The Autodidact Illustrator

Questions & answers: art process edition

radiomaru:

Q. How long did it take you to create the art form that you wanted to use for the characters in comic? Did you fuss around a lot having many trial and error sessions before you got something you were pleased with or have you always drawn this way?
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Q. How did you find an art style you felt comfortable using? I’ve been having difficulty developing a style. I’m essentially just trying to find a style that feels natural to me. I just want to get to a point in my work where I don’t have to think too much about how I’m going to draw a leg, nose, etc. Do you have any advice? Thank you

A. hmm, i was just talking about this on twitter today. When i was a teen i copied other artists stuff, I spent some years drawing Anime Style, i got really obsessed with Paul Pope and tried to draw just like him (that’s when I started using a brush). Eventually all those influences and attempts to copy other artists piled on top of each other, and at a critical moment I ended up drawing a whole comic. 96 pages of Hopeless Savages comic for Oni Press. It was really really hard. But from the beginning of it to the end of it, I basically learned to draw for myself. I broke myself down as an artist and started over.

No matter how cool and stylish you think your art is, it’s going to be sucky and horrible and mutate a lot when you have to tell a whole story, drawing lots of stuff you don’t care about (houses, cars, trees) and new problems you never worried about before (drawing someone from behind, from above, drawing someone hugging someone else, kissing, touching, fighting, etc).

In general i think a lot of young artists use the “character design and style definition” period as a tool for procrastination. This period is undoubtedly important. But it has to end as soon as possible, because you have a story to tell.

In answer to the other person, you’re going to be thinking really hard about how to draw every leg, nose etc possibly forever, but at least for the first few years / 300-500 pages of comics. Drawing is a nightmare. Get comfortable with it by doing it. You can’t get perfect before you start.

Q. Do you use skeletons or outlines when you draw? Or do you just freehand it all?

A. I never did skeletons or like ‘wooden dummy’ figures or that kind of thing, but then, I drew crappy static poses for years (and bad anatomy). The more you draw, you start to get comfortable with things. It is easy for me to freehand a face or a simple pose nowadays. If it’s something elaborate, there can be a lot of planning and sketching. If you are drawing several characters in a scene where they interact with each other or objects (dinner scenes come to mind — awkward hands holding cups, knives and forks, etc, and chairs are the devil) you’ll be doing some underdrawing no matter how cool you think you are.

Q. Hi, while reading the Scott Pilgrim series, I noticed your style gradually changes+refines. What sorts of things were influencing/inspiring/necessitating you to make those changes?

A. Hmm, well, it was another year passing with each new book. I got into different comics & artists and they probably influenced me. Also, there’s a magical thing when your book is done and you look back at it and you’re like “THIS IS SOOOO UGLY” and you want to change your style immediately. So I would say self doubt is a huge factor in artistic development.

Q. Is there any particular reason Julie spontaneously started wearing glasses in volume 3 (and at the very end of volume 2, I suppose)?

A. Yeah. there is. I confused her with Monique. hahaha. I accidentally put the glasses on her in the end of book 2 (thinking Julie was Monique for a minute) and then decided to keep them. ANNOUNCEMENT: i actually added glasses on Julie in volume 1 in the reprinted color edition coming this summer. That’s one of the few things i changed. sorry yall

Q. Stylistically, where are you going with ‘Seconds’? Something more toned down, like your pre-Pilgrim stuff, or something more like Scott, or a mix? From your preview roughs things are looking fairly Pilgrimmy.

A. to me right now, it looks better than anything i’ve ever done before!!!! I’ll probably hate it when it’s done though… sigh. Anyway, it’s very cute, the characters have slightly bigger heads, and much bigger hair. There is also more variation in character’s appearances (facial features, etc). It has a bit of european influence (Christoph Blaine, Kerascoet & Hubert) and strong Tezuka influence. I am also really into some of Natsume Ono’s stuff, mostly her earlier stuff I think. Her layouts are so cool and her characters are adorbz.

Q. I’m an Illustrator/Graphic Designer and I feel sometimes that my stuff ain’t good or not as good as it should be. The question is have you ever felt like that in your career? If so, how did you deal with it?

A. yes, I’ve spent a lot of time feeling like I suck, i’m the worst, i’ll never be good at anything, other people are better than me, etc.

deal with it by listening to radio or audio books (seriously) — having that background chatter always drowns out the part of my brain that’s yelling at me.

other than that, just force yourself to keep going. It gets a bit easier as you do more work and become more confident in your work.

Q. Do you prefer scripting, brainstorming for ideas, drawing, or seeing the finished product?
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Q. What was your favorite part about creating the Scott Pilgrim series? Like, during the process?

A. hmm. I like every part to some degree. Having ideas is probably the most fun. Drawing can be fun but is also challenging and slow. Scripting is intermittently amazing, but mostly HORRIBLE and soul-destroying. Seeing the finished product is a tiny bit of “hooray” and a lot of “uggghhhhhh” (you tend to only see mistakes and problems and things you meant to fix).