Visual Vocabulary of Graphic Novels and Comic Books

Time to Catch Up

I got side tracked from this, so here are links to what I've discussed so far:

Layout, Panels and Grids

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Balloons and Captions

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Sound Effects

One

Two

Three

Next I'll be discussing:

Actions

Expressions

Feelings and emotions

Symbols

Glyphs

read next - Come and Get it Travel Time
previous - Gentleman Color Theory

Keep reading and follow me. If you have found this helpful, please let me know and share with other creators. Are the explanations clear and complete? Feel free to ask me questions.

Remember… Just Create!

If you are interested in further expanding your knowledge, then I recommend these books.

You can support this blog when you purchase a book by clicking the link below, I get a piece of the action and helps me to continue doing this blog. Support an artist today.

copyright 2013 H. Simpson

A Pause for the Cause

One of  a series of illustrations done for a Kelly Thomas video

How to Become a Comic Strip, Comic Book and Graphic Novel Artist

Okay I've discussed the terminology, tools and preparing your portfolio, as well as how to submit your art.

If you're just joining now, then it would be good to go to the beginning and read this is order.

Next we're going to look at the visual vocabulary of comics.

That includes:

Panels

Balloons

Captions

Sound Effects

Actions

Expressions

Feelings and emotions

Symbols

Glyphs

Next…Panels and gutters.

Keep reading and  +1 me. Share with your friends. Please comment. Just create!

copyright 2012 H. Simpson

Why Worry About Trim?

How to Become a Comic Strip, Comic Book and Graphic Novel Artist

Comic page sizes

The size of original comic book art used to be 200% larger than the printed size. This was done because it was easier for the artist to draw details and covered some mistakes when reduced.

The economy caused companies to try to save on paper and ink costs so comics are smaller than they were and the original art paper size has shrunk.

Now the original art is 150% larger than the printed size. The current paper size is 11" x 17" and the drawing area is 10" x 15". This is what you commonly are told.  If you work for a large company that gives you the paper to draw on, then you don't need to know any more than that.

It's a little more complicated than that. If you buy your own paper, you need to know a little more.

Bleed refers to art you want to go to the edge of the page - the trim size. However, if you want art to print to the edge, then your original art has to be drawn beyond the trim size to the bleed area. There also has to be a safe area to include lettering to be sure it doesn't get trimmed.

NOTE: If you self-publish you will make more money by creating comics with no bleed. You get charged for all that excess paper that gets trimmed away!

So these are the sizes you need to make. 

Live/Safe area is 9" x 13.5"

Bleed area is 10.5" x 15.75"

Trim size is 10" x 15"

These are the standard original art paper sizes. However, you can draw at any size that is proportional to the printed size. The ratio is 2:3. So if you have a small scanner you can make things easy for yourself. You don't have to draw on 11" x 17" paper and scan each half of the paper and put it back together on the computer. You can draw at a 2:3 ratio that fits your scanner.

The printed size of the current American comic is 6 3/4" x 10 1/4" (6.625" x 10.25"). 

With the current digital tools available and better printing technology you no longer have to do things the same way.

All caps were used as the standard for comic lettering because the ink would spread and close up in the small spaces between letters "a" and "e" for example. Using all caps presented new issues. A word like FLICK could not be used because the ink would spread and the word would become something else. Shield your eyes children! 

The point is that the early creators of comics wanted to use upper and lower case letters. They were forced to use all upper case by the poor quality of the paper and printing technology. So now with better paper, digital and printer technologies the creative choices are open once again. We can use upper and lower case letters which are easier to read. We don't have to keep using all caps because "that's the way it's always been done."

Likewise with drawing digitally. There's no need to draw at 11" x 17" on the computer and reduce it down. You can draw at the printed size and zoom in to 150% and you're drawing as if it is 11" by 17". There's no need to letter or color at the 11" x 17" size. You will keep your file size small and be able to see what it looks at printed size. You may also save time as you won't have to wait for your computer to render, redraw or catch up with you since your file size will be smaller. 

With original art you don't want to miniaturize. Which means drawing the same detail on a car that's far away as a car that is larger and closer to the reader. This helps to create atmospheric perspective and gives the illusion of depth. You still don't want to do this digitally, however the better quality of e-book readers and zoom in technology do open up some creative possibilities that didn't exist before. Think about it.

No matter what size you draw, use 600 dpi as your resolution. 

So here are the sizes you need to be aware of when creating a comic digitally at print size.

Live/Safe area is 6" x 9"

Bleed area is 7" x 10.5"

Trim size is 6.625" x 10.25"

*Note: Printers only need an 1/8" bleed. Any more is just a waste of your time and space.

A general guide for digital comic book lettering font sizes to use:

For print comics:

Light text (meaning not a lot of words)

size/leading = 7.35/7.75

Heavy Text (meaning you need to squeeze a lot of words on the page because it's probably over written)

size/leading = 6.35/6.75

For web comics:

Light Text

size/leading = 10/12

Heavy Text

size/leading = 9/11

A good guide is to use no more that 25 to 28 words per balloon or caption.

https://kleinletters.com/HandBasics.html - How to letter by hand by Todd Klein.

Next…  I'll have some templates for you to download or maybe I'll only make it available to people who I see follow me.

read next - Light My Fire
previous - Wow, What a Spread!

Keep reading and follow me. If you have found this helpful, please let me know and share with other creators. Are the explanations clear and complete? Feel free to ask me questions.

Remember… Just Create!

If you are interested in further expanding your knowledge, then I recommend these books.

You can support this blog when you purchase a book by clicking the link below, I get a piece of the action and helps me to continue doing this blog. Support an artist today.

Please support me making video tutorials on Patreon.

copyright 2012 H. Simpson

Ghost in the Machine

Ten years ago did you think you would be able to draw on this?

How to Become a Comic Strip, Comic Book and Graphic Novel Artist

DIGITAL TOOLS OF THE TRADE

Hardware

COMPUTER

You no longer need a desktop computer to create art.  Now there are all-in-one PCs with the monitor and case of the computer as a single unit. The monitor utilizes a touchscreen as a method of user input, however other input devices such as a detached keyboard and mouse are may still be included.

Also the computer is portable now with a variety of netbooks, laptops, notebooks, tablets and smartphones.

Netbooks are usually just for connecting to the internet and no applications can be loaded, so no use trying to use these to create art.

 Random-access memory (RAM) - Get the maximum amount of memory your computer can hold. Your software programs will run better, faster and you will get less freezing of your computer as you work with large files.

STANDARD INPUT DEVICES

•         Keyboard - A device to input text and characters.
•         Mouse - A pointing device that detects two dimensional motion. Do not try to draw with a mouse. It will be like using a bar of soap.

IMAGE, VIDEO INPUT DEVICES

•         Image scanner - A device that analyzes images and objects and coverts it to a digital file. Be sure it scans at least 600 dpi. A tabloid size scanner will make life easier, however a regular size scanner will do fine. if you can't afford a scanner you may be able to get scans done at your local office supply store.
•         Digital camera - Good to take photos and videos to use for reference for your drawings.
•         Graphics tablet and stylus - A flat surface which the user draws on with a pen-like drawing apparatus. A digitized image appears in the application program on screen. 

You want to get a tablet that has the ability to detect pressure, angle and speed of the stylus to mimic your natural drawing/painting style.

You should set the tablet to match the the ratio of your screen. Because of this it doesn't matter what size the tablet is and that's a good thing. I've used all of the sizes. I was able to do everything I needed with the small size that I did with the large size. Most professionals agree you don't need the large size. Small or medium will do just fine and save you money.

•         Touchpad - Interface that senses the position of a user’s finger and fingers on its surface.
•         Touchscreen - senses the user interaction directly on the monitor using optical grid sensors or a pressure sensitive film.

OUTPUT DEVICES

• Monitor - Get a 21-inch monitor or larger with crisp, clear images.

If you are doing coloring it's important to calibrate your monitor so the colors you see will be closer to the colors that will print. Don't expect it to be exact as you are looking at light on a display and it the published comic is ink on paper which is a different wavelength. The print will be darker colors.

•     Printer - A device that produces a text or graphic document.

        Laser printer uses a xerographic printing process, but differ from analog photocopiers in that the image is produced by the direct scanning of a laser beam across the printer's photo receptor.

        Inkjet printer creates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper.


STORAGE

• External Drive - Get a 2 or 3 terabyte drive to back-up your computer. Computers crash and freeze. This way you won't lose a whole job for a client that you've worked on for weeks and the computer decides to crash the day before the deadline.
• Discs - After each job is done you want to burn it to a DVD. Get it off your computer to free up room and label it so you know what's on it.

You can also use DVDs to deliver the job once it's complete. I'll discuss other delivery methods later.

to be continued....

read next - Rolling In The Deep
previous - Photocopy Your Bum

Keep reading and follow me. If you have found this helpful, please let me know and share with other creators. Feel free to ask me questions.

Remember… Just Create!

If you are interested in using these tools, then I recommend these products.

When you purchase a product by clicking the link below, I get a piece of the action and helps me to continue doing this blog. Support an artist today.

copyright 2012 H. Simpson

Talk the Lingo

How to Make a Comic Strip, Comic Book and Graphic Novel

Learn to do everything, which means write, draw, color and letter. If there is an opening for a letterer and not an artist, then take the lettering position. It's easier to get jobs from the inside than from the outside.

You don't know what a letterer is? Then it's time to learn some terminology so you don't have a blank look when an editor talks to you. Knowledge is power. Not the power of Greyskull, but enough.

1. PLOT - Written breakdown of the story with significant actions and some dialogue. The artist takes the plot and visually decides the page breakdown and pacing of the story.

2. SCRIPT -  The words; dialogue and captions - that will be used in the comic. There are also directions to the artist concerning the environment, actions, thought process, motivations, emotions of the characters. The script can be broken down in panel by panel form or page by page.

3. DIALOGUE - The words spoken by the characters usually depicted in word balloons.

4. BALLOONS - An area called a balloon which contains the dialogue. A balloon tail points towards the mouth of the character who speaks. The most common balloon is rectangular or oval shaped and called a Word balloon. Burst balloons show when someone is screaming. Double Outline balloons add emphasis to the words. Radio/Electric  balloons show when speech is transmitted through any type of communication device. Telepathic balloons are creatively executed balloons to show telepathy. Thought balloons are made up of bubbles and a tail with smaller individual bubbles. These reveal the thoughts of the characters, but aren't used so much these days. Wavy balloons show the speech of an emotionally or physically distressed character. Whisper balloons are dotted or grayed out to show a character speaking in hushed tones.

4. CAPTIONS -  A narrative device. There are four types used in comics. Reveal location and time of events. Reveal character thoughts. Show off-panel dialogue of character. The narrative of the Omnipotent Observer or a character involved with the story who tells the story - a narrator.

5. OMNIPOTENT OBSERVER - Knows all and tells all to the reader, even things the characters may not know. This is not a character in the story. It's an unknown entity that hovers above it all.

Resources

Fonts
Calligraphy
Transform your handwriting into a font on this website.

Writing
How to Write Comics by Alan Moore

Self-publishing
Dave Sim's essays on self-publishing.

to be continued…

Keep reading. Share with your friends. Please comment. Just Create!

read next - Making Magic
previous - The Nitty Gritty Begins

copyright 2012 H. Simpson

If you are interested in further expanding your knowledge, then I recommend these books.

When you purchase a book by clicking the link below, I get a piece of the action and helps me to continue doing this blog. Support an artist today.