comics 101 - dibujo de figura

8/10/2019 Comics 101 - Dibujo de Figura

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As you begin your sketch, concentrateon capturing the attitude and intention ofthe personality you are drawingneverdraw a body, draw what he or she isdoing. Although it can be difficult, dontallow yourself to think about the complexforms of surface anatomy and otherdetails at this stagekeep your mind on

using your line-skeleton to express asmuch about the personality and action ofyour figure as possible before you moveto the next stage. Most of the problemsof pose, proportion, and creating aclear silhouette of your figure aremuch easier to solve in this initialphase than it is after the image hasbecome a heavy mass of detail andrendering.

Study the set of sample wire framegestural sketches shown here and notice

how easy it is to complete the figures inyour imaginationall the basic informa-tion is clear and easy to grasp at firstglance. A few tips to keep in mind areobvious in these drawings, too:

The male is moreangular, the femaleaccents curves.

In active poses(running, leaping,crouching) the limbs

alternate directionifthe right arm is forwardthe right leg is back andvice versathis is a naturalphysical law of balance andmakes the action of yourfigures convincing. This principlealso adds grace and movement toany pose.

These wire frame tools automaticallyforce you to think about all sides of the

figureincluding the parts that wontshow in your final image. This helpsenormously in establishing the figuresthree-dimensional solidity in space andalso makes it easier to ensure the correctproportion of body parts that will eventu-ally be partially obscured by other formsin the finished drawing.

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The next stage isbuilding the formsof anatomy and solidflesh over yourwire framegestureasimplifiedmannequin

of bodyforms isshownhere. Themostimportantelement torememberis to drawtransparentlycomplete yourforms by draw-

ing through tothe opposite side,as if your figurewas made ofmalleable glass orplasticene. Theother key is toestablish thecenterline ofeach separateform, either

by actuallyindicating it inthe drawingor holding anawareness ofit in yourmind. Youcan seecenter linesindicated onthe forms of

the explodedmannequinthese refer-ence marksclarify thedepth andbreadth of spacethat the figureoccupies, sharpening this awareness of physical solidity inyour mind as you draw. This awareness is suggested by thearrowsyour forms are always moving through space inthree directionsup and down, left to right, front

to back.Notice in these drawings that every important

aspect of structure, gesture and attitude has beennailed down using the simple mannequinformsnow it is comparatively easy to render theseforms with surface detail. You will encounter nostructural confusion as you embellishevery part of eachfigure is clearly placed, in correct physical balance andproper proportion.

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It is a simple matter to adapt the wire frame and mannequindesigns to fit any character proportion; massive or thin and anyvariation between the two.

The two rendered figures have been fleshed out with anatomy,light and shade, texture and other finishing detailseach too largea subjectto cover inthis short

space. Butin essencethey are

justdressedwire frame-and-man-nequinstructuresallthe importantelements ofthese figures were

established by theunderstructure wevediscussed here. Thepolishing of an image isimportant, but in terms ofprocess that phase is theveneer, and the easiest partof drawing images.Learn to concentrate onbuilding a thoroughfoundation and your

final artwork willalways be stronger.

Bret Blevins is a regular contributor to TwoMorrows Draw! magazine, and an art instructor atYavapai College. He is an accomplished comic book artist, animation storyboard artist, and painter,having done work for Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse on Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, X-Men,Hulk, and Star Wars, plus storyboards for Warner Brothers' Superman, Batman, BatmanBeyond, Static Shock, and Justice League cartoons, as well as Tarzan and Atlantis for Disney.


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Isee them all the time: fresh-eyed artists. They mayapproach me at a con, or as a student in one of my

classes, and they always have a story they want todraw, often a huge Lord of the Rings multi-verse epic.Sometimes they even have a few half-drawn pageswhere theyve usually gone and drawn all the fun,cool or easy stuff, leaving the rest of the page orpages half-drawn. Their pages are covered with par-tially penciled panels, with figures floating or evenentire panels left blank. Theyve skipped ahead,avoiding that part they havent figured out yet, sothey cantshow me the storynope, they have to tellme the story. You see, this is where Vortox entersinto the space station to have his showdown withWolverines twin brother. Of coursethere is no space station to be seen.

Comics are a visual medium; wehave to see, to read visually whatsgoing on. We cant have the artiststanding there narrating to us to fillin the gaps. The worst case is thaton some pages the young artistshave even sometimes gone in andinked up something while the rest

of the page remains unfinished: A big no-no!And why is this a common factor in so many

aspiring or young storytellers work, you ask? Wellthats because in their enthusiasm theyve skipped ahuge step in the process of storytelling, and just like abaker who leaves out crucial ingredients in a cakerecipe, the result after all their labor is an inediblelumpand in the case of comics, unfinished, unread-

able stories, pages with holes that sideline the work,and eventually cause most artists to lose enthusiasmand probably abandon the story. Like the bakerleaving out a crucial ingredient, by skipping a step,

the artist didnt work the story out first;they didnt break down the story first

into a series of panels, or what wecall a layoutand only once thatwas done with the details of exactlywhat is happening, proceed to thenext step, drawing the final pages.

The formula for a successful

comic story, no matter the subjector style, is basic and simple; but as they say, Simpleis hard. Young artists always want to skip steps,

jump ahead to the fun part, the exciting part, but astory isnt exciting unless you build up to the excite-ment. Another thing that often vexes the young artistis leaving enough space for word balloons and cap-tions, so often the art gets cramped, and figures andbackground details have to fight for space.

THE RECIPE

So here is my simple recipe that should help youmake better comic pages, and better stories. Ive usedit to help people whove never drawn a comic be ableto tell a story. This is also something all comic writersshould do so they also have a good idea of how theirstory is paced and how much room their script takesup visually; the real estate they have to play with on acomic page.

Before you leap in and run along like crazy, startsimple. Try and boil your story down into no morethan a few sentences; if you can do thatfocus on a

clear beginning,middle andendyou willhave a good,solid story. Veryoften writers willfigure out theend first andthen work theirway back to thebeginning.

Next, buysome cheap copy paper from the local Staples, OfficeMax, etc. Sharpen a few pencils; get an eraser, trian-gle and a black Sharpie or similar marker.

Then draw a six-panel grid layout like the exampleshown; you can do this for each page or do it onceand make copies of it. The purpose here is to breakdown what happens in your story from the beginningto the end. Later you can change the size of thepanels, but for now just draw everything in a grid.

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HOW TO BAKEA COMIC

BOOK PAGEIN THREE

EASY STEPSby Mike Manley, editor of Draw! magazine


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STEP 1: Work out your story using the simplestdrawings you can do. They can even be stick figuresfor this part; the point here is not to do great drawingsor fall in love with rendering tricks; we just want todraw out our story, and see what happens.

As you draw out your story, draw the balloons withall the dialogue, sound effects and narration as well. If

you have writing, you need to see how much spacethe dialogue and narration take up along with thedrawingswhat I call the visual real estate.

The idea here is to work out the story in as clearand simple a way as possible and to give you a clearidea of what is happening and how the story flows. Ifsomething isnt working well, no problem; grab anoth-er sheet and redraw it. By doing these simple drawingsyou are not committing hours of labor, only to scrap it,or doing a great drawing that just doesnt work.

Once you have your entire story worked out inyour stickman style, you are ready to go to the nextphase: To do an actual layout.

STEP 2: Some artists will work directly on the finalboard from this stage, but I suggest for you beginnersto do a layout at printed comic size of what your finalpage will look like. Here you can adjust panel sizes andshapes very easily because now you know exactlywhat story you are telling and what you have to draw.You may at this point also need to gather reference forplaces and things like cars, trucks, buildings, etc. Asyou can see, I played around with camera angles from

what I had on my initial stick-figure layout, whichmade the final page more dramatic, but I did this afterthe specific actions (story beats) in the story wherebroken out into panels.

STEP 3: Once the layout is done, you can go on todo the final pencils, and then once they are done, finalinks.

At right is the finished penciled page. Since I fol-lowed the recipe, not skipping steps, when it came todraw the final page, all I had to do was concentrate ondoing the best, most exciting drawing I can do.

DONT SKIP STEPS!

Complete each stage. I know it will be tough; youllbe tempted to jump in a draw the fun stuff firstbut ifyou follow the recipe Ive given you here, I guaranteeyou will end up with your entire story finished and toldinstead of half-drawn pages filled with missteps andwasted effort.

Now go draw some comics!

Mike Manley is editor of TwoMorrows Draw! magazine,

and an art instructor at Delaware College of Art and Design.He has drawn for major publishers like Marvel, DC and DarkHorse, including titles such as Batman, Captain America,and The Power of Shazam!. He's beenan animation storyboard and backgrounddesigner on Kids WB shows The NewBatman/Superman Adventures andBatman Beyond, Spy Groove for MTV,Spawn for HBO, and ABCs OneSaturday Morning and Clerks: TheAnimated Series. Manley currentlyworks for Disney as a storyboard artist.

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Many beginners struggle with the same problems,

and I think its often very helpful for them tosee a critique of someone elses work. Keith Grachowsent me this very nice Fantastic Foursample page andbravely consented to having it critiqued here.

Keith, I really like your sample very much in someareas, but not so much in others. Ill begin with whatI like: Its rare that I see a sample page with so manybackgrounds, and thats vital to creating a professionallevel page. Backgrounds require a knowledge ofperspective and set design that most beginners lack,and dont spend nearly enough effort on. Your panellayout is easy to follow, and your storytelling isclear, even without a script. These are not minoraccomplishments. I also really like the personality

youre giving your actors. Yes, I said actors. Thecharacters in a comic book need to be good actors totell an interesting story, and its up to the penciler tokeep them from being too wooden. I also like theway youre moving the camera, and varying thedistance with close-ups and long shots. I like thatyouve attempted some dramatic lighting, with thecast shadow in panel 2.

Now for what I dont like so much: Comics arefirst and foremost about people. You simply muststudy anatomy more and improve your figure

drawing. You show a nice, natural feel for figures, butyou still dont really know the basic muscle groupsand how the figure moves. In panel 2, Franklins poseis awkward. It often helps to get into the poseyourself and see what feels natural. Youve alsodrawn his legs too long for his body. Its also always agood idea to consider the silhouette shape of yourfigures. Your Torch in panel 1 has an awkward shapewith his arm parallel to and equal in size to his leg.Contrast it with my Torch figures silhouette. TheTorchs hands in panel 4 are too exaggerated. The

distance between them is not sufficient for them tovary in size so much. There are times when youllwant to exaggerate the foreshortening like this tomake a more dynamic pose, but dont do it on smallfigures like this.

When drawing established characters like the FF,you need to be able to draw them similar to the waywere used to seeing them. That face on the Torch inpanel 1 is just not Johnny Storm. Thats not his nose.Franklin is OK, but inconsistent from panel to panel.A better understanding of the skull and facial featureswill enable you to keep your faces looking more con-sistently like the same person. I know from experiencethat the Thing is a bit of a pain to draw, but you dohave to take the time to draw all those bricks, and

theres a certain interlocking way of drawing them, ifyou want to do them properly. And the Thingsanatomy is not based on a normal humans, as youreattempting. Hes much more rounded in every bodypart, and has no neck. He only has three fingers, withmuch bigger feet and hands.

When you draw a figure throwing a punch, youwant to have him put his whole body into the punch,so have him leaning forward much more. The figurebeing punched needs to be knocked for a loop, not

just knocked slightly off-balance, as yours is. Think

of Charlie Brown upside-down with his socks knockedoff by a batter hitting the ball at him. This is whereyou need to study Jack Kirby, or John Buscema.Theyve done your homework for you, and all youneed to do is imitate what they do. Alwaysexaggerate action!

Beyond being able to draw, what makes a pagelook professional is thinking more about where youplace the various elements in a panel. Unless thebackground is the dominant element in a panel,which doesnt apply in any of these, begin by placing

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ARTCRITIQUE

by Bob McLeod, editor of

Rough Stuffmagazine

Hulk,

ThingTM

&2007MarvelCharacters,

Inc.


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the figures. You want tofocus on them in a moredeliberate way.

In panel 1, the Thingfigures are shoved up nearthe panel border, whileempty space is left belowthe Torch. The Thing

figures need to be moveddown away from theborder.

In panel 2, you need-lessly crop off Franklinshead. Heads and hands areusually what we want tosee. If you must cropsomething, crop off hisknee. But why not get thewhole figure in, as Ivedone?

In panel 4, you barelyget Franklins head into thepanel. I like using him as aframing device to focus onthe Torch, but he needs tobe more in the panel.

In panel 5, your figuresare on the left and yourbackgrounds are on theright, dividing the panel intwo. Torch almost appears

to be bumping into abuilding. You need tocenter the figures in thepanel, then design thebackgrounds around them.

Panel 6 is too heavilyweighted on the left withlarge forms. Reed can bemoved over a bit, andTorch can come in from adifferent angle to better

balance the panel. InvisibleGirl looks squeezed upagainst the panel border.Rather than carefully arranging your figures, youvepainted yourself into a corner. When placing figures,and main background elements, into a panel, try togroup them, rather than thinking of them as separateforms. In the same way that you want your individualfigures to have an interesting silhouette, you alsowant to group your forms into a pleasing shape. Lookhow the figures in my panel 6 form a united arc.

Another important thing to consider is leading the

readers eye. In panel 1, your Torch is taking us rightoff the page. Better to turn him around and lead us tothe next panel. Similarly, in panel 5, Id rather see himflying toward us and the last panel, instead of towardthe right panel border and off the page.

Panel 3 looks unfinished. What is that on theright and the upper right? Otherwise, this panel isgood, but keep in mind speech balloons need to gosomewhere.

Finally, its always better to design your elements

using diagonals, rather than horizontals and verticals.The gun in panel 4 should be angled rather thanparallel to the panel border.

Keep studying and youll get there. Thanks toKeith for sharing his page with us. Readers who wantto submit a page for a critique in future issues ofRough Stuffshould e-mail a 300dpi scan to me [email protected] or mail a photocopy to:

Rough Stuff CritiqueP.O. Box 63Emmaus, PA 18049

Bob McLeod is the editor ofTwoMorrows Rough Stuffmagazineand is the author of the bookSuperhero ABC. Hes best known forco-creating the New Mutants forMarvel Comics with writer ChrisClaremont, and is one of the top inkersin the comics industry.

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comics 101 - dibujo de figura

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