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NUMBER 4 SUMMER 2002

THE “HOW-TO” MAGAZINE ON COMICS AND CARTOONING

$5.95 IN THE U.S.A.

THE SAVAGE PENCIL OF ERIK LARSEN A STEP-BY-STEP COLOR DEMO BY DAVE COOPER AN INTERVIEW AND TECHNIQUES WITH KEVIN NOWLAN

FIGURE COMPOSITION BY BRET BLEVINS THE DESIGN PROCESS BY PAUL RIVOCHE

PRODUCT REVIEWS BY ANDE PARKS

Number 8, Summer 2002 • Hype and hullabaloo from the publisher determined to bring new life to comics fandom • Edited by Eric Nolen-Weathington

It’s Time to... Last year we brought you DRAW! and received an incredible response. Now we’re turning our attention to all of you writers out there! You know, an artist can show an editor his work and the editor can evaluate it virtually on the spot. But what qualities are necessary to sell writing? What are editors looking for? What skills are needed, and what other media can these skills be used in? This July, find out in WRITE NOW!, a new quarterly magazine edited by veteran Marvel Comics editor and writer DANNY FINGEROTH! It takes you behind the scenes, into both the creative and business processes that go into writing narrative fiction. Hear from pros ON BOTH SIDES OF THE DESK what it takes to write the stories that readers—and editors—want to read!

In the premiere issue, top professional writers discuss the practical aspects of their craft. You'll get tips and insights from interviews with: BRAIN MICHAEL BENDIS, the writer of Ultimate Spider-Man, Alias, Powers and so many more; JOE QUESADA, editor in chief of Marvel Comics, and co-writer of Ash and writer of Iron Man—he's the guy setting the writing standards at the House of Ideas today; JOSS WHEDON, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the comic Fray, and the upcoming Firefly TV series; J.M. DeMATTEIS, writer of Spider-Man, the Spectre, Man-Thing and Moonshadow; and to get an artist’s perspective on comics scripts, MARK BAGLEY, penciler of Ultimate Spider-Man, New Warriors and Amazing Spider-Man. Plus there’s an interview with STAN (THE MAN) LEE! ('Nuff said.)

The VIPs of POV TwoMorrows is proud to present COMIC BOOKS AND OTHER NECESSITIES OF LIFE, a trade paperback collection of MARK EVANIER’s POV columns! It includes Mark’s best essays and commentaries, many NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED, about the state of the art form (as only he can convey it), the industry’s LEADING PRACTITIONERS (including Jack Kirby and Carl Barks), CONVENTIONGOING, and Mark’s old COMIC BOOK CLUB (with unforgettable anecdotes)! Featuring a new cover and interior illustrations by Mark’s frequent partner, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, this 200-page trade paperback ships in July!

CBA Sold-Out No More!

Find out how their better halves live! Will Eisner does what? Dave Sim is really like that? This August, see what its been like living with comic book creators over the past 60 years, with the people who know them best! This trade paperback explores the lives of the partners and wives of WILL EISNER, ALAN MOORE, STAN LEE, JOE KUBERT, HARVEY KURTZMAN, JOHN ROMITA, GENE COLAN, DAN DECARLO, ARCHIE GOODWIN, and more! In addition to sharing memories and anecdotes you’ll find nowhere else, their better halves have opened up private files to unearth personal photos, momentos, and never-before-seen art by the top creators in comics!

Can’t find those CBA back issues you’re missing? The search is over! In June, simply pick up the COMIC BOOK ARTIST COLLECTION, VOLUME 2! It reprints the sold-out CBA #5 (’70s DC) and #6 (’70s Marvel) and includes over 20 NEW PAGES spotlighting STEVE ENGLEHART and MARSHALL ROGERS’ Batman work, plus DC’s ultra-rare CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE! Also included are interviews with and unpublished art by BERNIE WRIGHTSON, NEAL ADAMS, JOHN ROMITA SR., and more!

To get periodic e-mail updates of what’s new from TwoMorrows Publishing, sign up for our mailing list! Go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ twomorrows

Now Shipping! The Jack Kirby Collector #34 Alter Ego #15 Comic Book Artist #18 DRAW! #3 Xal-Kor the Human Cat

Coming This Summer! The Jack Kirby Collector #35 (Now!) Comic Book Artist #19 (Now!) CBA Collection, Vol. 2 TPB (Now!) DRAW! #4 (Now!) Panel Discussions TPB (Now!) Alter Ego #16 (Now!) Write Now! #1 (Now!) Comic Book Artist #20 (Now!) Comic Books & Other Necessities Of Life TPB (Now!) Comic Book Artist #21 (Now!) The Jack Kirby Collector #36 (Now!) I Have To Live With This Guy TPB (August)

Pros and Cons The convention season is underway and already we’ve had great shows at the Atlanta and Pittsburgh Comicons. Despite two nominations (for TJKC and CBA), we didn’t win a HARVEY AWARD, but our own ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON did get to be a presenter! Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth (especially if you bought something)! Next you can find us in Charlotte, NC for Heroes Con on June 14-16 (visit www.heroesonline.com for more info), and the biggie—Comicon International: San Diego, August 1-4 (where CBA, AE, and KIMOTA! are up for EISNER AWARDS)!

Designing? Buy the book! When should you tilt or overlap a comics panel? What’s the best way to divide a page to convey motion, time, action, quiet? PANEL DISCUSSIONS (our new trade paperback, shipping in June) is the place to find out! It picks the minds of the industry’s top storytellers, covering all aspects of the design of comics! Learn from WILL EISNER, MARK SCHULTZ, MIKE MIGNOLA, WALTER SIMONSON, DICK GIORDANO, MARK CHIARELLO and others as they share their hard-learned lessons about the DESIGN of comics!

Verily, ’tis Thor’s 40th year! In August, we’re celebrating the 40th anniversary of THOR in THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #36! To start things off, there’s two incredible color Kirby Thor covers (inked by MIKE ROYER and TREVOR VON EEDEN)! Inside, JOE SINNOTT and JOHN ROMITA JR. weigh in on their Thor work with new interviews, and we present a never-published 1969 interview with JACK KIRBY, conducted by SHEL DORF! Plus, we’re featuring 40 pages of Kirby Thor pencils, including an amazing Kirby Art Gallery at TABLOID SIZE, with pin-ups, covers, and more!

If you need to contact the TwoMorrows editors (or want to send a letter of comment), try e-mail! John Morrow, publisher, JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR editor (and the one to go to with subscription problems): twomorrow@aol.com Jon B. Cooke, COMIC BOOK ARTIST editor: jonbcooke@aol.com Roy Thomas, ALTER EGO editor: roydann@ntinet.com P.C. Hamerlinck, FCA editor: fca2001@yahoo.com Mike Manley, DRAW! editor: mike@actionplanet.com And the TWOMORROWS WEB SITE (where you can read excerpts from our back issues, and order from our secure online store) is at: www.twomorrows.com

THE PROFESSIONAL “HOW-TO” MAGAZINE ON COMICS & CARTOONING SUMMER 2002 • VOL. 1, NO. 4

Editor & Designer • Michael Manley

Publisher • John Morrow

Logo Design • John Costanza

Front Cover Illustration • Kevin Nowlan Proofreaders • John Morrow & Eric Nolen-Weathington

FEATURES PENCILING A DISCUSSION AND DEMO WITH ERIK LARSEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 DESIGN DESIGNING FOR COMICS AND ANIMATION PART 2: THE DESIGN PROCESS BY PAUL RIVOCHE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 DIGITAL COLORING A STEP-BY-STEP DEMO BY DAVE COOPER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 TECHNIQUE AN INTERVIEW AND DEMO WITH KEVIN NOWLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 THE CRUSTY CRITIC REVIEWS OF COMMERCIAL DRAWING PAPER WITH ANDE PARKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68 FIGURE DRAWING COMPOSING FIGURES BY BRET BLEVINS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73 LETTERS COMMENTS FROM READERS ON OUR SECOND ISSUE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90

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DRAW! Vol. 1, No. 4, SUMMER 2002, was produced by Action Planet Inc. and published by TwoMorrows Publishing. Michael Manley, Editor, John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Address is PO Box 2129, Upper Darby, PA 19082. Subscription Address: TwoMorrows Publishing, 1812 Park Dr., Raleigh, NC 27605. DRAW! and its logo are trademarks of Action Planet Inc. All contributions herein are copyright 2002 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 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 and historical purposes with no infringement intended or implied. Batman, Superman, Batgirl, Man-Bat, Lobo,The Joker, Brainiac, Super Girl, are TM and © 2001 DC COMICS • Captain America, The New Mutants, The Human Torch, Wolverine,Nova, Colossus, Iceman, Katie Pride,Storm, Iron man, The Thing, Sub-mariner, Absorbing-man, Dr. Doom, Captain Marvell, Mr. Fantastic, Dr. Strange, Sleepwalker, Spider-Man, The Hulk, Angel are TM and © 2001 Marvel Characters, Inc. • Dalgoda © 2002 Strnad and Fujitaki •The Savage Dragon and all characters © and TM 2002 Erik Larsen • The Phantom TM and © 2002 King Features Syndicate • Aliens Havoc © 2002 Dark Horse Comics, Aliens TM and © 2002 20th Century Fox. Vampirella TM and © 2002 Harris Comics • Tom Strong and Jack B. Quick TM and © 2002 America’s Best Comics, LLC This entire issue is © 2001 Action Planet Inc. and TwoMorrows Publishing and may not be reprinted or retransmitted without written permission of the copyright holders. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

Insult drawn by Bret Blevins

FROM THE EDITOR Convention season is in full swing and I had a great time in Pittsburgh (despite the wrath of God rainstorm and tornado which shut down the show early Sunday afternoon). I also had a blast at the Wizard World East show, the best con in my own home town of Philly since Comicfest in the early ’90s. We need a good east coast show in a main event hall and this first year success will have me returning next year. I got to meet and hang out with many luminaries such as Darwyn Cooke, Mike Oeming, Jeff Amano, Neil Vokes, folks from Marvel and DC. By the time you read this I will be attending the annual San Diego con (mayhaps you are reading this while attending). This annual 5-day hazing event is a great place for me to see old friends and line up new artists to contribute to upcoming issues of DRAW! If you are attending the various cons like the Small Press Expo in Bethesda or the Baltimore Con (www.comicon.com/baltimore) I plan to be there so stop on by. Speaking of traveling and being out and about, this is a great excuse to drag along a sketchbook. That's right, don’t let the summer pass without recording some of the world that passes before your eyes down on paper. Oh it doesn't have to be formal—a small sketchbook, legal pad and a marker, mechanical pencil or ball point pen will do. See that sexy gal on the beach or standing in line to get some ice cream, or buff dudes strutting, tourists, kids at play, street scenes and fare. There are thousands of opportunities to sketch down some doodles in your sketchbook. There’s thousands of characters out there waiting to be drawn, faces and body types you couldn't think up on your own. “See, observe, remember,” was the old Famous Artist School motto, and summer is a great time to put this to use. These doodles and drawings, while not formal, will I’m ready for my costume contest! inform your artistic eye long after summer’s warm days have given away to winter’s chill. So draw, draw, draw. You will find that this will make you a better and more observant artist. So if you see a big, sweaty man staring at you, smile—he's got a pencil in his hand. Best,

Mike Manley, Editor

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PENCILING

ERIK LARSEN

THE SAVAGE PENCIL OF

ERIK LARSEN

One the cusp of the 10th anniversary of The Savage Dragon, (issue #100, approaching Jack Kirby’s historic numbers on the ’60s Fantastic Four) Draw! Magazine Editor Mike Manley catches up with Erik Larsen. The only Image creator still drawing his title since the first issue (without a fill-in), Larsen gives forth on technique, drive, commitment and Jack Kirby in this funny and frank interview with one of the most dynamic creators working in comics today.

DRAW!: I’d like to start off and ask how you go about approaching your work. Since you both write and ink the Savage Dragon, how do you start? Do you work up roughs or layouts from your script or plot and then transfer the art to the final board? ERIK LARSEN: At this point I’m going right to the boards and start drawing but I tend to reinvent the wheel every so often. There was a long period where I was drawing out the comics on 81⁄ 2" x 11" paper folded in half and blowing them up. I’ve done thumbnails at various other sizes as well. But I get bored if I keep doing things the same way over and over. I’ll do something

for a while and switch. I’ll talk to somebody and they’ll tell me how they work and then I’ll try it out to see how it works for me. These days I’m going right to the boards. It keeps changing. One of the things I like about going directly to the boards is the mistakes that result. If you plan things out too much in advance, if you figure everything out and adjust things there aren’t those wonderful “happy accidents” that you get when you just dive right into it. Your work can get very stiff and restrained when you’re doing too much preliminary drawing, I find. DRAW!: When you said you were blowing them up, what were you doing? Were you blowing them up and then tracing them on an art-o-graph, or tracing them on a light box? EL: A light box. I’ve got a photocopy machine in the room with me at all times. [chuckles] So it makes life easier. And I’ve got a light box so I can do such things as go over and blow it up DRAW! • SUMMER 2002 3

PENCILING

ERIK LARSEN

exactly. I can do things where I’m doing sketches in my sketchbook. “Oh, that turned out really cool. I should use that as a cover.” And then blow that up. DRAW!: Do you keep a sketchbook?

EL: Yeah, but it’s really out of date. I started right after our house had burned down. At that point I had all these comics that I had done as a kid, and after our house burned down, I didn’t have any of them anymore. So I thought, “I’ve got to put down on paper all of the characters I can remember now.” DRAW!: Oh, wow. EL: [laughter] I was basically, “How did that cape go?” Stuff like that. So I tried to get it down. Once the whole Image thing started up, it was kind of important for me to keep the sketchbook so I could figure things out before I started my book. At this point, I’ve been doing it on and off, and I’m confident enough in the work that I do that I’ll just design something on the page for the most part. There’s not much in the way of preliminary stuff at all. DRAW!: So you don’t tend to work up little model sheets of the characters at all? EL: No, never. Never. The best model sheet I ever get would be like, “Here is a front view.” But I never would go, “Here he is from the front, here he is from the side, here he is from the back.” Not at all. I just sort of... pray that they work. [laughter] DRAW!: Then you turn them around and go, “Oh, wait, that looks weird!” EL: Yup. And sometimes you design things and you go, “Really, this stinks. This character with spikes on the inside of his legs is going to have to walk.” You know? “Oh! What do you know?” I have a character named the Kid Avenger who has spikes right on the insides of his legs pointing toward each other. And whenever his legs are apart, you can see that, and whenever his legs are together, somehow or other they work fine. DRAW!: I see, nano-technology or something. The magic of comics. EL: Yeah! They either shrink into his leg or... they’re just never drawn that way. Nobody’s ever written in and said, “Wait a minute! This doesn’t work at all!” I actually think maintaining some of that magic is important. Comics are drifting to a point where we can no longer buy that Clark Kent could hide a big red “S” under a thin white shirt and the drive to make these books believable takes away from the fun of them, I think. The Hulk was exposed to Gamma Rays during a bomb test—that’s GREAT! I mean, I watch the Powerpuff Girls and I’m right there, you know? Sugar, spice, everything nice plus Chemical-X equals little girls with superpowers! That works for me! This burning desire to give Spider-Man an updated origin and make 4 DRAW! • SUMMER 2002

all of these things “work” takes away from the fun. Super-hero comics are supposed to be fun. Having radiation give you hair loss and diarrhea may be more realistic but it’s not that entertaining—unless it’s Dung, of course! If you give the runs to a villain it’s a hoot and a half! DRAW!: That’s one of the things I’ve always enjoyed about your work, too, is that there’s obviously a sense humor at work. EL: [laughter] There has to be. DRAW!: Now that you’ve been doing the Savage Dragon for a long time, 10 years, you’re up to issue 102, 103? EL: I’ve done 102, 103 issues, something like that. I’m actually working as we speak on issue 99, but there were about five issues of material that predated starting up the series at Image, so there’s been more work done than that. At this point I’ve done, I dunno, 2200 pages of the Dragon, or more. And I don’t sell any of it, either, so I’ve got ungodly piles of the stuff. [laughter]

PENCILING

ERIK LARSEN

Marvel on Spider-Man, etc., and you left, formed Image and started working on the Dragon, did you change your process at all, since now you were in charge of writing the stories and pacing and everything? EL: It’s much more half-assed, if that’s what you mean. [laughter] DRAW!: So you are less formal? Would you plot the whole issue out, or would you sort of leave things loose to kind of figure out as you went along? EL: I plot to generally page by page. And it’s generally the numbers 1-22, and it has all of points I want to hit. If there’s some important dialogue, I’ll put it in there just to remind me of it. And then I’ll go to draw it and change every damned thing. [laughter] If dialogue occurs to me while I’m drawing I’ll scribble it on the page to remind me when I’m scripting. DRAW!: So when you start drawing on the boards, you work directly, breaking down the story page by page from the plot? Do you draw in non-photo blue or in HB pencil? Is this how you work? EL: Yeah, HB. All these school pencils with erasers on the ends. THE SAVAGE DRAGON © 2002 ERIK LARSEN.

DRAW!: Oh really? EL: Yeah. DRAW!: So you’ve got a big pencil sharpener there? No lead holder, or mechanical pencils?

LARSEN: (Left) Typical underdrawing for a Dragon page. I ink this directly. Sometimes I’ll tighten up faces or hands a bit (if needed) but most of the time I just jump right in there (above) and start slapping down ink.

DRAW!: That’s great, though. A lot of creators don’t get to have a complete run of their work from the beginning to the end on a character. Most artists get back only a percentage of their work from the books they do. The artists from the old days, the Golden Age or the Silver Age, they didn’t get back anything, or rarely. It often got cut-up. The exceptions might be if you were a strip artist, then you usually got to keep some of it. Although even a lot of those artists didn’t keep the originals because they never thought they would be worth anything. EL: Yeah, it doesn’t or didn’t have any value. DRAW!: Now some of that art goes for a hundreds, thousands of dollars. It’s amazing. Now, when you were working for

EL: [chuckles] It’s great! I was using a harder lead earlier on and I just got tired of it. I was tired of it digging into the paper and having to erase it and not being able to erase it real easily and all that stuff. So I just thought, “screw that.” Just let me go with this squishy thing here. Just drawing it with lipstick. [laughter] You can really fly with a soft pencil. DRAW!: So you go straight through... you pencil the entire issue? EL: Generally, I try to. But the last few months, I’ve been getting about halfway through and then sending off those pages and then scripting them and then doing the second half, another batch. But generally I like to sit down, pencil the whole bloody thing, send it off... and generally what I would do is lay out the whole issue in one or two days.Very rough circle-for-a-head type stuff. And then I would send it off, script it that night, script like half the book. Stay up until, like, three in the morning scripting it, doing balloon placement. Then Chris Eliopoulos would get the pencil boards on that next day. He would letter however many pages he could do that day, then send them back. So during the day that he’s lettering that first bunch, I’m scripting the rest of it. The next day I’m done scripting and I get the pages DRAW! • SUMMER 2002 5

DRAWING AND DESIGN

PAUL RIVOCHE

DREAMING DESIGN:PART 2 THE DESIGN PROCESS

In my previous article I discussed some ideas about the role of observation and memory in drawing and designing. Now I’d like to outline some thoughts on the process of how I go about designing for comics and animation. I won’t pretend that this will be an exhaustive listing of every last bit of that process, nor that my approach is for everybody; but I will offer some suggestions that I believe apply to most design challenges, regardless of whether the item to be designed is a background character, costume, or a vehicle. Some of these thoughts are specifically about science fiction design, because that is the subject matter I most enjoy and have done the most of; but the general principles I’m talking about can be applied to any subject matter, not just science fiction. Some designs arrive in an instant, fully formed; you see them clearly in your mind’s eye, and the only challenge is whether or not you can trace them down on paper quickly enough, before they dissolve and vanish. In my experience, these “instant designs” are the rare exceptions. And sometimes these “design miracles” which arrive fully fleshed out later prove to be full of problems not first glimpsed in the heat of enthusiasm. In 26 DRAW! • SUMMER 2002

most cases I find that arriving at a satisfactory design takes work, experimentation and struggle, and involves following an “evolutionary process” of growing the design from first roughs to final drawing. At any rate, when you are a working designer in a production situation, you simply cannot rely on “miracles.” You cannot always expect to instantly jump to the final solution. You need a working understanding of how to break down a design problem into steps, which can more easily be solved one at a time. Especially because even the most inspired designer will have “off ” days, when the designs won’t flow easily. In those moments, having a problem-solving approach can make all the difference in getting things back on track quickly. Having a working process doesn’t mean having a rigid formula; it really just means taking an analytical approach to the problem at hand. It means organizing your thinking a little, before plunging into drawing. This organized approach, instead of being a limiting constraint, really can instead serve to free you up, by eliminating confusion and clarifying your thinking. It gives you a set of guidelines, to keep you on track, and also help

DRAWING AND DESIGN

PAUL RIVOCHE

you in trouble-shooting if you discover you’ve gone off the road into the ditch. These guidelines form a structure within which you may freely experiment with variations until you arrive at the best possible solution in the time available to you. Now let’s begin at the beginning: 1. RESEARCH: I hope that the necessity for this step is obvious. But just in case it isn’t: research is vital. You must understand, to a reasonable degree, what you are attempting to depict, or else your depiction will inevitably fail. You must understand the subject’s structure, its varieties, and its mechanics, even it’s history. And it’s not good enough to assume that you already know something. In any case, as I discussed in my previous article, often we know far less than we imagine we do about things, mistaking passing surface familiarity for intimate understanding. As the old saying goes, “Ignorance ain’t what you don’t know, it’s what you ‘know’ that ain’t so!” Research, or the lack of it, may determine your success or failure. By spending some time on research, gathering information about and images of a given subject, you will discover things that you missed, even in familiar subjects or settings. Research uncovers gaps in your knowledge, useful details that you had never noticed, or a chance image that serves as a perfect starting point from which to evolve a design. Research often suggests many more possibilities for designs. Even if you are creating a wholly imaginary, fantastic setting, vehicle, or character, researching the nearest real-world equivalent is still worthwhile. RESEARCH SOURCES: A. Real-life research: If you’re designing something that exists in your city or area, e.g. a train station, barbershop, whatever, go and visit a real one and take notes—both sketch notes and “mental notes.” Use your surroundings for suggestions of form and content.

LEFT: To design these related views of a futuristic log cabin, I did some quick Internet research to learn about the details of log cabin construction. After that I experimented with various exterior designs, playing around with combination of forms until settling on this one. Once the exterior view was finished, it was easier to imagine the living room, and the study; I tried to match the window details to keep things consistent and believable.

DRAW! • SUMMER 2002 27

NOW SHIPPING: AH-HA! IT’S ADAM HUGHES!

CBA #21 gets with it and we begin coverage of contemporary artists with this special ADAM HUGHES issue, chockful of stuff including an long, uproariously funny interview with the acclaimed artist, definitive checklist, and tons of rarely seen and unpublished artwork, all behind a brand-spankin’ new cover! Plus, just to show you that we’re as devoted to the “good ol’ comics,” as we’ve always been, our flipside features a comprehensive JOHN BUSCEMA TRIBUTE, including a biographical essay on the late, great artist, tributes from dozens of his peers, and an incredible gallery of Buscema artwork, all behind a new portrait of Big John (see below) by one of his greatest inkers, TOM PALMER! Plus: A Day in the Life of ALEX ROSS, the Lost DAVE GIBBONS & BRIAN BOLLAND Superman Stories, and lots more!

COMING SOON!

Don’t forget! The second volume of the Collected CBA is now available! Featuring over 50 pages of new material (showcasing the great Englehart/ Rogers/Austin Batman stories and a detailed look at Cancelled Comics Cavalcade) plus a complete reprinting of the out-of-print CBA #5 and 6! See page 42 for ordering info!

CBA #22 digs for the treasures of GOLD KEY! Behind a beautiful, new BRUCE TIMM cover painting, there’re interviews and/or looks at RUSS MANNING, WALLY WOOD, JESSE MARSH, JESSE SANTOS, MARK EVANIER, DON GLUT, PAUL NORRIS, and more! Magnus and Turok live again!

CBA #23 goes from Hellboy and back again! We cover the MIKE MIGNOLA magic with an exhaustive interview (with talk on his design work for the upcoming Hellboy movie), a huge gallery section, checklist, and all behind a new Mignola cover! Also, JILL THOMPSON takes us from Sandman to Scary Godmother with a long conversation, and tons of art! Plus, we visit versatile inker TOM PALMER and have a talk with legendary science-fiction author HARLAN ELLISON on his comics work!

Subscribe to COMIC BOOK ARTIST today and save nearly 15% off the newsstand price! Six-issue subscriptions: $36 Standard, $54 First Class (Canada: $66, Elsewhere: $72 Surface, $96 Airmail).

TwoMorrows. Bringing New Life To Comics Fandom. TwoMorrows Publishing • 1812 Park Drive • Raleigh, NC 27605 USA • 919-833-8092 • FAX: 919-833-8023 • e-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

DIGITAL COLORING

DAVE COOPER

coloring a pen & ink drawing

’m often asked by friends & colleagues if I could give them some tips on coloring in Photoshop. And I always have to say that although I love to share tricks, & although I’ve developed a wonderfully intuitive method, it’s way too complex to describe over the phone & it would take way too long to write out. So when Mike asked me to write a “how to” piece for Draw!, I saw it as an opportunity to finally get it all down on paper. I hope it will be helpful to you. Like any art tool, there are many ways to use Photoshop, these are just a few. A warning: this piece is not intended for the absolute novice. In the interest of brevity I’m assuming a lot of basic knowledge on the part of the reader. There are plenty of good resources where you can find out the basics, I’m just going to tell you some of the tricks that I think are somewhat particular to my technique. Another warning: this piece is also not intended for the casual reader. I’m not even going to attempt to make it clever or witty. It’s just plain instructions. For entertainment, may I direct you to

www.davegraphics.com? (nice plug, huh?) Now, let’s begin shall we? I’m going to use this very simple drawing for the tutorial. It has a foreground and a background, all drawn with black ink on paper. My digital tools are the following: a sweet Mac G3 blue & white Tower; Photoshop 5 (ooh, old school); an 81⁄2” x 6” Wacom Tablet (do yourself a favour & get one if you haven’t already); an unremarkable old Umax scanner. scanning

Scan your artwork at the Lineart setting, at 800 dpi. Once the scan is done, Save A Copy. Call it “scan.” Now save the document you’re actually WORKING on. Call it “in progress.” This version will be the one you’re always working on. Now convert your document to Grayscale, 300 dpi. Save A Copy again, calling it “grey.” (In fact, save a copy at every major stage. Then if you make a mistake, you can always go back. Or if you ever need a b-&-w version of the drawing, you’ll have it archived. Also if you sell your original artwork, your will always have the “scan” document archived for The Huge Retrospective Coffee Table Book that you’ll publish when your 70. It’s also a good idea to temporarily keep a copy of these, & all the other versions of your document on a zip disk in case of crashes. Then when all your zips are full, “Archive” everything onto CDs.)

setting up in layers Convert your document to CMYK. Go into your layers pallette & rename your Layer “lineart.” Now put it on “multiply.” Next, copy your layer so you have a “lineart copy.” Then make a new, blank layer (selfnamed “layer 1”). So now there are three layers in all & they look like so. Now turn off the “lineart” eyeball so that that layer is not visible. Now you have to change the order in which the layers are being displayed in the layers pallette. Bring “layer 1” to the bottom, “lineart” to the top & leave “lineart copy” in the middle. Now fill “layer 1” with a color of your choosing (I use a dull, light yellow, C:11, M:4, Y:40, K:1). (To “fill,” just hit Option + Delete. Or make that an “Action”—that’s what I do.) Now merge the two visible layers & rename the DRAW! • SUMMER 2002 45

TECHNIQUE

KEVIN NOWLAN

DRAWING THE LINE WITH KEVIN NOWLAN Only a handful of artists in every generation come along and turn heads, grabbing the attention of everyone else working in their medium, and certainly Kevin Nowlan is one of those artists. From his early fan-artist days to his early work for Marvel and DC to his Eisner Award-winning work on “Jack B. Quick” with Alan Moore for Tomorrow Stories, Nowlan’s lush work has set high standards and influenced many. Draw! Editor Mike Manley spent a late spring day interviewing Nowlan from his Kansas home, talking craft and revealing some of this popular artist’s work habits and techniques.

DRAW!: Why don’t we just start right off in the beginning and have you fill us in on your childhood and your early interest in art and comics.

KEVIN NOWLAN: I was born in Nebraska, raised in Kansas. I’m the youngest of six kids.

KN: I’d say around 1963 through 1968. I remember CARtoons magazine and some of those black-and-white horror magazines. Mostly DC comics like Batman, Blackhawk and some westerns. DRAW!: What were some of you favorite books and artists?

DRAW!: What year? KN: 1958. DRAW!: Did you grow up reading comics?

KN: Batman, Superman, Metal Men, Teen Titans, Archie. When I was ten I got the first issue of Angel and the Ape and it was my favorite book for a long time. Gorillas, GoGo Girls and Bob Oksner’s art... what’s not to like?

KN: Oh yeah. My older brother always had a steady supply.

DRAW!: At what age were you aware of wanting to become and artist?

DRAW!: What years were this and what was your brother into reading?

KN: Very young. Before I started school. My mother used

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TECHNIQUE

KEVIN NOWLAN

to try to keep me quiet in church by giving me a pencil and paper. “Here’s how to draw a rabbit... first you make two circles, like a snowman.” DRAW!: Was this encouraged at home? KN: Yes. DRAW!: So your mom was an artist? Was art something appreciated or done in your home?

KN: No, as far as I know, she just knew how to draw that one thing. My brother, Mike was a real artist. He drew hotrods, monsters and flying saucers. He did at least one really beautiful oil painting in high school. I used to love to look over his shoulder and watch him draw. He said later that no one ever encouraged him so he didn’t stick with it. But I wasn’t drawing because of the encouragement... I drew because I loved it. I would see him drawing, or notice a really cool cover on a DC comic and I would have to scrounge up some paper and draw. I filled up a huge sheet of butcher paper with a scene of Batman and Robin fighting Nazis. DRAW!: So there was, despite what your brother says, some encouragement at home? KN: I guess so. I remember comments here and there from my parents and my sisters. They’re also pretty creative... although out of the four of them, only one ever put any serious effort into drawing and painting. DRAW!: Did you have any formal art education or attend any art schools? What did you do there? KN: Yeah, but I didn’t really learn anything that relates to working in comics. I feel like I really just figured out a lot of this stuff on my own. I didn’t know anyone who could teach me how to draw a figure or what tools to use for inking. I just assumed I’d have to teach myself all of that stuff. I learned some basic information about printing because of a part time job I stumbled into. When I was 12, I started working at the local weekly newspaper as a “printer’s devil.” In the old days, that meant that you were an apprentice. In 1970 it meant that I swept the floor and could help myself to all the paper scraps that I wanted. They were still using the old sheet-fed letterpress with lead type. The place really looked like it had been frozen in time since 1890. If you’ve ever seen one of the old Linotype machines, you know what I mean. After the paper was printed, I would gather up the type, melt it down and pour it into long lead bars called “pigs.” They hung on the

NOWLAN: This is me trying to be a “serious” comic book artist. Lots of little lines and textures.

Linotype machine and were gradually melted to make the new “lines-of-type.” Once this had been state-of-the-art technology, but by the 1970s it was almost completely obsolete. I was able to see all of this just before it vanished from the face of the earth. DRAW!: Wow, that’s great. Another one of the things you do well and are noted for is your lettering and logo design, like DRAW! • SUMMER 2002 51

DON’T MISS IT!

FEATURING:

BENDIS OEMING WIERINGO MCKENNA BEATTY BLEVINS RIVOCHE PARKS EDITED BY MIKE MANLEy Coming In November!

FIGURE DRAWING

BRET BLEVINS

COMPOSING FIGURES Composing figures in groups in essentially a multiplication and combination of the principles discussed in previous DRAW! articles—particularly silhouetting. When grouping several figures you must choose a dominant character (or characters), and arrange the secondary figures to support him, her or them. I’ve assembled a set of examples and explained their structure and design—you’ll see that there are many approaches to establishing clarity and controlling the viewer’s focus. The diagrams vary in the compositional elements they explain—lines or shapes ending in arrows indicate “eye flow” and accent the controls or aides that direct the paths a viewer’s eye follows when looking at an image. Other shapes and lines indicate balance, placement, scale, rhythm or a combination of these elements. In some of the examples I’ve used words to describe the narrative motivations of the composition and left the analysis of visual mechanics to you. Silhouetting is so fundamental to good composition we’ll revisit it here—each figure you draw should scan or “read” clearly as a flat pattern—a simple device for achieving this is to insure each pose can be understood as a solid black shape—it takes only a moment to verify this in a rough doodle, or by actually laying a piece of tracing paper over a figure and blacking in its contour. (Or just outlining it, though the black is more vivid.) Even though interior definition and detail can explain a poorly silhouetted figure (or any other subject), a composition will always be stronger and more satisfying if each element in it can be scanned as a flat shape. Poor shape clarity of any part of a visual composition weakens its force, much as a sour note or out of key instrument spoils a musical composition. Here are a group of silhouetted poses of figures randomly selected from the following demonstration pages—as you look through the article see if you can find them and notice how effectively their clarity as a flat pattern compliments and strengthens the entire composition.

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Draw! #4