I'm at Wonder Con

I'll be doing sketches at the Tapastic booth at Wonder Con today (saturday) at 4:30.  Bring your sketch book for free skecthes.

A New Movie Poster

A recent movie poster illustration and logo I designed.

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

copyright 2012 H. Simpson.

Top 10 Amateur Lettering Mistakes

Top 10 Amateur Lettering Mistakes

Nate Piekos warns amateurs not to make these mistakes by helping them see what them look like.
Check out his web-site Blambot.

Number 5 should be "INconsistent"!

to be continued…

read next - How to Copyright Your Art and Comic Book Creations
previous - What Makes You Beautiful?

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!

Copyright 2016 H. Simpson

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

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What Makes You Beautiful Speech Balloons?

Word Balloons and Lettering for your Comic Book, Comic Strip and Graphic Novel

Comic Book Speech Balloons and Lettering

You are going to be in one of three situations concerning lettering:

1. You get a plot from a writer/co-writer. In which case, you won't know the exact dialogue ahead of time.

Typically when you do your art you should leave about a third of the panel space at top for word balloons. That doesn't mean you leave empty space, it means you compose your scene so no vital information gets covered.You want to make your lettered page beautiful.

Here's a couple of pages I did from a plot. You can see that I've mostly left space at the top of the panels.

Panel 3 is a little tight above her head.

Panel 2 is tight above their heads, however there is plenty of space on each side as an alternative.

2. You get a full script from a writer/co-writer. Now you do have the dialogue and captions. 

Now you can immediately consider the balloon placement when you do your thumbnails and layouts.

3. You are writing this yourself. Now you do know the dialogue and captions and most likely you keep changing it as you go along. Creative people… sheesh!

In any case you are still considering the whole page design with the balloons. There may not be a written script, as some artists start conceiving the story while they do their thumbnails. Which is what I do when I do the thumbnails.

I've included approximate balloon placements in my page design.

to be continued…

Comic Book Grammar & Tradition

BETTER LETTERER: Comic Lettering Tips

read next - Top 10 Amateur Lettering Mistakes
previous - Introduction to Speech Balloons

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!

Copyright 2016 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.

Introduction to Speech Balloons and Lettering for Comic Books

Word Balloons and Lettering for your Comic Book, Comic Strip and Graphic Novel

Okay, it looks like I can get back to a regular blogging schedule.

This is an introduction to word balloons and lettering.

I started learning lettering by hand when I began my career. I quickly decided I rather spend my time drawing. I didn't enjoy hand lettering. However, I did make sure I did the balloon placements whenever I could. Every artist should do this if you are not lettering your own work.

As an artist the word balloons should be considered a part of the page design and not an after thought.

If you are working with a writer from a plot, then you can't really incorporate the balloons into your layout. After the script is written make sure you do the balloon placements.

If you are the writer or get a full script from the writer, then you should make the balloon placement a consideration in your page design.

I do the lettering with the computer now, so I'll be discussing that. 

Here's how to hand letter comics.

http://www.blambot.com/handlettering.shtml

http://www.dharbin.com/blog/process-using-the-mighty-ames-lettering-guide/

http://www.artofthecomicbook.com/materials/lettering-amesguide.htm
http://kleinletters.com/HandBasics.html

Until tomorrow take a look at this fine example of hand lettering by Todd Klein.

He may still have some prints available. Check out his blog. Tell him I sent you.

OOHH my! I just found this minutes after I posted my blog, by Chris Oatley about balloon placement. Consider it a preview of what I'm going to cover.

BONUS LINK!

Comic Book Tropes

to be continued…

read next - What Makes You Beautiful?
previous -  Free Form Panel and Page Design

Keep reading this blog. Share with your friends. Please comment.

Remember… Just create!

Copyright 2016 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.

Free Form Panel and Page Design for Comics and Graphic Novels

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

Let's look at a few examples of how to make decisions for a free form designed page based on story, action, anchor image and time progression.

Making decisions based on story.

If you have a very quiet or character driven story, you may decide to use smaller and square panels to make the story feel more intimate.

A story with an epic scale may use larger panels and more horizontal panels to give a sense of grandeur and large vistas.

An action story may have a combination of small panels and large panels to contrast the pedestrian and active or dramatic moments.

© Chris Ware

A nice quiet page of normal events.

© Will Eisner

The last page invokes sadness by designing the page to have the panels represent eyes that seem to be crying.

© Will Eisner

This page is designed to give the readers the sense of looking through the files with the character.

Making decisions based on action and psychological thrillers.

A few different options are available to you.

Use slanted panels where there is action and standard square and rectangles where there is not.

Design the panels to flow with the action.

May use vey haphazard and irregular panels to reflect the chaos or mental state of characters.

art by Joe Madureira
© Marvel Comics 

art by Alex Toth
© DC Comics

© Chris Ware

Awesome page design reflects the mental and emotional state of the character.

Making decisions based on anchor image.

The anchor image is the one image you decide to build your page around to hold it together.

That image can be an active single figure or a close-up. It can also be a dramatic moment and built around a scene.

art by Walt Simonson
© DC Comics

Here the anchor image is the structure. Excellent page design. The structure is designed to be seen first yet it moves your eye to each panel.

Making decisions based on time progression.

This one is the trickiest and where you can be very creative. 

So far I've kept content separate from the design. In this case the design decision to manage time can be altered by the content. As I pointed out earlier film and video are still frames projected at a rapid rate to give the illusion of movement. Panels and gutters are used to give the illusion of time passing. I'll get into this later when I start dealing with content. Page design and panel layout do not decide the content and meaning.

Let's say you decide to use 4 small square panels to condense time. The same 4 square panels can show either:

• quick action
• simultaneous events
• stretch out an action
• no temporal transitions - just a series of cuts to object of attention in the same scene.

The gutters can be widened or condensed to indicate time has passed at different rate between panels. Large gutter means more time has passed between panels. Smaller than normal gutter can indicate a shorter time passage between panels.

© Walt Simonson

Simultaneous events shown.

Now this would seem to be a good time to segue into content and it looks like I have set it up that way, but alas such is not the case.

I still have balloons, captions, sound effects, actions, expressions, symbols, glyphs, feelings and emotions to discuss.

Next… word balloons.

read next - Introduction to Speech Balloons
previous - Review Panels in Comics and Graphic Novels

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 2012 H. Simpson

Review Panels in Comics and Graphic Novels

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

Okay, let's get back on track. Let's review.

art © 2012 H. Simpson

We've been discussing using geometric page layouts called grids to create a visual rhythm and tempo with repetition and variations in panel shape. The variations are used to highlight dramatic moments in the narrative.

Panels frame and contain the content for the reader. The size of the panel can be an indicator of how much time passes. Comics don't have movement to indicate time. But when you think about it no media does have movement. Film, video and animation all have still frames. We are given the illusion of movement by the rapid projection rate.

The eye moves more quickly over smaller panels. Larger panels make the eye linger longer, so it seems  more time is passing.

Now we're going to discuss free form page designs. This means you don't decide to use a grid and every page can have different panel shapes.

The size and number of the panels on the page is decided by:

• Story
• Action
• Anchor Image
• Passage of time

So I'll start breaking this down next time.

to be continued...

read next - Free Form Panel and Page Design for Comics and Graphic Novels
previous - A nice method to do thought balloon lettering.

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 2012 H. Simpson

Panels and More Panels

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

The Horizontal Panel 

This shape most closely fits the normal human field of vision which is 180 degrees. This shape can help to make the reader feel comfortable. This panel shape is good for panorama views also.

The Inset Panel

This is usually used to show a close-up of a detail or to highlight something you don't want the reader to miss.

Best to use a double border to separate it from the surrounding panel to avoid tangents as well as confusing the reader.

The Overlapping Panel

Usually used to make a stronger connection between panels or to really compress time.

Best to use a double border or cut-in to separate it from the surrounding panel to avoid tangents as well as confusing the reader.

Or a nice strong black in one background can separate the the panels. 

I see a hand raised. "What's a tangent?" I'm glad you asked. Let's go off on tangent now to answer that question and then come back to panels and page design.

Be here tomorrow for a visit to Tangent City.

read next - A nice method to do thought balloon lettering.

previous - 69 Grid

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 2012 H. Simpson.

IN-GRID

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

The Grid

Good designers use a grid. Great designers know when to break the grid.

A grid helps you to provide patterns and rhythms with your panels, thus creating pacing and manipulating time.

What is a grid? For our purposes it's a system for organizing your panels on the page. You've seen it all your life and you may not even have known it. It's used in newspapers, magazines and web sites. And also comics!  Let's look at the history briefly.

Illustrated manuscripts were first produced by monks during the dawn of the Middle Ages to transcribe sacred text. The grids used here are a combination of vertical and horizontal lines as seen in these examples.

As you can see the grid was flexible and showed variety back then, even as it does now. It is not restrictive, it is liberating. It can allow your visual design sense and storytelling to be very dynamic by allowing you think about content, time and space within a framework. It's easy to be creative when you're free. It's more challenging when you create a cage for yourself.

The grid can be used to control time as well as for psychological and aesthetic effect. It gives you a systematic way to layout your pages and give it consistency and unity.

Jim Steranko's Chandler (1976) was one of the early graphic novels. The others released that year were adaptions or compilations. Chandler was an original work. The cover calls itself a visual novel, while inside it's called a graphic novel. It's not the first graphic novel*, but it is indeed the first illustrated novel to combine comic book panels and text in this way. 

Steranko made a creative decision ahead of time to use this grid.

It would seem to be he painted himself in a corner, however he was very creative with his use of this grid. 

Chandler copyright Jim Steranko

*Gil Kane's Blackmark published in January 1971 is the first graphic novel. The term graphic novel was not in wide use then. Europe had what they called "albums" and manga were in Japan.

to be continued...

read next - 4 Panel Grid
previous - Comic Book and Graphic Novel Panels

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.

The designer's guide to grid theory

The Grid

15 Reasons Why A Grid Based Approach Will Improve Your Designs

Using Layout Grids Effectively 

copyright 2012 H. Simpson

Costume design

Costume Design

Costume design I did for a convention booth babe.

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

copyright 2012 H. Simpson