All artforms have rules, and it pays to know
them, but that doesn’t mean you have to keep
them. For instance, as Jamie Smart explains,
“Panels are a great way to frame each scene or
event, and to pace the story so it doesn’t go too
fast or skip anything important. But at the
same time, panels are guidelines; they’re rules
to be broken, so it’s a good idea to experiment
with them and see what they can do. For
example, you can stretch panels out, break
them up, flow them in a direction, make a
single panel into a whole page, or fill a page
with loads of panels showing the same
character’s expression just to pace out a jokeat the end of it. I did one book where there were
no panels at all, just individual drawings
nestling next to each other on a page.”
And Smart likes to find his own way when it
comes to speech bubbles too, because “again,
it’s a case of finding your groove, and forming
habits. My speech bubbles often wedge up into
the top of a panel, leaving the rest of the space
free for artwork. I always draw speech bubbles
and art at the same time though – I know a lot
of artists draw speech bubbles separately and
then lay them over the art afterwards, but I
prefer everything to be integrated together
from the start.”All creative endeavours require bravery, and a
confidence that you have a story worth telling, and that
the road you’re going down is the right one. The great
thing about comics is that you usually have a writer and
an editor that you can bounce ideas off. But while many
comics are created in collaboration, others are the
product of a writer/artist, and that single vision can be a
wonderful thing. “My webcomic is usually my most
challenging project,” says Mako Fufu. “There are a lot of
stories that I want to tell, but since it’s based on real-life
events or things that go through my mind, sometimes
it’s hard to edit. It’s also my own project so there’s
nobody to approve it for me, I have to decide by myself if
this is effective on what I want to communicate or not. It
takes some extra thinking, sketching and adjusting, but it
gets done every time!”
It may be hard, but working alone does bring freedom:
“If it’s my own story, the script may change even after the
coloring stage if I find it fitting,” says Fufu. More
importantly, her style is different and she is more
sparing with text when she goes it alone: “When I work
on my own projects and I have full control, I try not to
have a lot of text on each panel, making it
understandable without being redundant.”© Jamie Smart- MAKE YOUR OWN RULES
- BELIEVE IN YOURSELF
My style is quite cutesy, humorous, often
involving animals hitting each other,” says
Jamie Smart. “I try and make the whole comic
funny, not just the final gag panel, so the
premise, the characters and the story all need
to be silly and make me laugh. I have quite a
short attention span, so if it bores me, then I
figure it will bore the audience and I don’t draw
it. Look at the comics you enjoy and try and see
what’s working for you – maybe it’s how anartist draws their character’s eyes, or how they
show motion, or just the funny language they
use. These ideas will absorb into your own
style and all contribute towards making your
own comics unique and brilliant.
“And finally, draw comics because you love
to do them. Don’t draw them for an audience,
but instead draw the things that make YOU
laugh. Then you’ll find you are always drawing
the best comics.”© Jamie Smart/www.whubble.net- POUR YOUR OWN PERSONALITY IN
DIGITAL PAINTING