MattBlackArtist

I would recommend reading books about writing comics before you actually attempt anything.  I found a great book at my local library that interviewed artists and writers from mainstream comic producers.  It was very interesting and showed a lot of the steps of producing a comic.  There was a lot of information on the collaborative processes which had no relevance to me, but it might be for you. Writing a comic is much like directing a movie.  You determine "camera angles", script, pacing, etc.  Some things have effects on the others, so I have found myself designing panel layouts that aid the story, or changing the story a bit to flow better

I just started drawing again this spring.  I did not consider myself to be "an artist" at any point in my life, and yet I feel like I might be moving in that direction.  I grabbed my mechanical pencils and just started drawing.  Not everything turned out to be a keeper, but some things I drew showed promise.  I often found that when I tried to "finish" my work in pen, I looked worse.  I really enjoyed the subtleties of graphite and how I could manipulate them to suggest dimension and shadow. If I was ten years younger, I would attempt to go to "art school".  Since that does not appear to be an option, I have been going to live drawing gigs.

We all have a specialty.  Mine does not happen to be drawing comics. From looking at my profile pic and a couple of my early works, you can see that I have done pretty well on realistic drawing.  That picture of me was the second time I attempted a face, and "the boy" was only the third.  I've gotten a lot of compliments on them and many requests for work doing portraits.  Fine and dandy. What I WANT to do is be able to quickly and accurately draw simple comic characters.  They are very difficult for me.  I have been using a technique that I have been developing for about 15 years where I use Microsoft Paint in combination with traditional