Drawing troubles

[Jogen]

I was wondering if there are any drawing aid for the josh blaylock style. I'm trying to make my own comic but my drawing abilities suck, and I still don't have a name for my main guy.

[jjlecaros]

drawign aid for his style? you mean like to draw like him? is that what you mean? drawing is like hand writing each person is diffrent, they have their own style.

[ARROW]

If you can tell me what you mean by "drawing aid", I might be able to help you in a more specific way.

 

If I can risk a guess and assume you are looking for "how-to" books, there's a ton of them out there, BUT........

...understand that NONE of these books will launch you right into a style.

Any worthwhile instruction book will take the longer route, showing you the fundamentals of line, structure, forms etc before getting into drawing the characters and stuff. If you want to pull off good original drawings of modestly complex characters like GIJOES, that's the way to do it.

 

If you want a very good book in this respect, I can only recommend the time-honoured " How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way".

[Viper Hunter]

Hmmm? Well, using my other post about my drawings I did as a kid, you can see the difference between when I drew stuff "my way" (the battle scenes goofy stuff and caricatures of my teachers) and the other stuff was just looking at another artist's drawing style from a comic book I liked.

 

If I could have developed the skill to just grab a piece of paper and pencil and sketch a picture like what a Kubert, Kirby, Severin or others (back in the day) could do...I would have DEFINITELY pursued something in that career. My OWn drawing got better and better eventually after tons of drawing others artwork, as it slowly started sticking in my head the style and whatnot, so my army guys fighting in volcano's and agaisnt giant apes got better with time, but I certainly wouldn't have been able to whip up a drawing like the one in my sig (by Kubert).

 

I wouldn't really know of any "aid" that could be of assistance for you, in coming up with another artist syle, except maybe to just find a handful of images from that artist you can use as a template, for the unique features and styling that you like of this Blaylock? If you have some skills of your own, you can add some variations of your own, until you get a flow going of how you want it to look. Move an arm here and head there or change a certain feature or shadowing of the image?

[Jogen]

By aid I meant how to books. I also meant that I wanted to draw close to how he draws,but have some of my own style in it to. Thaks for the advice guys.

[ARROW]

By aid I meant how to books. I also meant that I wanted to draw close to how he draws,but have some of my own style in it to. Thaks for the advice guys.

 

 

I'm wondering if you have confused the artwork of Steven Kurth with that of Josh Blaylock?

Keep in mind that Kurth was inked by other folks overtop his pencils, so the "style" you are seeing is kind of a synthesis of at least two people. Even if its Blaylock's own work ( I was not aware that he drew) would probably be inked.

 

As far as style goes, if you want to emulate the style, you need to pay attention to a few things:

 

Lines-- how the artist manages their lines. What this means is where do they place the thick and thin lines on the objects they draw? Is there a pattern on them from drawing to drawing?

For example: does the artists seem to always put a thicker line on the underside of a arm than the top--and do they do that line in a certain way?

 

Forms/shapes-- Is the artist drawing certain things in certain ways, with certain proportions or distinctive shapes? ED Mcguinness draws differently from J. Scot Campbell etc. Note how they draw certain things like arms and bodies....what specifically is that artist doing with those objects?

Are they drawing the shoulders wider, lips thinner? etc.

 

Details--this last one ( for now) is a bit of a trap.

I call it a trap because a lot of newcomers see this first and get hooked on only the details, and not the underlying drawing. Their work ends up showcasing only the gimmicks and "flash" on the emulated artist's style, and not the substance.

BUT.....that said, if the underlying drawing is sound and solid, adding the specific details can mirror the style.

Steven Kurth had a (annoying, imo) habit of making his jawbones pointy. Now, that makes them distinct and the style stands out, but i never found it very appealing.

That's okay though, because as an artist, its your prerogative to discover what appeals to YOU.

Adding "Kirby squiggles" to a leg will identify a Kirby-esque character, doing a flat, open-palmed (spatula)hand hanging beside the leg is a signature of John Byrne.

The list of little tricks like these are legion and borrowing from the hodge-podge is what will make your signature develop.

 

If you want to, feel free to post your drawings and I'm sure myself or others will be will to coach you some.

 

Good luck.

[pesatyel]

Drawing aid?

 

Practice.

 

I don't mean that to sound mocking or mean but the best way to learn something is to practice.

 

I'll give you an example:

 

First strip and something recent.

 

It took the creator time to develop.