So the question of the day:
Is there a way to draw FASTER, yet maintain quality?
OR,
Is there "a way to think" or an approach to thinking about drawing that helps with speed?
I've heard the legends of Jack Kirby and Mike Sekowsky being super fast drawing their pages. They would look at the page for an extended period of time before doing anything, and then churn the page out in record time.
NOW - I can see this being done if someone creates for themselves a "visual vocabulary" and then ends up using and reusing "stock" features or items that are repeated ad nauseum. (i.e. John Romita Jr. - huge fan, but all his faces have the same eyes, noses, body shapes repeat...).
So, is it a matter of:
a) creating a personal embedded stock library/your own visual language,
b) a matter of thinking,
c) simplifying,
d) other?
Any help, suggestions, tips or ways to think about this would be appreciated.
Replies
Hm. Interesting.
I don't necessarily agree with BWS, and I do find he too has repetitive quirks (as do we all) - just noted his claim of approach for historicity.
I think I have the same issue as the famous Disney animator Glen Keane - he states in an interview, something to the effect of: he really "can't see" the character until he draws it.
I think I know what I want - and strive to achieve it - but sometimes the marks on the paper suggest their own answers to problems I never knew I had. I've been working hard on the "visualization" aspect of things.
As far as I can tell, I don't really "see in my mind" what I wish to draw (at least, not with absolute clarity) - but I'm able to internalize the concept or use visuals that exist - stick them into my "brain catalog" and then reinterpret, or place it on the paper in front of me, more or less where I want, and how. I more work from...gut? Instinct?
It goes something like this: Brains says "I want to draw leaping figure with sword behind them - one foot forward, one foot back. Flowing hair GO!" and then that's what I draw - but I haven't figured out every nuance, detail in the figure, and sometimes that actual position isn't 100% figured out.
A lot of it may boil down to muscle memory doing lots of exercises creating form, using animation techniques to get the shape, lines of action etc. over and over and over - and then breaking what I did, do that for a while, break that and do that etc. Lately, I've been actually re-learning how to draw eyes.
Reference for me in recent years has become HUGE. If I don't know how to draw it, or I need to know exactly how something works, I get reference, reference, reference. (Ever try to draw a tricycle from memory? Ouch).
I always tell my art students that half the battle is being able to conceive of form within space in your mind's eye. When you can do that, it's so much easier to put it onto the page. "Where there is no vision the people perish," Solomon wrote in the Proverbs. Though he was speaking of weightier matters, there is an application here.
However, we don't need to reinvent the wheel, or go merely by memory. Reference can be a useful thing. While I agree with Windsor-Smith, it would serve him well to do some studies on faces of different ethnicities---most of his characters look like androgynous Greco-Roman statues in his latter career.
Thank you Mr. Weeks!
Ding! The Egg Timer - I thought of something similar with a stop watch - will implement something to this effect in the immediate future.
One other thing that I've been stewing over is the possibility of re-embracing the "Pulp" nature of comics - and getting back to the core - but this of course does not mean absconding with real drawing talent. NO! You still need to know how to draw/compose and lay things out with clarity to do "simple/rustic". DO NOT attempt to do this if you're not ready.
So:
Hey Martin,
I'm certainly not one to try and emulate in this area as I've never conquered the speed issue myself. Ironically, I actually draw fast -- I just think slow, ruminating over shots, and sometimes (too often) second-guessing myself at too many turns. Some of this (most?) can actually be a battle fought in the Spirit, and I admit I am probably too often doing my work in my own strength and not relying on the Lord as much as I could/should.
However, a couple thoughts -- practical things -- occurred to me that have helped some over the years. Maybe there's something in them for you;
1) On characters, get the faces and hands right and tight, and you can be less finicky with figures -- especially those in civilian garb -- coats, shirts, etc. There's a randomness to wrinkles (not completely) -- you can suggest a lot in a looser way. The tight faces and hands make the whole thing look tighter than what it is. Look at how some of the classic guys have done it.
2) use of black and/or silhouettes. Visually, they are great pictorial "commas" -- a place for the reader's eyes to take a short rest from busy detail -- done well, they provide something clear and graphic, while giving you at least one place where you can cut down on the rendering time (though, honestly, I've found myself sometimes taking that time coming up with the "right" silhouette)
3) Big one for me early on; remember you're not building the actual thing -- you're just drawing a representation of it. Simplify the language of your drawing. Practice your simplifying in sketching done apart from the pages so you can be more free in your experimentation. You'll be creating muscle memory
4) Lastly (for now), use an egg timer. It's funny to read this post from you, because I was just talking about the egg timer earlier. I haven't used it in a while, but was talking about breaking it out again. Set a time limit for an increment of work -- by page or panel. Set the egg timer to that much time and go for it.
For me, I sometimes go over the time limit, but just aiming for a time goal improved my drawing time quite a bit (so why do I ever stop doing it? Another of those million dollar questions!)
Anyway...those are a few things that may help. And it might be that you don't find one big all-encompassing idea that wipes away the time involved (this is time-intensive work no matter how you slice it), but a number of these little ideas might add up to a significant change in the time it takes per page.
Now, I'm off to apply my own words of advice!
God bless--
Lee
Thank you Alec, thank you Buzz.
I got my practice down :)
I was just hoping there could be some mental tricks that may help the process - I find I only move so fast...and that's that - no matter how much I practice.
A few things I'm thinking of employing as strategies for speed:
1. Learn the characters from multiple views and angles and in various positions so the "brain catalog" knows what they look like before starting pages.
2. Create a style that is uniquely developed for speed - maybe creating more of a personal "visual language" so the drawings are more like a form of "writing"
3. Simplify, simplify, simplify - using lessons from the greats as Alex Toth, Hugo Pratt, Jack Kirby
4. Apply clarity to everything - and throw out any additional noise...
All that said, there must be some sort of thought process that helps one "lock-in" and create what you see in your head - Barry Windsor Smith said in some interview somewhere that he draws exactly what he sees in his mind on paper.
Maybe it's an issue of I need a little of that "personal terror" to help improve the speed side of things...
Any additional insights on the "thinking" side are welcome.
Kirby said in interviews that the Marvel pages that he drew in the '60s which inspired so many fans were not a pleasant experience at all for him, but one motivated by terror, by the necessity to provide for his wife and children. Was he being melodramatic? Perhaps, but he always spoke of comics as a business, not with fannish enthusiasm.
Speed in any field comes with practice, practice, practice. Sort of like a chess master knowing so, so many different strategies, and being able to shift gears effortlessly at various points of the game.