Digital Hand Studios and YouTube

Digital Hand Studios will posting videos on YouTube Soon 

Digital Hand Studios has been slowly preparing for YouTube for this year by making screen videos of the drawing process of its current titles.  There are page drawing videos of The Legend of Old Cuban Samurai, Foreigner, Rise of Atlantis, and even some sketch covers that will be released soon.  Its been a slow start due to many obstacles that presented themselves for the first half of the year.  But as we start the second part of the year the opportunity have started to appear and have allowed for more video screen capture time and editing than previously.  Live streaming will be following very soon.   

SoFlo Panels is also following the lead to start producing videos for you guys about the local comic scene, artist interviews, and comic con previews.  We hope to release some videos and start some Live stream sessions and Q & As soon so keep posted. 

Starting in February

Starting in February we will be posting our new in depth articles to our Digital Hand Studios website as a subscription based magazine.  Our focus is still on bringing the best resources out there for indie comic creators.  We hope all of you have enjoyed our articles and find the new format even more creative and helpful. 

What you can expect from our new format:

We are going to dedicate a lot more time to organizing useful articles that creators can reference in their projects and endeavors.  We are going to include convention schedules, publishing guidelines for most of the publisher out there, list of comic book specific printers, advise from local artists, writers, and publishers.  We're also going to present articles that showcase local artists.  We would also include a section for monthly comic stories.  The magazine style and articles will be a collection of art and writing techniques, local comic news, and indie comic resources.

As our subscribers grows we will add contests and local meetups.  We will also consider article writers at that time.

So if you like our articles and find them helpful come check out our new page in February.

http://digitalhandstudios.com/new-miami-comics

Creating the Adventure

Comics can hold such a magical grasp on an audience.  They can take you to wonderful and exotic places.  Some stories are so bold they become classics.  Everyone strives to create a masterpiece.  The best way to start is by building a fantastic world full of incredible things and characters.  Here are some ideas to think about when planning out your epic comic:

Genre 

Star Wars and Star Trek are leaders of there sci-fi space genre while Harry Potter and Lords of the Ring lead the way of Magic, sword and sorcery fantasy genre.  Choose a genre that you are familiar with and are passionate about.  There are many to choose from.  Here a re a few to consider:

• Action/Adventure (James Bond, Jack Reacher, Superman, Avengers)
• Mystery (Batman, Sherlock Holmes,)
• Western/Eastern (Jonah Hex, Wolf and Cub)
• Fantasy/Sword and Sorcery (Lord of the Rings, Conan, Red Sonja)
• Fantasy/Magic (Dr. Strange, Harry Potter,)
• Teen (Archie, )
• Sci-Fi (Star Wars, Star Trek, Power Rangers, Voltron)

World Building

Make an Art Bible for your project; a file with the collection of notes and references.  You need a spectacular setting to immerse your audience.  This is very important if want people to feel part of your world.  Think about where you want your story to take place, the culture in place, and even the architecture that influences the buildings.  It helps to create some locations in good detail. Here are a few details to keep in mind:

• Land or terrain (Dessert, Space, Ocean)
• Architecture/Design (buildings, landscapes, vehicles, weapons)
• Culture (beliefs like in the "Force" or religion, councils or federations)
• Customs (Traditions, slang, code, ethics)
• Groups, Guilds, Associations 
• Diversity  

The Great Conflict

Don't be afraid to think in epic proportions for this part.  Remember it will have to be something so impressive that it spans through all of your stories.

(Continued in Issue #1)

Building Yourself up as an Artist

The reason many artist fail is because they don't get their name out.  The industry is very saturated, but even within that pool of artists some have very recognizable talent.  Sadly enough several of those waste their efforts in frivolous actions that lead nowhere and quickly become disappointed about the market.  Others have the mistaken notion that if they draw well enough opportunities will simply walk up to their door step and knock.  All of these artists wonder why they aren't making any money or getting more work.  "Exposure", that little word that has gotten so much negative feed back is actually the key.

Many upcoming comic creators have this idea that talent alone justifies them.   The almost cliche' argument of "Working for Exposure..." is the high light of almost every new artistic presenter...and yet these are the same artists that can't find new work.  As an artist myself I will say and stand behind saying that working for exposure is one of the greatest ways to acquire new and well paying clients and jobs.

The single most important thing to know when you work for exposure is the marketability vs work.  In simple terms, do your due diligence and evaluate the opportunity.  There is a big difference between working on a full 34 page comic for a first time writer and/or studio versus working a cover or 3 comic pages for a national recognized magazine.  Use a little common sense.  The opportunities are out there.

To get the best marketing out of it you will want to target national to global publishers and what you would consider small or simple jobs that you could showcase your best art.  You can even get some benefit from helping small publishers with small projects as long as they're well known in their local comic book scene.  Take on a few mini projects.

When you put your art out there with recognized publishers many clients can view your marketability for themselves.  In other words they'll be able to see for themselves that your work sells and is out in the market place.  When you help local small publishers the word spreads and others will want to hire you.  If you can be a bit flexible with your financing many publishers and writers will want to hire you.

The key thing here is to get your art out there in the market place through recognized publishers and local indies so that you're recommended to others.

Romance: A Niche' to Consider

 

As the larger publisher saturate the diversity market many indie publishers look for new niche's to dive into.  One such niche' is the romance market.  As more young women pour into the comic industry as readers, artists, and writers, this market may start making a come-back.  Romance lends itself to a wide variety of sub-genres that make it very robust for today's creators. 

The current reader requires a modernized version of that classical romance we are use to seeing.  The importance of romance is that the reader has to connect with it.  As a creator you need to explore pop culture.  Many things don't change from generation to generation, but the style and theme does so investigate. By no means is today's market as simple as "boy meets girl".  You should explore current issues and culture for ideas.

Romance is about relationships.  This is a great opportunity to create diverse and intricate characters.  Explore personality traits and work on interesting dialogue.  Remember that your main conflict should be a relationship problem.  Remember that you might find yourself replacing a lot of fist fights with kissing and crying.  Become familiar with emotional responses to situations.

Understand your age group and audience.  If you are writing to a younger reader keep the situation very simple.  Your story will be more about friendships, holding hands and maybe a first kiss.  When you deal with a much more mature audience you can dive into more complex topics like adultery, passion, polygamy, and raunchiness.  Learn your distributor's guidelines so you can property label your book.

Something to keep in mind: fashion can play a significant role in attracting readers to your book.  The art should contain modern styles if appropriate.  What I mean is if the story is set in a modern day high school use popular clothes on the characters.  It adds a layer of realism that helps the reader submerge into your story.  Of course if its in a Victorian age please don't give the characters jeans and tank tops.

Easy tip:  You can always try short comics (10 pages or less) to get a feel for your audience and develop your story telling style.  Get feed back.
   
 

Powers and Copy Right

All creators can testify to the satisfaction of making a character for their comic story.  And for the most part this is fun and always interesting.  Most indie characters end up on a self published comic of some sort and usually make their debut in a local comic convention or two.  These characters face many perils in their story but none as devastating as success.  You see once your character becomes popular you begin to gain many secret enemies.  And their weapon is intellectual copy right infringement!

First thing you need to know if you plan to make a professional character for a commercialized story, comic that you plan to sell, is that there is nothing new under the sun.  What I mean is that there are many variations of existing ideas.  what's very important to know is that you try to take very obvious elements from other characters...satire being the loop hole in all of this. 

One of the fist dangers is comes from the origin story.  Have you noticed that there aren't many "Super" anything outside of DC or that the term "Mutant" tends to stay within Marvel as "Metahumans/sapiens" deals with super heroes in DC.  These coined terms are some of the few ways large publishers can trip you up when you begin to head towards a recognizable amount of success.  Magic and religion seem still pretty open as most big publishers barrow from Greek mythology and various religions...especially in today's hot topic arena.  Topcows uses technology to explain their characters super powers and a touch of religion and magic as well.

When you start talking about where you characters get their powers, remember where the land mines are and choose a unique way to explain the source of their abilities or keep it a mystery.

 

Super Battles, Super Bust!

It would seem all the big publishers are coming out with these large scale wars between super heroes.  Its seems like only natural for the smaller indie publishers to follow.  I mean with all the super hero movies coming out and big graphic novels or comic series everyone is on a binge for comic conflict.  So why aren't you selling more books? 

One of the biggest factors that many creators fail to acknowledge is the lack of fan base to drive their comics forward.  There are many reasons for this outcome but the most common are these:

Lack of Foundation:  You have a great story and a cool group of heroes and villains but not enough going on to get anyone interested.  I'm not talking about action.  Yeah you got a 10 page battle but the real reason people aren't interested is because they have no connection to the conflict. 

Somewhere along the lines you got a little to busy with the awesome battle that you might have forgotten to show your readers why they should care.  Even more did you even evaluate the reason, did it sound concerning or believable, how about interesting?  Your story has no roots!

Build this up by creating tension between heroes and villains.  Add real problems.  Make the hard choices.  Build a history with your characters so that your readers feel like they have a stake in it. 

Great Conflict:  Heroes and villains fight all the time.  Why is this time so special.  You need to find that urgency in the problem they face.  Try to get away from cliche's...the bigger publishers have beaten that horse dead a long time ago.  Look for fresh new ideas.  Use current events as a resource.

The damsel in distress doesn't work in a world fighting for equal rights for men and women. You'll end up with a mediocre response.  Avengers: Civil War is practically about human rights.  X-Men: Age of Apocalypse is about choosing sides on morality and so on.  Find a topic to parallel and work you major conflict from there.  A lot of these topics will involve what's wrong or right scenarios and does the end justify the means type questions.

Remember to build your fan base up before releasing a major conflict title.  You can use a series of stories leading up to the major issue.  This will help get that major title off the ground when you release it since the issues leading up to it will act as your marketing and advertising. 

 

Racism and How to Deal With it in Comics

Comics are not exempt from racism, nor has it been absent from it's pages.  We all understand what it is: the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races. And with recent events police shootings and other events have created a cultural divide and naturally cause an artistic individual to express themselves through their medium.  For us its comics, its the creation of stories that translate our opinions on such delicate matters.  This article was created to contain the tools necessary to express your thoughts through your comic without being offensive and carrying out your message.

I know there are readers about there that think "I don't care if I piss off some people!".  The reason this is wrong is because you'll limit your fan base and maybe put yourself in a bad situation that could cost you a publishing gig or burn some bridges with other great creators.  You can still get your message across and let people know how you feel without getting carried away.

Here are a few things we will cover:

Racial Comics vs Hate Speech
Working with Diversity and Culture
Colorful Language
Working with and around Stereotypes
Racial and Cultural Topics and Themes to Write About

This will help you navigate this complex territory without losing any friends and come out with a strong message.  Understand that racism and prejudice is making a come back so we as comic creators in touch with young readers have the opportunity to make a difference.

Racial Comics vs Hate Speech

You can write a story about racism and it will fall into one of two categories: a story about racism or hate speech.  When you write a story there's usually an under lined theme that is apparent in your story through a series of events and or actions.  The resolution should push forth that message by promoting what the theme or message is.  The messages used in racial stories illustrate the injustices faced by that particular group of people or culture BUT offer a positive resolution in the end.  It is when you finish your story with a negative message that you fall into the hate speech which will limit your success to get the book published or even read.

Working with Diversity and Culture

Understand that there are many different cultures in the world with very unique views.  If you wish to work with different cultures you must first do your due diligence and research the culture.  Race is one thing but culture is another and usually the one you represent by the way your characters act. You can have a Black, Asian, or Hispanic character but the culture could be Haitian or American Black, Chinese or Japanese, Cuban or Puerto Rican.  There are very distinct characteristics about each culture to take into account.  Lucky for you, just like you are able to read this article you are also able to search the web for information about different cultures.  You will want to research:

• Slang
• customs
• food
• history
• current events

The CIA World Fact Book online is a great place to start along with Wikipedia.

Working with Colorful Language

Most cultures have a slang that is particular to them.  By using it in context and with the guidelines you have setup for your audience, you can easily submerge your readers into a rich story filled with diversity.  Remember to include a translation near the lexicon (slang).  Some slang may not be appropriate for your audience, especially if you market to younger readers. 

(To be continued in issue #1)   

    
 

Romance for Comics

Keep your audience engaged in your comics by the spell bounding effects of romance.  Many of the larger publishers know this and use it to add drama to their stories.  Romance is an addictive element that can make your stories provocative and suspenseful.  But adding romance to your story or even writing romance stories can be challenging.

Romance is the strong and intimate relationship between people.  The drama that extends from that relationship fuel many parts of a story.  There are many emotions involved in a romance story, but to understand which ones are more apparent you should know what sub-genre you may want to focus on.  Here are a few popular ones:

• Contemporary Romance: Romance novels that are set from 1950 to the present that focus primarily on the romantic relationship.
• Erotic Romance: Novels in which strong, often explicit, sexual interaction is an inherent part of the love story, character growth and relationship development and could not be removed without damaging the storyline. These novels may contain elements of other romance subgenres (such as paranormal, historical, etc.).

• Historical Romance: Romance novels that are set prior to 1950.

• Inspirational Romance: Romance novels in which religious or spiritual beliefs (in the context of any religious or spiritual belief system) are an integral part of the plot.

• Paranormal Romance: Romance novels in which fantasy worlds or paranormal or science fiction elements are an integral part of the plot.

• Romantic Suspense: Romance novels in which suspense, mystery, or thriller elements constitute an integral part of the plot.

• Young Adult Romance: Romance novels in which young adult life is an integral part of the plot.

       Also to keep up with current trends you can explore inter-racial relations and LGBT.

Remember who your target group is and create stories that would stir up ideas, debate, and awareness.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

7 Reasons Why Your Women Look Horrendous

There's an old saying that goes "An artist that knows how to draw beautiful women will never go hungry."  There's almost nothing more beautiful in this world than a woman.  Art attempts to capture that beauty in the form of illustration.  This is very apparent in comics through out history.  But unfortunately its a complex concept to grasp for many artists.  Drawing gorgeous women for your comic stories is more dynamic than just squiggling a couple of round boobs and a big butt.

Reason #1

The face of a women is incredibly important so if the proportions are off it will affect it tremendously.  Most artist have that down for the most part, but where it becomes insanely tricky is the expression.  A good deal of the attraction starts off in the face.  As an illustrator you must master the art of expression, specifically suggestive facial expressions.  A good exercise is to draw several faces from sexy advertising...or "other places".  You know what I'm talking about, don't make this awkward!

Reason #2

Hands.  Yes, hands.  Some new artists avoid drawing women's hands as much as Rob Liefeld did with drawing feet.  They can only hold bouquets of flowers for only so long.  I know it's a pain in the butt to draw those five to ten pages of hand studies but DO IT!  And remember to study WOMEN's hands.  Its so very surprising to see a drawing of a sexy comic book heroine with big gorilla hands.   Remember, thin and round off the knuckles a bit.

Reason #3

And while we are at it lets also mention FEET!  Same as with hands.  Go through those exercises and learn the correct positioning and movement of feet.  This is actually a big one.  Practice drawing toes from up close.  No one likes gargoyle feet on a nice looking women.

Reason #4

Character depth.  Personality.  The half nude women heroines in leotards might work well with the young adolescents but adults prefer to be romanced a bit with personality and character.  Don't make Latoya a black female just to have diversity in your comic.  Give her likes and dislikes, a genuine history, and make her real, in other words have her react to situations that stimulate mature thinking.  "No Don, I'm not going to be one of your side chicks.  Go play with your girls because you're messin' with a REAL WOMAN now!"

Reason #5

Drawing realistic and relevant hair.  You better believe it.  Women's hair is biblical.  You need to understand women's hairstyles and how to best draw those curls and shadows.  Please get out of the habit of drawing these 80's big porn star hair styles.  Your readers are palm facing and you're just not getting it.  Once again, use references.

(Continued in Issue #1) 

Panel Flow

Understanding panel flow is a particular art form that you need to become very familiar with if you design comics.   This is the relation between your reader and their viewing path throughout your story.  Viewers follow particular cues that help form the path in which they read your comic.  The better you become at identifying and designing that path, the more enjoyable your comics will become.

With this in mind lets understand how a reader follows cues or clues.  We are all animals of habits.  People tend to look at each other and wonder what each of us is seeing so its normal for people to follow eyes.  That means your reader looks at the direction of where your characters are staring at.  Its a natural flow to follow the direction everyone is looking at so keep that in mind when positioning your characters.

Next is the action flow.  In real life people tend to go towards the same direction as where the crowds go. call it an instinct.   People want to know where someone or something is headed to.  This also becomes a natural focal point.  Aim towards pushing the action towards the next panel or word balloon.

Lastly, people have to read your comic book story so they will be looking for those captions and dialogue balloons.

Use a combination of these to lead your reader as gradual as possible through your comic book pages.  It will enhance your reader's comic experience while enjoying your story. 

Deafening Diversity: What This Means for Indie Publishers

 

Racial diversity in comics has long since been a rather controversial topic.  Apparently since the golden age of comics diversity in main characters has been quite absent from the medium.  It wasn't until the silver age that black characters took on main roles.  One of the first mainstream characters was the Black Panther in 1966.  Latino or Hispanic followed after with the exception a few characters like El Zorro.  Now in modern day comics we find a much more diverse characters throughout the larger publishers, which is great.  But now as all the large publishers fight to take on as much diversity as possible how does that affect the smaller indie publishers?

Traditionally indie publishers acted as the leaders in pushing the limits.  Many publishers were even labeled as "underground"  just solely on the topics of genre's they produced.  Typically indie publishers has a very wide range of topics to chose from that made them so different from the larger publishers, who were also constrained by their sponsors.  This was the upper hand advantage that indie publishers could go to in order to compete.  But as the views of society broaden and become more liberal so too has the range in which the larger publishers operate.  Hence the issue of diversity which was a few years ago a playground for the smaller publishers and still a field of land mines for the larger companies, now has overrun the world of comics.  And even though I'm glad that diversity has gone as far as it has with comics, it also worries me because of the fear that the larger publishers will begin pushing it to extremes.  

How so?  Well just look into the latest controversies over the choice of actors playing ethnic roles and the out cries claiming white washing in Hollywood.  For those who are not familiar with the term, its when white Anglo actors take on a role associated with a character of a specific culture or race.

 
But that isn't the question that I'm really posting here.  It comes down to what do indie publishers do when the larger companies take over their niche'?  Now that they are claiming in full force the diversity market what now?  The indies proposed the question of diversity in comics and the larger publishers answered it.  The smaller comic creators can continue to write diverse comics but eventually Marvel and DC will swallow the market for that niche', leaving many companies searching for a new market.  It doesn't mean that smaller publisher will stop writing about diversity in comic, but it will mean that they will need more than that to compete in the highly competitive market of comics.  

10 Things Every Comic Book Artist Needs To Know

 Realistically speaking (or writing) there are things an aspiring comic book artist needs to know before getting themselves into the wonderful yet treacherous world of indie comics.  The sooner you get familiar with these concepts the better off you'll be getting your at career started.  Unfortunately, these are the types of topics many people will be very political about sharing with you an opinion and sometimes they are also shadowed by the local indie comic community.  The reality is you really need to know this.

Skills

True artistic ability.  Don't kid yourself.  Can you draw or is your imagination and optimism setting you up for failure?  This and an enormous ego will seriously restrict your success in the art world.  You need to know.  Don't ask friends or family members...they will by default praise your efforts.  "Wow... did you draw that?  Very nice!"  No.  Go find other comic book artists in the level that you want to aspire to and prepare yourself to get torn up with a critic.  Don't fight it!  Get as much advice as you can and work on it.  Build up your portfolio.  Work on it constantly.  Give yourself about 3 month of hard work before you go for another critic by a different source.  Even if your art is good...keep working on it.  The comic book artist industry is very competitive.

Style

Decide on your art style and specialty.  Sounds silly?  No.  Writers often look for a particular look when they imagine their work as a graphic novel.  Draw and learn from many great comic book artists in order to grow, but in the end you need to have a consistent art style that defines you.  People should look at your art and say "Hey... that's [your name]'s style!  Pretty cool!"  You'll get closer to your personal style the more you draw.  Some artists draw in noir while others choose a light pastel feel to their art.  What ever you choose, stick to it and make it your own.

Job

Choose a position.  Know right off the bat what you want to specialize in: penciling, inking, coloring, letting...whatever you like the best and feel the most comfortable with.  Even if you like being a cover artist, choose one of these mediums as a back up for work.  I don't just mean how to do it well.  I'm talking about the whole sha-bang!  Know your turn around time (the time it takes you to complete a finished page), your page rate (the amount of money you charge per page of work), and have a portfolio of your work handy as a physical binder AND an online gallery.

Networking

The truth about networking is that it is very difficult in the indie comic industry mostly because the industry is filled with distrust, predators, lack of business knowledge or left brain thinking, and many creators are working on their own projects.  I'm not saying that people are shady...just that yeah, people are shady.  But this atmosphere changes from place to place.  I'm just mentioning what I've personally run into and the experiences of some of my peers.  Many artists don't understand the unparalleled power of the collaboration process.  Its a give and take action and a collective force to create a project.  With honesty and true expectations, a great group of individuals can come together and build a comic, agree on a starting fee, and pay everyone off with the fruit of their labor once the comic is published.  The trick is finding reliable people with strong work ethics that are willing to put in the effort into an amazing project that you can get along with and trust.  Simple enough?  You're better off working with a small group or by yourself until you establish a reasonable source of income from your work.  Then they will flock to work with you, but you will then have to review everyone's work before hand.  Not just any Jack or Sally will do.  

Comic Conventions

You need to understand where comic book conventions stand between incredible events of opportunity and total waste of time.

(Continue in Issue #1)     

Marketing: Creating Excitement!

When it comes to creating a comic book story it usually leads to a climatic conflict.  This is the normal set-up with modern comics.  You have to build up the action, the anticipation, the drama for the reader.  And there are so many avenues to take to get that done.  You can use violent battles, seductive encounters, mysterious events, even the death of a main character to lead to heart of the story.  Its these roads that will get you a wider audience when you finally put it out there for the world to read.

No one truly cares about the superpowers or quick reference back ground that you thought up a few days ago.  People want a story, an experience to associate with your character.  From that story the pieces will help create a press release.  You need to dissect parts of the leading action to give hints of the climax without giving away the ending or story altogether.

One popular way is to ask the question.  What if the reader found themselves in a similar predicament?  What if a particular situation arose that forced the reader to make a hard decision?  You have to create that bond between your main character and your audience. Show them your hero's struggle.

Another common way to generate interest is to show-case the action.  Its like the latest superhero movies where they pan right to where the heroes are clashing with the villains for that monumental battle.  Share some of that great art. Give them a tease at what's inside.

Keep the marketing short and concise.  You don't need to give a full explanation of your story up front.  In fact that will deter a lot of your audience because they're going to feel like they just read your comic in a paraphrase.  Just give them what's at stake, what's the conflict?

Don't go on about how Power Man X was created out of a secret government project and his powers are x, y, and z...and how he's the defender of all and so humble but powerful.  I mean com'on, its his first appearance.  How are your readers going to swallow all of that?  People will read it and give you the all too common "Great job!"  and forget about your comic by the time they go to the next article  on Facebook.

Build the anticipation, Power Man X sacrificed everything for superpowers he never wanted.  Now as the city is under siege by giant alien robots, Power Man X must risk his life to save the few people that matter the most to him or lose his humanity and life to the secret organization that created him.  Add some mystery and drama.

Pictures are gold.  Attach pictures of your comic book or action scenes.  You'll get a much better response from your readers.  Aim for color pictures.  Even if your project is in Black and white, try your best to add color to the marketing.  Use the cover or title to give it that spark.

Remember to pace yourself.  Don't just bombard your audience with full-time marketing at all hours of the day or the typical ten postings on Facebook, one on every comic book related page you're on...because people usually are members to several of them just like yourself.  Resist from the Twitter bomb...unleashing multiple tweets at once about your project.      

This is very important when it comes to marketing your comic.  If the reader doesn't establish that interest quickly they will move on to the next one.    

Create the Drama Through Expression

Comics are usually stories filled with drama and there's no better way to show it than the expression on your character's faces.  To really drive the story forward and emphasize the dialogue your characters have to show what they are feeling and how they are reacting to situations in your story.  The concept is easy to grasp but its in the application that artists have trouble with the translation.

There are many expressions to match the vast kaleidoscope of human emotion.  As an artist, especially a sequential or comic artist, it is important that you not only understand the expressions related to the scene, but also know how to draw it in your characters.  Facial expressions enhance panels and take them to a whole another level.  Make it a habit to practice human expression on your character when your sketching studies.

A few basic expressions that you need to master as a comic book artist are: happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, confusion, fear, and determination.  These are the fundamental emotions in almost all great comics.  Learn to build from these emotions like from anger to rage or from happiness to excitement.  Those changes elevate your scenes to create a much better story. Remember, characters need to react to situation and dialogue.  If everyone maintains the same level of seriousness the reader will find it difficult to understand the moon of the scene or even the whole comic.

Rather than starting at the beginning, how to draw a head or face for this matter, I invite you to explore the incredible amount of comic "How to Draw" books, as mostly all of them are very similar in that they introduce you to the variety of artistic tools available in today's market and the basics of drawing simple anatomy, such as that of the head.  No, we're just going to dive right in to some of the common expressions you will use to improve your comic panels and drive that drama right up there.  

Here's a drill that will help you start building your repertoire of facial expressions.  Everything is quality and time.  Take a sheet of paper, usually your sketchbook, and draw 16 to 20 faces per sheet, preferably of the characters you work with, and create as many different expressions as possible in a single view.  A single view would refer to making all the faces a front, profile, or 3/4th view.  Give yourself about 30 minutes.  Remember that working quickly will improve the quality of art per the amount of time spent.  You would be training yourself to make deadlines.

Each expression is a combination of eye brow positioning, eye exposure, and mouth shape. Learn to mix these combinations to form elaborate expressions such as despair, sarcasm, and a spark of insanity.  Practice these dynamic expressions on both male and female characters.  Don't be afraid to push the limits and try something new. 

Creating Intriguing Characters for your Comic Book

The heart and soul of a comic book is it's characters. Daring protagonists and devious villains all surrounded by an incredible cast of side kicks and supporting characters bring a story to life and spark the interest of a wide audience.  Dynamic characters bring a level of sophistication and appeal to the story that to just haphazardly create them is to spell certain doom for your potentially great comic.  Here's what you need to consider when designing a truly unique and inspiring character.

 There is a common mistake among new comic book creators when it comes to drafting up new characters for comic book stories.  For some reason there has been an ongoing misconception that in order to have a likeable character he or she needs to be god-like invincible and have the sex appeal of a porn star.  This is a stereotype carried from popular comics of the 90's during a time where everything had to be bigger, badder, and push boundaries.  But times have changed and as comic fans demand more drama and diversity in their comics the rules have changed.  Comic book characters have evolved to much more than a fancy costume with special powers.

In today's comic reading society your characters need to have depth.  You do this by giving them personality traits and human faults. Alan Moore was one of a few epic writers to change the stereotype of super heroes by humanizing them with social and personal issues.  Orson Scott Card wrote in Character & Viewpoints that characters "...readers want your characters to seem like real people. Whole and alive, believable and worth caring about."  To achieve this level of attraction between your characters and your readers you will have to build them up.

There are many traits that transform your character and bring life to your stories.  Linda N. Edelstein, PH.D. wrote a book called Writer's Guide to Character Traits.  There's a chapter dedicated to 23 personality traits with patterns of inner experience and behavior.  Such personality traits included on the list are the adventurer whose themes are excitement and boldness and the resilient, a personality type which is productive and able to face problems and take personal control.  Stan Lee writes in his book How to Draw Superheroes that there's two superhero archetypes: The S-type and the B-type.  The S-type stands for Superman while the B-type represents Batman. The S-type is a character which is bold and has superpowers.  This character is loud in the sense of being represented with bright colors and the face is visible to show expressions and to give the impression of accountability.  The B-type is a lot more grittier, typically a person without powers that is highly driven by a life altering event to perform incredible feats.

Start your character profile with all the basics: real or alter ego name, date of birth or age, sex, race, religion, culture or ethnicity, family situation such as single, married, divorced, children, parents, etc.  Next add a life changing moment or character defining event in the past, a reputation, good and/or bad habits, give them a flaw or weakness. Give them view points and biases.  Give them a bit of personality. Do they joke around? Are they a shy introvert or social butterfly? Do they hate dogs and love cats?  How do they interact with different people?  Remember, you don't need to fill this out completely before you can start your comic story, but at least have some of these answered to have a foundation to build on as your write your story.

Here comes the typical fun part, choosing powers!  The list is almost endless and feel free to be as creative as you want to be, but keep this in mind: the more powerful your character is the harder it will be to create a believable obstacle or conflict to solve.  I'll entertain the idea of listing several superpowers here to get you inspired:

• heat or laser vision
• elemental control
• invisibility
• special sight like x-ray vision
• ability to fly
• incredible speed
• shape shifting
• magic
• super sense like hearing or sight
• animal or insect like powers
• technology based powers like a bionic arm or camera eye
• super strength
• mythological power like Thor or Wonder Woman
• alien like Venom or Martian Manhunter

Give your character purpose.  People always have a reason for doing things.  What motivates your character?  Define the moment.  If your character is a certain way because a loved one passed away, make your readers understand.  Show them how happy they were or the special moments they shared.  If the reader can identify with the moment or event they will become immersed in the character.  Think of moments that people can identify with like birthdays, being sick, losing a friend, moving away, the loss of a family or friend, even the connection with a pet.

Always try to keep your characters interesting by making them dynamic with personality traits, motivations, and life changing events.  Don't be afraid to make them flawed.  It makes them that much more believable.

Let's Celebrate Independence!

Manuel A. Carmona shared a great idea: Let's create a "Buy Indie Comics Day".  Most of us are already aware of "Free Comic Book Day" which happens to be the first Saturday in May, but this is a way to build recognition to the ever growing indie publishing section of the market.  With the combined efforts of several indie publishers, we can make this into an annual event.

CWI Comics

According to the comic book sales reported by Comichron,  indie comic book sales make up about 9% of the market for 2015, which was an increase from 8.75% from 2014 and 8.70% from 2013.  In other words the indie market is growing and with this growth comes many opportunities for upcoming artists and new publishers to put out amazing titles.  Another reason indie titles are gaining so much popularity is the availability of more resources for creators like distribution through Comixology, webcomics through Patreon and the use of crowd funding to cover printing and distribution expenses through Kickstarter.

SSF Media

And even though the big two, DC and Marvel, that propel the comic industry with it's block buster hits at the movie theaters, its the indie comics that provide the sweet and salt escape from the mainstream that several fans crave after over indulgence of popular titles and characters.  Titles like Angle Wolf by CWI Comics and Pariah Dog by SSF Comics are samples of the incredible titles out there in the indie publishing market.  Besides that, indies can take their stories and art to places that larger companies can't without the fear of market repercussions or the approval of their sponsors.  When you see diversity in comics like Centinals and NightFire by Genesis Comics you know indies are making comics for everyone to enjoy.   

Genesis Comics

Indie publishers offer a wide selection of genre's and a diverse range of characters and art to suite all audiences.  But the challenge lies in getting the word out.  It wasn't until recent years that comic book stores started carrying titles from indie publishers.  On top of that, indie creators have the challenge of competing with the marking efforts of the larger publishers, not to mention the monopoly of certain distribution channels, where the larger publishers have a higher preference.

Genesis Comics

But indies are not going down without a fight.  Many small publishers can be found in the catalogue of digital distributors like Comixology and the webcomics has many great backers thanks to sites like Patreon.  There's also many resources out there to help indies get the word out like Facebook and Twitter.  But to add a recognized day dedicated to the indie comic book market would be phenomenal!  As it stands Manuel A. Carmona suggested making the first Saturday of August as the "Buy Indie Comics Day" so lets make this official and spread the word.  Lets make this a special day so indie creators should come together and schedule an event to mark that day. 

Drawing Captivating Sounds

Your comic book pages will ROCK with the help of some cleverly designed sound effects!  The world isn't a silent place.  Use sound effects to bring mood to those scenes.  If you need help finding words use a quick browser search for onomatopoeia.  Its just a fancy word for written sound effects.

Even though as an artist you can make some pretty amazing designs for your word art by hand you may want to consider a design program such as CorelDraw, Illustrator, or even Manga Studios for your word art.  You're going to save your self some time, especially if you decide to make changes.  I hope by know you're starting to appreciate the job of a letterer.

Word art for sound effects is pretty upfront.  Size equates to loudness, so if your sound effect is really small its considered a whisper while if its really large its practically an explosion.  Play with colors to contrast and enhance the scene.       
Font plays an important role in representing the sound displayed.  There are several helpful sights when it comes to fonts and word art for comics.  Try Blambot.com or Comic Craft for a great collection of fonts and advice about lettering.
 

Becoming a Profitable Comic Artist

At this point you have already worked on your talent and have impressed enough people to convince yourself to pursue an art career as a comic book artist.  So lets get into what you need to know to start building yourself up to a professional level as an artist. Now is the time to start taking these specific steps in order to build a solid foundation.  It starts here, right where you are, reading this article and taking notes.  I'm going to be upfront with you and let you know right off the bat that this road to success is a process that takes time and effort. It won't happen over night and you will need to invest your time and effort to carve out your spot of the lime light.

First and most important: draw constantly.  You will need to do this to keep improving your artistic skill set so draw projects, not just doodles or studies.  You need this for repetition. This will help build your creative habit.  Your mind and body will become accustomed to creating art constantly.  Take your sketchbook out in public.  This will have many benefits.  Besides getting use to drawing in a hectic environment it will expose your art to people.  Take in the compliments as well as the critics...yes the critics, too.  The art world is subjective and there are many opinionated fools out there waiting to bring you down.  Take the abuse now and develop leather skin so you can feel much more comfortable when working with an editor later.
 
Network.  You need to be on social media.  If you're already there, awesome.  If not, better get started now.  As of the time that I'm writing this article the most useful and necessary online website and applications to be on are:

Stay in touch with social media.

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• DeviantArt
• LinkedIn

There are a few more but these are the basic.  Don't fall into the social media trap where you feel like you have to become a slave and check it every minute and update it constantly.  A few days or weekly post is fine.  Get into the habit of sharing your art work on each of the sites.  Learn about tools that will send the message over several of your sites at once.  Try to maintain an online portfolio on either or both Deviant Art and/or Instagram.  This will be very useful when networking and having to show someone your portfolio on the go.  Keep it up to date.  Remember to also make an artist Facebook page.  Its a good practice to keep your personal and professional life separate.  

 

Become familiar with the Graphic Artist Guild and purchase their handbook.  It contains very important information about pricing your work and contracts.  

 

Challenge yourself.  Participate in contests and trade shows like a comic book convention.  An art contest for comic or pop art is a perfect way to get exposure.  you would be surprised at the amount of people that begin to recognize your style, so always do your best.  Don't just do it.  Really put in the effort and then add it to your portfolio.  Attend comic conventions.  Get some advice from upcoming artists and support your local scene.  You'll get better information if you buy something from the artist.  Remember that you're taking up their time with your curiosity.  After 1 or 2 trips to the convention, get yourself a booth in artist alley.  

 

Don't be afraid of taking work for exposure, but learn when it is appropriate.  Many established artists won't do this, so take advantage.  When done correctly the experience can boost you up incredibly.  Interview the publisher and make sure they have the credentials: a large national or global audience that is verifiable.  Make sure that you are in agreement as to you being awarded recognition for your work and have it in writing as a written agreement with monetary consequences.  The work should be considerably a small job. Once published share it with everyone on your social media. 

 

Establish your rates and stick to them.  This will require you to evaluate the market.  See what other artist are charging for their work, especially artist that have similar talent to yourself.  Start at a competitive rate until you build up your recognition through your art work.  Try to set your price early on as to not be hassled by demanding clients, writers, and/or publishers. Stay firm on your prices, you did your research and you know your talent.      

 

Start practicing this today and mold yourself into a productive and creative artist.