HOW TO DRAW COMICS:
INKING WITH A BRUSH pt 12

Continuing the real-life saga of one man’s struggle against his art materials!

Let me clarify something I said last week. I mentioned I normally like to work from the upper left to the lower right of the page, finishing all the brushwork in one panel (usually everything but all or most of the background) before moving on to the next panel. However, I also said I try to wait to do the most important figures and close-ups until I’m fully warmed up and confident with the brush, maybe two hours into inking.

So what happens if there’s important stuff to draw in the first couple of panels?

To answer this, I need to talk about the speed at which I work. If an average panel occupies about one sixth of a page, it will usually take me about an hour to ink, depending on complexity (especially the number of figures in the panel). This means it takes me on average about six hours to ink a page. Which means, according to my two hour warm up period, I’ll end up inking the first two panels before I’m really at my best.

So what do I do in that case?

The truth is it’s a trade-off. Sometimes I’ll leave harder things from the first couple of panels until I’m more confident, and sometimes I’ll go ahead and ink them anyway and just hope for the best. Unfortunately, you can’t always wait until you’re at your best to ink any particular thing. After all, you only have a limited amount of time to spend inking a page.

Personally, I happen to be a perfectionist about my art, so knowing that I won’t be at my best all the time is very frustrating. But this is part of being a professional artist. It’s not about being at your best all the time (because that’s impossible unless you want to spend weeks on a single page). It’s about giving it your best under whatever conditions you happen to be working (which, more often than not, are less than ideal).

But that is the life of a professional artist, and it’s the only way to get better as an artist.

The old adage that you learn more from your mistakes than your successes is true, especially for an artist. When you screw up, you are almost certain to remember what you did and what you were trying to do. This helps the next time you run into a similar problem, at which point you can try a different solution. You may screw that one up, too, but eventually you’ll find a solution that works, and maybe more than one.

You’ve gotten better as an artist, and you’ve also gotten more versatile!

So again I say, don’t be afraid to mess up. It’s how you grow.

Next Wednesday: More about how to attack a page in: Inking With a Brush, part 13!

Ex animo!