VICTIMS!

The blog request I receive most is to showcase some examples of the portfolio reviews that I give, by Email (frequently), at Conventions (many times a weekend), or by snail mail (a dozen or so a week).

Sometimes the submissions fall into the “school kid with dreams” kind of thing, and they need a starting point from which to grow.  Others are talented amateurs that need real direction and coaching, because they won’t get it from friends and neighbors who really don’t know what the business requires.  Still others are vaguely professional, good enough, perhaps, for no-or-low-paying black-and-white comics but not ready for prime time color comics from major or mid-range publishers.  And occasionally, wonderfully, they’re ready to go, either as-is or with a tiny tweak.

Take these three images that graced my inbox today.  Let’s call the artist Stevie, and his Email address actually has “Superman” as part of his name.  Stevie wrote (this is a cut-and-paste):

here are a couple of my pics if youd like to check them out. remember when i sent you some of my stuff like 4 or 5 years ago and you said they were pretty good but needed more work well i had one of my teachers give me some advise too and he said to pick and artist that i like alot and kinda follow his work for a while and i did and i mad alot of improvement i think you ll like this and if you want i have a myspace page just go in and search for stevie walker and go into pics and click on drawings i have a bunch more drawings there ive been following your website for like since i was a sophmore in highschool and im now going to a very high standard college one of the best ones in the country and this is the stuff i want to do is comic book art. well hope you like my stuff and ill try to have more just let me know what you think ttyl

So I replied to Stevie:

*  There isn’t any real DRAWING here.  It all looks like someone trying to learn how to draw by looking at other comic books.  Here’s a real test for you to see where you are:  Look at your sketchbook.  Is it filled with you doing head studies — drawings of real human being’s faces, a variety of them with different angles and expressions, perhaps captured by freeze-framing DVDs to capture interesting shots?  Are you drawing real horses, clothing, little kids, pets, buildings, parts of your home, your classmates, and on and on?  Or are you doing drawings of Wolverine, claws out, grimacing as though he’s constipated?…or G.I. Joe in body armor and a mask?

If it’s the first option — where you’re learning how to draw by studying life — you’re on the right track.  If it’s the second option, just drawing images you’ve seen somebody draw in a comic book, then you haven’t really started on your learning path to become an artist, then a comicbook artist.  You have to be able to draw well FIRST, before you can become a comic’s artist. 

Here’s the comparison:  It’s like you become a regular doctor first, before you specialize and become a heart surgeon.  If you don’t achieve the first part, you don’t achieve the second part.

*  You say you want to draw comics, but what’s missing from the samples you sent?  Comics!  Comics are STORIES.  They’re all about sequential, panel-to-panel storytelling, of characters in motion, acting and interacting with one another and their environment.  You’ve sent me, instead, drawings of characters just standing around expressionless and ignoring each other, as if they’re posing for their high school group photos.  The exact OPPOSITE of what comics are.