Hey guys. Here are some books I've found useful on the subject of comic book art. Please add more if you have some good ones. :)
Scott McCloud- Understanding Comics
Will Eisner- Comics and Sequential Art
The next ones are not just for reading they are good warm up practice before drawing (drawing each picture in the book).
Andrew Loomis- Figure Drawing For All Its Worth
Ernest R. Norling- Perspective Made Easy
George Bridgman- Constructive Anatomy
and finaly
Joseph V. Mascelli- The Five C's of Cinematography
There are a couple of other Scott McCloud books worth checking out. 'Reinventing Comics' and particularly 'Making Comics'. Another Eisner classic, 'Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative'.
Also 'How to draw comics the Marvel way' by Stan Lee and John Buscema is great even if you don't want to draw comics the marvel way.
All pretty much widely available.
I found the following DC set to be worth reading recently,
The DC Comics Guide to Pencilling Comics
The DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics
DC Comics Guide to Coloring and Lettering Comics
The DC Comics Guide to Inking Comics
There's already some pretty good stuff in the General Art discussion here:
http://2000adonline.com/forum/index.php/topic,25764.0.html (http://2000adonline.com/forum/index.php/topic,25764.0.html)
Sorry, that reply re-reads a bit blunt... just wanted to point you at some helpful stuff, it includes some videos and what-nots too. :D
Quote from: KevLev on 16 September, 2010, 09:36:07 AM
Sorry, that reply re-reads a bit blunt... just wanted to point you at some helpful stuff, it includes some videos and what-nots too. :D
The other thread also has my link to the site that has all of Loomis' out of print books available for free download as PDFs. No time to search the link out and repost this morning. Maybe later.
Cheers
Jim
The 5 Cs is invaluable, but also worth checking is Truffaut on Hitchcock. A bloody great brick of a book which is a conversation between the two where Hitch explains how he sets up shots and where in a frame elements are placed for maximum storytelling effect. Brilliant book.
Jessica Abel and Matt Madded - Drawing Words and Writing Pictures (http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Words-Writing-Pictures-Graphic/dp/1596431318/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1284644104&sr=8-1) is really good.
Jack Hamm's Cartooning the Head and Figure (http://www.amazon.com/Cartooning-Head-Figure-Perigee-Jack/dp/0399508031/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1284644231&sr=8-1) and Drawing the Head and Figure (http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Head-Figure-Perigee-Jack/dp/0399507914/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1284644311&sr=8-4).
I also agree with the Loomis, McCloud and Eisner books. The DC set and How to Draw Marvel Way are also great suggestions.
Is it too obvious to suggest your reading list should also contain as many comics as possible..?
Quote from: Richmond Clements on 16 September, 2010, 04:21:34 PM
Is it too obvious to suggest your reading list should also contain as many comics as possible..?
I would suggest quite the reverse, TBH! Bad comic writers only read comics, and the same is true for comic artists, as far as I'm concerned.
Cheers!
Jim
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 16 September, 2010, 04:46:23 PM
Quote from: Richmond Clements on 16 September, 2010, 04:21:34 PM
Is it too obvious to suggest your reading list should also contain as many comics as possible..?
I would suggest quite the reverse, TBH! Bad comic writers only read comics, and the same is true for comic artists, as far as I'm concerned.
Cheers!
Jim
I know what you're saying Jim- but I'd say to any writer that they should read more and to any artist that they should look at more art.
I didn't mean to read comics exclusively- god knows I read relatively few of them!
But I do think that, as a writer or artist, you can learn as much fom a bad comic as a good one.
Quote from: Richmond Clements on 16 September, 2010, 05:01:12 PM
But I do think that, as a writer or artist, you can learn as much fom a bad comic as a good one.
This is very true. It surprises me how few readers seem to look at comics with an analytical eye, TBH. If you're 'just' a reader, no reason why you should, but if you're supposedly interested enough in the medium to want to try and do it yourself? Most of the stuff that you find in submission guidelines and How-Tos you can work out yourself if you just
look at how a comic works. First speaker on the left, for example. Characters look in towards the middle of the page. Leave dead space for the frickin' lettering...
Lettering, especially -- I see some small press and web comics* commit the most appalling lettering cock-ups, and I just have to ask myself:
Seriously? Do you even
read comics? I mean -- something like crossed balloon tails. When have you
ever seen crossed balloon tails in a professional comic? Fucking never, that's when. So why do it in your web-comic? Do really just not give a shit about the lettering? If you didn't give a shit about the inks, you'd find someone else to do them for you... I just don't get it!
Cheers
Jim
*Present company excepted, of course.
Quote from: MIKE COLLINS on 16 September, 2010, 10:42:57 AM
but also worth checking is Truffaut on Hitchcock. A bloody great brick of a book which is a conversation between the two where Hitch explains how he sets up shots and where in a frame elements are placed for maximum storytelling effect. Brilliant book.
Thank you for the knowledge. That sounds like an excellent read.