Gary
Author Comments aka Comic News
More Denver Comic Con 2014 Notes
Yup, this is the start of a move towards continuity. Hopefully, this will lead to blue prints of where they live, since their current rented house has only had a really rough mental outline in my head.
Denver Comic Con 2014 panel notes
Webcomics, a different perspective
I really should have written down the names of everyone and the descriptions, because this data has been taken down... yay.
How do you deal with criticism?
- Listen to the criticism
- Weigh it to determine if it's actually valid. Constructive criticism is a great way to grow
- If it is valid, run with it
- If it isn't valid, thank them for their input, and move on
Something to watch out for in panel layout is "180"ing the panel. This is where you flip a panel so the characters change sides. This is difficult for a reader to follow, and should be avoided. (on a side note, I do this a lot, so now I have to weigh it when I do it and see if I'm actually gaining anything from it, or if I should just choose a different layout all together)
Plan your comic out. Plan it far ahead, but be willing to change it. Sometimes the characters don't end up where you planned for them to be, and that's ok, as long as you learn to adapt and change with it.
Standard backgrounds are things many of the artists use. They are generic inside shots which are setup with an outside shot (called an establishing shot). Many sitcoms use this too, and it makes the development of backgrounds easier.
It is extremely important to make a buffer for yourself. This is one that hits close to home. I've had a buffer a few times, and it's great. It allowed me to do much higher quality comics, because I wasn't butting against a deadline, but inevitably, I'd always run out of my buffer, so this is something I still need to work on.
Two things that artists should always be looking at and working on are perspective and life drawing. There are a lot of perspective lines/tools out there for people to use. They should read up on it, and learn it. Life drawing is just something that will allow an artist to continue to grow their skill, and make their characters that much more believable.
Backgrounds and locations are very important. They act like characters to you story, so you should really work on them. If you want to know what a cityscape looks like from a specific angle, try something like SketchUp which is a free plug in for google earth.
What do you do if you find your comics are too wordy?
- One trick is to cut the first and last sentence in your comic and see if you lose anything. Most people spend too much time introducing and ending their scripts.
- Every sentence you write should reveal something or develop a character. They should contribute to the plot, character, and/or theme, and the more they contribute to at once, the better.
- If you're writing a long story, use a beat sheet.
- If it's at all possible, show the action, don't say it/talk about it. Remember that you're using a visual medium.
Only four more panels to type up notes for, and a couple hundred costume photos to whittle down. If anyone knows the names of the people who were in that talk, let me know, and I'll update this.
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