Recently I've been experimenting with various drawing techniques for my comics, whilst it has mostly been fun, it has also kind of been driving me crazy. At the same time it is for a reason, I want to write a comic and draw it...
Sounds simple right, and perhaps it's not that unusual from what I've been doing for almost 15 years now. But I want to make something a bit more substantial, I want to make something a bit more solid and lasting, a longer narrative so to speak.
To achieve this I have to settle on a drawing technique that I can depend on to express what I want to say but at the same time not take me forever just to get a simple page done. My previous drawing techniques, whilst they have served me well, I don't believe they will serve me well for the scale and type of work I wish to make. I'm a big believer that comics should be produced in a non laborious way, not to say that artists shouldn't take time and care with their work, but each panel shouldn't and can't be an intricate illustration or painting. The beauty in the art of comics comes from the marriage of practicality and the artists individual flair. The art has to be well drawn but also readable. I often see beautiful comic art that I can't read, at a glance the page looks beautiful and lush, but nothing makes me want to read it, and even if I try my eye struggles to get through the page. This is why it is important for me to try and find an expressive way to draw my comics, but one that doesn't take so long to make a page that it becomes unenjoyable and overly time consuming.
But alas I am getting carried away from my original point, I want to write a comic. In fact I have a few comics already written to some degree, the problem is. I have never really done one consistent story, only really collections of fragments of stories. These have then created the illusion of a larger story, which is kind of cheating especially with autobiographical material. I feel I have the ideas and I even have the methods to take those ideas from notes to a script, to thumbnails, to the final comic. I feel I also have most of the tools i want to use, including paper and pencilling methods in place. My one final stumbling block is a dependable inking technique. I have a few leads, but nothing has sunk in yet, or feels completely comfortable. But it will come and for now I'm hoping a drawing challenge might help spur this on.
And so...
I have decided to give myself the challenge of creating a 12 page mini comic over three months starting from June 7th. Maybe this just another one of my crazy schemes, yes actually, it is one of my crazy schemes. But I have to give it a try, and I'm willing to bet that there are others out there that feel the same way and might like to join me. More details to come.
