Should I be Afraid of Drawing Glyphs?

What the glyph?

A glyph is a visual shortcut to communicate story information. Similar to hieroglyphics that have images for men, pharaohs, water  and more to help tell the story.

Glyphs take the form of stereotypes, caricatures, audience expectations and lazy drawing.

Stereotype examples

Caricatures

Expectations

There are some characteristics we associate with how an evil person can look, so we rely on glyphs to communicate that quickly to an audience.

The hero has the square firm jawline. The audience expects that, so when they see it, they think heroic character.

Lazy Drawing

This is an Asian man. 

This a lazy drawing of an Asian man, with exaggerated slanted eyes.

Drawing Crutch

An artist may also draw the same eyes and mouth all the time.The characters may be different, but the eyes, mouth and nose shapes will always be the same or similar. It’s a learned drawing crutch from mental or muscle memory.

This completes our look at the visual vocabulary used in comics, graphic novels and comic strips.

Next we start our look at anatomy. Oh, what fun we'll have!

read next - It's Not Grey's Anatomy
previous - How Much Should I Charge for My Art Services?

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Remember… Just Create!

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copyright 2014 H. Simpson

The Magic of Cartoonists

Iconography Part 9 - Visual Vocabulary of Graphic Novels, Comic Books and Comic Strips

Art Tricks

Whiteope - open space left between lines to separate foreground elements from the background.

Boozex - Three Xs marked on a bottle to suggest booze. No need for brand names!

Digitrons - The dotted lines that show which way a comic strip character is pointing or eye direction (looking)

Lapsebeams - show time has passed

Dotted line - Indicate trail to follow or path taken.


More to come. Stay connected

read next - Do You Want to Sell Merchandise With Celebrity Images?
previous - Smells Like Teen Spirit

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Remember… Just Create!

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copyright 2013 H. Simpson

Smells Like Teen Spirit

Iconography Part 8 - Visual Vocabulary of Graphic Novels, Comic Books and Comic Strips

Tactile Sensation

Clouds obscure figures with sparks and lighting bolts flying out - indicates a brutal and vicious fight.

Burst lines (a short series) - indicate surprise, yelling, weird sound, clapping, applause.

Smoke - indicate explosion

Sensory Sensation

Waftarom - the pair of elongated wavy lines indicating odor or aroma, usually emanating vertically from the source and then traveling horizontally, as if on a breeze.

Hunger - substitution of body parts or whole people for food substances

Doozex - Sawing of a log -  Snoring

to be continued...

read next - The Magic of Cartoonists
previous - Turn on the Night Lights

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

Turn on the Night Lights

Iconography Part 7 - Visual Vocabulary of Graphic Novels, Comic Books and Comic Strips

Light

Dites - Diagonal, straight lines drawn across flat, clear and reflective surfaces, such as windows and mirrors.
Hites - Drawn on something indicating reflectivity (puddle, glass, mirror).
Vites - Vertical straight lines indicating reflectivity.
Lucaflect - A shiny spot on a surface of entity, depicted as a four-paned window shape.

Solrads - Radiating lines drawn from something luminous like a lightbulb, sun or candle.

Temperature 

Exotherm - Wavy, rising lines used to represent process or reaction that releases energy from the entity, usually in the form of heat or steam.

to be continued....

read next - Smells Like Teen Spirit
previous - Twerking, Stagerring and Agitating the Visual Vocabulary of Comics

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

Twerking, Stagerring and Agitating the Visual Vocabulary of Comics

Iconography Part 6 - Visual Vocabulary of Graphic Novels, Comic Books and Comic Strips

Physical action or state

Staggeration - The dotted lines tracing the path of an inebriated character.

Blurgits  - Curved lines preceding or trailing after a character's moving limbs.

Briffits - Clouds of dust that hang in the spot of a swiftly departing entity.
Hites - Horizontal straight lines trailing after entity moving with speed.
Hites and puffs of smoke indicate great speed.


Sphericasia - Curved action line indicating great swing like a roundhouse punch.

That-a-tron - Lesser sphericasia indicating the repeated motion of pointing, usually a pair of curved lines parallel to the end of the pointing digit or object.
Agitrons - Wiggly lines around a shaking object or character. Lesser sphericasia indicating the repeated motion of a head shake, usually a pair of curved lines parallel to the head. (you often see these when a character is stunned by what they see) Double lines (one or more sets) - indicate vibration, movement, trembles or shaking
Swalloops - complete sphericasia. (classic example is the arc of Thor's swinging hammer)

Neoflect - Entity is brand spanking new.

Emanata
Musical notes - singing
teardrops - crying
Bubbles coming from someone’s nose or mouth – inebriation

to be continued... 

read next - Turn on the Night Lights
previous -  I Knew You Were Trouble

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!

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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

I Knew You Were Trouble

Iconography Part 5 - Visual Vocabulary of Graphic Novels, Comic Books and Comic Strips

There are different categories of iconography used in comics. Today we are going to discuss:

Emotions and expressions of mental state

First, we have emanata.

Emanata - 1. Any lines indicating the emergence of a substance, such as steam blowing from a bull's nostrils, which suggest anger and about to charge. 2. What emerges from the character's head such as musical notes, hearts or stars that in intense situations can form a halo around a head.

Hovering above head 

! - surprise


? - curiosity, questioning 

Little hearts emanating as a character gazes in adoration - love, infatuation, desire, falling in love


Circling birds/stars -  wooziness, dizziness, partial consciousness, pain (usually the result of  contact between entities
)

Doozex - Zzzz - sleep  

Dark Scribble - bad mood (somewhat tornado shaped) 

Curly lines, tornado or corkscrew line - indicates frustration


Black cloud (with lightning) -  depressed or out of luck


Skull and crossbones -  avarice, wanting someone dead


Light bulb - an idea, inspiration
Lightning bolt – anger, rage  

Plewds: The scattering of liquid drops from the head indicating working hard, stressed, fear, cold sweat, anxiety, panic. worried, nervous, frustration or anger.

Squeans: small asterisk-like bursts or circles that signify nausea, intoxication, dizziness or sickness. Usually occurring in threes.

Spurl - spiral above the head to indicate unconsciousness, usually due to being knocked out.

From eyes

knife or dagger from eye - hate

teardrops - crying

On Face

Scribble (or red) on cheeks - embarassment

Next we have oculama.

Oculama  - The cartoon science of substitutions for eyes to convey an expression

Hearts - love, infatuation, sexual desire
Dollars $ - greed, desire for money

Spirals – mesmerized, hypnotized

Crottles - the Xs used to replace the eyes of an unconscious figure and often indicating death.

to be continued...

read next - Twerking, Staggering and Agitating the Visual Vocabulary of Comics
previous - The Attack of the Jargon!

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!

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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

The Attack of the Jargon!

Iconography Part 4 - Visual Vocabulary of Graphic Novels, Comic Books and Comic Strips

Jargon ©2013 H. Simpson

Before we dive into tomorrow's tasty morsel, let's get some perspective.

Every profession and industry develops their own jargon that is understood in that restricted environment. Real words acquire different meanings in these environments. Gutters in the comic industry means the space between panels, while in the outside world gutters mean something that drains off rain water.

Likewise, some professions find the need to make up their own words. Some remain real words only to those who understand them in the proper environment. They are unknown and misunderstand to the outside world. Then there are cases where the jargon leaks out and becomes commonly used in the outside world. Not only is it commonly used, but graduates from jargon to mainstream word and gets into the dictionary.

I'm going to use an extreme example. Band-aid is a made up word that started life as a trademark for a company. Because of falling into common usage it is now a dictionary word that means an adhesive bandage with a gauze pad in the center, used to cover minor wounds.

Most of the words from yesterday and ones I'm going to cover are made up and are used only within the specific context of comics. But hark, some words have left this rarified atmosphere and have reached the ear of the common man. So be not taken aback if ye shall one day find these definitions in a dictionary.

So once again and I will give credit where it is due. Mort Walker created these words as a joke for the National Cartoonists Society magazine. He put them in a book titled Lexicon of Comicana. He considered it a humor book. Alas, it became a case of satire falling flat. The bookstores stocked his book under Art Instruction and so it remains, as people actually do use the words. After all we need to call them something, right? I 'm not using every word he coined. I'm changing where needed.

to be continued…

read next - I Knew You Were Trouble
previous - I'm Going to Wash Your Mouth Out With Soap

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

The Cunning Linguist

Iconography Part 1 - Visual Vocabulary of Graphic Novels, Comic Books and Comic Strips

Here we are at symbols. Up until now, a valiant attempt has been made to discuss visual vocabulary in a way that has no relation to style or to western and eastern cultures. You could draw realistically, abstractly or very cartoony and most of what has been discussed would apply.

Now here's where we separate the big foot artists from the representational. Hold on to your chapeau, as this might make your brain hurt. We need to get some definitions in order.

Symbol – an image which gets its meaning only through the association of a systematic form from a rule or convention.

Iconic – an image gets its meaning through resemblance to what it means.

Glyph - an image that gets it's meaning from a stereotypical or common association. It's an artistic shortcut that can sometimes be a caricature or just the result of laziness.

No graphics to illustrate these right now, as I don't want to poison you. You shouldn't  get a fixed image in your head yet.

to be continued…

Remember… Just Create!

to be continued…

read next - Cracked is not so crazy
previous -  Can You Feel it?

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.

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.

Can You Feel it?

Expressions Part 3 - Visual Vocabulary of Graphic Novels, Comic Books and Comic Strips

Norman Rockwell

Drawing your characters so they express feelings and emotions should not be hard. You are carrying a face with you everyday. Keep a mirror by your drawing table, so you can act out the emotion and see what it looks  like. Now that you've seen it, think back to a time when your felt the emotion. Feel the emotion as you draw it. This will give the character some truth. As you draw your face may unconsciously create that expression. If it does, then you've in the zone!

Study the faces of other people was you go about your day. Create a mental file of the different feelings and moods you see them express.

Practice drawing your face in a mirror as you do different emotions. Feel the effect your eyes, eyebrows, mouth and facial muscles as you go from on extreme to another. Don't be shy! Really consort your face.

Look at how the attitude of the head changes. It may lean forward, drop, tilt or recoil.

Be here next time as we discuss Symbols.

to be continued...

read next - The Cunning Linguist
previous - Blurred Lines

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

Blurred Lines

Expressions Part 2 - Visual Vocabulary of Graphic Novels, Comic Books and Comic Strips

Don't let this happen to your drawings.

You want your drawings to show different expressions. For these examples, I'm using a head only. The head only makes for blurry communication and leaves interpretation up for grabs. Without a body and context the viewer's reaction to what the expression is saying limits the true communication.

Using the face from yesterday and just moving the eyebrows around, you will find that doing that changes the expression. Sometimes it doesn't take much. There's a time to be subtle and their's a time to exaggerate. 

I've adapted an expression chart for our purposes here.

That concludes today's discussion.

Now to the conclusion of  the contest. I would like to thank everyone who took the time to enter. You are all awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Be on the lookout for the next contest.

Now let's find out who are our

And the winners of the Jot Pro are
+Peter Chiu

and

+Andy Hunt

Enjoy your new stylus!

to be continued…

read next - Can You Feel it?
previous - Express Yourself!

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.

Express Yourself!

Expressions Part 1 - Visual Vocabulary of Graphic Novels, Comic Books and Comic Strips

Expressions are your means to help communicate what the character is thinking or feeling.

They are tricky. Outside of a story the expression may not mean  what you want it to mean. Also, a smile usually means happy, yet the story context may change that meaning, as well as any visuals you add.

Below we see the first basic smiling face which can mean happy. The following faces are exactly identical except for some visual additions, the face itself has not changed at all. 

Add some sweat and the same smiling face will mean nervous. Add some color and that face is embarrassed. Or add some radiating lines and suddenly the face is pleasantly surprised.

Now some of you may say that those faces don't look nervous, embarrassed or surprised to me at all. You would be right! If I didn't put the labels, all of you would come up with different label expressions absent of a story.

Keep this in mind as we begin our discussions about expressions. The context is very important in determining how the expression is perceived, not just the drawing.

to be continued…

read next - Blurred Lines
previous - Action Part 11 - Visual Vocabulary of Graphic Novels and Comic Books


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.