Drawing Comics Lab: 52 Exercises on Characters, Panels, Storytelling, Publishing, & Professional Practices

UNIT 1

You’ve Got Character

TO TELL A GOOD STORY, you need to know your characters well. Any good writer is familiar with their characters’ desires, histories, and weaknesses. Cartoonists need to know this, too, but they also need to know the shade of the character’s head, the curve of his spine, or the way that she smiles. Sketching your characters, over and over, is one way to get to know them well.

When you first draw a character, it probably won’t go quite right. That’s okay—you’ve only just met. Good relationships grow over time. As you sketch your characters, not only will you get a better understanding of what they look like, but you’ll also get a better understanding of who they are.

Materials

• paper

• pencil

• pen

Have you ever looked at the crisp lines in a comic book and wondered: How did they do that? How did they get the lines to look just right? Chances are, the cartoonist did a lot of underdrawing. Underdrawing is a sketching method. Using lines and basic shapes, you will quickly doodle a character. Refine the drawing by erasing the mistakes. The ink line goes last, and you only ink the lines you want.

Tips of the Trade

Don’t worry if your underdrawing looks sloppy. Sometimes, you have to draw a lot of bad lines to the find the good ones.

Let’s Go!

Drawing cartoon characters is a lot easier if you start with basic shapes. Building your drawing from shapes will ensure that it appears three-dimensional. And your character will look more consistent, panel to panel, if you always use the same building blocks to start your drawing.

1. Start with a circle. Think of this circle as the skull of your character’s face. Next, you need to draw the jaw. I have made my jaw an oval shape. You could use another shape, like a triangle or a square. Pick the shape that is best for your character.

2. Draw two center lines across your face: one horizontal and one vertical. I have decided to draw this character in a three-quarter view, so the vertical center line is on the right side of the face.

Think of your drawing as a three-dimensional object, not as lines on paper. Your center lines should follow the contour of the face. Drawing your center lines is like drawing lines across the surface of an egg.

3. Your center lines are guideposts that tell you where to draw the features of your face. Eyes fall in the center of the face, so I place them on my horizontal center line. I place the nose on the vertical center line.

4. Place other details like ears, mouth, and hair. Pay attention to how these details relate to one another. For example, the top of my character’s ear lines up with her eyes; the bottom of her ear lines up with her nose. Every time I draw her, I make sure the ears line up the same way.

Tips of the Trade

If your underdrawing is too scribbly it can be difficult to ink. Over-penciling can tear up the surface of your paper, and too much graphite on your paper keeps ink from adhering. Consider using a light box or a piece of tracing paper to ink your underdrawing. I used tracing vellum, a heavy-duty type of tracing paper, to ink many of the drawings in this book.

Materials

• paper

• pencil

• T-square

• pen

Now that you’ve drawn a head, your character needs a body. Did you know you can draw a body in three simple lines?

Characters are more important than jokes.

—Bill Watterson

Let’s Go!

1. Start with a vertical line for the spine. Add a horizontal line for the shoulders and a horizontal line for the pelvis. Draw these lines quickly to capture the gesture of the body. Don’t think too hard about this step. Quick, spontaneous lines can make your drawings come alive.

2. Build on top of your lines. Create legs and arms using simple lines. Use circles for the hands, feet, and joints.

3. Refine your drawing by adding more details and erasing mistakes.

You’ve drawn a full figure, but you’re not done yet! To better understand your character as a three-dimensional shape, try drawing a model sheet. A model sheet shows a single character in multiple positions. It’s a very handy tool for cartoonists and animators.

1. Draw your character in a standing position, facing you. Using your T-square, draw horizontal lines at key points in the figure’s anatomy, like the top of the head, the eyes, the chin, the hands, and the bottom of the feet. Make sure these lines extend across the page and that the anatomy lines up with the guidelines you’ve made.

2. Now draw your character again, but this time have her stand in a three-quarters position. Make sure her anatomy continues to line up with your guidelines.

3. The final step is the profile drawing. This step is the hardest one, because a profile looks so different from the front-facing position. Rely on your guidelines to keep all the anatomy in the right place.

No matter what position your figure is in, you can capture it with three quick lines.

Tips of the Trade

Consider sculpting a clay model of your character so you can look at it from any angle. This model was made by cartoonist Chris Schweizer. Don’t have the time to sculpt a prefect likeness? Put a kneaded eraser on the end of a pencil and sculpt a quick head.

Materials

• paper

• pencil

• a friend

Cartoonists use pictures to tell stories and convey information. When we read a comic, we decode this pictorial information in a way that’s similar to how we read. The ability to read and write pictures is called visual literacy. Visual literacy is a vital part of cartooning. In fact, some cartoonists would argue that visual literacy is what cartooning is all about!

This exercise will help you flex your picture-writing muscles. It was created by James Sturm, the director of the Center for Cartoon Studies. On the next page you’ll see examples drawn by James’s students.

I don’t see myself as a developer of art or style. I think of my lines on the page as a vocabulary.

—Will Eisner

Let’s Go!

1. Make of list of ten animals.

2. Make a list of ten occupations.

3. Make a list of ten emotions.

4. Circle one word from each list.

5. Combine those words into a single character (for example, the drawing on the left is a grumpy penguin janitor). Draw your character using images only, no words.

6. Show your drawing to a friend, without telling him any of the words you chose. Can he guess what your drawing is?

Did your friend guess correctly? If not, ask what was confusing about your drawing. By listening carefully to your friend’s reaction, you will learn how to make pictures that read better.

Visual literacy is a two-way street: you can learn a lot by reading images as well as by creating them. Can you guess what the animals below are? How did you come to your conclusions? What visual information are you picking up on? Check your guess against the answers below.

TOP: Furious panther librarian (art by Dakota