10 beginner steps to making comics. (With some added philosophy)

I recently saw a thread on social media about advice for beginners wanting to make comics. Of course the best advice is just jump right in. Want to be a writer, write. Want to be an artist, makes things. While this is the best advice it might also be frustrating for true beginners that don't know what that looks like. It can be easy when you've adept at something to forget what it is like not to know it. This is known as the curse of knowledge, that is once you know something, it's almost impossible to imagine not knowing it.

On that note here are ten non-comprehensive steps for beginners to dip their toes in. These are ten practical things to start 'just making comics'. At the end are a few philisophical tips to help you practice and avoid some beginner traps. 

Practice

1. Read a lot of comics, think about what you like about them, why do they work? Analyse every aspect of them. This can either be detailed notes or just vibes in your head.
2. Draw basic bare bones comics. Draw stick figure or shapes comics (talking circles) about anything. Make them just for yourself. Make them everyday. Make them knowing they’re going to be crappy. (Pay attention to what sparks inside you while doing this. What is fun, what is hard)
3. Practice your lettering. Write diary entries in whatever style you want to use for comics - if you don’t know this is how you can experiment. Make handwritten letters to friends shopping lists, i.e., practice practice practice.
4. Make copies. Look at artists you like. Make a copy of their work but in your own style. try not to do this with just one artist or you will pick up too many of their quirks. Swap out characters change dialogue to your own ends. Again this is not to show people, this is a learning exercise.
5. Make a personal comic. Take something that happened to you recently, an experience, a conversation, a feeling. Try and turn it into a comic. Again no one needs to see this, keep it as rough sketches or stick figures if needed. put it away for a day or two. Go back and see if it makes sense. Make it again if you have to, compare the differences.
6. Top five things to learn. Write down the top five things you would like to be better at with comics. Look at a broad variety of comics and compare how each does that particular thing. Think about why they are all different. Ask yourself, why do they make those choices. Once you have you top five list, makes notes on how you might practice and develop each of the five things and set about to practicing. For example, you could do one thing per week and extensively practice over the course of five weeks.
7. Understanding the basic shapes and thinking in 3D. Draw lots of shapes. Over and over again. Start with circles, squares and triangles but with the aim of finally progressing to Spheres, cubes, and cones. Practice drawing them over and over. Add shading to them. These are the basic shapes that make up all things. It’s less about how to draw and more about training your brain to think in 3D. Then combine them interesting ways.
8. Draw faces. Hundreds and hundreds of faces. All ages, shapes, genders, emotions, lighting etc. draw from your imagination. Copy photos, draw friends, make self portraits with a mirror. (Faces are going to be the one of the most common and interesting things you will draw, figure out the dimensions and proportions. How does that effect how light falls on the and creates shadows.)
9. Figure out perspective. Draw from life. Drawing buildings and nature, from photos. Master single point perspective. Not every artist or style uses strict perspective but learning the basics will help you avoid glaring mistakes that are off putting to the eye and confuse the reader.
10. Ad lib a comic. Draw a blank panel on a page. Write some text in the panel and draw something to compliment it. Draw a second blank panel. Then think about how the second box should follow on, keep repeating until you have 4 or 6 panels.

 

Philosophical tips to help with practice.

• Sketchbooks. Get a medium priced sketchbook, cheap ones fall apart and expensive ones will stifle your ability to be creative and make mistakes. Carry your sketchbook with you wherever you go. Use every spare minute to write or draw something. A sketchbook gives you a private place to experiment and fail and be bad. Plus you can see progress over time.
• Draw everyday. At least once a day. Fit it in. 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there. It all adds up.
• Avoid perfection. Keep pushing on without spending too much time one anyone piece. Seriously don’t spend hours on one thing trying to get it right. You want to learn fast you have to plow through a lot of bad art and mistakes first. Make thousands of crappy things before you can get to anything remotely good. You have nothing to prove to anyone but yourself.
• Have fun. Figure out what lights you up. Where do you find that spark? How can you get at that hard to reach itch. Drawing random things in a sketchbook is great for this. Eventually you will find a curious pleasure in drawing certain things.
• Improvement is painfully incremental. The goal should always be to improve. Sometimes you might have big break throughs, but mostly it will be tiny little things you won't even notice until you look back. It takes time. Like grass growing, you won’t notice until you look back over months and compare.
• Seeing and doing. Improving is comprised of two factors. Your ability to see and your ability to do. These are typically always out of sync and you’ll always feel frustration to a certain extent that you could be better. This is called being an artist. You have to continually push yourself but at the same time don’t be too hard on yourself.
• Style. Don’t worry about style. Style is something that will develop when you’re not thinking about it. Style is all the influences you take in. Style is all the tiny choices you make along the way. Just focus on making the work and getting better. Style will and should come naturally, it shouldn’t be forced or put on.
• The Dip. You're going to get discouraged at some point, in the early stages especially. After doing all the above you might expect a gradual and linear improvement. However, it doesn't work like that. At some point early on if you've gotten off to a good start, you will hit the Dip (see image below). Be patient and keep pressing on.

We expect the red line ('Naive Curve') in terms of progress ... However, it's more like the black line ('Real Curve'). You have to get through the dip.

“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”

― Vincent Van Gogh