Hey All!
I am a writer wanting to start a new series. The style is a bit dark. I'm looking for stained-glass cover art. The story follows a group of religious cryptids that are assembled as a team from major world religions. They come across a teen who is a Christian with incredible abilities and a cherub. They form a reverse gaurdian angel relationship where the boy teaches the angel what it means to live with a soul. They come together to bring down a global and intergalactic threat in what would be spiritual warfare made physical.
I am looking for an artist as well as some advice how to move forward.
Thanks,
Dan
Replies
I did want to add that you should consider the lettering at this stage of your planning. Find out if your artist will letter the comic or if that will be a job that someone else will do. If you plan now where all the speech balloons will go then the artist can plan the panels so that the art won't be covered up by balloons. You can also help by drawing your thumbnails so that they leave space for balloons. An easy rule of thumb is to leave the top third of each panel open for speech balloons.
Blessings on your project and keep us posted about how it is going.
1. Do you need an artist for just the cover, cover + inserted illustrations, or is this a graphic story (like a comic book??
2. Are characters fully developed or do they need fleshing out? Is your manuscript completed?
3. Whats the genre and target audience for your story?
4. What are you willing/able to pay...or are you looking for free art?
My characters are completed, always being fine-tuned. I have my first comic written as a short story. I have my first story arch wrote out.
This is a supernatural tale of redemption targeting a little more mature audience as the themes may go over younger kids heads. My major in college was Evangelism with a focus on discipleship. But I'm a comic nerd from birth.
I'm looking for others to partner with me. No one wants to work for free, I understand, but this would have to be we'd get paid when we'd get paid. Really, if this seems like a project that is pricking your heart and makes you want to look into it further, I'll send you my work and we'll go from there.
I'm new to this. I've reached out to a couple veterans who are helping out with some pointers. Buddy Scalera with Comicbookschool.com and Glenn Herdling. I'm grateful for the support of this community!
1) A comic is a Graphic story; art with word balloons; thats your intent, right? . Do you envision it as a digital online or printed as a comic? Is the eventual goal to be marketed or as a ministry freely available; wha'ts your vision?
2) Do you draw somewhat? Could you provide an artist with stick figures or roughly fleshed out characters to give them guidance?
3) Has anyone edited or proof-read your story yet? How polished is it?
My vision is for it to get to be a subscription based printed comic. I can draw, that's what momma always told me... at least sketch, but it takes me a very long time. I've shown my first issue/chapter to friends and family and have received a great response. I would like someone with an actual professional background to go over it and provide some critical feedback. At that point, I feel that I will know how polished it actually is.
1) If your story could still benefit from changes, you can email me the manuscript and I will Beta-read it for free. If however the story is the way you want it to be, skip this step.
2) If you're still working on character-designs you can email me sketches-with descriptions along with your concerns. I would need a story outline to know where the character fits into the story. If you have character designs you're happy with, skip this step.
3) As a comic-nerd you may already have a style in mind, with a pro artist in mind who does that. This will allow you to tell your collaborator-artists: "I envision my comic in Stan Lee style... or Gerald Teal style." you can look through the CCAS gallery to pick out a style or two you like the look of; https://christiancomicarts.com/arts-prints?sort=newestPosts&page=3
4a) Start scripting your Issue #1 into page-by-page outlines. Generally comic books average about 28 pages, 6 frames a page; this continues to be a sort of goal for short graphic stories. The huge difference in graphics is that they're visual, so you start thinking of epic action or scenes that convey deep engaging emotions, and aim the page toward them. "Show, don't tell information to your reader when ever possible."
4b) Creating Thumbnail sketches with stick figures will greatly help you pace your story and give you an eye for the "look of the page." Remember to leave space in each panel for speech bubbles, think about how you will arrange bubbles with characters who are talking to each other. The more skills you have as an artist, the more help you can give artists who collaborate with you.
5) After completing steps 1-4, I think you're ready to make a serious pitch for an artist. However you can start looking at artists now, researching sites that might be potential markets for "Teasers" (short excerpts, splash pages).