Whether you like comic books, web comics, graphic novels, manga, three panel comics, or single panel comics and always hoped you could draw your own then we are on the same page. I am definitely not a professional artist, I do not make a living with my art but hopefully someday I will be able to contribute the comic community.
Ever since I was little, like a lot of kids I drew. I started drawing like most, different things I saw my family, my house, my dog. I was like a lot of little kids, my artwork was basically scribbles. As I got older my cousin showed me something he was doing. He was drawing his favorite videogame characters and making his own story for them. So I copied him, I can't tell you how many times I drew sonic the hedgehog and mega man in some random story I made up. I remember the first time I decided I was going to draw a story for sonic I made my mom buy me a marble note and I filled it with drawings of sonic and knuckles. I would use whole pages for each scene like one big panel where I only drew on the bottom part, I can't actually remember if I even knew about comic books yet. When I was finally got my hands on a comic I don't even think I read it I just stared at the pictures in awe. Something about comic book art, I wanted to be able draw like that. I wanted to be able to draw whatever I wanted and have it have style and the look I saw in marvel and dc comics.
So I continued to copy anything I thought looked cool. I still copied videogame art too; I remember drawing characters from Final Fantasy 7 a lot. I still have old sketch books with Red XIII and Cloud. My parents would go to Barnes and Nobles and I would pick out drawing books on how to draw cartoons and
How to Draw the Marvel Way which is an awesome book. The book not only came with the different drawing tools you needed but they included tracing paper over marvel artwork. I think they still sell a revamped edition of the book. In the back of my mind I always wanted to create my own characters and my own story someday but I never felt I had the skill to pull off something I would be pride of. I think every artist is self-conscious and most of the time is unsatisfied with their drawings. At least I am, once in a while I'll draw something that I like but most of the time I feel it could be better or I don't like the way certain parts came out.
So I continued to draw into high school but definitely not as often as when I was young. I doodled a lot, in math class I remember every page had a border of doodles and the back of the book had whole pages drawings. I guess I looked like I was a really serious student. At this point I wanted to draw people realistic looking but I didn't really know how to shade and add highlights. At that point I tried mainly to draw hot actresses and models lol. I remember my mom talked me into taking a cartooning class at a place by my high school. It definitely wasn't what I was looking for the kids were all younger than me I remember and I felt like I wasn’t really learning anything. I didn't stay their long the only thing
I learned was how to use prisma color markers to color and shade. So I just doodled more in my high school classes at this point I didn't know I wanted to be a comic book artist I just knew I liked to draw.
When it came time to look into where I was going to go after high school my Aunt and Uncle talked me into checking out Cooper Union in the City. Cooper Union has two schools and Art school and an Engineering school it’s a hard school to get into because it’s free. My Uncle was a graduate of their Engineering school and thought I would like the art school. I remember going to the open house with a bunch of my sketchbooks in a plastic shopping bag to have them reviewed. I felt out of place there, I remember being on line and the girl in front of me had a portfolio it was amazing and she was really nervous. I on the other hand had a bunch of cheap sketchbooks filled with drawings of comic stuff. When it was finally my turn to be reviewed they asked me what was my medium and my response this ummmm. I was like what are the choices. Then I thought I only have a bunch of pencil drawings. The guy they sent me to was not amused with me and apparently did not think much of my work as he flipped through it. I remember he stopped at a page where I draw wolverine eating a steak that he had in his claws and the face he made was hilarious. He asked me something like what is my goal or something along those lines. I didn't want to go back to my uncle with a negative review when he asked me what they say so I tried to make the reviewer happy. The reviewer said most of these drawings are cartoons is this what you’re trying to do. And I felt his disapproval so I quickly said yea I know but I am really trying to move away from that. Right away I thought to myself that’s total bullshit I don't know why I said that. Anyway he basically told me I sucked and I needed to build a portfolio and take art classes. But the truth was it made me realize that I didn't want to be just an artist I wanted to be a comic artist. I wanted the skills of great artists but more importantly I wanted to draw like
Jim Lee,
Frank Frazetta, and
Jack Kirby.
I guess I felt a little discouraged I was self-conscious about my drawings to begin with. I had a lot of hobbies when I was in high school I played guitar and drums, skateboard, biked and inline skated at one point
so I figured drawing is just another one of those things I just like to do and I didn't expect to make a career out of it. I thought that maybe if I had to draw that I would start to not like it. So when it came down to pick a college I choice a local college. But my uncle realized that I liked to draw and being a comic fan himself showed me that Joe Kubert has a
school in New Jersey. It’s expensive and I wasn't sure I wanted to go there. That summer I signed up for their Saturday drawing classes and again felt it wasn't what I was looking for I wasn't being taught what I thought I needed to learn and it was an hour’s drive to get there; Most of the kids where all younger than me. But I got to see the school and the work the actually students where doing was right on point to what I was looking for only problem was the actually school cost 17,000 a year.
I am in college now almost done with my degree in accounting lol. My Dad talked me into to it when I was confused on what I wanted to do for a career. He said pick something and just stick with it treat it like a prison sentence. He said his uncle was a successful CPA and retired early. So I said whatever and declared my major as accounting. I continue to doodle in college, in my pass years in class I can't tell how many times teachers caught me drawing instead of paying attention. When I was a freshman my math professor walked by my desk and saw a picture I drew of him pointing at a black board saying blah blah blah. Lucky he had a sense of humor and just smirked and said interesting. So I started this blog because I want to continue to grow as an artist and hopefully reach a level where I can be happy with my art. The point of this site is to document my thoughts along the way and mainly help other artist trying to learn and share whatever useful knowledge I have. Again I am not a professional artist, so I am just sharing my thoughts and cool information I found in my years of drawing. So there will be tips and reviews and my crappy artwork lol.
I want to use my accounting degree to get a job where I can save enough money to attend Joe Kuberts 3 year school. Right now I am still in college with a dead end part time job where there is no way I can save that kind of money I'll need. You may ask why I don't I just take out loans. I have already for the college I am at now and feel that adding 50 something thousand on top of what I owe now would be overkill. I work currently in a wholesale liquor store and have been for four years now, yes I know I am retarded. Especially because its minim wage, but it’s an easy job. Even there I draw, I draw on the cardboard dividers they use to put into the bags so the bottles don't cling together. I do stock so I can walk around with a divider and act like I am writing down things I need to get for the shelves and actually draw little comics to amuse myself. I am consistently asking my coworkers when they get the paper, what did Garfield say?
Jim Davis is awesome. I actually met
Leigh Rubin at a thing he did heard locally this year which inspired me to draw some three panel and single panel stuff. store.
Beside my accounting classes I did take one drawing class which was interesting. I was my first actually art class, basically all real life drawing. When we first started we were instructed to drew simple objects then more complex ones like a crimpled up paper bag the whole point was to actually see the object for what is actually looks like and not the image in our head what we think it looks like. Eventually we moved on to drawing people where we had to draw the nude models, that was different. I learned a lot of stuff but not by lectures, the whole time in class was spent drawing for three hours. The professor took me out of my comfort zone and made me use a bunch of mediums I wasn’t use to like pastels, ink wash, and charcoal. I hated it at first because it was difficult to get the details accurate but I was told the details weren’t the main task it was to draw the form or the basic parts that make up the subject. I thought I was smart and I bought charcoal pencils because they were a little easier for me so I could be more accurate. My professor just gave us less time to draw the subject with a timer. In the end I understand what he was doing. In addition I have taken an introduction course to graphic communications in was interesting learning to use all the
adobe programs. It was an intro class so I didn’t learn to much just the basics. I plan to maybe take more of those classes maybe while I finish my accounting. I have learned a little about photoshop from trial and error and online tutorials I’ll post something in the future for newbies.
Any way I think the next post I try to break down some stuff about drawing skills and give my first tip post about attitude and what not. For now this is where I am at and hopefully I can continue to improve.
-Guy
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