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[deepbluevibes]

I'm not a TOTAL beginner at artwork, but i'm far from decent.

My artwork would be a bit less "attractive" than the very first comic you made, if you want a comparision.

anyways, i'm a film major, I edit films and all that, etc. but lately i've realized that while that's something i'm good at, for three years now i've been writing this story of mine and film just wouldn't be able to do it.

(mostly due to needing billions of dollars for special effects, not to mention the story is longer than lord of the rings)

The thing is, I want to try making a webcomic and actually doing this for real somewhat over the summer.

So my questions are as follows to you;

1) What did you do to improve your artwork? I know you obviously drew and practiced a lot, but did you take any classes, have any training methods, etc.? Your artwork has really progressed a lot in such a short time, and obviously some of it's talent, but i'm guessing there was SOMETHING else there along with the hard work

2) What kind of supplies do you suggest using? I've tried to use blue pencils (the ones that don't show up when you scan), but i've also heard that they're bad to use. What do you suggest for pencils, inks, paper? I'd be doing artwork at first that isn't that detailed but would move on later to more detailed things, obviously.

3) What do you suggest for an "after" program for effects/toners? most of the comic will be in B&W, so I was just wondering if you knew of any programs that would work well with scanned pictures. I haven't been able to find *anything*, so this would really be appreciated

4) If you have the time, I'm pretty sure you're not exactly into the style of story i'm making, although I could be wrong, but I was wondering if you'd want to ever take a look at a story summary I have for the story? Just to get your opinion on it, etc.

I really value your opinion, I read around 70 webcomics and out of them, you're one of the few creators who has a very good grasp on human personality, i.e. how to make characters seem real, and not just fake comic book characters.

This is a skill I also consider myself to have, and I know it won't show much in the summary because it's just the plot points of the story, but coming from you, if you're even the least interested from just this, that means i've got something decent

Thanks for reading all of this, and if you ever need any music videos/film work/song lyrics made, i'm up for it

[deepbluevibes]

was this a bad thing to ask or something?

[Spinless]

No, you just asked Jeph specifically and assumed he'd read this.

My advice: Fuck cartoons at first. Draw as realistically as you can and practice practice practice. That's really all there is to it.
If anybody thinks that there's more to drawing than 'Practice' they're an idiot. There's no 'secret advice' or anything, every person you ask will always tell you the same thing.
This applies to everything.
'How did you become such a good guitar player?!'
'Well, I ate a jar of mayonaise everyday for a week and BAMF instant guitar god.'
'Really?'
'No. Go practice.'


nah, I'm kidding. If you want to be a good artist, wear a turtleneck and a beret, wear sunglasses all the time and grow a goatee. The rest comes naturally.

[logosmonkey]

Exactly what Spinless said... practice your ass off. Don't get stuck in one particular style either.. especially when you are just starting out. Copy other peoples work, for a beginner it's quite acceptable and honestly I'd probably say mandatory. If you see a work you just love, copy it... copy it a million times. In the process you'll find all these little things that the artist did and you'll say .. oh wow.. I never thought about drawing X like that... thats cool. Theory books are great too. Just remember to spread out, don't stick to just one artist or style.

[deepbluevibes]

what kind of inks/pencils do you reccomend, and what kind of paper is good? paper that won't let the ink soak through etc.

[logosmonkey]

Oh also since my previous post really didn't touch on any of your actual questions...
1) Ok ... well see previous post.. I guess I did touch on one =P.
2) This ends up being a lot of person preference and something you'll probably just have to experiment with but .. I use 6h pencils.. just because I like a very light line before I lay down my ink however you could just as well use regular #2 pencils. I don't have any use for the photo-blue pencils. I tried them once and hated how soft they were. I assume someone has some real genuine use for these but I thinkt he majority of people use them because they look kinda cool. Paper wise I use strathmore bristol, usually with vellum texture though recently I've been using smooth and rather enjoy inking on it. Ink wise I use a mixture of Higgins black magic with a winsor and newton series 7 #2 brush and a few different pens that I've picked up here and there. The key to ink is to make sure it is archival quality and test the pens out to make sure they make a truly black line, a lot of black pens actually come out of the pen and dry brownish.. which sucks.
Now as far as I know Jeph uses none of this.. at least not on the strip because he uses a Wacom tablet and I assume Adobe photoshop. This is always a viable path, honestly in the end you save a but load on supplies.. or just be like me and buy a wacom along with all your other junk!
3) I'm not 100% sure what you are asking for here.. if its for a program to touch up your pen/ink work after scanning... I'd say Adobe Photoshop. I do all my final work in it and really can't think of anything that could compete with it power wise... except maybe the GIMP.

[KibBen]

The one thing that's helped me more then anything else in drawing, painting, whatever, has been practice.

The next best thing was the book by Betty Edwards; Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. It's just one giant, awesome excercise in training your mind to draw what you see, not what you think you see.

[deepbluevibes]

The one thing that's helped me more then anything else in drawing, painting, whatever, has been practice.

The next best thing was the book by Betty Edwards; Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. It's just one giant, awesome excercise in training your mind to draw what you see, not what you think you see.

whoa whoa whoa, where do you get this?
this is the EXACT problem i have with drawing, i have a very abstract, chaotic mind, and i can't really "get" the figures of people, they seem abstract to me and i can't really draw them correctly due to this.

sounds weird but it's true.

[logosmonkey]

That is an excellent book. All the exercises are great... you can get it here Also most public libraries have it.

[KibBen]

deepbluevibes: In actuality, almost everyone's mind works like that, because we make symbols out of everything. It's a side effect of being a written culture - we become predominantly left-brained in order to deal with the deluge of symbols. It's not a bad thing, it's just something that can be bothersome when trying to draw.

[deepbluevibes]

deepbluevibes: In actuality, almost everyone's mind works like that, because we make symbols out of everything. It's a side effect of being a written culture - we become predominantly left-brained in order to deal with the deluge of symbols. It's not a bad thing, it's just something that can be bothersome when trying to draw.

no i mean literally like, things don't really seem to define themselves as objects to me; kind of like i feel absent minded most of the time, can't really "make things out" unless it's something i'm really into, like drums or film.

like if i look at a computer laptop, and try to draw it, i can't even grasp the external "shape" that good.