Comments on: Creating Comics #2: Cut Out The Middle Man

By: Ferres

Ferres — Sat, 17 May 2008 18:45:27 +0000

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.

By: auggie

auggie — Sat, 17 May 2008 01:48:44 +0000

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.

By: Rod Samonte

Rod Samonte — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:43:59 +0000

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

By: Gio Paredes

Gio Paredes — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:31:14 +0000

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. :-))

By: auggie

auggie — Thu, 15 May 2008 05:12:42 +0000

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…..

By: jim

jim — Wed, 14 May 2008 23:33:05 +0000

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

By: Rod Samonte

Rod Samonte — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:44:48 +0000

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

By: Ed

Ed — Wed, 14 May 2008 06:09:15 +0000

@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

By: Gerry Alanguilan

Gerry Alanguilan — Wed, 14 May 2008 06:01:36 +0000

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.

By: Jose Mari Lee

Jose Mari Lee — Wed, 14 May 2008 04:51:56 +0000

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.