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How to Draw Comics

Pragya T
Learning to draw comics is a time taking task which needs good drawing skills, but it can be very rewarding after you complete your comic book.
Assuming you are interested in learning drawing comics, lets skip the whole storytelling part behind comic book and comic strip making. Comic strips are far easier to illustrate as they have simplified characters, and the frames in the comic strip can be minimum 1 to a maximum of around 8.
Drawing professionally or making a comic book on your own will need a little inspiration and imagination, but a lot of drawing and sketching practice, because the element which a comic book is composed of should look perfect.
There is always a way to cheat or make your job of drawing comics easier, by using very simplified characters or stick characters like Xiao Xiao with just thought and speech bubbles around their heads. But if you wish to learn to draw comics step by step, like Marvel and DC comics, you will have to learn anatomy, perspective drawings and proper composition.
The shading part with pencil or ink pen is pretty easy when compared to learning the aspects mentioned earlier. Here are some tips to guide you in the process.

How to Draw a Comic Book Character?

Here are tips on drawing the male, female and other characters which are generally present in comics.
● The first thing you need to be strong with is learning the anatomy of the male and female body. Refer to books by Burne Hogarth on human anatomy drawing. His books are one of the best and help greatly to study and draw the human muscular figure.
● In case you don't wish to buy any expensive books, look online for free tutorials on human anatomy drawing. Keep practicing and drawing both male and female anatomy.

● Once you know how to draw a stationary body in different angles like front, back, ¾ , top, etc., start practicing drawing moving gesture drawings of the male and female body.
● In a similar way practice with some basic animal and bird drawings.

● Once you know everything about the moving and steady drawings of animals and humans, you should start giving a character to the drawings.
● There are certain shapes used for depicting a hero, and depicting a villain. A hero will basically have rectangular shaped jaw, and overall will be rectangular shaped, to signify strength and balance.
● On the other hand a villain will have triangular-shaped face, and pointy angles in the body to give it an evil look.
● So, give your character costume, props and practice different gesture drawings with the completed character, till you get the hang of it.

Perspective Drawing for Backgrounds & Dynamic Angles

This is another vital aspect to master along with comic book characters. Learn to draw buildings, landscapes, cityscapes, interiors, etc. to accompany the right background behind your characters.
So refer to a book on perspective drawings, practice from them and go for live sketching sessions by sketching some monuments in your city. To give your comic book frames a dramatic look, you will have to add some dynamic angles to it.
Some examples of dynamic angles is where you see a character really magnified because the point of view is below the character's waistline. To give a feel that the character is falling, you will have to take a top angle, with some motion lines behind the character and tiny tops of buildings around it. This is a technique mostly seen in Spiderman comics.
After you achieve a sense of confidence drawing comic superheroes and other characters, and you are able to draw frames with the perspective background, try to compose your drawing frames better. Learn some basic rules on composition, to frame your drawings better.
To get a rough idea, always draw a rough doodle of the shot, or a rough storyboard with quick lines, to get a preview. For kids, it is not necessary to draw all muscular or perfect drawings. However, the basic body forms and proportions need to be maintained, also use a black sketch pen or ink pen, to give it a finished look.