The portfolio game

It's easy to be nervous about presenting your portfolio to an editor or another artist at a comic book convention. It's easy to delay it, in the mistaken belief that a lot is hanging on this one early incarnation of your portfolio. It's not so. The first convention at which you show your portfolio is the beginning of a process, it's not the whole game. You will very likely not walk up to an editor, wink, say, "Have I got a style for you" and blow him away. Not at the first con and probably not the fifth.

For now, just pick the very best pages you have. The ones that you don't feel you have to make excuses for or explain anything about. Maybe that's just three pages now. That's fine. Your job is not to convince an editor that you are already the artist you secretly hope to be. You need to make the most favorable representation of where you are in your growth now.

Right now, you can only be as good as you are right now. You are accountable for nothing more. Don't wait for inspiration to strike so you can finish that really great page you know you have within you. It'll come out some day. For now, the most important thing is that you get the process started.

Be clear on this: You will only show editors pages with storytelling. No pin-ups, no covers. I should retype this ten times because people always seem to dream up reasons why they should show some single drawing. Don't! Story pages only!

If you are demonstrating inking, make sure that you have xeroxes of the original pencils. It's much better if these are not your pencils, but those of a professional. If you know a comic book artist, ask him or her if you could make copies of some xeroxes of their pencils and others'. All artists have some. You can ink these on one-ply bristol on a light box, with a duplicate on hand to refer to. Or you can scan them and print them out in blue ink onto two-ply bristol on a large format ink-jet printer. Again, have a copy on hand to refer to.

Wood's "22 Panels..."

Here it is, from the guy who's sometimes reckoned as, believe it or not, the second-greatest comic book artist ever (after Kirby), Wallace Wood (1927-1981).
They're Wood's ideas for adding graphic snap and variety to dialog scenes.
*****
I talked to Dax, and he says we do have to make up for July4. We'll try to schedule the make-up session at our next meeting.

JH

Layout examples, heavy on the Miller

Here's a exemplary layout by the late Gil Kane, done for a '70s Conan comic. Note the terrific "structurality", and the diagonal-rich dynamism.
Thumbnail and layout examples, with mucho Miller, for you to view here

JH

Because I care....

Class, here are two templates I made this morning for bleed comic-book pages. One is for your 11x17 original art and one is for your rough layouts.

The essential stats of the larger one are these: The original-art image area is 10 5/16" x 15 3/4" The bleed area is the outer 1/8" of that, all around--the bleed area being what the printer printer trims away at the edge after the book is bound. The "live area," within which all balloons, captions, and lettering must be contained, is 9" x 13 5/8", centered.

I'd suggest marrying your layouts with this template in Photoshop, then having me print it out as large as possible on 11" x 17" Bristol.

OR...
You could print out the smaller, "two-up" version of the template and do two layouts side-by-side on the same sheet of letter-sized paper.

You should pencil and ink just past the outer blue border in any part of the art you want to bleed. The border of the live area works well as a rule-of-thumb container for the panel borders of non-bleed panels. That's why I printed it out in gray in the two-up layout version. I'll print one of these out and bring it to class so you can see what I'm talking about.


JH

Welcome!

artwork by Kelsey Shannon

Hi, y'all,

It's good to be teaching a class with so few students. I'm hoping the result will be a very collegial relationship amongst the class and, just maybe, one of your best experiences at the Academy.

Here are a couple of things you may find useful. First is a link to a very concise explanation of Syd Field's screenplay paradigm.

Second, here's an unofficial materials list--my idea of a good basic professional cartooning kit:


* Sketchbook or notebook. ALWAYS bring to class.
* Pencils, of your preferred hardnesses. ALWAYS bring to class.
* Sanford Col-erase Blue or Light Blue Pencils. ALWAYS bring to class.
* Kneaded and Pink Pearl or synthetic erasers (e.g., Staedtler-Mars White). ALWAYS bring to class.

• Strathmore 400 or 500 Series or Utrecht 14" x 17" bristol board, smooth finish. (Trim down to 11" x 17")
• 30/60/90 triangle--the bigger the better. Look for one with a raised straightedge for inking
• Raphael 8404 Series Kolinsky sable brush, size #2 or #3 or #4 , (or the less expensive Escoda 1212 series, size #2 or #3 or #4) available at Pearl Paint and Jerry's Artarama. OR, alternatively, an excellent brush pen: Brush pens can be found at the Kinokuniya Stationery Store
  
• Pen nibs and holders: I'd suggest Hunt 102 and an assortment of others. I really like the Deleter nibs and holders from Japan. They are available at the Kinokuniya BOOKSTORE in Japantown. Deleter makes its own excellent holder that fits both styles of Deleter nibs.
• Ink: Pelikan Waterproof or Speedball Super Black India Ink or FW (Higgins Black Magic is a passable second choice.)
• Pentel Presto or Pro White or Dr. Martin's Bleedproof White or Pilot Correction pen or other correction pen
• Micron Pigma black pigment liners, sizes 03, 05 and 08, two of each
• Drafting tape or dots

Optional, recommended:
Drawing board with parallel rule or T-square; stick-style or pencil-style eraser; architecture-style lead holder, leads and special sharpener; sanding paddle for making chisel points on pencils; electric eraser (for erasing ink); French curve, flexible curves, ellipse templates; compass; 2H or 3H pencil (or lead and lead holder) for doing side-of-the-pencil shading and fills of black areas; a 6" metal ruler for ruling backgrounds; light box, tone screens.

That's all for now, except to wish you all an an excellent semester.

JH

P.S.: If curious about my work, you can check out my (admittedly junky-looking) website.