Read my Book for Free

Read Tangent City for FREE!

You can read my book "Tangent City – Don't Go There" for FREE until October 19th. Tangents are the number one killer of space and depth in art. Tangent City is the place no serious artist wants to go. "Tangent City – Don't Go There" shows you how to recognize tangents in a drawing and then equips you to see how to avoid them in your art. This book is a Reference Guide for Artists, Cartoonists, Designers, Illustrators and Painters.

You may not be an artist, but you might know one who can benefit from this information.

You can read it online on Amazon.

Please leave me a review after you read it.
It helps me a lot to know what you think and feel about it.

Here's a sample of what is inside.

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

BONUS LINKS TO ART STORES!

http://www.blueroosterartsupplies.com/
http://www.artistcraftsman.com/
https://www.dickblick.com/
https://www.utrechtart.com/

Remember... Just Create!

Copyright 2019 H. Simpson

How to Fix Your Flat Art

Your Flat Art Sucks

To celebrate Free Comic Book Day, we are offering our book Tangent City – Don't Go There: Reference Guide for Artists, Cartoonists, Designers, Illustrators and Painters for a limited time. 

Tangents are the number one killer of space and depth in your drawings, paintings, comic books and graphic novels. Tangent City is the place no serious artist wants to go. Tangent City – Don't Go There shows you how to recognize tangents in a drawing and then equips you to see how to avoid them in your art, comic books or graphic novels. This guide helps you build your understanding of tangents so you can avoid them and identify those that slip by you during the drawing process. Inside you'll find:

• Complete identification of the different types of tangents.
• Poor cropping which is related to tangents
• Making flying and falling figures more dynamic and convincing
• Shortcuts and tips show you how to take a flat drawing and make it dynamic and more interesting.

Get Your FREE Guide Now! Before Time Runs Out

What's the catch? You will have to sign up for our newsletter. Which will give you access to more freebies, tutorials, videos, news and special offers

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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 using these tools, then I recommend these products and books.

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

BONUS LINKS TO ART STORES!

http://www.blueroosterartsupplies.com/
http://www.artistcraftsman.com/
https://www.dickblick.com/
https://www.utrechtart.com/

Remember... Just Create!

Copyright 2019 H. Simpson

Drawing a Day February 26

February 26 - Onyx

A longstanding member of the League of Assassins, who eventually decided to retire from her life of murder.

A DC Comics character.

Created by Jerome Moore. You can find him at:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerome-moore-6825613/
https://www.artstation.com/jeromemoore

To celebrate Black History Month, I'm participating in #28black and drawing one black superhero or villain per day.

Buying one of the books below will give me a piece of the action and help support this blog.
Support an artist today.

Remember... Just Create!

A Drawing a Day February 15

February 15 - Torchy Brown

Creator-owned.

To celebrate Black History Month, I'm participating in #28black and drawing one black superhero or villain per day.

Today we show respect to a trailblazer.

Jackie Ormes (August 1, 1911 – December 26, 1985) is the first African-American woman cartoonist and creator of the "Torchy Brown in Dixie to Harlem" comic strip in 1937 and the "Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger" a single-panel cartoon.

In 1950, Ormes re-invented her Torchy character in a new comic strip, "Torchy in Heartbeats." This Torchy was a beautiful, independent woman who finds adventure while seeking true love.

Ormes contracted with the Terri Lee doll company in 1947 to produce a play doll based on her little girl cartoon character. The Patty-Jo doll was on the shelves in time for Christmas and was the first American black doll to have an extensive upscale wardrobe.

Her heroines, like the iconic Torchy Brown, Candy, and Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger, all ignored the heinous, albeit expected, stereotypical look and actions of a black woman in media (fat, slow, dumb, not graceful etc). Ormes's characters are strong and independent women who are socially and politically aware, who strive for their goals against all odds, defy social norms, and pick themselves up by the bootstraps and move on to the next adventure, instead of languishing in their downfalls.

You may find more information on this web site
http://jackieormes.com/


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Happy Valentines Day

Love

A commission I did for a wife to present to her husband. She wrote the story and I drew a comic strip about how they first met and fell in love. I gave her the digital art file. She had it printed and framed. As you can see, he was very happy. Love always wins. Happy Valentines Day! ❤️
Buying one of the books below will give me a piece of the action and help support this blog.
Support an artist today.

Remember... Just Create!

A Drawing a Day February 13

February 13 - Ironheart

(Riri Williams) has Super-Genius Intelligence.Riri has devised and created various contrivances, including her own version of the Iron Man Armor, which she reverse-engineered from scratch. She used the name Iron Man while Tony Stark was out of action A Marvel Comics character. To celebrate Black History Month, I'm participating in #28black and drawing one black superhero or villain per day.

Time-lapse of the drawing

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A Drawing a Day February 10

February 10 - M'Shulla

Mud brother to Killraven during the War of the Worlds.

A Marvel Comics character.

To celebrate Black History Month, I'm participating in #28black and drawing one black superhero or villain per day.

Buying one of the books below will give me a piece of the action and help support this blog.
Support an artist today.

Remember... Just Create!

A Drawing a Day - February 4

February 4 - Shuri

A Marvel Comics character 

To celebrate Black History Month, I'm participating in #28black and drawing one black superhero or villain per day.

Buying one of the books below will give me a piece of the action and help support this blog.
Support an artist today.

Remember... Just Create!

Steve Ditko Tribute

Steve Ditko

Steve Ditko was a big influence on me getting interested in the craft of drawing. I recently purchased some of his work in his last Kickstarter campaign. I will be receiving it with a heavy heart.

He truly deserves the term "Legendary Artist" Here is my tribute to him and his creations. Too many creations for me to draw here.

The world of comics is a little less colorful and wacky without him.
RIP

Remember... Just Create!

Steve Ditko has Passed Away

Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man and Dr. Strange and many other characters has passed away at 90.

The comic industry is a sad place today as it has lost a legend and inspiration to many of us.

I was fortunate to have worked with him. I'll share that at a later date.

You may read more here.

Ditko in his studio.

Very few people draw Dr. Strange as mysterious as Ditko did.

Other characters he created include, The Question, Hawk & Dove and one of my favorites, The Creeper.

Self- portrait  and photo of him in his studio.

Remember... Just Create!

Twitter would have bought DC Comics to it's knees in 1964.

This article could have been titled:
Why comics started showing faceless Presidents or
Good thing Twitter was not around in 1964.

In 1964, Action Comics No. 309 was published. Once again Superman has to keep Lois Lane and Lana Lang from finding out his secret identity. He doesn't wear a mask. Why do people think he has a secret identity? Why is Superman such a blabber mouth? "I have a secret identity. I have a secret base in the Arctic called Fortress of Solitude. I can't see through lead."

Back to the story. Clark and Superman have to be in the same place, at the same time, on national television. None of Superman's usual tricks are going to work. Who will masquerade as Clark Kent?

Do I need a spoiler alert for a story from 1964?

Superman gets President John F. Kennedy to dress up as Clark Kent and save the day. Hey, that's cool. Nice story. Unfortunately, the story came out after November 22, 1963. Oh,oh. You have stepped in deep doo-doo now DC Comics. Well, they stepped in it by mistake. This is not a condemnation of DC Comics who did nothing wrong, but was a victim of bad timing.

The letters column in Action Comics No. 312 showed the resulting outrage at showing the beloved dead president. . Whoops, if Twitter had been around in 1964 we would have seen outrage. However, DC Comics chose which letters to print. The public got to read the reasonable, level headed responses. One can only imagine the amount of vitriolic, hate filled, savage and venomous letters they received. The editor - Mort Weisinger - did hint at these type of letters in his response.

In 2018, DC Comics doesn't have this type of control over fans. One could only imagine what the result would be today.

copyright 1964 DC Comics

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I'm Open for Commissions

Working on a commission right now. 

The water is going to be hard to draw.

Fury and Tsunami

Remember... Just Create!

Looney Tunes Comic Book Art

Porky Pig and Donald Duck Comic Book Pages

Pencil art I've done for DC Comics.

Remember... Just Create!

Read my Art Ebook for FREE

Welcome to Tangent City

FREE Ebook

You can my read my ebook for FREE (more of an e-pamphlet) if you have KindleUnlimited on Amazon at https://tinyurl.com/tangentcity

The book is to help artists avoid some nasty cooties called “tangents” in their art. So spread the word far and wide.

Right now I’m ranked around #900 in the Art Books category. Not bad considering how many thousands of art books are available there.

Now I only ask you for one teensy-bitsy favor . You can help increase my ranking if you give a review after reading it. I want to get into the Top 100 and your review can help make that possible. Your review might even get marked as useful, because it encouraged an artist to read it. and that’s my purpose to help other artists.

If you can spare the time, it would be much appreciated.Thank you.

Wait! There’s more! It helps more if people actually buy it for 99 cents! Just a thought, however, I don’t want to be greedy. I’ll go for the fame first and the fortune later.

#tangent #tangentcity #abbastudios #artist #illustrator #painter #educational #instructional #comics  #comicbooks  #education #studentproblems 

 #madewith wacom #madewithInDesign #adobeillustrator #adobeindesign

What Are Comics Better at Than Movies?

What Do Comics and Graphic Novels Do that Live Action Movies and TV Cannot?

Art copyright 2017 H. Simpson

Combine visuals and texts.

Use sound effects as part of the visual narrative.

Use action and speed lines.

Depict action and dialogue simultaneously that are impossible to do in film.

Can read the character’s thoughts.

Use panels to play with the sense of time and space.

Metamorphosis of objects into panels.

Does not have to appeal to a wide demographic.

Time is for represented by space - the panel’s distance from each other.

A page can be designed.

Can use juxtaposition to imply or infer to the reader.

Can infer a comparison between panels, even if they are not next each other.

One page can be a series of panels that make one larger meta-panel.

Reader can stop, think and compare panels and pages.

Rita can flip back and forth between pages.

Narrative captions to explain things, clarify emotions, actions and motivations.

Comic stories can be very complex and nonlinear, yet still be understandable. Because the reader can absorb it at their own pace and reread it.

Pacing is controlled by the amount of dialogue, text, panel size and amount of detail in panel.

• Minimal amount of dialogue in action scenes.
• More dialogue to slow down for thoughtful moments.

Create rhythms with amount and size of panels.

Each panel is a frozen moment to sell that part of the story.

Be representational, impressionistic and abstract at the same time.

Are there any that I missed? Please include them in the comments below.

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Follow and subscribe to 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.

Please support me making video tutorials on Patreon 

Remember… Just Create!

Copyright 2017 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.

Web Comics You Should be Reading

Check out my web comics:

Romantical Tales

My satirical look at old Romance Comics from the 1940s and 50s. Each chapter combined with new art and text. Hey, you might even pick up some dating tips.

How do these stories hold up in the 21st century? Let's see what our two readers, "The Silo Girls" think.

You may even get some love advice.

It would really help me if you would tell me what you think about it and subscribe. Please help me to get 600 subscribers and please the rate the comic.

You may check them out on the platform of your choice Webtoon or Tapas.

http://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/romantical-tales/list?title_no=40991

http://tinyurl.com/jlrho7o

Zone 26

Zone 26 is where anything can happen and usually does! Use your good eye while you are here, as things are not what they appear to be at first glance. Zone 26 is a black and white world.

What is Zone 26? 

"It's like Cartoon Jazz," says Jon (Superman) Bogdanove. Please help me to reach my goal of getting 250,000 views. Please share and comment. I like to know what you think.
Repeated views count, so come back often.

Please help me to get 600 subscribers and please the rate the comic.

You may check them out on the platform of your choice Webtoon or Tapas

https://tapas.io/series/375

http://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/zone-26/list?title_no=40980

Welcome to Tangent City

Check out my webcomic Tangent City - Don't Go There! The place no serious artist wants to go. The number one killer of depth in art is tangents. A look at how to take the detours. Please share and comment. I like to know what you think.

Check it out on Tapas
https://tapas.io/series/433

Keep reading and +1 this blog. Share with your friends. Please comment.

Remember… Just Create!

Copyright 2017 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.

More Jack Kirby Creations to Draw

The Jack Kirby Tribute book is very close to getting 100 artists to draw 100 Kirby creations. More info here.

I’m thinking the last few characters are not grabbing anyone. So I’m jumped back into the Kirby Cosmic Creation pool and pulled out these gems.

There are only nine slots left for artists and you have your choice of these characters to draw for the tribute book.

Ajax

Angry Charlie

Balder

Bombast

Captain 3-D

Captain Glory

Captain Victory

Crystal

Destroyer Duck

Director Chusang

Fourth Sleeper

Glorious Godfrey

Goom

Kalibak

Mangog

Mantis

Metron

Overlord

Recorder

Sersi

Silver Star

Vykin the Black

The Wizard

The Wrecker

Remember.... Just Create!