I would like to ask for a little advice. I'm new and I would like to know the steps to creating a comic or graphic novel. I know it starts with the writer, then moves on to the penciler, then on to the inker, then comes the color and letters. I know it sounds like I know what i'm talking about, but I don't. Could someone explain each step in detail? OK, maybe it's not a little advice. It's more like a lot of instructions. Thanks and God bless.
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Truly a broad-based question!!
The main thing that I believe you need to remember is that a comic or novel is a story, hopefully with a point of view. Each part has its own disciplines and its own areas of knowledge that helps to convey that story. Anything that distracts or takes from that storytelling is counter-productive to you. A great story can be short, and a long story can be rambling and meaningless. So first and foremost, have a story to tell that's worthy of the time and effort that will go into it.
Just as a book is divided into chapters, or a movie is divided into scenes, so too are comic stories. In order to effectively tell a comic story you need to separate it into those story chapters or breaks and decide how many pages each section will need to convey the scene.
If you write your dialogue first into your story then you have to take into account the space used in writing those words as your break the sections into panels.
Panel-to-panel telling of a story is a discipline all to itself. Truly great storytellers know which angle and lighting and emotion follow which in order to give the maximum amount of emphasis to the scene. All stories need a sense of place so panels with backgrounds are important. You must create the areas that your characters move in effectively in order to give a sense of reality to the reader.
These things are all accomplished in layouts of your pages. Each panel should give the next piece of the story, without being superficial or drawing more attention to itself than it needs. The larger a panel the more weight is given to it simply because people naturally will look at a bigger panel more than a small one.
These things are truly the foundations for making a comic or graphic novel.
How you draw, what style and your method are secondary to the things above.
There are many books, online tutorials, videos and teachers to give you lessons on how to create images and lettering for your book. Realize that there is a great deal that needs to be learnt, but keep focus on the basics of telling a good story. As you grow in ability you will find your voice and all the lessons mass up into a unique formula for you to create the story that you want. Don't ever be discouraged... If your story has meaning it will be worth it to tell it the best that you can.
Replies
The main thing that I believe you need to remember is that a comic or novel is a story, hopefully with a point of view. Each part has its own disciplines and its own areas of knowledge that helps to convey that story. Anything that distracts or takes from that storytelling is counter-productive to you. A great story can be short, and a long story can be rambling and meaningless. So first and foremost, have a story to tell that's worthy of the time and effort that will go into it.
Just as a book is divided into chapters, or a movie is divided into scenes, so too are comic stories. In order to effectively tell a comic story you need to separate it into those story chapters or breaks and decide how many pages each section will need to convey the scene.
If you write your dialogue first into your story then you have to take into account the space used in writing those words as your break the sections into panels.
Panel-to-panel telling of a story is a discipline all to itself. Truly great storytellers know which angle and lighting and emotion follow which in order to give the maximum amount of emphasis to the scene. All stories need a sense of place so panels with backgrounds are important. You must create the areas that your characters move in effectively in order to give a sense of reality to the reader.
These things are all accomplished in layouts of your pages. Each panel should give the next piece of the story, without being superficial or drawing more attention to itself than it needs. The larger a panel the more weight is given to it simply because people naturally will look at a bigger panel more than a small one.
These things are truly the foundations for making a comic or graphic novel.
How you draw, what style and your method are secondary to the things above.
There are many books, online tutorials, videos and teachers to give you lessons on how to create images and lettering for your book. Realize that there is a great deal that needs to be learnt, but keep focus on the basics of telling a good story. As you grow in ability you will find your voice and all the lessons mass up into a unique formula for you to create the story that you want. Don't ever be discouraged... If your story has meaning it will be worth it to tell it the best that you can.