Auggie,
    Hahaha. Mahirap talaga ang magdrowing ng babae. Hirap din ako. But even established comic illustrators can’t draw women very well. Maging the great Alfredo Alcala, mga babae niya matitigas ang dating at parang lalaki ang katawan. Among Pinoy illustrators of the Golden Age I think only Zuniga and Teny Henson could draw women well. Actually ito ang bentahe ng mga Mangga artists. I notice most Mangga-influenced illustrators can draw women well (especially women artists). Now, if they can get rid of the Mangga influence if they want to develop their own style, they already have an advantage in that they can draw women.
    Rod

  17. auggie on May 17th, 2008 9:48 am

    Rod,

    I would say the late VIR AGUIRRE, ELPIDIO TORRES, CELSO TRINIDAD, JESS JODLOMAN, are good in drawing women. They even border in the erotic level na kung minsan, specially yung ki Aguirre.

  18. Ferres on May 18th, 2008 2:45 am

    Like everything else in this craft, you have to keep working at it if you want to be any good at it.

    If you want to be good at drawing women then keep drawing women all the time.

    There are plenty of reference you can download these days. It’s either you want to draw women or you just plain don’t.

    Laziness is no excuse.

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