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The Professional “How-To” Magazine on Comics, Cartooning and Animation

#31

FALL 2015 $8.95 IN THE US

J.G. JONES

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DRAW! (edited by MIKE MANLEY) is the professional “HOW-TO” magazine on comics, cartooning, and animation. Each issue features in-depth INTERVIEWS and DEMOS from top pros on all aspects of graphic storytelling, as well as such skills as layout, penciling, inking, lettering, coloring, Photoshop techniques, plus web guides, tips, tricks, and a handy reference source—this magazine has it all! NOTE: Some issues contain nudity for figure drawing instruction. INTENDED FOR MATURE READERS.

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DRAW! #22

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DOUG BRAITHWAITE gives a demo and interview, pro inker and ROUGH STUFF editor BOB McLEOD offers a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work, JAMAR NICHOLAS’ “Crusty Critic” column reveals the best art supplies and tool tech, MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP gets your penciling in shape, plus Web links, reviews, and more! (84-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

DRAW! #24

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DRAW! #21

WALTER SIMONSON interview and demo, Rough Stuff’s BOB McLEOD gives a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work, Write Now’s DANNY FINGEROTH spotlights writer/artist AL JAFFEE, JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews the best art supplies and tool technology, MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS offer “Comic Art Bootcamp” lessons, plus Web links, comic and book reviews, and more!

Urban Barbarian DAN PANOSIAN talks shop about his gritty, design-inspired work with editor MIKE MANLEY, DANNY FINGEROTH interviews “Billy Dogma” writer/artist DEAN HASPIEL, plus more of MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ “Comic Art Bootcamp”, a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work by BOB McLEOD, product and art supply reviews by JAMAR NICHOLAS, and more!

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital edition) $3.95

DRAW! #25

DRAW! #26

Interview with inker SCOTT WILLIAMS from his days at Marvel and Image to his work with JIM LEE, and PATRICK OLIFFE demos how he produces Spider-Girl, Mighty Samson, and digital comics. Also, MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ “Comic Art Bootcamp”, a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work by BOB McLEOD, art supply reviews by “Crusty Critic” JAMAR NICHOLAS, and more!

PATRICK OLIFFE interview and demo, career of AL WILLIAMSON examined by ANGELO TORRES, BRET BLEVINS, MARK SCHULTZ, TOM YEATES, ALEX ROSS, RICK VEITCH, and others, MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ “Comic Art Bootcamp”, a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work by BOB McLEOD, art supply reviews by “Crusty Critic” JAMAR NICHOLAS, and more!

GLEN ORBIK demos how he creates his painted noir paperback and comic covers, ROBERT VALLEY discusses animating “The Beatles: Rock Band” music video and Tron: Uprising, plus Comic Art Bootcamp on “Dramatic Lighting” with MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS, Crusty Critic JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews art supplies, BOB McCLOUD gives a Rough Critique of a newcomer’s work, and more!

LEE WEEKS (Daredevil, Incredible Hulk) gives insight into the artform, YILDIRAY ÇINAR (Noble Causes, Fury of the Firestorms) interview and demo, inker JOE RUBINSTEIN shows how he works, “Comic Art Bootcamp” with MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS, “Rough Critique” of a newcomer by BOB McLEOD, “Crusty Critic” JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews art supplies and software!

JOE JUSKO shows how he creates his amazing fantasy art, JAMAR NICHOLAS interviews artist JIMM RUGG (Street Angel, Afrodisiac, The P.L.A.I.N. Janes and Janes in Love, One Model Nation, and The Guild), new regular contributor JERRY ORDWAY on his behind-the-scenes working process, Comic Art Bootcamp with MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS, reviews of artist materials, and more!

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

(84-page COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

TwoMorrows. A New Day For Comics Fans! DRAW! #27

DRAW! #28

DRAW! #29

DRAW! #30

Top comics cover artist DAVE JOHNSON demos his creative process, STEPHEN SILVER shows how he designs characters for top animated series, plus new columnist JERRY ORDWAY presents “The Right Way, the Wrong Way, and the ORDWAY!”, “Crusty Critic” JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews art supplies, and hit “Comic Art Bootcamp” with Draw editor MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS!

FAREL DALRYMPLE shows how he produces Meathaus and Pop Gun War, director and storyboard/comics artist DAVE BULLOCK dissects his own work, columnist JERRY ORDWAY draws on his years of experience to show readers the Ord-way of creating comics, JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews the latest art supplies, plus more Comic Art Bootcamp by BRET BLEVINS and editor MIKE MANLEY! Mature readers only.

DAVE DORMAN demonstrates his painting techniques for sci-fi, fantasy, and comic book cover, LeSEAN THOMAS (character designer and co-director of The Boondocks and Black Dynamite: The Animated Series) gives advice on today’s animation industry, new columnist JERRY ORDWAY shows his working process, plus more Comic Art Bootcamp by BRET BLEVINS and Draw! editor MIKE MANLEY! Mature readers only.

We focus the radar on Daredevil artist CHRIS SAMNEE (Agents of Atlas, Batman, Avengers, Captain America) with a how-to interview, comics veteran JACKSON GUICE (Captain America, Superman, Ruse, Thor) talks about his creative process and his new series Winter World, columnist JERRY ORDWAY shows his working process, plus more Comic Art Bootcamp by BRET BLEVINS and editor MIKE MANLEY! Mature readers only.

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THE PROFESSIONAL “HOW-TO” MAGAZINE ON COMICS & CARTOONING WWW.DRAW-MAGAZINE.BLOGSPOT.COM FALL 2015, VOL. 1, #31 Editor-in-Chief • Michael Manley Managing Editor and Designer • Eric Nolen-Weathington Publisher • John Morrow Logo Design • John Costanza Front Cover • J.G. Jones DRAW! Fall 2015, Vol. 1, No. 31 was produced by Action Planet, Inc. and published by TwoMorrows Publishing. Michael Manley, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial address: DRAW! Magazine, c/o Michael Manley, 430 Spruce Ave., 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 2015 by their respective contributors. Views expressed here by contributors and interviewees are not necessarily those of Action Planet, Inc., TwoMorrows Publishing, or its editors. Action Planet, Inc. and TwoMorrows Publishing accept no responsibility for unsolicited submissions. All artwork herein is copyright the year of production, its creator (if work-for-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, or historical purposes with no infringement intended or implied. This entire issue is ©2015 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 China. FIRST PRINTING.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

J.G. JONES

Mike Manley interviews the artist about doing creator-owned work versus work-for-hire

RIGHT WAY, WRONG WAY—ORDWAY!

Khoi pham

comic art bootcamp

The crusty Critic

Capturing the picture in the mind’s eye

The defiant artist reflects on the many changes he’s made in his life, career, and art.

This month’s installment: 20 steps to improve your art and career

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Jamar Nicholas reviews the tools of the trade. This month: The Crusty One goes to Japan!

www.twomorrows.com

DRAW! FALL 2015

-ING AHEAD

e are living in a second Golden Age. I was talking to a young artist friend of mine over Messenger the other day, remarking to her on just how different things are between her life and art education and mine when I was her age. She’s currently enrolled at one of the big West Coast schools for concept design, in fact the school I wanted to go to when I was finishing high school: Art Center. I think we are at the beginning of a second Golden Age of art education, powered by technology that, like Messenger which we were chatting on, didn’t exist 30 years ago. The media is full of stories about how expensive college and art schools are now, and how the outcome isn’t looking good for so many young artists starting out with lots of student debt weighing them down—and that includes me (I just finished with my Master’s), though I’m not so young and have a career. The figure I have always been given is that only 2% of art school students go on to actual careers in art. Not a great percentage to be sure, and with many schools costing upwards of $60K a year with room and board, that’s a big pile of debt! The great thing, though, is the wave of new online opportunities to take classes and learn drawing, painting, cartooning, and just about everything, it seems, that you can learn in a classroom today. These virtual ateliers are a great alternative for many who can’t afford to move and uproot their life, or afford the crazy tuition at many schools today. This wasn’t something I could have ever imagined when I was 19 or 20 years old. It seems there are hundreds of videos on YouTube alone on everything from inking to oil painting. I even have an old one on using the razor blade for inking (https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=teKXRlT-LF8). So while technology does have a downside, it also has a big upside in this way. We have already covered Steven Silver’s school in Draw!, and in the coming issues we’ll be covering more of these schools like the Watts Atelier. Between all of these alternatives, I think students have a world of options when it comes to learning how to draw, animate, character design, etc., and I’m happy to have Draw! be a part of this new era! Now go DRAW! something!

NEXT ISSUE IN FEBRUARY! Bwah-hah! DRAW! #32 (80 FULL-COLOR pages, $8.95), the professional “how-to” magazine on comics and animation, yuks it up with superstar penciler Howard Porter (Justice League 3000, JLA, Superman Beyond) as he monologues and demos the creative process that has made him a top-tier penciler for DC Comics. Then we heckle power penciler JAMAL IGLE (Supergirl, Molly Danger, Zatanna) into spilling his guts about everything from storyboarding to penciling for the big boys, as he gives a breakdown of his working methods. Plus our regular lineup of columnists: Crusty Critic Jamar Nicholas, Jerry Ordway (demonstrating the “ORD-way” of drawing) and “Comic Art Bootcamp” by Draw! editor Mike Manley and Bret Blevins. No matter how you frame it, this issue kills! NOTE: May contain nudity for figure-drawing instruction; suggested for Mature Readers Only. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Four issues: $34 Standard, $41 First Class, $11.80 Digital Outside the US: Canada/Mexico: $43, Elsewhere: $52 Subscribe Now at: www.twomorrows.com

DRAW! FALL 2015

The Professional “How-To” Magazine on Comics, Cartooning and Animation

#32

Fall 2015 $8.95 in the US

HOwArd POrTer in A lEAGUE Of hiS Own

JAMAl Igle in DAnGEROUS tERRitORy

plUS! REGUlAR cOlUmniSt

Jerry OrdwAy AnD mikE mAnlEy AnD BREt BlEvinS’

J. G. Jones WANTED ARTIST

rom Final Crisis and Wanted to Before Watchmen, J.G. Jones has worked in the big leagues on big books for a long time—but now Jones turns his brush to his most personal work to date, Strange Fruit. Draw! catches up with Jones from his Philadelphia home as he works on his new series with writer Mark Waid. Interviewed by Mike Manley and transcribed by Jon Knutson

DRAW! FALL 2015

A wraparound incentive cover for Strange Fruit #1. Strange Fruit © Jeffrey Jones and Mark Waid

DRAW!: What are you working on right now? J.G. JONES: Oh, God. [laughter] I am fully enmeshed in Strange Fruit right now. It’s pretty all-consuming. DRAW!: Since you’re going out and doing full illustrations, what are the stages that you go through when you start it? JGJ: Yeah, it’s a fully painted comic, so I’ve collected and continue to collect tons of reference material. Because it’s a period piece, it requires a lot of preparation before I even begin. I can’t draw something as simple as a room without knowing what’s in that room. I go through a lot of my reference stuff, and do the traditional thing of breaking down the script page by page, panel by panel, and then decide what I need for that page, and kind of collect everything together. I also have some models who I work with for the regular characters in the book. DRAW!: What about for the cars? Did you buy tin toys or models of the cars so you could get them at different angles? JGJ: No, that never really looks right. It looks kind of wonky, so I don’t have any toy cars. But my father was always into old cars. When I was a kid, he was always rebuilding and restor-

DRAW! FALL 2015

ing some old car or other. He and I actually bought a ‘32 Ford Model A a few years back for him to tinker with, so my dad’s really knowledgeable about all the old vehicles that I use in the book. And then there’s the Internet, which is a great resource. DRAW!: I suppose you can probably type in “1930 Model A Ford Door” and somebody has 30 pictures of the door. JGJ: Oh, yeah, especially on the auction sites. Because they are selling the cars, there will be pictures from the undercarriage to the roof, inside and out… it’s pretty great. I have used some of my dad’s old pictures along the way, because he’s had them from different cars that he’s owned over the years. It’s kind of in my blood, the old car stuff. I grew up with it. DRAW!: Well, I’m sure that helps a lot. There’s a lot of work that goes into trying to make things authentic. JGJ: Absolutely. DRAW!: You’re from the South. I forget exactly where you said you were from. JGJ: Louisiana, out in the sticks.

DRAW!: If you’re drawing that environment, you can probably rely a lot on memory and feeling, too. JGJ: Oh, sure. It was very rural where I grew up. A lot of the stuff was still Depression-era. Some of the houses and barns were very old and had been around for a while. When I was a kid, my grandfather would still plow his garden with a mule. It didn’t take a lot of imagination to see how things were in the ‘20s and ‘30s, and that rural landscape was in my head when I decided to do this. DRAW!: When I shared Al Williamson’s studio, I lived in Holmesdale in Northern Pennsylvania near Scranton, and it’s like a time capsule up there. There’re so many little towns and cities, and buildings that literally looked like you walked through a time warp back into the early part of the last century. JGJ: A lot of Pennsylvania’s that way when you get outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. DRAW!: I think one of the things that kept it that way was there used to be trains that went up to Scranton, and you could take trains from Scranton into New York or from Holmesdale to New York, and then they stopped that at some point, and I think because they stopped that, they stopped time in a way. So I would go to these places like Galliley, Pennsylvania, little towns along the border, and all you would have to do is make it black and white! [laughs]

How much time do you spend each issue, before you start drawing, actually doing the research? I imagine you don’t want a process where you’re like, “Oh, I’ve got 30 pages where I don’t know what this car looks like.” You don’t want to have holes in your process because of your reference. JGJ: I generally have so much stuff already, and I kind of have in my head where it is. I have a dynamic file for the book, divided up into cars, buildings, farms, all this time period stuff. The first place I go to is that file. If I can’t find exactly what I’m looking for, then I go to the Internet. I try to break down a particular sequence, and focus on an entire scene all at once, and if we’re going to connect to that scene later, I just do all the work on the one scene so I have all the material I need. But I try not to have an entire book all mapped out ahead of time, because then it gets boring for me. I generally end up eating my lunch and doing any online research I need at the same time, I’ll be goofing around looking for, I don’t know, a newspaper office or something I need to draw, a teletype machine…. I mean, you don’t think about it, when you have to draw, what kind of things they had in 1927 in a newspaper office. DRAW!: I remember those series of illustrations Rockwell did, “Norman Rockwell Visits a Country Doctor,” and then “Norman Rockwell Visits a Country Newspaper,” and you’re really doing the same thing. You have to, to make it authentic,

J.G. does his thumbnails in a 8.5” x 11” sketchbook, and often works through several different layouts for each page. All characters © DC Comics

DRAW! FALL 2015

The Right Way, The Wrong Way, and The

OrdWay ! CAPTURING THE PICTURE IN THE MIND’S EYE by Jerry Ordway

’ve been thinking about comic book covers and the sketches that are produced for either editorial approval, or as a precursor to the finished art. Over the years, I have done quite a few cover ideas for many editors, with the process and the politics changing a bit over time. When I got into comics at the start of the 1980s, I was not assigned to covers, as I was still pretty new, and covers at that time were prime assignments that paid a higher rate. These were most often assigned to “name” artists, mostly living in proximity to the editorial offices in New York City. For practical reasons, they could meet with an editor, and either sketch out something right there for approval, or pick up a design drawn by a staff artist to finish and return. This changed a bit at DC when artist Ed Hannigan was hired to design almost all of the DC covers. Many printed DC comics from the early 1980s until 1985 were designed by Ed and drawn by others, no longer limiting where an artist lived, or if they worked through the mail as I did. I worked from a few of his cover designs, and while they were always great compositions, I generally had problems with them. I mean to say, my artistic instincts were such that I rebelled against working from them. If I was hired to ink from one of these, I would have tightened them up and put my ink lines to good purpose. But to draw from one, I just struggled to adapt my method of figure drawing, point of view, and approach to someone else’s idea. I started in comics as an inker, and was constantly trying to get penciling work and also cover assignments. After a while I wore down Len Wein, the All-Star Squadron editor. He assigned me penciling and inking on a cover for the AllStar Squadron Annual #1, providing me with an Ed Hannigan sketch. I struggled mightily with it, but with some corrections, finished, and then produced a color marker guide

DRAW! FALL 2015

(for the colorist). I should have been done, and yet it bothered me enough that I produced a second version, from my own design. I mailed both versions to DC, allowing editorial to decide which one to use. I was only paid for one. Is one better than the other? For me, it came down to a comfort level, something hard to define other than calling it “artistic instinct.” My second version, on the right, became the published cover. Even looking at them both now, it’s not clear-cut which is better. If I had sent my first attempt, it likely would have become the published cover. Drawing is very personal, and mostly a solitary endeavor. We’ve all struggled with impediments to getting something done, from procrastinating to not delivering work that meets our own critical eye. We all develop our own methods and work patterns too, which is why there is so much confusion in trying to determine what is the “right” way to do anything. You can apply all sorts of academic drawing rules to your art, but ultimately, you find that those rules are subservient to what’s in your mind’s eye. By the 1990s, many editors started asking for multiple choices when submitting cover ideas. Fair enough, I guess, as they could pick and choose. I would invariably zero in on the design I saw in my head as the best one, and then draw Jerry’s second pass at All-Star Squadron Annual #1, a variation on the first drawing. three more variations with less All-Star Squadron © DC Comics conviction, and in some cases, less detail. The idea was to showcase the sketch that I felt of commitment to the now compromised design! My reaction was strongest, and try to steer the editor to choose it. When was always to accommodate the editor, though it meant strugthey did, the cover sailed along smoothly to finish. When they gling with the finished artwork. I was not in a position to be chose my least favorite idea, or asked to combine elements inflexible, or act like I knew better. In comics you are always of two or more, I struggled. On more than one occasion, an working to the client’s satisfaction, and to get paid. Was I to editor would like my own favorite, but give me additional argue artistic integrity over every change? I only asserted instruction, such as, “Lower the camera angle,” or, “Flip the myself on rare occasion, or else would draw two versions to composition from left to right.” Any change altered my level allow for the editor to choose.

DRAW! FALL 2015

Defying the Odds

Khoi Pham Abandoning the law profession, in his early 30s Khoi Pham completely changed directions in his life and career and worked to become a professional artist. And he beat the odds. He made a name for himself in the comic book industry. But it wasn’t always easy…

Interviewed by Mike Manley and transcribed by Jon Knutson

DRAW!: I think one of the most interesting things about your life, and I remember you mentioned it briefly when we met at the Wizard World Con, is that you were a lawyer before you became a full-time cartoonist. Khoi Pham: Yes, that’s what I did. Although I always dreamed of drawing for a living, it was always just that—a dream. So I repressed those crazy ideas and ended up going to law school and practicing law for a few years. I got myself into a miserable marriage and died slowly. The American Dream, right? I kept drawing as a hobby, though. But one day I noticed a comic shop in my neighborhood, Tyred Tyger Comics was its name, and that childhood dream was rekindled. I think you live in that area, right? DRAW!: Yes, and I’ve been to the comic store you went to on Burmont Road? KP: Yeah. It’s called Effin Comics now. DRAW!: It’s funny we’ve been to the same store locally. Which college did you go to for law? KP: I went to UPenn Law School.

DRAW! FALL 2015

DRAW!: At what point do you think, “Well, I’m studying law,” which is a pretty intensive field to study, you had to be really hitting the books to pass the bar, but when were you starting to think, “Oh, well, maybe I want to be a comic book artist”? KP: Well, like I said, the law really… wasn’t my life. My parents set me up for that. It really wasn’t for me. DRAW!: So this was something your parents wanted. They were pushing you to be a professional? KP: Exactly. The job, the brain-dead Vietnamese wife, the whole thing. I started working a few years with the law, and even earned my MBA in an attempt to get out of that life. Little did I know that comics would be the thing to save me. So the day that I walked into the comic store? The store guys were meeting to discuss setting up for Wizard World Philadelphia. Now at that time, I didn’t know that there were comic book conventions outside of San Diego. I thought San Diego was the only one. So the realization that there were conventions everywhere, one in Philadelphia, completely blew my mind. I felt like my mind was finally waking up.

DRAW!: How old were you? This was the early 2000s? KP: 2003, 2004, so I was already 30 years old at that point. I started late. So that was my very first comic convention. Before the show, we talked about selling sketches, which seemed really weird to me because nobody in the group was published. I stayed up all night the day before and did a bunch of sketches on comic backing boards. I brought them to the show and charged $5. In the first half-hour, two people scooped up everything. For the rest of the con, I charged $15. DRAW!: You were doing more at the show as it went on? KP: Yeah, and it felt really weird. But also pretty cool. Besides the sketching, though, this was my introduction to the con portfolio review. I think I had a few months leading up to the show, so I spent much of that doing up some samples. I think I still have them. But yeah, Marvel portfolio review. I met with Stephanie Moore, who was an editor with Marvel at the time. DRAW!: Was this at the show, or after the show? KP: It was at the show. I think this was the last time Marvel had an official presence at Wizard World. I think they were thinking about relaunching the Epic line. Anyhow, I met with Stephanie, who was very helpful, and you know how it goes, nothing came from it right away. Some time goes by, and I email Stephanie with updated samples and let her know I’m still interested. She passes it on to C.B. Cebulski, who emails me. I send him more samples, and then wait some more.

night, drawing them getting caught and beat up by superheroes. As a matter of fact, during my first year law school orientation, sitting among Yale grads, Columbia grads, Harvard grads, we were asked to fill out a questionnaire, and one of the questions was, “Who is your favorite lawyer?” Some folks wrote down Thurgood Marshall, others put Sandra Day O’Connor… I scribbled down “Matt Murdock,” and passed it in. [laughter] As you can see, law was not my future. At least not the real kind. DRAW!: You were in your early 30s when you went to the Wizard show. At what point before that did you actually start practicing? How did you train yourself to get to that stage? KP: I kind of scribbled and drew my whole life. I never went to art school, I’ve never taken an art class, and I’m sure it shows. But what happened was, when I showed my portfolio to Stephanie, she commented that the way I drew faces needed work. As an artist, as a kid, that’s the first thing you focus on, faces, so it was a bit of shock. I saw what she meant, but I was surprised that I missed it myself, and at how I failed

DRAW!: So you showed your stuff to Stephanie Moore, and she showed it to C.B. Cebulski, and then he contacted you, and then you were waiting for your date on the corner, and nobody shows up? KP: Yeah, but I figure there are only so many books, so I understood. So I’d email him a few more times and send in more samples. Several months go by. But that was cool. I had a day job. I wasn’t in any hurry. At that time, I switched from doing contract law to working for the Public Defender’s Office in West Chester. It paid less, but the quality of life was way better. I actually had free time to draw. I essentially worked when the courthouse was open and left when it closed. DRAW!: It was more of a nine-to-five job? KP: Exactly, so that—and getting divorced and remarried to the right person—was definitely what I needed. It was kind of complementary: by day, defending criminals, and by

DRAW! FALL 2015

TO MAKE YOUR ART

WORK

20 BETTER S T AND YOUR CAREER E P S

very spring at the end of the school year I receive many emails, Facebook messages, etc., from graduating students and young arts asking about the next step in the journey of being a professional artist. Sometimes they even send along emails with their art attached (more about that later). Recently I spoke to a class of graduating Illustration students at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia on the final day of their spring semester as they ate pizza and pondered their futures as artists leaving the safe harbor of academia, headed out into the choppy and stormy waters of freelance, armed with slick new portfolios of their work. I brought along samples of my recent work as well as a sampling of animation, comic, illustration, and storyboard work from the past decade or so. I was invited by Al Gury who teaches the class and is the head of the painting department at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where I went to school. As I answered questions and talked about my work and my journey as an artist, I found I gave mostly the same advice that I give to all young artists I meet starting out, advice I used myself when I started out. When I started my climb up Art Mountain in my quest to be a pro, the times were a lot harsher. I wasn’t as fortunate as students are now. There are so many resources available now that I would have died to have. The enormous development of online access to the “how-to” environment we have today is really amazing— “Trax Rover” was a comic story I took to show as samples at the Chicago Con in the early ‘80s, which showed both my storytelling and my skills there are even online college-level courses on with cartoony work, as well as with environments and mechanical elements. comics and cartooning. YouTube alone is filled My Batman samples I took along got me nowhere, but this work led to me with hundred and hundreds of demos by artists working at DC and eventually Marvel on Transformers. doing everything from coloring to digital inking, Trax Rover © Mike Manley plein air painting, character design, etc. But accessing all of that knowledge is no guarantee of work and practice and to take those steps to your goal. You reaching your goal. I have learned, like so many others strug- really have to be in love with the whole process, because you gling with the huge debt of student loans, that school is not will be disappointed, challenged, and knocked down while a guarantee of anything but debt, and even the best teacher working, and you have to get back up and get back on the can’t make you a star. In the end it’s all up to you to do the horse as they say.

DRAW! FALL 2015

After talking it over with Bret, we’ve come up with a list of 20 steps that you can take to really help you keep on track as you move toward your goal:

2. Draw like it’s the keystone for your career. Drawing is the foundation of it all in art, just about anything man has made probably started with a drawing. In art it’s the root from which everything sprouts—from sketching to painting, sculpture, you name it. It is certainly the backbone and the strength of my career. It has allowed both Bret and myself the ability to move from genre to genre, style to style, and industry to industry. Drawing is thinking. Drawing is analyzing. You can draw for pleasure and you can draw to learn, but as a professional, drawing is the key to solving the problems of the job or assignment at hand. The process of making a film, a comic, or an illustration, becomes visualized from taking a script and drawing. The drawings might be just thumbnails, but through a process of successive drawings, eventually those thumbnails evolve into the finished product, a rich visual feast, regardless of the media or medium. Drawing passes through all domains: traditional, digital, tra-digital, and whatever new media there will be in the future. 3. Always have a portfolio ready. This means your portfolio must be ready to send at a moment’s notice, so you should have folder of you work, broken down

Step 1: Be a detective. Who publishes work you like, or that is similar to work you do? How many animation companies are in New York? L.A.? What jobs are they hiring for, and who or what is the way you submit your work? All of this is vital information to know. You go to jobs; jobs don’t come to you. You need names and contacts, addresses and where to send the work. Call people on the phone if possible and ask for the appropriate people at each company—the art director, Human Resources, etc. You have to be like a detective: who, where, why, what, how? A simple walk through Barnes and Noble should give you a huge list of publishers to contact. If you see something you like, write down the publisher and contacts—author, art director, etc.—and call them up and ask about submissions. With the web it’s even easier to contact companies today, even if you have to go through a robot receptionist.

into the various categories or subjects and zipped or stuffed in a file size that will be easy for the person you are sending the work to receive and open. One folder might be for environments, another for inking, coloring, vehicles, or character design, etc. Have a business card. 4. Social Media: Websites, Tumblrs, portfolio sites. You should have as big a social media footprint as you can. Have them all, and keep them updated and full of your best work. It’s so easy to just send people a link to see your work. However, if your site is dead, abandoned… full of work from months, even years ago that won’t make a good impression, or doesn’t show what your are capable of now…? Keep your social media feed fresh

DRAW! FALL 2015

A career in storyboarding for animation or live-action film doesn’t require high levels of rendering skill or draftsmanship—here an understanding of film language, drama, and visual storytelling tenets of cinema are the crucial elements.

DRAW! FALL 2015

Illustration requires a different set of skills.

Here the ability to create pleasing final renderings will broaden your opportunities. A strong, solid grasp of drawing form is a great asset, plus an understanding of the principles of effective color, how to structure compositions that work within all sorts of specifications, as well as how to gather and use reference as an aid and not a crutch. Then all the above abilities must be combined by skill into images that communicate with clarity and impact, while meeting the deadlines. .

DRAW! FALL 2015

Draw! #31