Tag Archives: drawing

Book Log – Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga, and Graphic Novels

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Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga, and Graphic Novels by Scott McCloud

terracinque originally introduced me to Scott McCloud through a loan of Understanding Comics, which is a very well regarded work delving into the theoretical side of sequential art.

Making is more or less the same book, but from a creator’s point of view. This book about comics (like his other two, Understanding and Reinventing Comics) is itself a comic (aside from the interstitial note sections between chapters), drawn by the creator of Zot!, which I have yet to read.

The book does a very good job of putting into plain english (and plain images) things you need to consider when embarking on doing a comic. Right now, I’m focused on improving my drawing skill in general, but it’s nice to start taking a break from that and consider the broader picture. In a sense, it takes a little of the pressure off technical mastery.

Scott McCloud himself is very self-deprecating of his technical drawing ability, which is encouraging, as he does very good work in the final review. Meaning, he has to work very hard at getting stuff to look right.

All in all, I’m glad to add this book to my drawing library, as both instructional and inspirational.

It’s a Poor Artist Who Blames His Tools

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In an ongoing effort to get back into drawing to fill the void left by a lack of improv, I’ve been looking at good drawing software to use my Wacom Graphire3 with. GiMP is kind of touchy and not great for freehand drawing (IMHO).

I cam across ArtRage, which is a neat little free ($25 for full version) package that’s really well thought out for tablet users, and has neat effects simulating various drawing and painting mediums.

This was done using the colored pencil on a canvas texture background. I like how realistic it looks compared to actual canvas and pencil drawings.

The paint effects are cool, too. If you paint red and then blue on top of it, the colors mix as if the underlying paint is still wet. It’s awesome. The brushes change shape depending on how you move them, as if they were real bristles.

Fun, fun, fun.