General Art Discussion

[Emperor]

Good stuff - John has probably had to wade through an awful lot of portfolio's so it is handy getting an editor's view of this.

This is a good one:

I cannot emphasise enough how great it is for an artist or a writer to give an editor a fanzine they've had a part in. For one thing, all editors like freebies. For another, it shows that you, as a creator, have the commitment and belief in what you're doing to get right down to it and draw a strip people want to see.

While I assume Tharg has a droid tasked to nose through some of the British small press comics (they may even keep copies in the sump draining room) but it can't hurt to have a few copies of a Zarjaz or FutureQuake featuring your work in your bag to hand out - editors often have more time in their hotel rooms or journeying home and might peruse the comics at their leisure. Why not go one better and make a few bookmarks (print a design off onto stiffer paper and cut them up) to slide in on your page and include your website and email details?

The Bryan Talbot link is broken, here is the working one:
www.bryan-talbot.com/articles/bryan_advice.html

[Emperor]

Also CB Cebulski is Marvel's artist hunter (he holds ChesterQuests at Comic Cons) and it is interesting to read what he has to say, especially when they closed their submissions (note their open submissions never found a new artist):

Half the time people don't know or don't care who they're submitting to. We've gotten illustrated haiku, Star Wars poems, manga, furry stories, fumetti, picture books, illustrated hardcore porn... you name it. We also get lots of pitches and artwork for original and creator-owned ideas which we just can't look at, let alone publish. It's not what we do.

www.newsarama.com/comics/090403-cebeulski-marvel-submissions.html

He even did a "How Not to Break Into Comics" comic:
www.newsarama.com/php/multimedia/album.php?aid=27040

More on the new subs policy:
www.popcultureshock.com/cbclub/?p=454

Cebulski has also recently had to step in as the Editorial Talent Co-Ordinator at Marvel:
www.bleedingcool.com/2009/09/10/hey-marvel-wants-to-restructure-too-chris-allo-gone-cb-cebulski-back-new-candidate-sought/

So he is very much the guy to keep an eye out for, especially if you are an artist (he is also on MySpace if you are over there).

[uncle fester]

Illustrated haiku?! As a submission to Marvel?? There's a certain twisted genius to that, or somebody had way too much time on their hands...

[uncle fester]

He even did a "How Not to Break Into Comics" comic:
www.newsarama.com/php/multimedia/album.php?aid=27040

That is brilliant!!

[Professor Bear]

Odd that Cebulski neglects "get in through editorial and learn to write later" as a tip for writers.

It's worth noting that he does tend towards the more manga-influenced and abstractly-stylised artwork when doing portfilio reviews, too, and relies heavily on pre-existing talent pools or local networks of artists to find new talent - even art schools.  Marvel submissions policy seems to mirror this process, too - chances are if you don't have published work already or graduated from something akin to the Joe Kubert school, you'll have difficulty getting anywhere with the Mouse of Ideas (do you see?).
I also gather webcomics are frowned upon for some reason or other, but buggered if I can tell you why.

[Emperor]

The Guardian has a free guide to drawing booklet today. There is nothing specific to comics (although they should do one on this!!) but there might be some useful general tips. If anyone wants my copy let me know and I'll bung it in the post.

[Emperor]

There is a massive interview with Bryan Talbot on the FP blog which I'm still digesting (well worth a read). One thing that struck me and made me think it was worth posting here was his talk about the sheer amount of work that went into his Sandman work, even on things that no one will have noticed (consciously anyway):

My favourite Sandman story that I drew was August (contained in the Fables and Reflections volume – Joe). I used quite a few subliminal storytelling devices in that one, including eye level placement and the use of horizontals and verticals in the compositions. Most of the story takes place in a market place in Rome over a whole day. I placed the light source in such a way to simulate the sun low in the sky in the morning, climbing to its zenith at noon and setting in the evening, a left to right movement that happens gradually over about twenty pages. I doubt if any readers noticed this consciously but it would have had a subconscious effect on their perception of the story.

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2009/the-road-from-wigan-pier-bryan-talbot-talks-with-padraig-o-mealoid-part-one/

Like D'Israeli I'd love to see him produce a book passing on all the little artistic tips and tricks he has developed over the years. Hell if anyone arty is looking for a book idea then one where you sit down with an artist and draw out all the information you can presenting a chapter on each would be a winner by me (I suppose it'd be a bit like Durwin Talon's Panel Disucssions but with British artists).

[Emperor]

Pete Ashton is a bit of an expert on British small press comics and an online communications advisor, so it is interesting to hear his thoughts where these two crossover, specifically on the topic of what Neil Cameron has been up to recently. It might be something to palpate the old thoughtpods of our blogging artists around here:

Neill's one of the cartoonists who's been doing some interesting stuff with his blog and Twitter lately. I don't think he thinks it's interesting – I think he thinks it's just stuff he finds fun to do – but I think other artists in all sorts of disciplines could learn something from him.

The first thing to remember is this has all grown out of his blog which he uses to share the by-products of his work. Like most artists he can't really publish the stuff he's paid to do – that's for the client – but he can post rejected versions of work after the fact and stuff he does for fun. (In the latter case it's interesting to note that a few months after posting what amounts to Doctor Who fan art he's recently done some paid work for Doctor Who...) Like most cartoonists I know he can't help drawing so his blog provides an outlet for that.

http://ash10.com/2009/10/neill-cameron-accidental-social-media-win/

[uncle fester]

Makes for interesting reading. Cheers for the link, Emperor.

[Hoagy]

Got this great book by Burne Hogarth that finds solutions for drawing the clothed figure. Its called dynamic wrinkles and drapery. It analyses crossing, bend compression, fragmentation and direct thrust wrinkles boomst other things. It has a great opening chapter understanding kinetic forces. Some amazing figure study and well explained.

[uncle fester]

This is a youtube step by step on how to create characters from scratch in Photoshop. You don't have to like the genre, (Warhammer in this case), to be able to pick up more than a few tricks and tips about colours and development as this piece goes along.

It's split into 8 seperate videos (other 7 in the right hand panel) - I seem to rememeber the artist saying somewhere it took him 10 hours start to finish.

Mind blowing if you skip to the end, but if you watch the whole eight episodes (I have!) it's invaluable if you dabble in Photoshop, or indeed any other bit of art software.

http://www.youtube.com/user/daarken#p/u/12/I8tn6oMcr3Q

[Emperor]

Cebulski has also recently had to step in as the Editorial Talent Co-Ordinator at Marvel:
www.bleedingcool.com/2009/09/10/hey-marvel-wants-to-restructure-too-chris-allo-gone-cb-cebulski-back-new-candidate-sought/

New Talent Co-ordinator, learn his face well, add it to your stalker card you slip in your portfolio to spot these guys as they are eating or taking a piss:

www.bleedingcool.com/2009/11/03/marvel-hire-harris-editorial-director-as-new-talent-co-ordinator/

[Kev Levell]

Thanks to Dave Gibbons' twittering, I found this:

http://sevencamels.blogspot.com/2009/11/basic-staging-principles-part-1.html

When you get there, you'll see why it's both valid and relevent, plus it has Dave Gibbons' seal of approval... Now go!

[Mike Gloady]

Good link Kev.

[Emperor]

Its a classic and has done the rounds numerous times but it is well worth posting here - Alex Toth's critique of the work of Steve Rude on Jonny Quest:

http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1017276