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Draw #18

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NUMBER 18 FALL 2009

$6.95 IN THE U.S.A.

Scalped TM & ©2009 R.M. Guera

THE PROFESSIONAL “HOW-TO” MAGAZINE ON COMICS AND CARTOONING

CARTOON NETWORK’S

JAMES TUCKER

ON “BATMAN: THE BRAVE & THE BOLD” PLUS: MIKE MANLEY AND BRET BLEVINS’

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R.M. GUERA INTERVIEW & DEMO BY THE ARTIST OF VERTIGO’S “SCALPED”


THE ULTIMATE TUTORIALS ON CREATING COMICS, FROM SCRIPT TO PRINT

HOW TO CREATE COMICS FROM SCRIPT TO PRINT

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REDESIGNED and EXPANDED version of the groundbreaking WRITE NOW!/ DRAW! crossover! DANNY FINGEROTH and MIKE MANLEY show step-bystep how to develop a new comic, from script and roughs to pencils, inks, colors, lettering—it even guides you through printing and distribution, and the finished 8-page color comic is included, so you can see their end result! PLUS: over 30 pages of ALL-NEW material, including “full” and “Marvelstyle” scripts, a critique of their new character and comic from an editor’s point of view, new tips on coloring, new expanded writing lessons, and more!

Documents two top professionals creating a comic book, from initial idea to finished art! In this feature-filled DVD, WRITE NOW! magazine editor DANNY (Spider-Man) FINGEROTH and DRAW! magazine editor MIKE (Batman) MANLEY show you how a new character evolves from scratch! Watch the creative process, as a story is created from concepts and roughs to pencils, inks, and coloring—even lettering! Packed with “how-to” tips and tricks, it’s the perfect companion to the HOW TO CREATE COMICS FROM SCRIPT TO PRINT book, or stands alone as an invaluable tool for amateur and professional comics creators alike!

(108-page trade paperback with COLOR) $13.95 ISBN: 9781893905603 Diamond Order Code: APR063422

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TwoMorrows. Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics. (& LEGO! ) TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com


THE PROFESSIONAL “HOW-TO” MAGAZINE ON COMICS & CARTOONING WWW.DRAWMAGAZINE.COM

FALL 2009

CONTENTS

VOL. 1, NO. 18 Editor-in Chief • Michael Manley Designer • Eric Nolen-Weathington Publisher • John Morrow Logo Design • John Costanza Proofreader • Eric Nolen-Weathington Transcription • Steven Tice Front Cover Illustration • R.M. Guéra

DRAW! Fall 2009, Vol. 1, No. 18 was produced by Action Planet, Inc. and published by TwoMorrows Publishing. Michael Manley, Editor, John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Address is P.O. Box 2129, Upper Darby, PA 19082. Subscription Address: TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., Raleigh, NC 27614. DRAW! and its logo are trademarks of Action Planet, Inc. All contributions herein are copyright 2009 by their respective contributors. Action Planet, Inc. and TwoMorrows Publishing accept no responsibility for unsolicited submissions. All artwork herein is copyright the year of production, its creator (if workfor-hire, the entity which contracted said artwork); the characters featured in said artwork are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners; and said artwork or other trademarked material is printed in these pages with the consent of the copyright holder and/or for journalistic, educational and historical purposes with no infringement intended or implied. Aquaman, Batman, Black Lightning, Black Manta, Blue Beetle, Books of Magic, Firestorm, Flash, Gorilla Grodd, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Kanjar Ro, Katana, Lex Luthor, Metamorpho, Ocean Master, The Outsiders, Plastic Man, Red Tornado, Superman, Tim Hunter ™ and ©2009 DC Comics • Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Darkhawk, Hulk, Quasar, Quicksilver, The Thing ™ and ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. • Scalped ™ and ©2009 Jason Aaron and Rajko Milosevic • Smoky Joe ™ and ©2009 Rajko Milosevic • Judge Anderson ™ and ©2009 2000 AD • Hidamari no Ki ™ and ©2009 Osama Tezuka • Monsterman ™ and ©2009 Mike Manley • G.I. Joe ™ and ©2009 Hasbro • Predator ™ and ©2009 20th Century Fox Film Corp. • Space Ace ™ and ©2009 Don Bluth Films • Final Conquest ™ and ©2009 respective owner • This entire issue is © 2009 Action Planet Inc. and TwoMorrows Publishing and may not be reprinted or retransmitted without written permission of the copyright holders. ISSN 1932-6882. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

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R.M. GUERA No Longer Singin’ the Blues Interview with the artist of Vertigo’s Scalped

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JAMES TUCKER Batman: The Brave & the Bold

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DRAWING FROM LIFE Bret Blevins

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COMIC ART BOOTCAMP

Interview with the producer/artist

Full color life drawings

“The Straights Against the Curves” by Mike Manley


DRAWING AHEAD ey, amigos, welcome to the annual fall issue of DRAW! magazine, which has been nominated this year for a Harvey Award! I’ll be attending the awards hosted by the Baltimore Comic-Con. In fact, by the time your read this, we may have already won. My hat’s off—and my hair, too—to all the great folks that make each issue possible, from publisher John Morrow, to Eric Nolen-Weathington, to Jamar Nicholas and my buddy and man-at-arms Bret Blevins. This issue was a long time coming, as it took some time to track down a way to interview R.M. Guéra, who lives in Spain. Luckily, fate (and the Internet) introduced me to Bojan M. Djukic—just the man for a job. I have been a fan of Scalped since the first issue and a big fan of Guéra’s work in particular. So, my hat’s off to Bojan for doing a great job on the interview. “Bang, Pow! SMASH! Comics are not just for kids anymore!” Fehh! This is the typical headline you read in the fluff piece you see when the average newspaper looking to fill column space and does an article on comics today. They are always alluding back the super-popular ’60s Batman TV show featuring Adam West, and the new show on Cartoon Network, Batman: The Brave and the Bold harkens a bit back to that era and the era of comics that inspired the ’60s TV show, the Batman comics of the ’50s and early ’60s. Now, I was a huge fan of that show as a kid, as just about anyone my age was then. So it was a pleasure to catch up and chat with artist/producer James Tucker, who took time out of his busy schedule to chat with me about the show and his approach and take on Batman. I also want to officially announce that the DRAW! magazine blog is up and running: http://draw-magazine.blogspot.com. Now you can find news updates and eventually additional and exclusive online material. I plan to start doing podcasts next year where I will be doing interviews and shop talks with artists. These things are in the works, as well as even more online events like live drawing lessons, demos, etc. Stay tuned to the blog for the latest news!

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Figurative interpretation by Bret Blevins

Mike Manley, editor

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E-mail: mike@drawmagazine.com Website: www.draw-magazine.blogspot.com Snail mail: PO Box 2129, Upper Darby, PA 19082


R.M. GUERA NO LONGER SINGIN’ THE BLUES Interview conducted and transcribed by Brian “Duke” Boyanski


ith one foot in the European tradition of classics such as Lt. Blueberry, and one foot in classic American film noir, R.M. GUERA’s work on Vertigo’s Scalped is carving a fresh take on life on “the Rez” and the genre of crime comics.

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BRIAN “DUKE” BOYANSKI: Your name is Rajko Milosevic. How on earth did you get the nickname “Gera,” that’s gradually evolved into “Guéra”? R.M. GUERA: It’s a funny story, as all of that kind are. When I was about eleven or twelve maybe, we moved from one part of town to another, so I changed schools. Being new, I had to remember lots of names, and one of them I remembered wrong. It was the name Gruya—a Montenegrin name, not average sounding even by Serbian standards—but I somehow heard it wrong and thought that this kid’s name was “Guéra,” and so called him by it. All of the kids laughed on this secretly, and so to keep the joke going, nobody told me for some days. I spotted my error and changed it, but it was too late, so when they referred to me in some way, they said Guéra, knowing who the real owner of that name is. [laughs] And it’s stuck ever since. It’s not an artistic name or like that. Even my mother calls me Guéra. It evolved from writing it in Serbian as Gera to Guéra, as I was really tired of explaining it to the Spanish here, or whomever. Literally, not one single person read or said it correctly on the first try, so I added one letter and an accent to change the word. I am not sure I succeeded, but it sure made my life a lot simpler. BB: When were you born? RMG: On 24th of November, 1959, in Serbia... well, Yugoslavia at the time. BB: You’re a Belgrade kid, right? RMG: Yes. I did cut my roots pretty willingly. I’m now some 17 years out of it, but Belgrade, its unique charm and the good times I had there will stay with me and can’t be removed. BB: Did your family support you in your strivings? RMG: In a way... our parents had a role in all this. A general one, I mean. I was lucky all right, because mine were present by their absence. We had scarce material means, but they really left me alone in doing whatever I thought mattered in my life from early on. You can’t be grateful enough for that.

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BB: How did you manage to effortlessly deal with heading a blues band while building a career as a comics artist? RMG: Thank you for putting it that way. By not thinking about it, I suppose. Just doing it, as the commercial says. I just loved to do those things, and so I let it flow out. It’s the only way, because if you start thinking about it too much, it seems impossible, and you stop. It was a home run through passion and a strong wish to do it. Lots of survival problems, but it came out well eventually... BB: What prompted you to draw? Was it comics or just a natural urge? RMG: I did do it on my own at first. I was urged as you say, just on impulse—there were no influences I know of—to make drawings of Colts [revolvers], hats, and most of all horses from the Saturday and Sunday TV Western serials. Above all, I was totally absorbed by drawings that “moved”—figures in action—and was good at it. So this urge, thinking-about, feeling, need, observation, impulse—however you put it—was tattooed very deep within my subconscious. The magazines that pioneered comics in our ex-country during the mid- to late ’60s simply forged this urge: Zenit, Pingvin, Panorama, but more than anything else, Fleetway’s Cowboy Picture Library comics magazines. In a way, because of this forging going on, I acted as more mature than I really was. For example, I never spoke with anyone about this. I never wanted to. I kept it to myself, which was a pretty mature thing considering my age. I was alone in this feeling, and felt that this was the way it should be. I got serious with it. Although, once satisfied, I went out and was a pretty happy and wild kid, but almost none of my friends knew I was so deeply possessed by it. Very few even knew I drew at all. It had to do a lot with the form my life took afterwards. But I really think of it as some kind of need, which is weird when you come to think of it. Weird because to this day I’m not


(left) Batman sketch. (above) Guéra pencils very loosely with blue pencil. He prefers to tighten his drawings in the inking stage to keep them lively. BATMAN ™ AND ©2009 DC COMICS.

sure I’ve come through to the bottom of it. What in fact is it? What kind of need could you possibly have to draw so passionately from the earliest development of your consciousness, but you’re 100% sure that you do have it? Is it observance, or maybe a purity of the feel of the world around you? Is it a heroic or a quitter’s deed? A mix of this all? Interesting stuff, isn’t it? BB: Did you follow certain artists and writers from the start, or were you just attracted to comics in general? RMG: Well, both I think. First, the purity of its attraction couldn’t be compared with anything going on today. There was nothing similar, nothing as strong to choose or compare to or even think about. The plea to adults for money to buy them was totally destined. Automatic. It was real test of one’s will and

capabilities, y’know, to convince your mother that you needed a comic this week also. “You bought one last week, didn’t you?” Hypnotism was going on there. The trick was to use regular words, but have a determined look in your eye—even though everybody knew you were only six. [laughs] If that didn’t work, you rapidly brought up your most recent reward-worthy deed, anything to get to that moment of opening the first page... Ah, it was daily struggle. [laughter] And the impact... my God... action movements actually captured and dramatically inked—they were lived through, y'know... Tremendous impact. I really doubt it’s possible to compare it with, let’s say, the newest video game, because—as much as it could be exciting for kids today, with all of today’s tremendous technical achievements—at that time there really was nothing even similar to comics. Nothing even close to compare them with. It was a bomb which exploded so deep within DRAW! • FALL 2009

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A Judge Anderson illustration. Guéra will often add blue marker highlights to his illustrations. JUDGE ANDERSON ™ AND ©2009 2000 AD.

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me... The artists were everything, actually... My personal tastes that flourished from that particular time is the root of roots of me today. Impossible to separate, it will be with me as long as I live. BB: When did it occur to you that you could actually make a living by drawing comics? RMG: I don’t remember. In my case, it was somehow always there. Deep down, I just was 100% sure that at some point in my life it would come to be, despite the fact that it looked impossible at the time. That was the fight part, the good part. And I thought of myself as a survivor, so it was taken as such. The truly bad part was the mediocrity prevalent among editorials of the late ’70s and ’80s in Yugoslavia. That was a fight alright. You tried, but they failed to understand, because they just weren’t capable. Hope-killers. BB: Were you aware of any distinction between comics of European origin and those of US origin? RMG: Not instantly, of course, but pretty early on, yes. Seeing Johnny Hazard or Daredevil, and then Oumpah-Pah, or much later Blueberry, there was some kind of obvious difference, a hint they were signaling, and I’m positive I caught it early on. But I never really cared. The whole point was to enjoy them as much as possible on their terrain—not separate them from it. For me, it always was just comics, and later, when the time came, I was ashamed a bit for not having a clearer opinion on which I liked better. I think that my separation went like, a “good issue” or a “bad issue,” no matter which brand, and that was all there was for me. What I lacked was maybe a gray area there, so I’d rarely express my opinions out loud, because it was too much of a black-or-white opinion. People generally just wanted to talk, but I was a conversation killer with this. I just couldn’t do it differently then. Still can’t sometimes. BB: But which did you prefer? RMG: Well, each has its pros and cons. By nature, I’d fall more into a European style, but I also tend to be inclined towards the effectiveness of American storytelling. I simply enjoy and admire it so. They’re just different. Different issue sizes, different markets also. But, it’s all about the story and therefore not so different. All this is not about one’s drawing techniques. It’s about the storytelling. It’s empty if you don’t feel it, or have a story frame to show behind it. I really consider myself lucky to enjoy doing both of them, without being 100% representative of either. What our job is as artists is to make it believable,and that’s all. Take Jack Kirby as a clear example. No matter how naïve the situation could be, his drawing always meant something. So, it’s him that’s alive there, not the drawing. BB: What do you enjoy drawing the most? RMG: Movement in general, and the mood of space. Horses and colts could be my fetish; they always have to be perfect. Also, the depth of character. The search for it really excites me, passionately.

Inks for this issue’s cover, featuring Dashiell Bad Horse of Scalped. SCALPED ™ AND ©2009 JASON AARON AND RAJKO MILOSEVIC.

BB: Did you have any early amibitions towards writing? RMG: Not any worth mentioning. Balloons with coherence, dialogue that led somewhere, all came lots of years later—when a similar need or urge appeared—when I felt I could say something. After reading many books, I suppose. But when it started, in my early 30s, it started all over, as a total awakening, like a new language. I started writing lyrics for my music, as well as scripts and essays. BB: How exactly did you begin to learn how to draw? RMG: I really never had anything but common sense to help me. When I was a kid, there were no books about it, but it just seemed logical that the “real” pages are bigger that the ones you see published. And I knew about the existence of ink, pens, and brushes from school classes—simple as that. My father was working in a stationery shop. I asked from time to time for some material, as some kind of general allowance, and that’s about it. He knew nothing about the actual way to do it. When I was about 16, I met some of our common friends— Vesovich, Savich and very shortly afterwards yourself—who had some books, but I never was in awe of those. What I liked and enjoyed were good comics. Everything is already there, y’know? I was more interested in books that had Western movie photos inside. Now those were useful.

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JAMES TUCKER

Batman: the Brave and the Bold's Interview conducted by Mike Manley and transcribed by Steven Tice


rom Animaniacs to Superman: The Animated Series, The New Adventures of Batman, Justice League, and Legion of Superheroes, James Tucker has done it all. DRAW! catches up to the man of action to discuss the producer/artist’s new hit series Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

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DRAW!: I guess the main thing I wanted to go over was your new take on Batman, who has had how many retakes at this point, after almost 70 years now, right? They keep rebooting him, and on TV they’ve rebooted him, what, four or five times now, just since the ’90s. JAMES TUCKER: Well, there was Batman: The Animated Series, and then there was The New Adventures, which is kind of the same show. And then he was on Justice League, and then Batman Beyond, and then The Batman, and now Batman: The Brave and the Bold. I mean, I look at it kind of like a correlation with comics. You know how there’s a different type of Batman book that can run concurrently? Brave and the Bold was out at the same time, Detective was out at the same time, Batman was out. So I just look at it as another comic book. And in my case, literally, since I’m taking my cues from the earlier era, anyway. DRAW!: I wanted to ask you about that. When you were pitching the show, I don’t know if the network said, “We need a new show.” Because I know sometimes they do that; they go, “Well, we want a new Batman.” JT: Well, basically Sam Register— now he’s the chief executive in charge of animation here, I guess, but at the time he was a development executive. Dark Knight was coming out, and they needed a Batman show on TV. I wasn’t interested because, “Oh, I’ve done that. I worked on the best one ever, so...” But then he said The Brave and the Bold, and so, to me, that was a totally different animal. I saw the hook for doing a Batman show then, because it wasn’t just Batman, it was Brave and the Bold, it was Batman and another hero, Batman in different settings. It wasn’t just Batman, Gotham City, Commissioner Gordon, Alfred, blah, blah. It wasn’t the usual stuff where you’re just readdressing the same old stuff. You can’t one-up certain things, especially when they’re still fresh in people’s memories. But you can look at it from a different angle. Plus, I had a comic-book template for the series already. There wasn’t really much to reinvent. And it was also another way to do all the fun things about Batman that we’ve been taught to look down upon. I mean, Adam West is taboo with

everyone now, but I guarantee you, most of us who got into Batman—of a certain age, anyway—were exposed to Batman through Adam West. There’re tons of cool things about that show. DRAW!: And that’s actually still how Batman, I think, is thought of in popular culture. “Holy this, holy that.” People still say that even if they’re not maybe culturally aware of Batman in total. JT: There’s a whole new generation of kids who haven’t even seen that show, really. But, still, that was such a powerful presentation that it effected comic books. I mean, yeah, it did effect comic books adversely, but it wasn’t the show’s fault, it was the people who were aping it. Everyone has a mad-on about that show and what it represents, but if you look at that show and then compare it to the comics it was actually using as its source material, it was actuBATMAN ™ AND ©2009 DC COMICS. ally fairly faithful. I mean, if you read the ’50s stories and the early ’60s, they weren’t doing anything that the show didn’t do. DRAW!: Batman actually smiled in his comics back then! JT: He smiled, and the alliteration, the different... the TV show just pushed it to a more obvious level. And at some point they were making fun of it, probably the second or third season. Anyway, basically what I wanted B:BB to do is just show it’s okay to make Batman fun. And the good thing is, we have so much Batman now, of all types. There are so many different things out there. If you want your dark, gritty animation, you can get it. So I’m grateful. I mean, I couldn’t have made this show without the existence of Dark Knight, because no one was expecting a cartoon show to mimic that. Plus, a lot of kids shouldn’t see Dark Knight, so it was easy to say, “Okay, well, let’s make a kid-friendly Batman, and this time really make it kid-friendly, not say we’re going to do it and then not.” The thing about this series is that it’s so open-ended. I have a lot more freedom to tell any kind of story I want. If I want to tell a dark story that touches on Batman’s origins, I could do that. If I wanted to do a musical [laughs], I did that. So, for me, personally, it’s been great. It’s been very rewarding in that it’s the best of all the Batmans that have come up until now, and I can pick and choose from all of them. I can have Batman in a DRAW! • FALL 2009

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Drawing from Life by Bret Blevins

hese watercolors were drawn directly from the living models, each completed in twenty minutes or less. The speed required by such short poses demands a focus on the large dominant rhythms Mike describes in his “Bootcamp” article (if the entire figure is to be portrayed). I began by outlining the forms and shapes very lightly in pencil. When the drawing seemed both accurate and expressive I switched to watercolor to embellish the structure, enhance the rhythm and design, or simply add an esthetic beauty of color or brush marks. Every decision is guided by the principles of shape and rhythm though—nothing is arbitrary. Subconscious instinct often directs much of the process, but my instincts have been honed by a lifetime of study and practice, so I am always attempting to create a well designed artwork, an expressive statement, not a random assortment of impressions or a dead-literal recording of facts. That is the important distinction: Artwork is interpretation, so learning to see with an aesthetic perspective is the means of achieving the control of shape and design we are discussing. Fortunately, the human body is so obviously a living design that the large dynamic rhythms are easy to identify once you are aware of their nature and interlocking flow. (Drawing them accurately is always difficult, but that can be learned with practice, too. The key is to begin with a clear view of the goal—overall shape and design before detail.)

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Here the lovely, interlocking shapes formed by the repeated angles of her bent legs and left arm are the important under-structure of the design, forming a series of gentle V-shapes that rise up to support her head. There is a V-shape below her left knee, below her left arm, the shadowed fingers of her right hand form another inverted V-shape, as does the patch of light falling across her right shoulder and the shadow across her upper chest. These repeated shapes form a rhythm that gracefully lifts the eye up to her face and head, which is framed by her dark hair that blends into the arc of the chair back and leads the eye back down to start the journey over again. I wasn't analyzing all this as I drew and painted, but I responded to the aspects of the pose that appealed to my sense of design and followed them.

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There are many V-shapes in this image, too—the body creates them every time it moves—but the most interesting feature here is the simplification of the shadow pattern into large shapes of tone. The big, simple light/dark shapes that define the forms of her hips and thighs are the center of this drawing’s design structure. There are more detailed indications of structure along the front of her torso, but they are sublimated into the large shadow that covers the front of her body. The eye reads the big forms first, and notices the details later.

Two figures entwined create many new shape dynamics, but the same principles apply. Here the large forms are accented to create a rhythmic arrangement of flowing shapes that clarify each figure’s forms, but also combine to form new shapes and a pleasing design. Aside from the male’s knee and the female’s right ankle, there is almost no indication of form detail within the contours—the large shapes carry all the information.

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NEXT ISSUE: DRAW! #19

HULK, THING ™ AND ©2009 MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC.

DRAW! #19 goes behind the scenes into the studio of DOUG BRAITHWAITE (Earth X, Secret Invasion: Thor, The Punisher, Justice, and The Brave and the Bold), one of the top realistic artists working in comics today, for a demo and interview. Beginning this issue, we welcome pro inker BOB MCLEOD to DRAW!, as he presents a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work. Also, JAMAR NICHOLAS returns with “The Crusty Critic” column to give you the low-down on the best art supplies and tool tech. Plus, another installment of “Comic Art Bootcamp” by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, and much more! Edited by Mike Manley. SUBSCRIBE TO DRAW!

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STRAIGHTS ST N I A HE CURV G A T E

THE By Mike Manley

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PUSHING THE NATURAL SHAPE DESIGNS OF HUMAN ANATOMY TO DRAW MORE DYNAMIC FIGURES


n this chapter of “Bootcamp,” we are going to wrestle with figures. More specifically, you will learn to take advantage of the natural flow and design of shapes inherent in the body and how to emphasize them to make your figures more appealing and dynamic, be they realistic or cartoony in style. Great figure drawing is still, for most, the hallmark used to judge a good artist by. It makes the top-tier artists stand out from the crowd in comics, animation, illustration and fantasy art. The ability to command the figure—to place it in repose or dynamic action, in complex compositions; to give the figure power, weight and grace—is essential. After all, great figure drawing is the bread and butter of comics, fantasy art, and animation. In previous issues of DRAW! we have talked about drawing dynamic figures, starting with good, strong lines of action and clear posing, and we have covered drawing hands and feet, as well—two difficult subjects for artists to master. In those arti-

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cles we talked about specific anatomy issues. In this chapter we will be touching on anatomy and how it is comprised of and creates a series of dynamic core shapes of ovals and squares. By learning these design principles, how they are created and work together—essentially the shapes muscle and bones create on the body—we can use them to enhance the design and dynamics inherent in the human body and to push our drawings to more dynamic and interesting heights, no matter the style. When we draw a figure, we are building it up like a sculptor or an architect. We start with the big gestures, the big shapes, and then work toward the smaller details. You should be able to hold the figure in your mind, like a virtual sculptor. Feel the figure as a sculptor would. Try to feel the figure you are drawing in your own body. Connecting your mind and hand to this figure you are imagining in your mind will help you give the figure more dimension on the paper’s flat surface.


As the arm narrows at the wrist, it becomes more of a square.

An oval is a circle under stress.

The first thing we are looking for and start with are the big lines of action/energy/acting—motion—that are in the pose we are drawing. These action lines usually have a shape, an arc. Sometimes they almost look like an “S” or an “X” or even a hieroglyphic. In every pose there is usually one major line of action running through the body along the spine and down through the pelvis and the legs. Next, there is the tilt of the shoulders and

Look for and play up the shapes.

pelvis, and it’s the twist and turn of these against each other that gives the figure its torsion and pushes the muscles into flexing along the skeleton. This starts to create shapes or push the shapes as certain muscles flex and others relax. The flexing of the arm creates shape when the biceps is contracted or flexed. As the biceps flexes it creates a shape in contraction, and the triceps on the bottom creates a counter-shape. So we have an interesting arc and counter-arc—a flow of DRAW! • FALL 2009

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