#autumn.tutorial

[leavingautumn13]

a tutorial-adjacent thing about how i make comics

this is just a general guide on how i personally do things, and i'm gonna keep it pretty simple. let's get into it!

for this tutorial i'm gonna be drawing some trainers trying to find a particular pokémon.

i'm gonna jump ahead a little here and show my finished sketch for the full page, so we can see the end goal.

the best advice i have is to treat panels as part of the composition. make them work for you. reading a bunch of comics will help inspire you--there are so many creative things you can do with panels.

next, placing dialogue bubbles! these are a bit more complex than they seem at first glance.

once you've got all that sorted, you can move onto the fun stuff, like lining and coloring. keep in mind that you can partially cover dialogue bubbles, break panel lines, etc. do whatever gets your message across. like so:

you can also apply these guidelines to much simpler comics, too. really, flow is the most important thing, in my opinion. it's like a line of action when you're drawing poses. here's a comic i did that's basically just talking heads, but the bubbles and art still flow together to draw the reader's eye along a path. here's a jokey little scribble comic that does something similar. making a good comic is not about polish at all. it's more about readability, composition, and making your dialogue and art work together.

scott mccloud's book making comics has a lot more useful information than what i can fit on one post. it's been a hot minute since i read it (and by that i mean like. twelve years) but it's a solid resource. you can also just read comics or webcomics that you like and see how those illustrators do it. one of my personal favorites is cucumber quest. it starts off very simple, but by chapter 3 (especially near the end) the artwork, panel choices, effects, etc all work together to make every page a stunning work of art.

anyway, as always please feel free to reach out if there's any part of this that you'd like elaborated on, clarified, if you just have questions, etc. i'm not a teacher by any stretch of the imagination but i love helping people with this sort of thing, so please don't hesitate!

[this post is for @tanlotts <3]

[leavingautumn13]

HOW do you draw Nick's hat so well i'm going to lose my mind trying

how to draw nick's hat: a mini-tutorial

keep in mind i'm a self-taught artist, so this is just the method that makes most sense to me. it's easiest for me to break things down into simple shapes, turning the hat into an oval and a sorta-cylinder, which itself is basically two ovals. i can draw ovals. hats? idk.

also, don't be afraid to use references! take screenshots and trace over them. look at a photo while you draw. get a fedora and pose in the mirror. whatever helps you visualize best.

also also, i know everybody hates hearing this but it's true: practice. draw a bunch of nick-less hats. they don't have to be super detailed--for me, a bunch of quick, messy sketches help more than spending a bunch of time perfecting one clean sketch.

idk if this is completely coherent because again, i'm self taught and not a teacher, so please let me know if there's anything about this that doesn't make sense and/or that you'd like elaborated on. i'm happy to help as much as i can!