The Casual Webcartoonist

Everybody has weak areas. For some of us, our whole LIFE is a weak area But seriously, us aspiring cartoonists have always something to improve, and if you don’t, what are you doing reading this? Go back to reading The Wall Street Journal or swimming in your spaguetti sauce pool, you demi-god ¬.¬

Now the thing is, when you’re trying to improve whatever, the really hard thing is knowing where to start. Some people take an objective look at their comics or ask their friends, and all the get is a “I dunnoooo…” and you know what? They’re probably not lying. Knowing the problem behind a drawing, or a comic, is a much much more complex task that you’d think. If the problem is too obvious then it’s relatively easy to fix. If they tell you: the boobs are weird, or people don’t talk like that, what the hell is this blob in the drawing, the lettering is unreadable… those are easy fixes.

But what happens when you have a crapload of problems in a ton of areas? The most tempting thing is to say “I’m not good at this…”, rise a fist to the skies, and go look for something else to do.

Well, don’t! Every problem can be fixed, you only need a little nudge in the right direction!

Now, I follow a certain methodology to solving problems. I have found this is pretty common for people like me… people who code. As such, fixing bugs is a big percentage of the time we spend coding, and this requires a)looking for the bugs and b)squishing them. Sounds easy huh? Well, it requires a bit of practice, but this is what we do.

First, we choose what problem we want to look first. If we were coding, the obvious choice would be fixing the errors that are not even letting us run the program in the first place. In cartooning, we want to solve the problems that are either preventing us from running the comics, or preventing the reader from reading them. This includes things such as unreadable lettering, bad compression, bad size etc.

Can the comic be seen? Good! Now, what to fix? Go for the most obvious and glaring. There’s nothing that jumps at you, but it still “doesn’t seem right”? Aaaah, now THIS is where it gets interesting!

The first thing you have to do is to narrow it down. Let’s look at an example. “I don’t like this drawing” is a very general statement. Look closely at it. Look at it from AFAR. Look at the separate parts (cover the rest with your hands or a sheet of paper or your cat if it’s available). Where’s the problem? Make a list of the things you particularly like, and make a list of the things you don’t.

Now take a look at the list of things you don’t like. Imagine that you blew the candles on your birthday cake and item A in that list got magically fixed. If that’s too hard to imagine, then cover the particular item with a post it or something so you don’t look at it. Has the drawing been substantially improved? No? Move onto the next item. Once you do that with the whole list, you can now figure out which item on that list seems to hurt the drawing the worst. This is the thing you should work at.

The second thing you have to do is to isolate the problem. What is exactly wrong? Bad anatomy? Weak inking? Rigid, stiff pose? Asymmetry?

You don’t know?

Check out other, similar drawings made by yourself. If you don’t have similar drawings, then make one. There’s no need to make the whole drawing, just do over again the part you’re focusing on. Now, is the problem still there? Can you figure out what the problem is, in the second drawing? No?

Then it’s time to fire up Google and find either a photo you can check out as a reference or even better, a drawing. If there’s several, that’s even better. What element is missing in your drawing that makes it look weird and not right? Try copying -not tracing- a pic that does look right, and see what you’re doing wrong.

The third thing you have to do is tailor a solution for that particular problem. Is asimmetry a problem? Grab a mirror and put it next to your drawing while you’re doing to check the drawing is not skewed to one side (this is a very common problem, and I have noticed it’s very frequent in manga style). Anatomy? Try to find a live drawing class with a model, or borrow a digital camera and use the timer to pose for a pic you’d like to draw. Then use it as a reference.

Whatever the problem is, you should work at it focused. One thing at a time. Don’t expect yourself to simply produce flawless pics if you fix everything in a drawing: you’re learning. It’s the same as working out: you pump a particular group of muscles at a given time.

Now in the next article we’ll discuss how to fix certain, specific problems. Feel free to comment with your problem and see if we can come up with a solution for it!

Where does time go??? I have a thousand things to write on this blog! And yet very few time to do it.

However, I will squeeze an article tomorrow about an estrategy to getting better at stuff you might or might not suck!

Keep your eyes peeled!

Duuuh! I forgot to publish this one, even if it was ready! Anyway.

Never use pure black and white files for your comics on the web. NEVER. This is a beginner’s mistake I see constantly: people who scan their comics on black and white, save it as gif or jpg, and put it up without any kind of process. If your comic is ready to go, scan in grayscale. If it needs process, at some point you have to antialiase the lines, either by gently applying a bit of  blurr (also called “softening”), or reducing the size, which in some programs automatically antialiases the drawing.

Another common mistake: if you’re touching up a comic that is grayscale and antialiased, use a pen that has the same grade of antialiasing too. Otherwise the corrections will stand out  (just as it happens in real life with White-Out).

Along with talking about the common pitfalls for beginners, we’ll try to tackle some of the problems the general cartoonists face day-to-day.

One of this problems -and not a small one, too- is writer’s block.

Now, writer’s block is like hiccups. Everyone has a cure for it, but that cure doesn’t always work. Worse, the cures seem to be pretty esoteric and tailored to every individual’s personality.

So far, here are the  most common “cures” for writer’s block.

* Take a stroll.

* Sleep on it.

* Doodle/automatic writing.

* Fake it.

* Ask another person/bounce ideas around.

* Listen to some music.

* Have an idea storage for when you run out.

*Give up and try another day.

Are these bad strategies? Not at all. For example, some of them deal with the problem by taking some distance from it. When you have a problem and you bang your head into a wall over and over again, the mounting frustration often clogs your brain. It’s a good idea to unwind for a while and then take a fresh look at the page.

The problem with these strategies is that they assume you are prepared. The funny idea folder is a good one, but what happens when you don’t have one, or your funny ideas are unusable? What happens when you can’t afford to take a stroll because you have TOTAL DEADLINE PRESSURE?

Of these strategies, probably the most dangerous is the “giving up” one. Giving up because of writer’s block is as dangerous as, uh. Not getting back in the saddle after being thrown from a horse. Psychologically, it’s devastating to have to admit “I’ve got nothing”. From I’ve Got Nothing to I Have Lost It there’s an uncomfortable tiny step, you know.

I do not believe in muses. I believe you have good days and bad days, but your thing? That’s pretty hard to drive out. If you have had it you can find it again, I assure you.

So what do you do when you’re having a bad day and you can’t use these strategies for whatever reasons? Well, you have to kick the umpire  force it out somehow.

Here’s the method I use.

First: Mentalize yourself. Let the fear go. Give  yourself another deadline. “I will tackle this problem in an hour.” Don’t give yourself a lot of time (i.e. I “ill tackle this problem by next week) because you will spend 90% of the time fooling around and 10% freaking out.

Second: This entirely depends on what kind of comic you’re writing. If you’re writing a funny and can’t come up with a joke, change the subject and try again. If you can’t come up with a punchline, draw the comic and leave it blank. Try changing the expressions of the character saying the punchline: from smug to scared, from scared to embarrased, from happy to sad or viceversa. See if you can come up with something. Can’t? Change the expressions of the others.  If your comic is the kind to do something like that, sometimes a pop culture reference will save your ass. (Warning: pop culture references DATE your comic like hell). Other things that are funny: sex, food, animals, science. <– YMMV. For the love of holy, do NOT break the 4th wall unless you have a really, REALLY good joke for it. It’s been done to death.

If nothing else works and you can fit it in your comic, make the punchline something completely absurd. In the real world this would never fly: on the internet it’ll take you soaring high. Maybe.

If you’re writing a story comic, the method is more complicated, but also more reliable. I use a decision tree. My next post will detail that method, so look out for part II in the next few days!

Third: Settle. You won’t be able to come up with the best idea ever, everyday. You have to try, but go with what you have. The extraordinary thing about webcomics is that you’re able to revise:  if at some other point you come up with something better, sometimes you can change it. Other days your ideas will grow on you with time.

In any case, tackling writer’s block is simply a mundane problem. Don’t think it’s some kind of magic that is completely out of your control. It is (for better or for worse) entirely up to you.