Today I share an exercise I’ve used in my classrooms to teach some vital comics storytelling skills. By drawing a conversation sequence, we explore moment choices, scenery, emotional context, acting moments, and best of all, word balloon placement!
Also mentioned some great lettering tutorials over at Balloon Tales.
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Thunder Punch Daily 117 – The Art of Conversation Read More »
Today I let myself get a little angry as I talk about a common misconception concerning cartoons and stories aimed at young people. Too often I hear a criticism leveled at these materials that runs along the lines of “it doesn’t hold up” after experiencing them as an adult. I share a few thoughts on how we need to consider the intended audience before jumping to conclusions on the quality of a work. And also why these people are dead wrong.
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Thunder Punch Daily 116 – “It Doesn’t Hold Up” Read More »
Today I share some thoughts on how a technical goof-up during a workshop made it one of the most pleasurable experiences I’ve had teaching in a long time, and how mistakes can inspire your comics work.
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Thunder Punch Daily 115 – Failure IS an Option! Read More »
Today I share some thoughts inspired by a conversation I had with Dan Mishkin about writing characters and keeping their emotional arcs “honest”. Believe it or not, I manage to tie my points into a common argument amongst cartoonists over “how much is too much backstory?”
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Thunder Punch Daily 114 – Emotional Honesty Read More »
Continuing my series of TPDs recorded on my drive to Grant, Michigan for the Kids Read Comics Super Fun Tour, I ruminate on some classroom interactions I’ve been having lately that remind me of some of the basic concepts of comics storytelling. Three key ingredients seem to be Shape, Size, and Line.
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Thunder Punch Daily 113 – Shape, Size, & Line Read More »
While driving to one of my stops on the Kids Read Comics Super Fun Tour, I share some thoughts I’ve been kicking around while evaluating Tumblr and Posterous as free content management systems.
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Thunder Punch Daily 112 – Tumblr vs Posterous Read More »
Today I share some thoughts on cover design and put out a call for a new Art & Story challenge inspired by Jamie Gambell and the Covered blog. I use some anecdotes about my thought process on the cover designs between the two iterations of The Front: Rebirth as a starting point to figuring out what cover design challenges face us in the years to come.
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Thunder Punch Daily 111 – Judging a Book by Its Cover Read More »
Today I revisit a topic I don’t think I’ve touched on in a while (maybe not since the Your Comic From the Ground Up series!): namely, whether or not an artist should finish each page of a project in its entirety before moving on to the next one, or whether breaking the process into several “passes” might help a project get finished. I share a few thoughts on the matter and how the conditions of the project will affect the ultimate answer.
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Thunder Punch Daily 110 – Categorizing the Process Read More »
It’s another double-sized Thunder Punch Special! This time I’m joined by Rob Stenzinger of Art Geek Zoo, Babies Love Comics, and Guitar Fretter!
We discuss an often neglected subject in the sometimes overwhelming concerns facing an independent cartoonist–learning coding languages for websites, applications, and even games. Rob and I talk about why it’s important for a cartoonist to familiarize one’s self with the “under the hood” aspects of digital distribution methods, how it’s easier to learn than you might think, and some methods artists already use that can be applied to learning coding languages.
Links mentioned in this episode:
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Thunder Punch Special 02 – Coding Punch Read More »
Today I share some initial thoughts on drawing on the iPad, having sketched a bit on the device lately. I talk about my experience using Sketchbook Pro, the Pogo stylus
Examples of my iPad sketches can be found on my Moss Man character re-imagining, as well as my sketch of Eisen Vogel for a Mini-Comics Dumptruck book I’m working on with Kasey Van Hise.
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Thunder Punch Daily 109 – Tablet Drawlin’ Read More »