Has anyone else here thought about creating a graphic novel? its something id really love to do. when thinking up a plot, i tend to think in images and those images are something id like to show to the reader. The only problem is, i really cant draw! so thats my set back for now. I could always come up with a few plots and keep them on the side until i come across an artist who can draw what i see. Or until i learn to draw! just wondering if anyone else had had the urge to create one. Also, any tips etc
That's my dream, to create my own graphic novels. I'm currently drawing one but it's very amateur, not like I plan to show it either.
I tried once. I didn't think it was worth the time. I'm an ok drawer, amateur at best, and in the amount of time it took to draw up an entire page of panels in a neat and proper manner, I could of written five pages of text. I still doodle from time to time but only for fun. Drawing is easy. Its more a matter of patience than skill in my opinion. I suggest getting the "How to Draw Manga" series of books. They're great. Its also good to get a book on anatomy. If you can look at a picture and replicate it on a piece of paper you can pull stuff out of you head. Also art doesn't have to look realistic. Alot of great comics I've seen are very unrealistic in they're animation. I honestly enjoy a comic that has a very distinct art style. Just draw a person and look at it. It doesn't need to look so real he could pop of the page (if you try to reach such a goal in a comic book you'll be spending alot of time on it). There is a reason a 12 page comic book, or a 80 page manga costs as much as a 200 page novel.
I guess. Like I said though its amature at best... now I have to go shifting through all my crap to find where I put that scetch book...
Really? That's your work? What do you draw for? Like what comic? That's so freaking cool, man... I LOVE art. It was actually my first passion but now I'm more or so leaning towards writing since being something like an animator (What I WANT to be when I grow up) is hard to get into. But I do want to actually make a graphic novel, I still have the passion and I also draw regulary. It seems so much fun.
Unfourtunatly I seem to have misplaced my scetch book ($10 say I left it at home, I always seem to leave something I need there...). Give me a half hour and I'll throw something together for you Klee.
Sorry about the wait Klee. i got the picture in form in about 30 minutes but my printer/scanner continues to put up a better fight than a spartan in the 6th century bc. http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e192/lordofhats/AnanJoashMaya.jpg Its just a quick jot. The heads and bodies need filling out, detail, and some reshaping (Especiall on the girls torso and the left most guys entire body overall cause its a mess. I also can't help but feel the center characters head is way to big.) Like I said though. drawing is a time consuming process. Sure some people are better than others but anyone can draw something moderately well if they put time into it.
This is rather good, compared to some other drawings I've seen (and boy I've seen ugly drawings!). I understand that you need more time to fill in details, re-draw some things, add some others. Thank you for showing me! EDIT: I promised something of mine, here.
I've written a fair share of gag comics. Drawing them well takes too much time, so I use stick figures. It's more convenient when the humor is in the pose and speech rather than the details. That and I'm lazy.
You don't need to draw the actual comics if you can find or hire a good artist. Neil Gaimen and several hundred other comic writers have never drawn any pictures. They just write the story and depending on their style, let the artist do whatever they want or stand over them telling them every exact detail.
Frankly, you need to have more than a base understanding of art to be a good comic book writer. Bendis was an art student, and as odd as it sounds, the best writer Marvel has at the moment. Comic book writing requires a fair amount of communication between the artist and the writer.
Um, this is going back to the first page but, the "How to Draw Manga" books are NOT good books for learning any form of art skill. They tend to teach you to draw out images going straight to "simple-shape mannequin" form instead of first drawing a loose sketch with a strong line of motion and building the mannequin off of that. Gesture drawings are really the best (a sort of life drawing where only take 10 or so seconds to capture the movement of the subject) but if you wanted to learn from a book or had to family members to draw in 10 sec. sketches then I'd recommend "How to Draw Comics The Marvel Way". If you really wanted to do manga style I'd still recommend learning from the Marvel book and just adjusting the features to suit the manga look. I also recommend "Understanding Comics" and (to a lesser degree) "Making Comics" both by Scott McCloud; these will teach you about composition and visual flow and while it doesn't focus on manga, good visual flow will give your comic a more "manga-ish" feel as that is something that Japanese comics really excel at. @Knoxvicious - I meant as my writing hobby, that I don't do novels/poetry/ any of that, just comic scripts. Professionally, I got a graphic design degree to help me get through college to be an animator...so I'm one of those two things depending on who will hire me for what. : )
Manga is grouped with comics because they are comics. Comics began in the West and eventually traveled to Japan during the post WWII occupation. Though Japan had a history of picture story telling long before the current form of Manga, the current manga format is derived from the western comic book.
And to add to what LordofHats has said, in Japan the word "manga" refers to all comics even Western ones.
Well, graphic novels (mangas) in Japan have very specific styles. I actually prefer that style to anything I've ever seen in a Western comic book. That's just me, though. Maybe I'm weird. Anyway, I've started several of my own graphic novels, but I don't care to share any. Mostly because they suck. xD But I do love drawing, and I will post some of my art. This one's just a little something I made for my boyfriend. It's sort of a self-portrait, but I suck at portraits. Ahem. This is an InuYasha fanart I did for one of my fanfictions. I'm a dork. Bite me. xD I used a reference for this one. I draw manga and anime SO much better with references, though I'm a firm believer that tracing is a sin. I'm posting this one because it took me five hours and the voice actor who plays this character actually signed it for me. Anyway, that's all I'll show for now. ^^
It's pretty good (although I personally think that's Edwards worst picture ever). Tracing is not so bad if you use it as practice, I did a lot tracing in junior high and it helped me a lot.
