Like most aspiring comic book artists I look to books for instruction, inspirations and resources. Almost as soon as I started reading comics I wanted to create comics too. My introduction to comic creating was Marvel Comics Try-Out Book. This book taught me so much in the process in creating comic books.  As I got older I would regularly visit my local book store and buy any new how to draw comic book they had. Every book was a treasure of knowledge and encouragement.

I decided to create a special page on this blog to help other aspiring comic artist find the knowledge and encouragement I received when I was first starting in my drawing education. These books will help set you on the right track. So take a look have fun and enjoy. – Shazam!

Research is very important when working on a comic book. If I’m going to draw a car, horse or gun then I need to know what it looks like. The same can be said about the characters in the comic too. Back in the 90’s Marvel Comics published  “The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition” I believe this was one of the greatest references created for us aspiring comic book artists.  Per page in shows a character in a 180 degree view. We see the front, side and back view. This was a great way to know what their characters would look like from different angles.

What I’ve done is created is a Character Design sheet that helps in creating a 180 degree view of your character. This way you can have a solid idea of what they look like from the front, side and back. This is a more technical way to design a character, but I believe it is an invaluable one.

If you’ve picked up any how to draw comics book, then you’ll know that they explain that comic book heroes are usually 8 1/2 heads tall. I’ve incorporated this into this Character Design sheet. The left shows the head sizes, this will help in keeping all views of the character unified.

Here is an example of how this Character Design: 180 degree view sheet can work. I’ve taken Wolverine’s 180 degree view from “The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition” and superimposed it over the Character Design sheet I created. As you can see Wolverine is 7 1/2 heads tall.  We also see the design elements that make up his costume from all angles.

Here is a free high resolution pdf file. Go ahead and download it and have fun designing your characters front, side and back views. I’ll be posting more Free Comic Book Resources every Monday.
- Shazam!

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One of the most important things when drawing a comic book is the background. You can have the most stylized or realistic characters, but if the background is weak then the whole comic can suffer. Things on your paper will just not look right. If the story takes place in a bar, a mall or even an apartment it’s a good idea to have a clear idea of what the backgrounds will look like.

I’ve created a Scene Design Page that can help define where the story is taking place. It’s a grid with a section for notes on the side. This grid is very similar to what architects and interior designers might use to make blueprints for their projects. As a comic artists we are both the directors and set designers. Using the scene design page can help you see the different angles you might want to draw.

I’ve included a sample of how I use the scene design page. On the bottom right I came up with a simple blueprint of what I wanted the scene to look like. It’s a Hall/Assembly room. On the upper left I’ve drawn the Hall/Assembly room as I would in a comic. I used 1-point perspective to get the general idea of what I want the scene to look like. Using the grid helped to keep the lines and spacing unified when designing the scene.

Here is a free high resolution pdf file. Go ahead and download it and have fun coming up with great scenes to tell your comic book stories. I’ll be posting more Free Comic Book Resources every Monday.

Download the High Resolution PDF
or click here to open in Web Browser

I’ve received several requested to show the steps I used to create my digital inking of the Fantastic Four pin up I did of artist Ariel Padilla’s pencils.  I was looking for some art to ink and found the pencils on his DeviantArt page. This was a practice exercise I gave myself in the inking process of comic book art using Adobe Illustrator. I’ve been a graphic designer for over 9 years but this was the first time I used my design knowledge for comic book inking.

Points & Paths: Example 1

For this self assignment I decided to use Adobe Illustrator for inking the pin-up. I had used photoshop for a previous piece earlier I did of Batman 2.0, a character redesign. I had fun with that illustration but this time I wanted to do this digital inking in vector format. Why choose vector verse bitmap? Well in a vector image it is made up of anchor point that are connected by paths (lines) that connect them. A vector image can be re-sized without loss of quality to the illustration. So basically you can re-size the image as small or as large as you’d like without pixelation, it will keep it’s sharpness no mater the size.  Which is really neat.

Points & Paths: Example 2

For this illustration I choose to use my anchor points to create only straight paths (lines). I didn’t use any curved lines. The cool thing about using anchor points and paths is that you can make curved paths, resulting in less points This is shown in Points & Paths: Example 2. So why didn’t I use curve paths? Well honestly it was a self exercise to see if I could do it. I wanted to create the curved lines through straight lines. I found it to be a fun challenge.

Points & Paths: Example 3

I did not create lines or outlines of the original pencils. What I did was look at each line as a shape. I could have easy used the brush tool in Illustrator, but I found I actually had more control of what I wanted to achieve by using the pen tool.

With the technique I like to use of anchor points and paths I am able to get a type of jagged smooth shape. The strength of anchor points is you can use as many or as little points as you’d like to create your lines or shapes. I’ve illustrated this in Points & Paths: Example 3.

Points & Paths: Example 4

After I created the shape from the pencils, I colored it in with black. I’ve shown this in Points & Paths: Example 4. As you can see it’s a piece of a puzzle that makes up the inking. These shapes help to create the feel I was looking for when digitally inking this drawing. This technique really works well when inking the Thing’s rocky skin.

I have included more example of the anchor points and paths technique I use in inking these pencils. In Points & Paths: Example 5, we see how the wavy fire on Human Torch can be created without using curved lines. Every anchor point in the flames helps to create the illusion of line weight, depth, and movement.

In Points & Paths: Example 6, I’ve shown how I created what looks to be a line on the Invisible Woman’s arm. It is actually a curved shape created with paths. It is a shape that includes the bottom line of her arm and the shadows around her neck. You can see her hands and the background are already colored in.

Although this technique might not seem to be the most efficient, it allows for a lot of control. Looking at each line as a shape helped me to create a type of line work I would not have achieved otherwise.

Points & Paths: Example 5

Points & Paths: Example 6

This was my first comic book digital inking using Adobe Illustrator with the anchor points and paths technique. I have done a few more since this one. Although I have used curved line in those illustrations. This was a fun self exercise in learning to digitally ink the work of some else. I am very happy with the way this illustration came out, and I’ll continue to use Adobe Illustrator to digitally ink comic book pencils.