Comic, concept and cover artist David Nakayama (www.
davidnakayama.com) explains how important story structure and
pacing is. “First and foremost,” he says, “I like to define the key
moments in each story and structure everything else around those.
Reading over each page of the comic script, I figure out which beats
have the most impact, both on a page-by-page basis and in the
story overall. Then, during the drawing process, I do whatever I can
to support this artistically. For example, I might make an important
moment the biggest panel on the page, do something special with
the panel framing, and/or concentrate extra rendering there –
whatever it takes to draw the reader’s eye where I want it to go.
“With the key moments accounted for, now I can worry about
pacing the rest of the story. In general, more panels means
SLOW and fewer panels means FAST, so in quiet, contemplative
scenes, I’ll generally use a lot of small panels to describe many
smaller actions. Conversely, in an action-packed fight sequence,
I’ll do the opposite--just a few large panels to sell the speed and
scale of the action at hand. In combination, you really get a sense
of ebb and flow in the storytelling.”© Anthony Williams- PACE YOURSELF
- EMBRACE
NARRATIVE
“A good comic artist is someone who appreciates the need
to balance the demands of storytelling with a desire to express oneself
through an artistic discipline,” says Anthony Williams. “There are many
incredibly talented artists working in comics who fail to understand
that the fundamental goal of the medium is to tell a compelling story. I
have been guilty myself in the past of looking to draw exciting ‘money’
shots at the expense of the storytelling. A comic story is not a book of
poster shots but a narrative, and great comic artists embrace that and
express themselves through the telling of the story.”
Panel rhythm is something that becomes instinctive, he adds: “For
me the most enjoyable part of the process is thumb-nailing out the
complete story. This is pure storytelling without the encumbrance of
worrying about the quality of the art. I really enjoy developing the
pacing, the composition and the story building.”
© David NakayamaDIGITAL PAINTING