Draw #8

NUMBER 8 SPRING 2004 THE “HOW-TO” MAGAZINE ON COMICS AND CARTOONING

VAMPIRELLA TM and ©2004 Harris Comics

www.drawmagazine.com

From Comics to Video Games with MATT HALEY Character Design with

TOM BANCROFT ROB CORLEY Adobe Illustrator Tips

by ALBERTO RUIZ Draping the figure

by BRET BLEVINS

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IN THE U.S.A.

Plus our brand new Comics Section featuring work by: BILL WRAY, CHRIS BAILEY, and MIKE MANLEY!

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1994--2004

CONTAINS NUDITY NUDITY FOR FOR THE THE PURPOSE PURPOSE OF OF FIGURE FIGURE DRAWING DRAWING AND AND ART ART INSTRUCTION--INTENDED INSTRUCTION--INTENDED FOR FOR MATURE MATURE AUDIENCES AUDIENCES CONTAINS

THE PROFESSIONAL “HOW-TO” MAGAZINE ON COMICS & CARTOONING WWW.DRAWMAGAZINE.COM

SPRING 2004 • VOL. 1, NO. 8

FEATURES

Editor-in-Chief/Designer • Michael Manley Publisher • John Morrow Logo Design • John Costanza Proofreaders • John Morrow & Eric Nolen-Weathington Transcription • Steven Tice

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COVER STORY FROM COMICS TO VIDEO GAMES WITH MATT HALEY

For more great information on cartooning and animation, visit our Web site at: http://www.drawmagazine.com

Front and Back Cover Illustrations by Matt Haley

Special thanks to Todd Klein

for our “Comics Section” logo design

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DRAW! SPRING 2004, Vol. 1, No. 8 was produced by Action Planet Inc. and published by TwoMorrows Publishing. Michael Manley, Editor, John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Address is PO Box 2129, Upper Darby, PA 19082.

Subscription Address: TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., Raleigh, NC 27614. DRAW! and its logo are trademarks of Action Planet Inc. All contributions herein are copyright 2004 by their respective contributors. Action Planet Inc. and TwoMorrows Publishing accept no responsibility for unsolicited submissions. All artwork herein is copyright the year of production, its creator (if workfor-hire, the entity which contracted said artwork); the characters featured in said artwork are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners; and said artwork or other trademarked material is printed in these pages with the consent of the copyright holder and/or for journalistic, educational and historical purposes with no infringement intended or implied. Batman, Superman, Scarecrow, Birds of Prey, Joker, Batgirl, Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor, The Huntress, Supergirl, The Blue Beetle are TM and ©2004 DC Comics • The Avengers, Spider-Man, The X-Men, Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Hulk, The New Mutants, Wolverine are TM and ©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc. • Ghost and Hellboy are TM and ©2004 Dark Horse Comics. Vampirella TM and ©2004 Harris Comics. This entire issue is ©2004 Action Planet Inc. and TwoMorrows Publishing and may not be reprinted or retransmitted without written permission of the copyright holders. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

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CHARACTER DESIGN BRINGING YOUR CHARACTERS TO LIFE

BY TOM BANCROFT AND ROB CORLEY

41 OUR BRAND NEW COMICS SECTION! FEATURING THE WORK OF SOME OF TODAY’S TOP CARTOONISTS!

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ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR TIPS: TRANSPARENCY BLENDS

BY ALBERTO RUIZ

48 INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT FEATURING JOSÉ LOUIS AGREDA

DRAPING THE HUMAN FIGURE PART 1 POINTERS ON FOLDS AND DRAPERY

BY BRET BLEVINS

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Figurative interpretation by José Agreda

FROM THE EDITOR 2004 is here and by the time you get this the Tax Man will have cometh. That signals the beginning of convention season in the comic book biz. TwoMorrows and yours truly will be attending the Philly Wizard World Con in May as well as the annual triathlon known as Comicon International: San Diego this July. Please stop by our booths to say “Hi” and check out all the great new stuff that’s coming out from TwoMorrows, like the new book Acting With A Pencil by Bret Blevins and myself, that will makes its debut in San Diego. Check our website for a big update on this new book.

This issue we also launch our new Comic Section where we will run original comic strips by some of the top cartoonists working today. This issue starts off with a bang with past DRAW! contributors Chris Bailey (Kim Possible and the upcoming Garfield Movie) and Bill Wray (Monroe and Ren & Stimpy) and some hack named Manley.

I’d like to thank my regular partner in the smudgey hands brigade, Bret Blevins, and Alberto Ruiz (aka Dr. Cyberfunken) for coming through again with some great articles. We also welcome aboard new columnists Tom Bancroft and Rob Corley. You’ve been enjoying their work for years on films like The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Mulan, Atlantis and Tarzan. Tom also does a swell comic called Opposite Forces. You can check out his site at: www.funnypagespress.com.

Our feature artist this issue is Matt Haley. I wanted to interview Matt as he’s one of the artists today who seems to be equally at home in comics and in the gaming and advertising worlds, two areas that use a lot of comic artists and cartoonists and the skills you have to learn to do them well. Mr. Blevins returns with part one of a two-part article on drapery. That’s right: Drapery and folds. We’ve been getting a fair amount of requests for more articles on basic fundamentals like drapery and perspective, and we here at DRAW! aim to please. I’d also like to thank Jean Marc L’officier of Hollywood Comics for allowing us to run his Collaboration Agreement here. We’ve also been getting a fair amount of requests for more business and legal issues. Like I said, we aim to please!

Have a great Spring and I hope to see some of you on the convention circuit, and please stay in touch and drop us a line or check out or message board.

Best,

Mike Manley, Editor

Please send your letters to: PO BOX 2129 UPPER DARBY PA 19082 or e-mail: mike@drawmagazine.com VISIT OUR WEB SITE AT: http://www.drawmagazine.com ALSO VISIT OUR MESSAGE BOARD AT: http://66.36.6.76/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi

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X-MEN are TM & ©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.

BREAKING BEYOND THE PANEL BORDERS FROM COMICS AND ADVERTISING TO VIDEO GAMES, AN INTERVIEW WITH MATT HALEY

From movies, TV, animation storyboards and video games, it seems comics are everywhere these days. The world of Hollywood, advertising and the public seem to be embracing comics more and more. And that means more opportunity for the savvy comic book artist as well. The modern comic artist can no longer be content to merely sit and work with his or her “old school” materials and techniques. Not if they want to stay on the cutting edge... and regularly employed. Matt Haley is one of the artists out there who’s embracing the changes and opportunities the digital age has brought to the modern comic artist’s studio door step... or e-mail in box. DRAW! magazine editor Mike Manley conducted this interview with the busy artist via the Internet. As you’ll see from reading this interview, working via the Internet and digitally is something Haley is very familiar and comfortable with.

DRAW!: One of the reasons I wanted to interview you for the magazine, besides your strong drawing skills, is because of the work you’ve been doing sort of comic artwise outside of the regular comic industry in advertising and gaming. One of the big focuses of DRAW! is that comics are everywhere and cartooning is a very broad profession. The skills can be used in a variety of other venues outside of just super-hero comics.

MATT HALEY: Yeah, it always seems to puzzle people that I do comics and also do commercial art, I have gotten so many e-mails through my web site from art students and aspiring artists asking how I made the transition, and if I needed any special skills or whatnot, and really, it’s the same job, only it pays better, sadly.

DRAW!: So obviously you can directly apply the storytelling and problem solving skills you developed in comics to these new assignments. Were you actively seeking out these advertising jobs because of the higher pay involved, or for the challenge of doing different things besides comics?

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 3

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MH: Well, really, it sounds like b.s. but these jobs found me. People just seem to be coming to my website and liking what they see. I really wanted to do more comics work, but everybody knows I’m not the fastest penciler, although I’m faster when I can finish the work in Photoshop. I did reach a point recently where I was just tired of being in trouble deadline-wise in comics, and it has been a refreshing change to not have missed any deadlines on the commercial work, so I suppose it is an experience I needed, to really take the work more seriously than I had been.

MH: Oh yeah, I would, and for the most part, that’s what I’ve done. I mean, if you look at my small body of work, it’s a lot of specials and a couple of mini-series. I think it also depends on the script, and there were times I was offered scripts that just didn’t thrill me. Now, I probably should have been a pro and just taken those gigs, but I felt that since I would be the one sitting alone in my studio for 12 hours a day for months, I probably should be crazy about the story I was being asked to tell, right? I felt bad for my editors on Elseworld’s Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl, and at one point I was told my job was on the line, but at the end of it all, when that book sold out, and sold-through (meaning all the copies ordered ended up in reader’s hands, and not sitting on the shelves) in 24 hours, I got a call from the assistant editor telling me that the editor whose life I had made a living hell was thumbing through that week’s books, came across mine, and said something like “Damn it, I’m going to have to work with Haley again...” and that made it all worth it. Man, I really want to do a sequel to that book...

DRAW!: Was there any learning curve involved here? Did you have to go out and learn any new tools, i.e. a Wacom tablet, Painter, Photoshop, or buy any other new equipment or software to allow you to do the job?

MH: Not really, I have only had a Mac for a few years, and was teaching myself Photoshop. I did work briefly at an ad agency in the illustration department, and was taught Illustrator by a real 4 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

Supergirl, Batgirl, Joker, Luthor are TM & ©2004 DC Comics.

DRAW!: You feel that the type of work you do—the attention to detail and finish you like to bring to the project—makes it hard for you to do your standard 20-plus page comic a month? Would you prefer a graphic novel format and a longer deadline than the three-week turnaround it seems most comics have.

HALEY: This is the pitch art I did to help sell the ELSEWORLD’S FINEST: SUPERGIRL AND BATGIRL prestige format book I did with Barbara Kesel and Tom Simmons.

COMICS

MATT HALEY

genius, Russell Weyant. He taught me how to create blended illustrations in Illustrator 8, and it’s been a real help whenever I needed to do text effects or logos that are infinitely scalable, plus it’s helped me in Photoshop when I need to draw a mask with the Pen Tool. I’m still learning new things about Photoshop every day, and at this point I’m pretty addicted to it. Once I was able to market myself as a full-service illustrator, more and better-paying work started coming my way. I did buy a small Wacom tablet, and it’s the single best investment I made; you can’t draw with a bar of soap (a mouse)! So really, all I needed was a Mac, Photoshop, a good scanner, and a Wacom tablet. Oh, and my iPod, I love that damn thing.

DRAW!: Do you like to create a mood in your studio? Do you like to listen to certain types of music or have the TV on?

Having a pleasant atmosphere is vitally important for the solo artist working at home.

MH: Well, I tend towards movies or TV shows, sometimes talk radio, especially at night. I need to give my brain something to chew on so it will leave me alone long enough to work. If I need to really sit and draw for hours by hand, though, it’s usually music.

I love iTunes on my Mac, there’s a lot of great ambient and techno web casts I listen to. My iPOd is also full of old radio shows and bands I love: The Police, Greg Howe, DJ Shadow, and Sevendust... there are so many. I’m the kind of freak who’s brain can’t slow down, so I need a lot of sensory input.

DRAW!: Have you ever shared a studio? Do you find that type of environment nourishing or distracting?

MH: Yeah, I did, it was called Studiosaurus. I miss it, but my setup is pretty sweet now, and I can work undisturbed. They’re good guys and I wish them well. I also briefly shared space with the Work In Progress guys in Berkeley, Brandon McKinney, Scott Kolins, Shannon Wheeler, Chris Schenck, and Jeff Johnson. It was really fun; wish I could do that one again. They were a tremendously inspiring group of artists and Chris had a thorough collection of art books, though Jeff was a bit too eager to demonstrate his aikido moves on me.

MATT HALEY: My little pocket studio in my house.

Not very big, but cozy and private. B: is my art table and flatfiles. I use Chromalux bulbs in my lamps exclusively, if you don’t have them, you’re going to get sick and depressed.

DRAW!: What’s your current studio set up like now?

MH: I lucked into a house that has a pocket studio in the back, just off the dining room, it’s small, but cozy. I have a big art table on one side, and then my computer setup on the other. It has great windows so I get a lot of sun, and they open onto my big backyard. For a long time after I left my studio, I had to work in my kitchen or briefly a basement, so this is really sweet.

DRAW!: What type of system and computer are you running?

MH: I just got my new setup running, I have two Macs, a G3 iMac and a new G4 Titanium Powerbook, both running Panther, and I have to say, the most stable OS Apple has produced, in my opinion. The laptop is my main machine, runs Photoshop like a dream, and the G3 is my backup drive and DVD player. I like

MATT HALEY: My computer setup. The G4 Powerbook, networked to my DV-EDITION iMac, my WACOM Intuos tablet, and an Epson 1200U Perfection scanner. You can’t see the wetbar from this angle.

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 5

MATT HALEY

having the spare machine, just in case, you know? I have an Epson Perfection 1200U scanner—not bad, but I would like a bigger one so I don’t have to piece art together. And, of course, the Wacom tablet. Finally got DSL, which, if you’re a working artist, is almost a necessity to be able to send files to clients, but you know that.

DRAW!: I know you recently did a big promotion for Nike. What can you tell us about landing that gig, and also what it was like working for them?

MH: Well, Nike’s world headquarters is located here in Portland, and they were looking for an artist to do some “concepting” for them. They wanted to work with somebody local who would be available for meetings, and saw that I had done the video game work, so I got called in. I expected it to come through an ad agency, but they are developing a kid’s line of shoes and apparel, and didn’t have anybody who could concept and design characters or create stories.

DRAW!: How hands on was the relationship with the art director, etc.? Were they giving you an open range to work or were they very focused on exactly what they wanted? Did this involve a lot of back and forth with sketches?

MH: I was really surprised; Nike has been extraordinarily hands-off, for the most part. I was given pretty much free rein when doing the concept art for the first round of sketches, which we took in front of some kids’ focus groups, and then let them pick what they liked best. From there, I did a second and then a third round of art, and Nike’s people were involved at each step, but I really was only given tips like “make it look more such-and-such cartoon style,” but ultimately they let me do pretty much what I wanted, The single most hands-off gig I have ever done, and it happened to be with a huge megacorporation!

DRAW!: You also recently did the video game art for XIII that is in stores now. How much feedback or art direction did you get from the art director?

MH: Tons, actually. That’s another gig I got by chance, UbiSoft (the game publisher) had contracted out the art to an agency in California, and they contacted me because I had done comics for so long, and could work in Photoshop. Originally, I just did 6 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

some color comps for the box art, but UbiSoft liked what they saw, so I ended up doing not only the box art for XIII, but also all the ad art and promotional art as well.

Once that phase started, the art direction got pretty heavy, lots of redos and revisions. Being able to e-mail in sketches and such made it a little easier.

I also did a bunch of storyboards for the online game ads, as well as boards for Rainbow Six 3, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell. The game work has been the most challenging, actually, there’s so much money at stake they really art-direct every single sketch.

DRAW!: How in-depth or detailed were the boards? Were you providing the final board as an animatic?

MH: They varied, some of them were really rough, but yeah, almost all of them were used as the final animatic, boards for the online ads and package art, which I think was rendered in some 3-D application.

DRAW!: Now when you say redo’s and revisions, what are you talking about? A slight change of a figure or are you talking about complete changes, starting from scratch, and if so how many changes do you give a client before you start charging them?

The figure is my final art for the box cover and advertising art. Below is one of my three comps for the box art, done with rough inked sketches taken into Photoshop, from a sketch done by the art director.

XIII TM and ©2004 UbiSoft Entertainment/Dargaud.

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MATT HALEY

LEFT: “My first rough sketch for the XIII box art comps, and then another of the color comps. They liked the Presidential Seal done as a target, but it was nixed, naturally.”

BELOW: “My final art for Major Jones, the lead heroine from XIII done for the box art and advertising.”

DRAW!: Do you have a standard contract you generate or does the client provide it?

MH: Most of the companies I work with are large enough that they provide their own. For individuals, I’ll generate a quick one.

DRAW!: Did you find this work more rewarding or demanding than comics?

MH: Well, it was different, I don’t know if it was more rewarding, but as far as demanding, it’s about the same. I think the big difference is I was finishing my art in Photoshop and had complete control over how the art looked, which I didn’t have previously in comics.

I prefer that control, so there’s nobody to blame but me if it looks funny.

DRAW!: Is that something that bothered you about comics?

Not having final control over the way the art turns out, whether it is the inking or the coloring?

MH: Yeah, although I have been fortunate to work with some really excellent inkers, most notably Karl Kesel, George Pérez (very early on), Tom Simmons, Wade Von Grawbadger, Cam Smith, and most recently Dan Panosian... really, I haven’t had many bad ink jobs. Color is another matter. My favorite color artist has been “Moose” Baumann, he’s coloring Green Lantern and Superman; I’d give a lot to work with him again. But, yeah, there’s been some really raw coloring done over my work. I did a Batgirl comic once that was colored entirely in green and brown! So, I’m happiest now that I get to color my own work, if the time allows, like on my covers.

DRAW!: Do you plan your work for color when doing it? Do you follow any particular color theories?

MH: Not as such, I mean I try to ‘see’ the color in my head when doing a piece if I’m not coloring it, but generally I leave it up to the colorist, unless I had a specific effect or color note from the script. These days, however, I’m learning a lot more about color, since I’m coloring my own work.

DRAW!: Did you have to learn any new tools or techniques in the process of doing these jobs?

MH: Well, I did learn how to hit a deadline on time! No, the skills I had learned in doing comics pretty much prepared me to do these gigs, the transition was very easy.

DRAW!: Well in advertising the deadlines can be very short and very grueling, sleepless nights, etc., but you mentioned DRAW! • SPRING 2004 7

XIII TM and ©2004 UbiSoft Entertainment/Dargaud

MH: I generally give a client one or two major changes before I start charging extra, and that’s always reflected in the contract or work agreement. That’s another thing I learned early—I never work without a piece of paper, clearly detailing what the job is, for how much, and when it’s due. I’ve gotten into trouble in the past when I tried to do a handshake deal, and it’s no fun having to chase money you’re owed. With a work agreement, everybody’s covered, and there’s no wiggle room.

Of course, that also means I’d better deliver when I say I’m going to! A slight change of a figure is no big deal, since these days the work is mostly digital.

MATT HALEY

SPLINTER CELL TM & ©2004 UbiSoft Entertainment/Tom Clancy Inc.

COMICS

SPLINTER CELL STORYBOARDS These were a blast to do, but were heavily artdirected. I tend to do storyboards by hand with markers. Drawing comics is really good training for doing almost any other kind of commercial art, because you have to be able to draw anything, but doing storyboards is very different from comics storytelling!

that it pays better. Now if comics paid commiserate rates, would you rather do comics than advertising?

MH: It’s not that; I love comics—being a comic book artist was my goal from the time I was five years old—but I didn’t take the business side of it seriously until I got into doing commercial art. I think, however, that the comics industry really needs to reinvent itself, and if it can wean itself off the monthly pamphlet comics and do more longer-form stories—trade paperbacks like the European model—it’ll do better in the long run, and it’ll pay better, too. I tend to prefer having a longer story to illustrate, but naturally it takes longer to produce.

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DRAW!: Who were some of your influences coming up as an artist? Who were the artists you studied and tried to emulate?

MH: Man, how long have we got, here? The list is hard to narrow down, really. Early on, it was Neal Adams and Dave Cockrum, but from there I discovered Norman Rockwell. It’s unfair to call him an influence, because I feel that tries to put me in his league, and I’m not. A lot of the artists I mentioned earlier were influences. I studied him, I studied Adams, and in high school, I studied John Romita Jr. and Paul Smith intensely.

Romita was the first comic book artist I really tried to emulate, and he blushes when I say this to people, but I’m sure I’m not the only guy saying it. Alex Toth is a biggie for me; I look at his work a lot when I want inspiration. These days I’m really into

MATT HALEY BIRDS OF PREY and all characters shown are TM and ©2004 DC Comics.

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The opening splash page from Birds of Prey: Manhunt #2.

MATT HALEY: “I sure do miss drawing the Birds of Prey...”

DRAW! • SPRING 2004

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MATT HALEY

Ryan Church’s work—he’s a concept artist at Lucasfilm. Even though we don’t draw in the same style at all, I’d consider my pal Adam Warren as an influence—I study his storytelling. Paul Rivoche is something of an influence, if only because his work is so intensely creative, so whacked out, that one can’t help but be inspired by it. There’s so many... I’m influenced by the work a lot of my friends are doing right now, too.

DRAW!: So up till now you have been getting this work on your own, not through a rep or an agency?

DRAW!: That’s very interesting because a lot of artists take pages out in the various rep books like The Book, which often cost a few grand a page. Have you considered doing that as well? I guess, again, this shows you how indispensable the Internet and a fast connection and website is in doing business now. I just finished a job for an agency in Denmark I could not have done without being contacted by them from e-mail in the first place, and working with the art director via e-mail and the sending the final job over FTP to their server.

GHOST TM and ©2004 Dark Horse Entertainment. HELLBOY TM and ©2004 Mike Mignola Dark Horse Entertainment

MH: Your art for that Danish gig was awesome, by the way.

Yeah, the Internet has made getting gigs a lot easier, and market-

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RECON TM and © 1991 M. Haley and T. Simmons.

MH: No, I got a random e-mail from one of Nike’s business directors asking me to come in for a meeting with them. Just blind luck, I guess. I’ve had better luck finding decent work on my own than through a rep, so far.

ing yourself any more is a snap, so I really haven’t needed a rep yet. I get cards in the mail from reps that want me to sign with them, buy ad space in their books, and if you look carefully at those books, the styles are all kind of the same wonky cartoons that get used in Harper’s and the Utne Reader, and that’s not what I do. I’m much better suited as a concept artist and illustrator for the video game and entertainment industries. Aside from the fact that ad space costs thousands of dollars in those books, and it’s an expense I don’t see the need for right now.

That may change when I want to start doing Drew Struzan-level work, though. Who knows?

DRAW!: So your website does affect your business, raises your visibility, and gives the client a good overview of what you can do. Do you regularly update it and keep it fresh so you can refer clients to it for a quick glance at your portfolio?

MH: I don’t see how you can be a commercial artist these days and not have a website. It’s so easy and will pay for itself with one gig. I know guys and gals who try to get work and are still sending out sample books, or post ads online on job boards and say “call for samples”; well, that’s ridiculous. Every e-mail I send out has a link to my website at the bottom, and that, more than anything, has been the best marketing strategy for me. I’m in the process of creating a more “corporate” website since I’m doing more consulting work. I will say that you can’t just have a Yahoo web gallery or something bargain basement. It does need

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MATT HALEY

PREVIOUS PAGE: Haley’s pitch art for the GHOST/HELLBOY miniseries. A page from an early short story submission, done just before Haley got his first professional job.

LEFT: “A piece of pitch art done in my first year as a pro. For some reason I liked Blue Beetle.”

BELOW: “A panel from one of my creator-owned efforts, not published. “ comes out fall of this year.

DRAW!: So you feel not only having a site alone is a must, but that it must be attractive and up to date since this is in effect “your face” to the client which you may or may not meet in person.

to look sharp and professional, but really anything on the web is better than nothing.

DRAW!: What does this consulting consist of?

MH: I can’t say a lot, as the work is all covered by voluminous contracts and NDAs, but I consulted on how to build the initial line of kid’s product, and to create the characters, concept them and such. They also picked my brain about what kinds of products sell to kids and ’tweens, about the comics business. They’re really security conscious, so I can’t say a lot until the stuff

DRAW!: Well that’s true. No matter what people say, drawings and paintings of attractive women attract the eye and a lot of views. And if you draw women well, you’ll probably always find a demand for your work someplace. But do you try and separate the cheesecake from the more serious, or say, advertising work?

I mean, I suppose it all blurs at some point. Comic vixens and the Lara Croft video gals all mix and cross over. It’s all drawing on the same influences I suppose, a big convergence at some point.

MH: It really is, you know, and I don’t try to separate the good girl art from the rest of my work. It sells, and I love doing it. I used to hate being typecast as a “babe artist,” but now I kind of relish the title. I’m probably going to start doing some pin-up

EVENT HORIZON TM and ©2004 M. Haley and T. Simmons.

BLUE BEETLE TM and ©2004 DC Comics.

MH: Yeah, it can’t look like you slapped it together in five minutes. Keep it up to date, show your latest work. If you want to show older work, put it in a separate gallery section. It’s all about packaging, I see artists who have great work but really bargain basement-looking sites, and it only hurts them. The flip side of that coin, however, are the ones who have sites loaded down with Flash-animated nonsense bells-and-whistles that only serve to overpower their art. Keep it clean and simple, that’s my motto. Well, that, and having drawings of beautiful girls on the site can’t hurt.

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MATT HALEY

THIS PAGE: “My layout for pages 4 & 5 from The Order #6 and the pencils from that same double-page spread. Yes, I loved finally getting to draw Spider-man, although Mike Wieringo draws The Thing a lot better than I do!

THE ORDER and all characters shown TM & ©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.

NEXT PAGE: The Order #3. “I really loved getting to draw some Marvel characters finally after almost 10 years in the business, especially Iron Man and Warbird.

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MATT HALEY

THE ORDER and all characters shown TM & ©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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type art this year anyway, but (and this will probably seem really pretentious) I think it’s a bit like an acting career. You take whatever gigs you can at the beginning, maybe you get lucky and end up in a minor hit. At that point, you have to make a decision: Do you take the next gig that comes along that will no doubt be very similar to your minor hit, or do you take something radically different, so you prove you can do a lot more, that you have range as an artist? Or, you go to Broadway, which is kind of like leaving comics to go do ad work, only in reverse.

DRAW!: How much time do you put into either maintaining the site yourself or sending out any sort of promotional e-mails, and do you try and circulate your site, get it linked, etc.?

MH: I used to try to do the linking thing, but I found it to be too time-consuming, and it didn’t really lead to traffic to the site, and I only really need art directors and such to see it, anyway. Sure I want fans to see the site, but if they’re fans, they’ll search it out through Google anyway. I’ve found it far more effective to send personal e-mails to art directors and editors by name, with a link to the site. I probably spend an hour each day

sending e-mails out and marketing myself, a bit more on the weekends, but I’m a nut for self-promotion. I should probably start a web-based mailing list, and I do send a custom Christmas card to everybody I’ve worked with recently to keep myself on their radar, things like that. You have to decide what’s going to be effective advertising for yourself, and a lot of what used to work just doesn’t anymore.

DRAW!: What would you say the cost/effort vs. return ratio is?

If you send 30 promotional e-mails, do you get 5 responses, less, or more? Since this is on more of a personal basis, do you feel that helps you develop more personal relationships as opposed to a book or annual, which is mailed out, and you are just one artist among many?

MH: It’s hard to say, I’ve only been doing it for a couple of years, but I’d say I get one positive response out of every 20 emails. Sending e-mails can help develop a more personal response, but at the same time, some people may see it as spam.

It’s a crapshoot, which is why I haven’t given up on the idea of buying space in a book, I just don’t have $3000 for an ad yet.

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JACK HUNTER: G.I. SPY TM and ©2004 Andrew Cosby and Matt Haley.

G.I. SPY

HALEY: “Page 2 from issue #1 of Jack Hunter: G.I. SPY, done in pencil and inked in Photoshop. While I enjoy inking with brushes, inking in Photoshop is a lot faster, especially filling in black areas! The old cars in the bottom panel are from a clip art file I bought. The parachute lines in panels 1 and 3 were so easy to do, I just selected the area of the parachute that was to be black, and hit Invert. Simple.”

DRAW!: Is working more outside of the comic book industry something you have been seeking to do?

MH: Actually no, I was still doing comics. I had done Witchfire for DC and The Order for Marvel, and this stuff just started showing up. I really enjoy it and it’s given me a lot of freedom, 14 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

but I’m still doing comics, too. It was my goal to be a comicbook artist from the time I was in short pants, and I refuse to give them up.

DRAW!: So you still have comics in the blood. Now I know you have been working on developing your own creator-owned

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MATT HALEY tial success, he called me, since we’d been trying to find a project to develop together, all excited because he had this idea to create an American “James Bond” iconic pulp hero. He had the kernel that became Jack Hunter, and I immediately took to it, spending a month cranking out sketches and designs for the durn thing. The more we worked on it, the more excited we got about it, but we couldn’t find the time to do the comic until recently, knowing we’d probably have to do it for free, and then find the dough to publish it. I’m finally getting the first issue worked on, and we’re also working on a game demo with an established game studio. Hopefully we can have it done in time for E3.

DRAW!: Wow, now that must be very involving, creating a game demo. What was your input? Was it more than just providing art? Again here is an example of what I was getting at a minute ago. There is a convergence at work here—you are creating something as a comic, but that isn’t the only media you are planning around the project.

Are you a gamer at all? Are you a Playstation or X-Box junkie?

MH: Not really, I bought a PS2 so I could watch DVDs. I just don’t have the attention span to sit and play a game all night after having sat in front of Photoshop all day. I prefer to get out and shoot pool or go see a movie. We only just started working on the game demo, so I’m just doing a lot of concept art and such.

DRAW!:What attracts you to the idea of a game beyond the obvious monetary rewards if it’s

series, Jack Hunter: G.I. SPY. Can you tell us what the origin of this was, and what your plans are for it?

a success?

MH: My pal Andrew Cosby was a struggling writer a few years back, and had just managed to sell Matt Wagner’s Mage to the movies, becoming a producer on the project. Flush with this ini-

MH: People love video games, and G.I. SPY lends itself well to a long form adventure spy game—where you have to put a huge puzzle together to ferret out what the bad guys are doing—more than just a first-person shooter, though there is that element to it.

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 15

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MATT HALEY LEFT: A panel from Birds of Prey: Manhunt #3. “BOY, do I miss drawing the Huntress, people at DC.”

Tangent line had done better. The Order was a ball because I finally got to draw the Marvel heroes I loved as a kid, and I got to work with Panosian on that one. Someday I’ll get to draw the X-Men, and Batman, two goals I will reach before I retire from comics.

THE HUNTRESS TM and ©2004 DC Comics

DRAW!: Now looking at these great Vampirella pages, you really went all out on these. Was it a conscious choice to do all of this tone work? Do you approach working on these pages different because they will be toned as opposed to regular pen-and-ink?

It’s simply another arena to tell the story in, and this is a business, so yeah, we’re trying to make a decent living. Plus, I’m sneakily hoping I can do some voice talent on the game. I also got a decent look at the game industry going to E3 last May working with UbiSoft. I was at their county-sized booth doing sketches of media types to promote the game, and the game industry isn’t all that different from the comics biz, except the companies seem more willing to spend the money necessary to market their product, and they don’t focus on just one type of product, like comics seems to focus on super-heroes. People seem to get more of a visceral kick out of actually getting to interact in the story, as opposed to just sitting there reading it, which is a bit of a shame; but I think storytelling is just evolving into something more interactive, even though I think that’s an overused word. Comics and books can be just as interactive, except you have to make the sounds in your head, I guess.

DRAW!: What are the favorite series you’ve worked on in comics?

MH: Elseworld’s Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl. Really, I mean I got to co-write the plot with Tom, we split the design work so we both got to do a ton of new characters, and then we wrote the script with Barbara Kesel. I wish to gawd I could convince DC to do a sequel. It sold really well, and I would love to do another one. Tangent: Joker was another one I dearly loved. I wish the 16 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

MH: Well, I wish I had, because I think I made a lot of work for myself!

I’m looking forward to finishing that book because I’m really proud of the art I’ve done on it so far. I wanted to do a book where I could control the art, so that if it came out and looked bad, there’d be nobody to blame but me. The process for the Vampirella art is a bit like shooting a special effects scene. After laying it out, I’ll draw the characters in by hand, shade them with graphite or grease pencil depending on the effect I want, then usually finish the backgrounds in Photoshop, sometimes using heavily re-edited clip art. I love drawing architecture, but it takes forever—same with cars. Ugh. I hate drawing cars!

DRAW!: What do you mean by clip art? And yes drawing cars can be a pain—they are so detailed and complicated—but some guys excel at it. These pages look good, so you seem to have a good handle on it.

MH: Clip art as in books with cars in them—and for the G.I. Spy page I sent to you, the cars were from a clip art file I bought off the web, as I was in a crunch and didn’t really want to draw those ’30s cars. Cheating? Maybe, but the page got done. I usually heavily edit and shade them, but I figure if the people I draw look realistic, the cars and such had better look good as well. I admire artists who can draw cars out of their heads like Ty Templeton.

DRAW!: Do you employ swipe or photo reference? I know having a realistic style, like most artists who do so, you probably have a morgue of clip files.

MH: You know, Steve Lieber used to give me grief for not having a good morgue, because he inherited Tex Blaisdell’s entire

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sat down and taught me anything, but I would read comics and wonder why the art in them didn’t look more like her art, so that’s probably where my naturalist style comes from.

DRAW!: Were you then encouraged by your parents in art?

RAINBOW SIX 3 and GHOST RECON TM & ©2004 UbiSoft Entertainment/Tom Clancy Inc.

MH: Yeah, my dad never once told me to put them silly drawings away. He made sure I got my homework done and such, but every time I ran to him with a drawing I was particularly proud of, he was always encouraging. He did occasionally ask me “Son, you ever think of running for the US Senate?” but I think he just wanted a son who might have a shot at being President!

DRAW!: Were you into comics as a kid?

Was drawing something you thought of as a possible profession?

“Storyboards from Rainbow Six 3 and Ghost Recon. These were done for advertising, I believe, and had to be done in like 10 minutes.”

reference file. Full of great stuff. I just don’t have the patience to sit and clip photos all day, I guess. I do have a pile of fashion mags I’ll occasionally pull facial shadows from and things like that, however, but a big pile of swipe? Nah. I will say that I found a really cool old photography magazine from the ’60s in black-&-white that has some excellent facial studies of women under harsh lighting, and sometimes I use that. Also the Star Trek fotonovels are great sources for lighting and fabric.

DRAW!: So you like to use reference as a basis to get info from, but not as a crutch, where you are art-o-graphing photos.

Do you ever take photos yourself?

MH: No, not really. I’ve occasionally done it, but I actually find using photo ref to be too restricting. I might start doing it for shadow reference and clothing, drapery, to get it spot on, but I think if I started using it a lot, my work would get stiff and posed-looking, and I don’t want to lose that comic-book energy in the figures.

DRAW!: Okay, let’s do the basics. Where and when were you born? Are any of your relatives creative types?

MH: I was born at an early age in Texas, but grew up in New Mexico, a hellish place for a wee lad. My dad has been in radio news for 40 years, but my mum was a portrait artist. She never

MH: Always—comics were my drug as a kid. I started on the Neal Adams Batman reprints, the old tabloid-sized ones? God, I still love those. Batman with his huge tall pointy ears and that 30-foot long cape, winding down to the bottom of the panel; there was something visceral about it that hit me in the right spot. Also the James Sherman issues of Legion of Super-Heroes and the Dave Cockrum X-Men comics. I was the classic kid lying on the floor with a pile of comics and a sheet of butcher paper drawing my own stories. So yeah, doing comics was always my unwavering goal. Really there was no other choice for me—I couldn’t do anything else!

DRAW!: Did you go to art school?

MH: Heck no, couldn’t afford it! My folks had very little money, so I kind of had to teach myself. I did get accepted to Pratt out of high school, but just couldn’t get the money together to go. I would have given a lot to have gone to art school and learned how to paint. I went to a small college in cattle country in eastern New Mexico.

DRAW!: What was the school? What kind of classes were you getting there?

MH: Eastern New Mexico University, in the microscopic hamlet of Portales, New Mexico. The school didn’t have too much to offer art-wise, but I met a lot of great creative people while there, and of course, ran into Tommy, and we just sat around listening to heavy metal and drawing all day. I think if I hadn’t met Tom, my career would have gone a completely different path. He reintroduced me to the stuff DC was doing (Watchmen, The Question, Deadman) as I was a complete Marvel zombie— specifically an X-Men fan—I mean, to the point that I subscribed to it. Tom was also heavy into a lot of independents, so he really DRAW! • SPRING 2004 17

MATT HALEY

BLACK CANARY TM & ©2004 DC Comics.

broadened my comic horizons. So, the classes didn’t do much for me, but the people did.

DRAW!: What do you mean by teaching yourself? Did you get books from the library or take any local classes? Did you draw comic pages or were you just drawing in general? I think it’s of great interest to the readers of DRAW!, many who are also self-taught, to find out how you “walked the path.”

MH: Well, while I think there’s a lot to be said for taking art classes from the right instructor, a lot of the ones I had in high school and college just seemed to be doing the bare minimum, and I got kicked out of a lot of classes because I thought I knew more than they did.

Whether I actually did or not is open to debate, I suppose... I wish I’d stuck with going to class, because it would have given me discipline I could have used early on in my career. Really though, I think the best way to learn is by doing, and I just sat in my room or at coffee shops and drew. And drew. I drew on my homework, I drew on my tests, I drew on napkins at restaurants, and I got in trouble for drawing all the time. I actually went to my algebra teachers in high school because I was failing both classes (freshman and junior years) and showed them my art and begged them to pass me, explaining that I would never need to do matrix transformations or quadratic equations in my future career. They did, God bless them, and I was right. As time went on, I did start learning more about artists whose work I admired, and then the Steve Rude Sketchbook came along, which introduced me (and a lot of my peers) to guys like Andrew Loomis, Haddon Sundblom, the Famous Artists’ School, and so forth. From there I really started studying painters I admired like Dean Cornwell and John Singer-Sargent. Oh, and Gil Elvgren, too. I love Alphonse Mucha’s work, but I stay away from him as an influence because so many other comic guys swipe his art.

Oh, sorry, it’s an “homage,” I forgot. I was a huge Nagel fan in high school, but never actually was influenced by him; I much preferred a realistic style like a Norman Rockwell. These days 18 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

I’m a sponge for new art and artists. Last time I was in London I spent all my time at the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate, instead of drinking like I should have been doing.

DRAW!: When did you break into the biz? What were some of your first jobs?

MH: I was 20 when I got my first gig. I went to the 1990 San Diego Comic Con with my college roommate Tom Simmons, (who went on to be my regular inker until I gave him an ulcer) to find out if we could get any editors interested in our work. We took the plunge—I mean we quit our jobs, quit college, closed up our apartment and drove our asses to San Diego. After finding out that we were not quite up to snuff, I sent in a new batch of Star Trek samples, and lo and behold, Bob Greenberger from DC called me and offered me a gig! I did a Star Trek: TNG Annual, and then a couple of indy comic gigs like Tarzan that never saw print, but the first gig that got me any notoriety was Ghost.

DRAW!: Wow! You were serious man! You were laying it all on the line... success or bust!

MH: Yeah, again, there was really no other choice for me.

Tom was actually the confident one—I was sure I’d never actually get hired on.

DRAW!: Before you went to the con, had you been trying to contact anyone at the companies or show your work around at all and get feedback?

MH: Not really, I was pretty ignorant about the actual industry, I didn’t know what size to do the art at until I saw that first Marvel Try-Out Book, and I didn’t even own a real art table until after I got my first gig!

I did that entire Star Trek comic on a lapboard in front of the TV! I think I did send letters around to various

BATGIRL TM and ©2004 DC Comics

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COMICS publishers in college asking about submission guidelines and such, but didn’t have any direct contact with any editors until San Diego.

What do you think, Dale?” I go, “Dale? Who’s —” and turn around, and there’s Dale Crain, DC’s art director at the time, I think. I see this great big DC Comics badge staring me in the face, and I just know I’ve torpedoed my career before I even get out of the starting gate. So I start fumbling all over myself apologizing to Dale, and he goes, “No, no, that was very interesting, keep going,” so I sort of haltingly finish my thought about how the people doing licensed comics should be better at likenesses and drawing the sets and costumes. I show him my samples, and Tom’s inks, and Dale was really great, he told us what we did right, where we went wrong, and most importantly, specifically what we could do to improve. I think if I hadn’t run into him at that Con, I might not have improved enough to get a gig so early. Most other editortypes shined us on, and who can blame them—cons are tough, and most editors are just worried about keeping their jobs.

DRAW!: You say the work wasn’t up to snuff, were you getting any encouraging feedback? I know you can get the “Con talk” editor BS, the general “figures still need work, your storytelling isn’t too clear here.”

One editor says “Great figures”; the next says, “Your figures suck!” Were you able to connect and take anything back with you to have a real direction to go on? Man, that must have been a long car ride home.

OPPOSITE PAGE BOTTOM: The classic Batgirl, in a panel from Elseworld’s Finest: Supergirl and Batgirl.

ABOVE: “Another panel from Elseworld’s Finest: Supergirl and Batgirl, this time showcasing my design for the alternate Wonder Woman, and Tommy’s design for Big Barda. Doing all the weird costume designs was a high point of that book for me.”

RIGHT: “A piece of sketchbook doodling that turned out pretty good, although it’s clear that I am a novice inker.”

MH: Not wounded at all, actually, Dale is such a mellow guy that he even made his criticisms sound like praise, so we left in pretty high spirits.

We worked up a second set of Trek samples, and then some original sci-fi material to submit to an indy publisher, when Greenberger called. Tom and I were crashing with a chiropractor pal, Dr. Jeff Wilson, and he didn’t have a phone at his house, so the number we gave was for Jeff’s office. He comes peeling into the driveway one day all excited because Bob Greenberger had called him in response to our samples, and we knew they don’t call you unless they want to hire you, so we had to get up at 5:30 the next morning to go call Bob from Jeff’s chiropractic clinic!

DRAW!: How long did you work on the Star Trek books?

MH:I only did one, the Star Trek: TNG Annual #2, which they reprinted in their Best of Star Trek trade paperback, which I was flattered by. My very first gig, 54 pages, so I kind of got thrown off the deep end!

Technical sidebar DRAW!: Now we get to the tech stuff for our process junkies.What are the tools you use? What are your favorite pens, markers, etc.?

MH: I’m using Photoshop 7, Illustrator 10, CONTINUED ON PAGE 24

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 19

SOLUS TM & ©2004 Matt Haley

OPPOSITE PAGE TOP: Black Canary leaping into action from Birds of Prey: Manhunt #2.

DRAW!: Were you badly wounded or did it make you want to try harder?

WONDER WOMAN, BIG BARDA TM & ©2004 DC Comics

MH: Well, yes and no. It’s a funny story actually—Tom and I had been skulking around with this huge leather portfolio (we didn’t know we only had to bring photocopies, that’s how ig’nant we were) and getting roundly drubbed by editors who saw us for the newbies we were. It was the last day of the Con, and we were pretty discouraged because we had no jobs or even homes to go back to. I was standing at the Eclipse Comics booth talking to then-editor Greg Baisden who was looking at my Trek samples, and politely trying to tell me Eclipse didn’t publish Star Trek, did I have anything else he could look at? Well, all I had done were the Trek samples, and some pinups, which were a big no-no in the preImage days, and I start railing about how these Trek samples should be enough to get me a gig because, I mean, look at how awful the thencurrent Trek comics were! So I’m standing there railing away, Tom’s starting to look uncomfortable, and Greg waits for me to take a breath, and says “Well, that’s very interesting.

MATT HALEY

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MATT HALEY

VAMPIRELLA TM & ©2004 Harris Comics

“This is the cover from Harris Comics’ Vampirella: Blood Noir, still in progress. Why? Look at the art, man—that takes forever! Pencil-toned art and Photoshop. I was still working out the process of finishing the art digitally at this point.”

20 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

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MATT HALEY

VAMPIRELLA TM & ©2004 Harris Comics

“This is page 9 from Vampirella: Blood Noir. The process I eventually worked out is like this: I layout the page like a standard comic page, then blow it up and draw the figures and some of the set details, then shade the figures with graphite. I spray the art with fixative, then scan it and add background details in Photoshop. Case in point; the carpet in panels 2 and 4. I scanned a piece of texture and then used Transform>Perspective to align it with the vanishing point. I then added her shadow on top of it with the Airbrush tool. The statue in panel 2 is likewise from a clip art book.”

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 21

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MATT HALEY

VAMPIRELLA TM & ©2004 Harris Comics

“One of my favorite pages (so far) from Vampirella: Blood Noir.

The figures and most of the bike are done by hand with pencil, but the background and front wheel and effects were done digitally. The glare FX were done with the Selection tool and bit of Gradient Fill.

Also the Radial Blur Filter>Zoom was applied to the background.”

22 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

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MATT HALEY

RIGHT: “The lovely Kaitlin Shepherd, Jack Hunter’s foil from Jack Hunter: G.I. SPY. Her ankle looks a bit funny, doesn’t it?”

Supergirl TM and ©2004 DC Comics SUPERMAN TM and ©2004 DC Comics.

BOTTOM: “I got a frantic call from an old buddy of mine who is a producer at Warner Animation, asking if I could do a turnaround sheet of a “Curt Swan” Superman, and could he have it tomorrow, please? I love Curt Swan’s Superman, so I was happy to do it. This is for a Jerry Seinfeld commercial project, where Jerry wanted to interact with his favorite comic book hero. “

Kaitlin Shepherd TM and ©2004 Andrew Cosby and Matt Haley.

FAR RIGHT: The original Supergirl, Kara Zor-El, from a flashback panel in Elseworld’s Finest: Supergirl and Batgirl. “I wanted to recreate the original cover where she first appears, hence the retro-rocket.”

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 23

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MATT HALEY

MENACE TM and ©2004 Adidas US Sportswear.

“One of my first commercial art gigs, for Adidas US. They wanted a ’basketball superhero’ and I did my best, but man... how fearsome does he look in those shorts?

Traditional media, colors and effects in Photoshop, the basketball and smoke effects are done in Bryce 4.”

learning to use Corel Painter, and Bryce 4 and 5 for sky and texture effects. I still draw by hand on plain 2-ply Bristol board (kid finish), draw with 2mm F hardness lead.

DRAW!: When inking are you a pen or brush man?

MH: Now that I’m finally getting into inking some of my art by hand, I’m all brush. I use Higgins Black Magic India ink, and so far I’m not picky about brushes, because I haven’t done a ton of inking. I’m really starting to dig inking my own work. I inked the Tomb Raider cover I did, all my Dungeons and Dragons covers and the recent Wraith cover, plus a few commissions, so I’m enjoying finally getting the hang of inking.

DRAW!: What’s your typical working method on a comic? Do you go from thumbnails to pencils using blown up layouts on a light box? Do you rough in blue pencil first?

MH: Well, it’s been a lot of trial-and-error. I sit with the script for a day and as I read it, if a panel or image hits me, I sketch it on the script so I get the idea down on paper. I used to layout roughs in non-repro blue pencil right on the board, but then I discovered Steve Rude’s Sketchbook, where he talked about doing roughs postage-stamp size. That proved a tad small for my work, so I started doing them at 5 by 7 inches or so, which is comfortable for me. I can also do a lot of the under drawing on a layout that size, so I can get some actual drawing out of the way.

to tell what’s happening on the page without the aid of word balloons or captions. It always used to annoy me in old comics when the artist would put arrows to indicate what the next panel in the sequence was supposed to be, and I try hard to make the storytelling clear. That said, establishing shots are tough and take forever, so I do try to keep them to a minimum.

DRAW!: What’s the next step? You blow them up and trace?

MH: Yup. Sometimes if I have a good enough idea for a page I’ll do it right there. Especially for covers, which have to go through a few rounds of approvals. It’s much the same for commercial work, I treat it just like a comic page. Once I blow it up, I trace the layout lightly with non-repro blue and then erase over it so I can barely see the lines, then go to the drawing stage.

DRAW!: Do you lay out the entire story at once, small, then proceed to finish the pencils, or do you work in sections, a few pages at a time?

MH: I work in sections, it’s the only way I’ll finish anything!

Like with the G.I. SPY pages, I was getting the script in batches, so I just started laying them out in chapters.

DRAW!: Why so small? What are you concentrating on here?

Design or page flow?

DRAW!: When working on the designs or art that is done for the advertising jobs like Nike, now much of it is done in Photoshop?

MH: Page flow. I want the storytelling to be as clear and concise as it can be. I was taught early on that you have to be able

MH: Almost all of it. The Nike gig in particular, was a big one

24 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

COMICS with a ton of art to do, so for the concept art phase, I banged the sketches out on typing paper with a Sharpie pen—there just wasn’t time to sit and fret over it. Then, I’d scan the sketches into Photoshop and just add flat color and a few effects. The pieces had to be done in a day, so I was afraid the art would be too rough, but it turned out that I got a lot of great energy and life out of the sketches precisely because I didn’t have the time to work them to death.

DRAW!: Do you have any theories on storytelling?

Do you feel each page should have an establishing shot, etc.?

MH: No theories, I wish I did. Storytelling is fun, but not my strong suit, especially composition; it’s always eluded me. I do think every other page ought to have an establishing shot if possible, but again, I tend to like clear, concise storytelling.

Now, if an establishing shot would interrupt the flow of the emotions being portrayed, like two people having a tender moment or something, then I’d wait and put the establishing shot (showing the two characters and where they are in the room, and in relation to one another, etc.) at the end of that particular sequence.

DRAW!: Who do you feel influenced your storytelling, and what’s more important to you? The art or the storytelling?

MH: Gil Kane was a big one for me. I had grown up on Neal Adams and Dave Cockrum, primarily, but I found the Starhawks strip in some reprints in junior high, and I was floored. Hooked. Kane was godlike; I just ate his art up. I never liked Kirby as a kid because of the drawing; I much preferred realistic artwork, or at least more cleaned up art, I didn’t understand the energy and sheer power in Kirby’s art, and didn’t learn to appreciate it until much later on. Alex Toth is a huge influence, but mainly for how to make a statement with just a silhouette. Will Eisner, too—I study his art for storytelling cues. Most of the newer crop of artists don’t inspire me as much, with a few notable exceptions.

WONDER WOMAN TM and ©2004 DC Comics

DRAW!: How long do you spend on a typical page?

MH:Too long. Ask my editors. Anywhere from two to three days. The Vampirella art takes almost a week a page, because of all the pencil shading and effects work in Photoshop.

DRAW!: Back to inking for a bit. Now you said you prefer a brush, but do you use any pens, have any favorite pen nibs or markers?

MH: No, I’m such an inking novice, I screw up so much all I use are brushes and a few tech pens. I hate Rapidographs pens, the tips clog too often and are messy no matter how much I clean them. I have yet to try crowquill pens; maybe that’s next.

MATT HALEY

DRAW!: What about correcting things. You do most of that on the computer?

MH: Most, although when I ink my own work by hand, I do the corrections by hand, too. I love inking, really. It’s a blast and I wish I’d done it earlier, but it’s a lot harder than it looks.

When I’m doing the whole illustration in color, I do the corrections in Photoshop because it’s faster and I can keep every element on a separate layer, so it’s easier to edit.

DRAW!: Since you are doing a lot of digital work, do you have any saved actions or custom brushes, and do you work in Painter and Photoshop?

MH: I lost my actions when I switched to OS 10.3, ’cause I was an idiot and didn’t back them up. I have a few actions, mainly for image processing, but I’m still experimenting with them because every gig is different, so I usually do it all the hard way, one step at a time. I have a ton of custom brushes, though, including some damn cool smoke effect brushes that anybody can find and use for free just by Googling “smoke brush Photoshop.” They’re awesome—the Brush tool is a very powerful tool. Almost all of my work is in Photoshop, I use Illustrator mainly for logos and text effects, though I have done full illustrations in it before, it’s just kind of time-consuming. I have Painter and wish I could do more with it, but it takes a ton of RAM to run properly, and the workspace seems confusing to me. I’m still working with it, though, as it mixes colors well and I love the Blend tools. Painter seems to work best when I want to paint a sky background or something like that, Photoshop seems to work better if I need to bang out a piece of art because it’s pretty intuitive and I know it pretty well.

DRAW!: What’s in the near future for you, what are some upcoming projects?

MH: Well, right now I’m doing a lot of video game concept work, also trying to get the Vampirella comic done. The biggest personal project is the demo for the Jack Hunter: G.I. SPY video game, which we’re hoping to have done

by E3 in May. I’m hopefully going to get to do some voices for it, as well. I’m also still working on the G.I. SPY comic book, but with all the paying work I have, it’s hard to find the time. I’m also doing some “corporate creative consulting,” which basically means I’m hired by corporations like Nike to create marketing concepts for them, and take them through to completion.

ABOVE: ”A recent sketchbook piece of Wonder Woman. Trying something a little different.”

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 25

COMICS

MATT HALEY

DRAW!: Where do you see yourself in five years?

into doing my own pinup art, and have a bevy of models at my beck and call.

MH: In five years I’ll have directed my first feature-length film, and several short films. The G.I. SPY movie will be out, and we’ll have done two or three video games. I’ll also be well

MISTER STUFFINS TM & ©2004 Andrew Cosby and Matt Haley.

SHIVERS TM & ©2004 Andrew Cosby and Matt Haley.

BOTTOM LEFT: “My interpretation of Andy Cosby’s “Mister Stuffins” character. He’s not entirely happy with it, but I love it.”

LEFT: A sketch of a woman from Haley’s sketchbook.

BELOW: “Some rough sketching for a “Boogeyman” project, again with Andy Cosby. The guy in the robe is usually how I feel in the morning.”

ABOUT THE ARTIST Matt Haley has worked for every major comics publisher; produced sell-out comics starring such characters as Supergirl, Batgirl, Ghost and the cast of Gen-13; garnered fan acclaim for his renderings of beautiful women and dynamic, no-nonsense storytelling; and given ulcers to editors nationwide for his uncanny ability to pencil slower than molasses. He lives in Oregon, and he hopes to become America’s best loved pinup artist, or at least one of them! Visit his website at: www.matthaley.com

26 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

SwImmIng wITH THE SHARkS

By Mike Manley

So you have met a great writer or artist you want to team up with. You’ve hit it off, your ideas are jelling, it’s

Illustration by José Agreda

amazing, it’s magic... you’re both sure your ideas will take comics... no, Hollywood by storm. You’ve created the next Spider-Man or Hellboy. You’ll be the Lee and Kirby of your generation. You want to form a partnership, a creative marriage of sorts. And like many, many wealthy couples (and your ideas here are potentially very valuable) you need a sort of pre-nup. And the next step you take or don’t take can have long lasting consequences, consequences that like in many marriages, may last a lot longer than the union.

You need a contract. A creative contract to define your collaboration. You need to have a straight forward talk with your creative partner and ask the important questions. The contract is the answer to these questions.

There’s nothing like a million dollar potential business deal to ruin a good partnership and friendship if the two partners are not on the same page.

This is where the contract comes in. It also allows the creative partners to have a mechanism in place to help move things forward if the partners disagree. If Partner A wants to take an offer Partner B doesn’t like, this should be all spelled out in the collaboration agreement. Also, when success comes knocking on the door with movie deals and other juicy offers, one of the things that scares off potential future business partners and agents is confusion. You don’t want to be sitting across from George Lucas’ agent with a checkbook that would make even Jabba the Hutt’s dreams come true if you and your partner haven’t talked out and agreed on the important issues in your creative partnership. For some money is important, for others it’s the purity of their vision.

Jean Marc L’officier of Hollywood Comics has tread the murky waters of the Hollywood legal swamp for years helping shepherd many an artist from comics and animation through the legal tangles. I should know, he’s helped me as my agent many times.

Reprinted here is his version of a basic creative contract for two partners that can be use as a base to define the tenants of your partnership. One of the guiding philosophies here at DRAW! Magazine is that artists must also be as good at business as they are at drawing, sometimes better.

We graciously thank M. L’officier for his part in helping

further this cause by allowing us to print his contract here.

For more about Hollywood Comics visit HollywoodComics.com 28 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

ARTISTS AND THE LAW

CREATIVE PARTNERSHIPS

COLLABORATION AGREEMENT THIS AGREEMENT, made this [DAY] day of [MONTH], [YEAR], between [NAME], residing at [FULL ADDRESS] (hereinafter “WRITER”), and [NAME], residing at [FULL ADDRESS] (hereinafter “ARTIST”), with respect to the production of a comic-book series entitled [TITLE] (hereinafter the “WORK”), to be drawn by ARTIST and to be written by WRITER. In consideration of the mutual promises contained herein, and for other good and valuable consideration, receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, the par-ties agree as follows: 1. The copyright in the WORK shall be jointly registered and held in the names of both WRITER and ARTIST. 2. Credits in the WORK shall read: “Written by WRITER; Drawn by ARTIST,” unless specified otherwise in advance by both parties.

3. Royalties from the publication of the WORK and from the disposition of any subsidiary rights therein (including but not limited to films, television and merchandising) shall be divided as follows: WRITER: 50%; ARTIST: 50%; unless specified otherwise in advance by mutual agreement between the parties. Page Rates paid by publishers upon delivery of the WORK shall be excluded from this provision and shall be negotiated separately by WRITER and ARTIST on their own behalf and paid directly to the applicable party.

4. All original art created by ARTIST for the WORK, and the proceeds from the sale of such original art, shall remain the sole property of ARTIST. All scripts created by WRITER for the WORK, and the proceeds from the sale of such scripts, shall remain the sole property of WRITER. 5. No agreement for the publication of the WORK or for the disposition of any of the subsidiary rights therein shall be valid without the signature of both WRITER and ARTIST. However, either party may grant a written power of attorney to the other setting forth the specific conditions under which the power may be exercised.

6. All agreements for publication and disposition of any subsidiary rights in the WORK shall provide that each party’s share shall be paid directly to him. If the parties by mutual agreement select an agent to handle the disposition of subsidiary rights in the WORK, and if the agent is authorized to make collection for the parties’ account, such agent shall remit each party’s one-half share direct to him. Such agent’s commission will be split according to the same percentages as specified in paragraph 3 above. If the parties by mutual agreement select an attorney to handle the disposition of subsidiary rights in the WORK, such attorney’s fees will be split according to the same percentages as specified in paragraph 3 above.

7. If, in any instance, either party (hereinafter “FIRST PARTY”) desires to produce a sequel to the WORK (hereinafter the “SEQUEL”), and the other party (hereinafter “SECOND PARTY”) is either unwilling or unable to do so, FIRST PARTY shall be free to hire another writer or artist as the case may be (hereinafter “THIRD PARTY”) to work on such SEQUEL, under the following terms and conditions: (i) Unless mutually agreed in advance by WRITER and ARTIST, THIRD PARTY shall not own any copyright, trademark or other rights in and to the WORK and/or any SEQUEL. All rights in and to the SEQUELS shall remain the sole property of WRITER and ARTIST. Any contribution of THIRD PARTY to a SEQUEL shall be done as a work-made-for-hire to the fullest extent permitted by law, and to the extent that such contribution is not considered a work-made-for-hire authored by WRITER and ARTIST in any jurisdiction, THIRD PARTY shall assign any and all rights he may have in the SEQUEL to WRITER and ARTIST. (ii) Credits in such SEQUEL shall read: “Written by/Drawn by [names of appropriate parties]; Based on characters created by WRITER & ARTIST.” (iii) Royalties from the publication of such SEQUEL shall be divided as follows: FIRST PARTY: 50%; SECOND PARTY: 10%; THIRD PARTY: 40%. Page Rates paid by publishers shall be excluded from the scope of this paragraph and shall be negotiated separately by and paid directly to FIRST PARTY and THIRD PARTY. (iv) Any original art created by THIRD PARTY for such SEQUEL, and proceeds from the sale of such original art, shall remain the sole property of THIRD PARTY. 8. If either party dies, the surviving party shall have the sole right to negotiate and contract for publication and for the disposition of any of the subsidiary rights of the WORK, to create SEQUELS, and generally to act with regard thereto as if he were the sole author, subject only to the following conditions:

(ii) the surviving party shall cause the decedent’s share of the proceeds, as determined pursuant to paragraph 7(iii) above, to be paid to his estate. (iii) the surviving party shall furnish the estate true copies of all contracts made by the surviving party pertaining to the WORK and the SEQUELS. 9. This agreement shall continue in perpetuity. This agreement shall inure to the benefit of, and shall be binding upon, the heirs, executors, administrators, successors and assigns of the parties.

This agreement shall be construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of the State of California.

10. All disputes arising out of this agreement shall be submitted to mediation in accordance with the rules of Arts Arbitration and Mediation Services, a program of California Lawyer for the Arts. If mediation is not successful in resolving such disputes, said disputes shall be submitted to final and binding arbitration in Los Angeles. The arbitrator shall be selected and the dispute shall be submitted to arbitration in accordance with the rules of Arts Arbitration and Mediation Services. The arbitrator’s award shall be final, and judgment may be entered upon it by any court having jurisdiction thereof.

Should either party retain counsel for the purpose of enforcing its rights under this agreement against the other party, then the prevailing party in any action commenced with regard to such dispute shall be entitled to receive from the other party payment or reimbursement of all costs and attorneys’ fees reasonably incurred with respect thereto.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties hereto have signed this agreement as of the day and year first hereinabove written.

WRITER ARTIST ©2004 Jean-Marc L’officier

If you’re viewing a digital version of this publication, PLEASE read this plea from the publisher! his is COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL, which is NOT INTENDED FOR FREE T DOWNLOADING ANYWHERE. If you’re a print subscriber, or you paid the modest fee we charge to download it at our website, you have our sincere thanks—your support allows us to keep producing publications like this one.

If instead you downloaded it for free from some other website or torrent, please know that it was absolutely 100% DONE WITHOUT OUR CONSENT, and it was an ILLEGAL POSTING OF OUR COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. If that’s the case, here’s what you should do: 1) Go ahead and READ THIS DIGITAL ISSUE, and see what you think.

2) If you enjoy it enough to keep it, DO THE RIGHT THING and purchase a legal download of it from our website, or purchase the print edition at our website (which entitles you to the Digital Edition for free) or at your local comic book shop. We’d love to have you as a regular paid reader.

3) Otherwise, DELETE IT FROM YOUR COMPUTER and DO NOT SHARE IT WITH FRIENDS OR POST IT ANYWHERE. 4) Finally, DON’T KEEP DOWNLOADING OUR MATERIAL ILLEGALLY, for free. We offer one complete issue of all our magazines for free downloading at our website, which should be sufficient for you to decide if you want to purchase others. If you enjoy our publications enough to keep downloading them, support our company by paying for the material we produce.

We’re not some giant corporation with deep pockets, and can absorb these losses. We’re a small company—literally a “mom and pop” shop—with dozens of hard-working freelance creators, slaving away day and night and on weekends, to make a pretty minimal amount of income for all this work. We love what we do, but our editors, authors, and your local comic shop owner, rely on income from this publication to stay in business. Please don’t rob us of the small amount of compensation we receive. Doing so will ensure there won’t be any future products like this to download.

TwoMorrows publications should only be downloaded at

www.twomorrows.com

(i) the name of the decedent shall always appear on the WORK and the SEQUELS as co-creator.

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 29

“BRINGING CHARACTERS TO LIFE” PART 1: DESIGNING CHARACTERS WITH APPEAL

BY TOM BANCROFT AND ROB CORLEY

This is the first in a series of articles by animators Tom Bancroft and Rob Corley on the subject of “Bringing Characters to Life.”

This article will discuss the first step: designing your character.

Subsequent articles will focus on how to add personality to that design through posing, expressions, and other means. While we are traditional animators and the examples given will focus mainly on that style, we believe these articles will contain information that will apply to the video game, special effects, comic book and comic strip industries to name a few. ––Tom and Rob

I. CHARACTER DESIGN This is one of the earliest visual steps on the road to making most forms of entertainment. The most obvious place you will find character designers are at traditionally animated TV and feature film studios, but there are also character designers at FX film studios designing creatures for many live action films you see today, video games need character designers, comic book artists need this ability, and even computer animated films start with traditional drawings! Not to mention the Internet, corporate icons, and children’s book illustration.

This article contains many examples from Disney animated films as this is where our knowledge base is. The first thing you, the reader, needs to do is imagine you are a brand new character designer on a feature film for a major animation studio. The directors (there always seems to be at least two for some reason) have introduced themselves and have “pitched” the general idea of the film. A “pitch” is simply the directors telling the story to you—usually with plenty of drawings and character designs for visuals. After you have “laughed” at all the right places and nodded your way through the story, your first step is to go back to your desk and read the script!

FIRST THINGS FIRST: LOVING THE BOUNDARIES Be it comics, animation, live action, or video games, a character designer needs to know how the characters fit into the film, comic, or game. This is job one! This information will help you to start formulating your “boundaries.” If the “hero” character is a somewhat shy introvert that needs to learn to come out of his shell to be able to win the day and the girl, you will be wasting your time drawing him as a big chested, muscular, good looking guy with a hairy chest! This is one boundary. I don’t want to say that you shouldn’t think beyond “the boundaries,” just that sometimes it’s good to establish what you don’t want to do! This character’s description in the script will even help you 30 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

to know what shapes you should start with in your design.

Maybe you start down the road that this “hero” is heavyset.

Round shapes will be prominent. Some shorter legs and a small, or nonexistent, neck will accent the large middle shape.

At this point, the directors will provide input on what they see each character’s personality should be. Also, some ideas for design. At Disney, it’s rare to be able to say that any one person designed a given character. Often, it is a group effort with many artists producing “versions” of a character. The final design, though, usually rests on the Supervising Animator’s shoulders— or pencil.

Think about your character’s descriptions, the directors’ input, and the reason the character is in the story constantly while you design! You shouldn’t be “struggling” with knowing where you want to go when you have their personalities in your head. Go to movies, look at magazines, go on the net. These are all places to find a wealth of images of all kinds of people and clothing to make your characters as fresh and original as possible! A lack of reference always makes a design feel “stale” or too generalized.

THE BIG THREE! Now that you are ready to sit down and draw, you need to remember all your art school “Design” lectures. If you were lucky enough to stay awake during your Design classes, you will need to draw on that knowledge to make a strong character design. Sounds tough for a simple cartoon character, huh?

Momma always said it’s hard to do anything just right! The three concepts below are what we consider to be the “meat, potatoes, and veggies” of character design. These three elements are the foundation of your character design in it’s most basic form.

They are: SHAPE: This is the “meat.” Is the head a circle shape or a square? The overall shape of your character will speak for it’s personality even before he/she utters a word. Very important!

SIZE: The “potatoes.” The sizes you choose for all the shapes that make up your design will also help define your character’s look and speak to it’s personality.

VARIANCE: This would be the “veggies.” Variance refers

CHARACTER DESIGN

BANCROFT/CORLEY

to the spacing and variety of sizes in your shapes. Using variance in your design will give it vitality and a “push” that will make a good design great!

SHAPE SYMBOLISM When you begin to think about your character it’s always good to ask yourself questions about them, not like in talking to yourself, that would be too creepy, but things that are specific to your character like: How old is he or she or it? When or where do they live? Are they rich or poor? Genius or borderline schizophrenic? Hero or comic relief? Soft and chewy with a cream-filled center or rock-hard solid and one mean mutha?

Remember, base your questions about the particular character you’re designing on any descriptions you may find in your script or through a client’s requests. Once you’ve come to some decisions on ©2004 Walt Disney Productions, Inc. the direction you need to go with your design, the next step is understanding the power of the almighty shape! Circles, triangles and squares!

Oh my! That’s right, these basic shapes will give you the visual cues you need to describe your character as they become the foundation for your character’s personality traits and overall CIRCLES: Circles are typically used to describe cute, attitude. With that said, let’s take a look cuddly, friendly types. Some good example would be at some ideas about how shapes are used Santa Claus, cute, fuzzy animals or... Tom? Baby designs to provide visual cues in character design. rely heavily on circular shapes as their visual cues.

They are:

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 31

BANCROFT/CORLEY

CHARACTER DESIGN

TRIANGLES: Triangles usually represent the bad guy or villain in character designs. Triangles easily lend themselves to the more sinister, suspicious types. A great example of this can be see in the design of Darth Vader. His whole head is one, big ole mean triangle!

32 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

©2004 Walt Disney Productions, Inc.

SQUARES: Squares are usually reserved for characters who are recognized as dependable, solid, or the heavy. Next time you’re out at a club check out the bouncer, one big old square.

Super-heroes are another good example on the use of square shapes in their design.

CHARACTER DESIGN

The great thing about the use of these shapes is that they are all interchangeable, so feel free to experiment. In this phase of designing your character it’s about testing the waters and breaking the design. What works? What doesn’t work? Which combination of shapes best describes my character and fulfills the criteria of the story?

BANCROFT/CORLEY

“Remember: K.I.S.S.!

Keep It Simple, Stupid.”

DON’T JUST STAND THERE! We’ll touch on “posing” in a later article, but it is worth noting that even in the “design” phase of your character that posing should be considered. As a rule, it’s a good idea not to design your characters in a straight on “Front” shot. You know, looking straight at them with arms at their sides. Or in a side view. These will be angles you’ll need to address later, but while you are trying to come up with shapes that work for you, a three-quarter front view usually works best. From this angle you can more readily design the “ins and outs” as well as the “ups and downs.” In other words, think more dimensionally.

Resist the temptation to try to tell too much in one drawing.

It is important to design with your character’s personality, age, etc., in mind and your pose should express that from the beginning. If you are designing an old man, it does you no good to draw him standing straight up. You’ll never see him that way!

Your shapes change dramatically when you bend him over, so design him in that pose!

When drawing any character it’s important to think about the type of pose you want to create. Giving your poses meaning will help you concentrate more on a particular attitude you would like to draw and it also gives you a road map to follow without wandering aimlessly on the page. Not that going freestyle is wrong or anything, it’s just giving yourself some parameters helps things get less complicated.

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 33

CHARACTER DESIGN

Another good reason for this is economy. When we were at Disney, the character designers realized quickly that if they put up a bunch of designs of the same character, the upper management that would give their approval didn’t know what they were looking for, just the “feeling” it should have. Often, we would have our favorite designs tossed aside in favor of a lesser one that “had the right feeling.” Make sure your designs have posing and expressions designed into them from the start—they will “sell” themselves!

“FLOW” Comic book artists always ask how we create that “cool, animated look” to our drawings even when they are not moving.

What they usually mean by this is the feeling of “flow” in the drawing from one shape to another. It is an inherent part of the animation process, so animators tend to take it for granted that we are putting a sense of flow into even our “still” drawings.

When you break things down, it is in most all organic creations—especially people. How every nerve, bone, and muscle connect together is naturally rhythmic in design. I think this fact is well illustrated in John Romita Jr. and Frank Frazetta’s work to name two. Design-wise, “flow” is created through the use of “S” curves.

Super-heroES shouldn’t be chunky blocks, they should have a “flow” to how all their extremities fit together.

34 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

Even when designing your character, try and make your shapes fit together with a sense of “flow” to them. When Tom was designing Mushu the dragon for the film Mulan, the directors had one major mandate: “Make him different, not like a guy wearing a costume!” He knew that the design would be based on a snake, so there was an instant “flow” feel in the drawing, but something wasn’t quite right. One of the other supervising animators, Ruben Aquino, saw his drawings and suggested having the neck fit into the head more to the back of the head than from the bottom as he was doing. Bam! That was all it needed!

By making the “connection” point different it made the design look less “like a man in a suit” and created more “flow” from the head all the way through the body! Thanks Ruben!

Mushu is not only made up of “S” curve shapes he IS an “S” curve!

©2004 Walt Disney Productions, Inc.

BANCROFT/CORLEY

LET’S DRAW! Okay... now that we’ve covered some of the basics let’s take a look at a character that we’ll explore as we apply some of the rules we’ve just learned. The character we’ll be designing is from an upcoming story that was written by our good friend Andrew Simmons. In his story Andrew describes a sidekick for our lead character. As we read the script we begin to get a few clues about the character’s personality and physical abilities that will lend itself nicely to the type of character we will be designing. Remember, the design of the character is determined by the needs of the story and the role they play.

Our main character’s name in our story is Hana, she is of Asian decent and lives in a modern American city. Her sidekick Tomo (short for Chikubanotomo), the one we’ll be discussing and attempting to design, is described as a “mystical Tanuki or

CHARACTER DESIGN Japanese dog, which looks like a raccoon with the ability to morph or shapeshift at will. He’s described as slightly cute and pudgy. He’s lived for over 300 years and likes to play pranks.” Sounds kinda fun! I think Tom wishes he was a crazy, shape-shifting furry animal.

Anyway... with the basic description we’ve been given it’s time to draw, right? Wrong! Any artist worth his or her salt will first begin by doing their what? Their research!

I suggest the Internet or your friendly neighborhood library to be a fine place to start. The thinking and preparation that will go into your designs are just as important as the drawings themselves.

Even the great masters like Leonardo Da Vinci knew that in order to create any character it had to be based on a real creature or a mixture of many. The great animator Glen Keane also knew this when he designed the Beast. Glen even went as far as, according to producer Dan Hahn in his awesome book Disney’s Animation Magic, asking to be placed into a cage with a gorilla so he could feel what it would be like to be close to such a huge beast! Now I’m not saying that you have to go out and wrestle a wild raccoon or anything like that, but I hope this at least gives you some idea about how sincere your research must be in order to get the best ideas and ultimately the best design you can get. Without it your designs will come off as bland, cliché and unoriginal. With that said let’s get to drawing some pretty pictures!

LAST AND HARDEST: STYLE Lastly, let’s touch on design style. This is one of the hardest subjects to comment or instruct on as it is subjective. Hopefully, now that you have an “eye” toward some of the design philosophy that goes into a strong character design, adding some sense of a style to it will be easier. Is your style angular or rounded? Is it made up of a little of both? Are all the eyes on your characters really big with tiny mouths and sharp angled noses? The most important part of a “style” is its consistency. The more human characters need to look like they belong in the same world as

BANCROFT/CORLEY

For fun, we took a simple dog character and drew him with other companies’ or creators’ styles in mind.

the more cartoony sidekick character. This is not always an easy task. Trying to figure out what your style is and boil it down to certain elements that can be repeated in different characters’ designs will enable you to maintain a sense of consistency.

Good luck!

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 35

TOmO evolution The following drawings show a “design progression” of the character Tomo from one of our upcoming comics series. There were many more drawings than this, these just represent “milestones” within the process that steered us in certain directions.

ABOVE: The character, Tomo, is based on an actual animal in Japan. They are called Chikubanotomo and we just shortened it to “Tomo.” They are Japanese dogs that look like raccoons. We started the design process looking at images like these to see what kind of shapes to start with.

3

4

3) Like most artists trying to caricature something, we started with more realistic drawings.

This is a good way to analyze proportions and start “looking” for things to “push.”

4) Starting to find some things we like. We start noticing that tanukis (Japanese dogs) have longer necks than raccoons. Also, starting to like the look of small features within a large shaped face.

5

6

5) This one plays up the chunky look we want Tomo to have and plays the longer neck nicely, still not far enough though.

6) Ah-ha! We needed to simplify the design and this one has a nice “flow” to it. Too raccoon though.

36 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

BANCROFT/CORLEY

CHARACTER DESIGN 9

8A 7

7) Nice, but creeping a little close to Disney’s “Meeko,” something we are trying not to do.

8) We liked this one. More stylized, not Meeko, and goofier looking!

9) Maybe even fatter! This one is fun but started to creep back to Meeko. Also, we missed the flow that other designs had.

10

11

12 10) Trying to step back to #4 more. Simplified the shapes some, less “blobby” looking.

11) We really liked this one because it simplified him down to one shape instead of a few. The body and head are one piece. It feels more unique to us.

12) The “Final” version. We are calling it final but I’m sure it will evolve even more as we actually start to produce the comic. We chose more off-white and brown colors (rather than black and gray) so that we could get even further away from the raccoon look.

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 37

BANCROFT/CORLEY

CHARACTER DESIGN

These ideas are not meant to be hard rules, they are simply loose guidelines to follow in order to streamline your character design process. There are a lot of great character design examples out there and a lot of really bad ones, but hopefully these notes will allow you, the artist, the ability to recognize what does or doesn’t work and provide you a starting point in your search for the appropriate character design.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

©2004 Walt Disney Productions, Inc.

Tom Bancroft started his career in animation when he and his twin brother, Tony, attended the California Institute of the Arts animation program in 1987 to late 1988. Tom and Tony were excepted into the Disney Feature animation ’89 internship program for six weeks of training in all things animation. At the end of the program, they were both hired to staff the brand new Disney/MGM theme park animation studio tour for the grand opening in 1989.

They were both made assistant animators with Tom getting the chance to assist the great Disney animator, Mark Henn. During this time, Rob Corley had left his home state of Louisiana, with his young bride in tow, to attended the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, FL. Rob chose the school because it was one of a handful of schools that Disney Animation would pilfer for new talent. After a couple of years there, he was asked to join a Disney internship in 1989. Like Tom, Rob was asked to join Disney as an employee after his internship and was placed in the cleanup ranks.

38 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

So began a long friendship that spread to their wives and children. Tom and Rob worked together at the Disney Florida animation studio for 12 years. They soon moved up the ranks and became animators. Both have worked in one capacity or another on such films as The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Mulan, Atlantis, and Tarzan. For the production of Mulan, Tom was asked to be the supervising animator of the character Mushu the dragon (voiced by Eddie Murphy). When Tom picked his animation crew Rob was at the top of the list. They survived this experience but Tom felt the need to use his talents elsewhere, so in 2000 after Rob and Tom completed work on the short film John Henry, Tom left for Chicago and the Big Idea Company (makers of Veggietales). During the two-and-a-half years Tom was away, Rob animated on the film Lilo and Stitch.

In 2003, Tom left Big Idea to return to Florida and Disney Animation to help Rob (and the rest of the crew) finish up the animation on the film, Brother Bear. It was a temporary situation, so Tom left after that film to start a company Rob and he had often dreamed of: Funnypages Productions, an animation development company (www.funnypagesprod.com) to add to their already existing sister company, Funnypages Press, (www.funnypagespress.com) a comic book self-publishing company. FPPress publishes Tom’s Opposite Forces, the upcoming Boyrobo by Rob and our friend Greg Hardin’s Hubie. They are currently expanding both companies and plan to introduce new comic series at the 2004 Comic Con International: San Diego.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL CARTOONIST!

TWO FOR ONE! TOGETHER AGAIN FOR THE SAME TIME! The MIKE MANLEY SKETCHBOOKS

EACH BOOK PERSONALLY SIGNED AND NUMBERED BY THE ARTIST • ART ATTACK is limited to 200 copies. It’s 48 pages filled with gals, monsters and weirdos for only $10 US. • THEY CAME FROM OUT OF MY HEAD is limited to 500 copies. It’s 48 drawing jam packed pages for only $10 US. Add $1.50 each for shipping. Overseas orders add $7 US. Send a check or money order (preferred) to my mail box: PO BOX 2129, Upper Darby, PA 19082 or my Paypal account by sending money to Action Planet Inc mike@actionplanet.com

www.actionplanet.com DRAW! • SPRING 2004 39

DRAW!’s CRUSTY CRITIC’s Online Art Supply Stores Index ONLINE ART SUPPLY STORE UPDATE

ON-LINE REFERENCE SOURCES

MISTERART.COM One of The Critic’s favorite sites. Misterart offers an amazing array of supplies at decent prices. The site is fairly easy to navigate, with an excellent search engine. Shipping prices are average. Additional discounts for V.I.P. members.

Need a picture of something, or reference for a comic or illustration?

Maybe you’ll find it here:

DICKBLICK.COM They’ve been in the catalog business since 1911, and they run a good web site, as well. Easy to navigate and search. They offer a lot of useful products, including the Raphael brushes, with reasonable shipping costs.

ASWEXPRESS.COM (ART SUPPLY WAREHOUSE) I find the layout of the site a bit confusing, but they have a pretty good variety, along with good prices. Shipping costs are pretty high, and you need a Yahoo ID to check out.

CARTOONCOLOR.COM Specializing in animation supplies. They offer excellent cel paints, as well as storyboard pads, animation cels, etc.

OMOCHABOX.COM Specializing in anime supplies. An excellent source for markers, pens, and dot screens.

DANIELSMITH.NET Good all-around site, with wide variety of supplies. Daniel Smith also makes their own products, which I have not yet tested. Decent site layout and fair shipping costs.

ITALIANARTSTORE.COM I often order my Raphael brushes here. Competitive prices and fair shipping (free on higher orders). Unusual site layout, but effective.

UTRECHTART.COM They make a lot of their own supplies, and I haven’t tested them.

The site is good, and they offer a wide variety of materials. Shipping is reasonable, and free on orders over $150.

CHEAPJOESCATALOG.COM The site is a bit dizzying, but they seem to offer a lot of products.

Prices are reasonable, but shipping is a bit high.

REXART.COM A good site offering competitive prices and reasonable shipping. You only have to spend $100 to get free shipping.

SCRAPBOOKSUPERSTORE.COM A scrapbook specialty store which carries Zigs and Pigmas.

Product ordered—5-pen set of Zig Millenniums.

Forms of payment accepted—Mastercard, Visa and Discover (no American Express) Order arrived in 6 days.

JOHN POOLE PEN NIBS john@poolej.freeserve.co.uk http://www.poolej.freeserve.co.uk/homepage.html 16, Brookfield Crescent, Harrow, HA3 OUT, England PHONE/FAX: (44) 020 8204 5315 Order by mail order via fax, email or even snail mail. A unique collection of pen nibs many of which can only be obtained from them.

City Skylines References Links to various city skylines http://www.rgimages.com/location.htm Free Foto—Tons of FREE photos for reference! http://www.freefoto.com/ Free Logos in Vector Format Thousands of free logos in vector(.ai) format, for PC or Mac... many major Western corporations, also Russian ones http://www.logotypes.ru/default_e.asp Law Enforcement and EMS References Supplies and Gear http://www.safetyl.com Medical Supplies References pics http://www.tvmsonline.com Taxi References http://www.checkercabs.org/pics/ Vehicle References Lots of images for various vehicles http://www.motorcities.com/main_vehicletypes.html Dinosaur References Links to tons of dinosaur sites: http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/1638/plinks.html History References Brief info but broad: http://www.historyplace.com

ROMITAMAN ORIGINAL COMIC ART IF YOU LOVE COMICBOOKS, THEN YOU “MUST” CHECK OUT ONE OF THE LARGEST INTERNET WEBSITES FOR COMIC BOOK ART AND COMIC STRIP ART EVER PRODUCED! THIS MAY BE YOUR BEST ARTWORK INTERNET SOURCE! CHECK OUT OVER 1000+ “PICTURED” PIECES OF COMICBOOK AND COMIC STRIP ART FOR SALE OR TRADE. ALSO CHECK OUT THE WORLD’S “LARGEST” SPIDER-MAN ORIGINAL ART GALLERY!

COMICTONES.COM They specialize in tone screens and markers, seemingly catering to the manga market.

Product ordered—Neo Piko pens.

Forms of payment accepted—Mastercard and Visa Note—They included a nice T-shirt free… a bit tight on this critic, but nice, nonetheless.

I BUY/SELL/AND TRADE “ALL” COMICBOOK/ STRIP ARTWORK FROM THE 1930S TO PRESENT. SO LET ME KNOW YOUR WANTS, OR WHAT YOU HAVE FOR SALE OR TRADE!

If you have a favorite online vendor, let The Critic hear about it at: ande@mchsi.com

www.romitaman.com

40 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION

ALBERTO RUIZ

By Alberto Ruiz

A

lthough transparency blending modes were featured for the first time in Adobe Illustrator version 9.0, Photoshop users have been enjoying them for a long time. In Photoshop however, they’re not just layer enhancements but painting, layer effects and filter options as well.

If you are the type who likes to experiment, these blending modes are just the thing for you. You’ll be both surprised and amazed with the results.

The blending modes are not always predictable but they’re extremely versatile and manageable.

To set the level of opacity/transparency of an object(s): first select the object or group of objects and either click on the opacity slider or enter a percentage amount in the opacity field located on the top right corner of the Transparency palette.

Gun Fu ©2004 Howard Shum, art ©2004 Alberto Ruiz.

To apply a blending mode to an object or group of objects: select the object(s) and choose an option from the pull-down menu on the left.

The result of the blend affects all items beneath the object(s) to which the blending mode was applied to.

A playful, cartoony version of Howard’s character.

To confine the effects of the blending modes to only a group of objects: first select the group and click on the “Isolate Blending” check-box (red circle). Only the selected objects will be affected by the blending modes.

TRANSPARENCY PALETTE: CAUSE AND EFFECT The following is an overview of the four blending modes used to color the illustration in this article and my personal approach to solving these design problems. In no way can this even begin to scratch the surface as far as the creative possibilities these blending modes offer. Go ahead and explore the rest of the modes and opacity levels and have fun.

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 41

DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION

ALBERTO RUIZ

SHADOWS AND HIGHLIGHTS FROM A SINGLE COLOR An extensive color palette can be generated by overlapping two or more objects of the same color and applying the various modes at different levels of opacity. Blend with different colors to achieve richer shadows and highlights.

42 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION

ALBERTO RUIZ

THE FACE The shapes that make up the face were drawn with the pen tool and they were colored using the blending mode’s “single color method” described on the previous page.

The “Exclude” overlapping shape areas tool formerly known as “Minus Front” can be found in the Pathfinder palette.

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 43

DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION

ALBERTO RUIZ

A LOGISTIC NIGHTMARE As with any complex illustration, collecting groups of related objects into layers really helps managing the file. The finished illustration contains in excess of 1800 individual objects—there are 20 layers in this file.

HAIR TREATMENT The hair was drawn just like the teacher told me to: in clumps.

Large shapes first and individual strands were thrown about for that “hair in motion” effect.

Although the hair looks complicated, in reality only the big shapes were carefully drawn, just as in the jungle BG, one or two shapes were cloned endlessly by clicking and dragging while holding the option key (Alt in Windows) and modified to fill in the rest of the hair mass.

Transparency blend modes were applied to overlapping hair shapes as well.

44 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION

ALBERTO RUIZ

Nothing special about the spear’s head coloring, with one exception: white colored shapes were sandwiched between objects with shades of blue at 62% opacity to provide edge highlights.

The spear’s wooden handle was colored using four shapes of the same shade of brown, all set to multiply, and each of the objects was given a slightly incremental opacity value, using white as the base color.

Not unlike the other elements in the illustration, one or two shapes were tweaked and cloned to speed up the process. In some instances the same shape was just slightly offset.

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 45

DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION

ALBERTO RUIZ

A BACKGROUND WITHIN A BACKGROUND I have an fascination with characters sticking out of frames, this is because as a kid I loved watching the cartoons in which characters would dive into and out of framed paintings or painted elaborate landscapes themselves to which only they had access. I imagined the characters jumping out of the TV right into my living room. The geometric jungle here is framed by the fake “Mayan” repeat, to help explain the geography. Although this pattern used to be part of the Illustrator package, I dissected it here for instructional purposes.

Draw a rectangle (lt. green), now draw a smaller one (dk. green) in the center, select both shapes, and from the “Pathfinder” palette click on the “Exclude” icon Figure A. The end result is a compound object that retains the attributes of the top-most object, in this case the dark green rectangle. Fill the shape with the “Mayan” repeat pattern from the “Swatches” palette. Voila!

FRAME SEQUENCE To soften the intensity of the repeat pattern, I blended two copies of the frame with different shades of green at different opacity levels using the Multiply and the Screen Blending mode options, I offset the cut out area to allow the pattern to show through without the dark green blend. The end result gave me a richer, darker green pattern background.

46 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

CUBIST JUNGLE HELL I weaseled my way out of drawing an actual jungle by creating an asymetrical star-like shape and a couple of triangles, which I basically cloned repeatedly at various sizes, angles and transparency blend modes.

DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION

SEE MORE OF ALBERTO’S WORK AT: WWW.BRANDSTUDIO.COM AND GUN FU AT: WWW.HOWARDSHUM.COM

ALBERTO RUIZ

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 47

©2004 Chris Bailey

WHAT’S THIS?

Johnny can you teach me to draw as good as you?

all right Pot- Head…

Sit on the lap of a

genius.

All great Men through history were brilliant artists like me.

It’s the

KEY TO CREATION…

YOU IGNORANT FOOL!

GREAT MEN HAVE DIED USING IT!

Your crude drawings do have a Kirby like power.

Jesus wove the first animated rug.

Funny drawings are the highest achievement--

a man can aspire to.

NOW GO FIND A MAN’S PENCIL WORTHY OF ME!!

Lincoln got shot by a jealous producer!

HITLER INVENTED POPEYE!

Learn more secrets of the genius cartoonist Johnny Mitchum in the next issue of DRAW!

©2004 Bill Wray

Uhh… my school pencil?

BY MIKE MANLEY

50 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

NELLA ©2004 Mike Manley

TO BE CONTINUED DRAW! • SPRING 2004 51

INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT AN INTERVIEW WITH AWARD-WINNING SPANISH ARTIST

FAIRY HUNTER ©2004 José Luis Agreda and Bill Wray

JOSÉ LOUIS AGREDA

DRAW!: First off, where were you born?

The first time I saw some of José Agreda’s art on an Internet message board I was blown away! Who was this artist? His work had everything going for it: charm, wit, color, and just beautiful, appealing drawing. I had to get to know him! Luckily he answers his email. The thing I like the most about the Internet is that it allows such access and sharing of art and ideas and friendship to be so easy even though we’ve never met face-to-face. I am very pleased to be able to share with you the amazing work of Mr. Agreda who I am sure will soon be burning up the comic scene in the US just as he has done in Spain. This interview was conducted via the Internet by DRAW! Editor Mike Manley.

52 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

José Agreda: I was born in Seville, Spain, in 1971.

DRAW!: Were you drawing comics as a kid? Like most cartoonists did you decide you really wanted to do comics as a living at an early age?

JA: My oldest brother used to buy and draw comics, so I started drawing very early, copying what he was doing. This was the biggest influence, because he worked very hard on the script part, and was very methodical. He helped me to avoid some

INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT

JOSÉ AGREDA

© Agreda, Vergara and El Jueves.

mistakes and learn quicker. He also gave me a wider view of comic styles: while he was buying American super-hero comics I was buying French and Spanish comics for kids (like the Smurfs, Tintin, Mortadelo and Filemon.), and when I was buying super-hero comics he carried home some more adult comics (Carlos Gimenez, Alfonso Font, Richard Corben). And in the meantime both of us read classics like Raymond or Herriman.

This was very natural, like a hobby, and I never thought of working on comics as a living. But things came out this way. I won some contests, started publishing in amateur magazines, then later in semi-pro magazines, and while I was studying at the University I was able to get some opportunities to become a pro, six years ago or so.

DRAW!: Did you meet any older professionals who helped or gave you advice?

JA: My brother and his friends were semiprofessional (some of them are now working in film) and I learned about techniques from them. Seeing the energy and creativity from the studio they shared was also very positive, like you can do things of your own, look for your own style.

Later I met more artists that I became friends with. They didn’t work in comics, but illustration, and that was also positive because I got to see very closely how they worked. It was my first real experience with deadlines, meeting the editors, and so on. I think all the artists I’ve met have been very generous with me.

DRAW!: Do you still live in Seville?

Where is your studio located now?

JA: I was living in another town for some time, but now I live in Seville again, where I work. Perhaps it’s not the best place to work, because it’s far away from the publishers and I don’t have the opportunity of meeting them often, but on the other hand it gives me some independence from them. Thank God the Internet exists and I can live peacefully here. If I had problems getting jobs, I think I would move to Barcelona or Madrid.

DRAW!: Did you have any formal education, go to art school?

And is that important in any way for your career there?

JA: I didn’t attend art school. When I was 18, and it was time to go to the University, I started studying architecture. In many ways that has been positive for me, especially in the way I approach a project. I think it helped me to structure my

ABOVE: Last page of the first “Chapas” series Agreda drew for El Jueves.

thoughts: in any art process you have to make a lot of decisions to bring your idea to light in the best way. The most clear and expressive way, and you have to deal with many practical decisions, not only artistic ones.

I don’t think it’s necessary to go to art school for this career; it’s just luck, observation, and a lot of hard work.

Although I also think it’s natural, if you are interested in something, that you try to learn as much about it as you can. Most comic artists here in Spain come from art schools (and surprisingly a lot of them from architecture).

DRAW!: So first tell me a little about your working situation there in Spain. I imagine the market is smaller there and more centralized?

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 53

INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT

JOSÉ AGREDA LEFT: An illustration done for a calender.

BELOW: More character development for Fairy Hunter.

NEXT PAGE: the cover to the book Cosecha CMYK which showcased Agreda’s approach that accompanied an exhibition of the artists work.

FAR RIGHT: One of the many illustrations done each Sunday for El Pias.

RIGHT: Cover of the catalogue of the Cosecha show.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Two illos for a magazine about films called Fotogramas.

©2004 José Agreda and Ariadna Ediciones.

Jueves (in some ways similar to Mad) where I draw two comic series. One was about a pathetic amateur rock band, titled “Los Chapas.” I finished do that last year, and the next one which I began after that, called “Jaula Magna,” is about life at a university. This new one doesn’t follow a specific character, but the campus life at the building where everything happens. It’s two pages every week, done hand by hand with my pal Bernardo Vergara, both of us writing and drawing in this strange mix.

The other weekly comic I do is published on Sunday in the magazine section of El Pais, one of the most important papers in Spain. There I illustrate the articles by a very famous writer and journalist named Maruja Torres. It started as a simple illo, but it kept developing and now it looks more like a cartoon panel, with texts and balloons. I used to draw a character for kids, too, “Zoe in the Fairy World,” written and colored

by Bernardo Vergara, in a monthly magazine Dibus! But it did not pay well for the time it took us from other professional jobs, so we left.

JA: The comic market in Spain is small, although there are some exceptions that work very well. I don’t really know the numbers. The only comic magazine that not only survives but lives healthy is El Jueves, which can sell 100,000 copies every week. This is the humorous mag I work for! The comic albums (the French format, hard cover, 46 pages, usually in color) from hot, hot artists don’t usually sell over 3000 copies. But in the middle there is room for a lot of things. I don’t know how well the comic books sell in the comic shops, but the series that you can get in the street shops like kiosks or newsstands sell the same as French and Spanish comics you can get at Bookstores (Tintin, Asterix). But those are the exceptions, and not the case for newcomers. If you are a new artist and want to make a living just from comics you will have problems finding a publisher that pays fair.

DRAW!: Do you have regular characters that you do?

JA: I’ve done regular work for a couple of weekly magazines for about five years. One is the satirical magazine called El 54 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

©2004 José Agreda and Bill Wray.

DRAW!: More like the comic strip in America as opposed to comic books.

©2004 Areda and Fotogramas.

© El Pias

©2004 José Luis Agreda

INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT JOSÉ AGREDA

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 55

©2004 José Luis Agreda and Ediciones Mairi

INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT

56 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

JOSÉ AGREDA

INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT OPPOSITE PAGE: A finished page from “Eva and Bea.” LEFT: “The little thumbnail for the page I did, really dirty and small.”

©2004 José Luis Agreda and Ediciones Mairi

BELOW: The penciled page.

JOSÉ AGREDA

JA: You are right. It’s not very usual to work for a title the way you do on your comic books in America. I had not thought about it, but that way of working is strange, isn’t it?

Creating from some previews stuff, created by another artist, and owned by a company.

I suppose the thing most people know me from is the weekly panel in El Pais I told you about. Every week the same character appears in different situations, and it shows the female journalist of the article, usually in very glamorous and sophisticated situations, portrayed with humor. The writer Maruja Torres is very funny, and she is happy with her alter ego, she’s like a comic heroine.

This magazine is high profile, and I have gotten a lot of work for advertising clients thanks to it. There are not many comic readers in Spain, but a lot of people buy this paper every Sunday. In the small world of Spanish comics, I suppose the book I’m also known for is Cosecha Rosa, which won several comic awards a couple of years ago. It’s a black-&-white 48-page graphic novel with almost 1000 small panels, and a lot of love stories crossing in a small town. It’s more influenced by independent American artists like Chris Ware or Marc Hempel (two of my favorite comic artists). Here I focused on the script and reduced the art to the minimum, so I could draw the entire book while I was still working on the magazines. I developed a simple, but expressive, style for this one which I think helped the story. It looks like a children’s book (because of the friendly characters) but the story is sad, and hard in some moments, so it has a quality of black humor that I like.

DRAW!: I’ve seen some art from it, but not the whole book, and it looked really beautiful.

I know you also had a show in an art gallery showcasing your work.

JA: When Cosecha Rosa (Pink Harvest) won on the Saló Internacional del Cómic de Barcelona, I had to prepare a show for the next year’s convention. As I was doing it, I thought it would be interesting to publish a catalogue of it that could be read also as a comic apart from the show. So the exhibition was prepared to show the process of creating the book that had won (and the process of the rest of my work), and the catalogue would be read as a comic with a main character showing this process. I entitled it Cosecha CMYK (CMYK Harvest), and there are a lot of CONTINUED ON PAGE 74

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 57

D raping This first of two articles is designed as an introduction to a method of thinking about draping cloth around a human body. Though you’ll see diagrams of specific types of folds on the following pages, the primary intent is to describe a systematic “framework” for decoding the physical logic of drapery and translating it into visual language. The second article (DRAW! #10) will focus on detailed diagrams and construction charts explaining the typical behavior of common garments.

BY BRET BLEVINS

I

began the study of drapery convinced it was a necessary evil—a frustrating, impossibly complex, hopeless, maddening confusion that interfered with the all-important and much more interesting business of learning to draw the figure.

Drawing a man dressed in an ordinary suit and tie seemed the most boring subject imaginable, and just about the most difficult.

Drapery doesn’t seem evil to me anymore, and I don’t even begrudge the hundreds of early drawings I spoiled by avoiding and resenting its principles. The reason I made peace with drapery is purely selfish; if you fight understanding the laws that govern the behavior of cloth, that ignorance will cripple and destroy your drawings of dressed figures with vicious efficiency. Unless you plan to draw or paint only nudes you must learn how a wide variety of cloth cut in a wide variety of shapes behaves under a wide variety of conditions.

I know that task sounds daunting, if not overwhelming—but it can be done and this article will explain one approach to penetrating the surface complexity of this subject and learning to understand the principles that determine the actions of cloth draped around a figure.

the Human Figure

PART 1

These comparison studies reduce the photographed drapery to very simple, clear, easily “read” patterns. Notice especially in the bending pose how many small surface ripples, depressions and wrinkles have been eliminated from the garment. This strengthens not only the clarity of the drapery information but also its character—the force of the tension and movement of the cloth.

In my drawings from the model I’ve corrected the proportion distortions of the camera, which shorten and thicken objects, and concentrated on clarifying the light and dark pattern for simplicity. I’ve then draped the same figure drawing by referring to the photo, accenting information that helps my drawing, and deleting, minimizing or harmonizing elements that confuse or weaken it.

The directional chart is a guide to seeing the big important rhythms of drapery—the lines tipped with an arrow indicate a dominant fold, the thinner (and usually shorter) lines indicate the secondary folds.

Careful comparison of these charts to the original images will explain the basic premise of this approach to understanding drapery. The arrowed lines originate from a point of tension or support (see definitions elsewhere in article), and radiate, drop, or compress away from those points according to the pull of gravity, the cut of the garment and the action of the figure.

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 59

The Six Basic Folds Over the years artists have found that folds shape themselves into six basic patterns—the names of these patterns describe their movement or function.

1. Pipe

PIPE FOLD The simple pipe fold is formed by the cloth rolling into a tubular, cylindri-

cal shape as it hangs directly downward from a single support point.

2. Drop

DROP FOLD Drop folds typically form when falling cloth is not allowed to hang freely—it’s interrupted by protrusions of form underneath it, or the stitching of a particular garment that stops or redirects the flow dictated by gravity, or in the case of a long dress, the floor. Drop folds also often occur when a figure dressed in long flowing cloth sits, and the cloth must twist to accommodate the bent legs. Other of the six folds will form along the gravitybound shapes of what we are naming Drop Folds, but the key to look for is an overall effect of dropping— an impression of downward movement.

3. Diaper

DIAPER FOLD This fold occurs when the cloth is hung from two tension/support points, and gravity pulls the slack sections downward. (Notice the small pipe folds formed at the outer edges, where the cloth is hanging from only one support point.)

60 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

4. Spiral

SPIRAL FOLD Spiral folds appear when cloth is wrapped around a tubular form, such as the arms, legs and neck. You will invariably see this fold along the sleeves and leggings of most clothing.

ZIGZAG FOLD The chief characteristic of the Zigzag fold is the alternating angles of direction—the size of these sequenced angles will vary, but the pattern is what we’re looking for when identifying this fold. Gently compressing a bit of tinfoil is a good trick for understanding how this fold is formed.

5. Zigzag

6. Half-lock

HALF-LOCK FOLD This fold is easily confused with the Zigzag fold—the key difference that separately defines the Half-lock is that a section of the slack side of the cloth is curled over out of sight within the fold. A simple way to demonstrate this is to hold your hand out palm up, fingers straight—then curl your fingers into a fist. The foremost digits of your fingers fold under out of sight against the palm, hiding your fingernails—this is essentially the action that forms a Half-lock. They resemble the Zigzag because Half-locks typically form in groups that interlock with each other in the same zig-zag pattern. You will always find the Half-lock fold forming on the slack side of trousers behind the knee when the leg is bent.

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 61

DRAPERY

BRET BLEVINS

Drapery has many uses in two dimensional figure drawing or painting—it can serve to identify character, set a place and time, shape a composition, convince the viewer a particular figure action is correct, or create visual movement of its own—and it can do several or all simultaneously! In figure drawing, only lengthy hair moving about the head can create a loose flow of rhythmic shapes similar to those that drapery can provide—thus drapery is an indispensable aid for making figures in action seem alive.

Clothing follows the movement of the figure it covers in logical ways, according to the cut of the garments and their interplay with gravity. The laws of gravity are more noticeable in drapery than any other aspect of figure drawing, because cloth has no fixed shape of its own—it conforms to the forms it covers, shaped and controlled by the laws of gravity. The key to understanding how to effectively draw the clothed figure is learning to focus on the shapes and lines of direction visible in the cloth that most clearly explain what is happening under it.

This takes a bit of practice because often garments twist, ripple, drop, and collapse in a plethora of small busy shapes that can actually obscure the underlying form if they are recorded dogmatically. As I’ve said before, all good drawing is a process of making prejudiced selections, and that is especially true of drapery. You look for the aspects of your subject that are most useful for achieving your intent, and delete or downplay aspects that confuse or needlessly complicate your drawing or painting.

Once again rhythm is our guiding principle—look for the big rhythm of the key form-describing folds (often the largest or longest) and use them to clarify your gesture and underlying forms. Typically the main directional folds fall away or radiate from the points of support or utmost tension— usually points where the body is closest to the fabric. As you drape a figure, try to The most notable feature of this drawing is the idealization of the draped image. As you can see, the loose shirt thickened and destroyed much of the lovely grace found in the model’s body and pose—I used the physical drapery information from the photo, but streamlined the proportions and rhythms of the garment to accent the beauty of the figure beneath it. To do so is of course a personal choice and preference, but the power to do this convincingly is a result of the knowledge this article outlines. The act of making prejudiced interpretations is fundamental to making artwork that reflects your personality, when drawing drapery or anything else.

62 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

DRAPERY

BRET BLEVINS

Study these examples for insight into the basic challenges of understanding drapery, keeping these elements always in mind.

THE LAWS OF GRAVITY Gravity shapes all cloth by pulling it downward—even the shape of a parachute or a vertically flowing cape is determined by the movement of the weight attached to it.

THE POINTS OF TENSION/SUPPORT The places on the body where the cloth is most supported or pressed tight.

THE CUT AND MATERIAL OF THE GARMENT This defines the contour limits of the clothing itself—its dimensions and “inert shape.”

THE DOMINANT AND SECONDARY FOLDS The dominant folds always establish the most telling information, and are often enough to clearly explain essential movement and form without further indication of secondary folds at all.

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 63

DRAPERY

BRET BLEVINS

sense this large rhythm and even lightly exaggerate them with light sketchy lines moving over the body. This is particularly useful if you’re inventing the drawing without a model or other reference.

These distinctly named folds usually do not occur in clear divisions with mechanical repetition—they typically work in tandem with each other, which can be very confusing to someone learning to recognize them. Don’t let the complexity of this subject intimidate you, though—it is important that you learn to identify the fold types well enough to understand what is happening to the cloth you are trying to draw, how it is turning in space, where the surfaces you can’t see as the material turns in upon itself have gone. It’s best to make many studies and sketches from life, training your eye to spot which folds are at work to make the shapes you are seeing.

The goal is to develop a familiarity with the typical behavior under various conditions of many kinds of garments.

With a figure moving beneath it, a loose dress changes shape much more flamboyantly than a three-piece business suit—a cape behaves differently than a tight jacket—large baggy pants bear no resemblance to tight stockings—the variety is endless.

Leather folds differently than silk, as does wool and fur—a heavy quilt will hang about a figure with an entirely different rhythm than a thin cotton sheet.

Here the model was draped in a heavy quilted blanket—the bulk of the material completely obscures her delicate proportions, but still the forms of her body dictate the shape and behavior of the cloth as it wraps her. Imagine the contrast in an image of the same pose, wrapped in tight silk—the consistency of the cloth is all important in defining the resulting shapes.

64 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

DRAPERY

BRET BLEVINS This pose clearly reveals the downward pull of gravity—almost every fold is dropping in a vertical direction.

This drawing portrays cloth that is almost free of the body for most of its drop, yet the long support line of the shoulders and outstretched arms, in tandem with the bunching of the cotton material caused by the stitched seam running along this line, dictate every fold you see.

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 64

DRAPERY

BRET BLEVINS

Here the model wears the same garment seen on page 65, but look at how much the drapery changes with the lowering of her arms. Gravity has pulled the seams that ran along the crest of her outstretched arms over her shoulders and downward. The drop of material has created greater slack within the garment, making an entirely new configuration of forms.

66 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

DRAPERY

BRET BLEVINS

The model hasn’t moved between these two drawings but I have—notice how much shape information is changed by a slight shift of viewpoint! The behavior of the cloth hasn’t changed but the aspects revealed to me have.

One of the reasons I chose not to include specific diagrams of specific types of common clothing in this first article is that I’m not a proponent of memorized systems or set procedures. I feel an artist should understand the principles of drapery—not memorize a standardized set of repeatable effects. These drawings reveal how much subtlety this subject contains—respect and enjoy it!

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 67

DRAPERY

BRET BLEVINS

The drapery almost completely obscures her body in this image, but careful attention to the behavior of the garment convinces us the cloth is supported by solid forms. A pose like this creates very complex fold patterns, and most of the familiar contours of the body aren’t visible to help our eyes clarify what we’re seeing. Without an understanding of the principles we’ve outlined it could be an overwhelmingly confusing subject to draw.

68 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

DRAPERY

BRET BLEVINS

DAREDEVIL, MR. HYDE TM & ©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.

The rendering of the cloth on this page is simplified into comic-book line work, but the shapes were created from an understanding of the principles we’ve been discussing. Mr. Hyde is a good example of a character that begs to be “animated” by his clothing—I used his cloak, frilled collar and cuffs to imbue him with a frenetic energy.

He’s so wild and out of control even his clothes are spastic! The large flowing shapes of the cloak are also effective for indicating movement and weaving pleasing rhythms for the eye to dance along.

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DRAPERY

BRET BLEVINS

Batmna TM and ©2004 DC Comics

Drapery is a complex subject, but as you look through the artwork that accompanies this article you will see how effective a good working knowledge of its principles can be. In the comic book pages the drapery is almost always serving multiple demands—in addition to dressing the figures it functions as an eye direction/composition element, as a useful device for establishing a pleasing dark and light pattern, and certainly in the case of Batman’s cape, adds sheer melodramatic energy to the mood of the storytelling.

In the figure drawings, the drapery is performing many of those same tasks in a quiet, naturalistic way. As you can probably guess from my comments at the beginning of this article, I’ve never seen a garment that can approach the beauty of the nude human body, but much of the world does not share that view. If you intend to make drawings of that world you must understand drapery—as Mark Twain said; “Clothes do make the man. The naked person has little or no influence in society.”

In our culture, most of us would never appear in public without wearing suitable clothing—develop that same care for covering your drawn figures well and effectively.

See you next time!

Bret

You can reach Bret via e-mail at: jbblevins@cableone.net and check out his web site at: www.bretblevins.com 70 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

BRET BLEVINS

The creepy writhing of Hela’s endless cloak wraps her in supernatural mystery—as if she carried her own hellish heat-breezes with her. Again the drapery is the primary indicator of movement throughout this page—the disguised New Mutants are all pushed along the ledge by the careful placement and shape of Rictor’s long cape and the folds of his baggy leggings.

The New Mutants Hela and all characters TM & © 2004 MARVEL CHARACTERS INC.

DRAPERY

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DRAPERY

BRET BLEVINS

Batman, Scarecrow TM and ©2004 DC Comics

All the drawings on this page are stylized cartoons, but the forms of the drapery are based on the study of nature. The symbolic Batman/Scarecrow image depends almost entirely on the behavior of the clothing to create its atmosphere of fear and anxiety—Batman’s spiky cape seems to be crawling over him, as if he were being consumed by an evil spider. The ragged tatters of the Scarecrow appear to be all there is to him—he’s as impossibly thin as a skeleton—and the horrid grin is created by an exaggerated twisting of the cloth of his mask. The four posing ladies are modeling their clothes—these are costume design sketches, and though greatly simplified and slightly exaggerated, the drapery is accurate and convincing. The pouty young miss with the wrench is also a caricature, but again her clothes are behaving realistically. Note how effective the stripes of her shirt are—this trick is difficult if you aren’t sure what the cloth is doing.

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DRAPERY

BRET BLEVINS

BATMAN TM and ©2004 DC Comics

BRANNIGAN’S GHOST ©2004 Bret Blevins

NIGHTBREED TM & © Clive Barker

Each of these drawings depend heavily on the treatment of the drapery. In the first window-smashing image the clothing is crucial to the impression of movement, but the shredded curtain plays an equally important part, creating a “bursting” effect and a sweeping, fire-like shape that animates the entire composition.

The tired agonizing cartoonist is dressed in angular cartoon clothing that nevertheless drapes him in logical gravity-dictated fold patterns. The singleline rendering is deceptively simple here—beneath that affected finish all the physical behavior of natural cloth has been worked out, then consciously stylized into a whimsical design language.

The cornfield sentinel wearing Batman’s costume depends entirely on drapery to communicate its effect—the drooping empty gloves and stuffed leggings complete the spooky impression created by the rotting cape.

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JOSÉ AGREDA

©2004 José Luis Agreda

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 57

ABOVE: A page from a story based on a song by the rock band called Siniestro Total. I have added three more files.

© El Pias

RIGHT: Another illustration for the “Maruja Files” feature in El Pias.

74 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

DRAWING AND DESIGN

JOSÉ AGREDA

JA: It uses to be friendly between artists, and we mixed stylistically with no problems. There are no divisions for specific kind of artists: humorous comic artists used to hang out with the people that draw for artistic mags, and mainstream artists with underground artists... As I hear, there are more problems with the critics than with the artists! Anyway, I’m a bit separated from all that world because I live far from most of the artists. We used to meet every year at the Barcelona convention, and there it was always fun and friendly.

DRAW!: I ask this because I know a bit about the comic scene in Argentina, and it seemed that the artist there did socialize a good deal.

JA: Yes, like I told you before. I think it’s a good thing, because you can be exposed to very different styles and you can improve your work and gain a wider view of the possibilities in comics.

DRAW!: Also does it make it harder to “break in” to the business since it’s smaller. Is the competition more intense?

©2004 José Luis Agreda

JA: I haven’t had any negative experience because of that. We all know there is not much work here, so people are used to trying to get work outside instead of fighting for the little money here. A lot of Spanish artists are working now for the States and for the French market, which are more healthy than ours.

DRAW!: What was your first job? Did you assist anyone, help out doing backgrounds, etc.?

A page from an autobiographical comic by Agreda.

sketches, illos, finished art, scripts, character designing... It’s like a documentary about the way I work, showing processes and steps through to the published art.

DRAW!: When I first discovered your work via the old Shane Glines Internet message board, I think you had posted a series of illustrations you were doing for the “Maruja Torres” strips. It seems artists in Europe are identified for their characters or creations. In America it isn’t as common except in the alternative or small press to own the character or be the sole creator, or in the comic strips. Most mainstream artists here tend to move from book to book. Since the Spanish comic market is not so large, does this make it a closer, more friendly scene for artists and writers?

JA: Mmmmh... I assisted a friend on some advertising jobs, and he helped me to get some work of my own. Pretty fast I ended up doing some storyboards and technical book illustration. But in comics I was doing a lot of amateur pages, just for fun while I was studying, practicing for when the big opportunity to become professional came. At first I was asked about doing some satirical pages for the special issues of the magazine El Jueves, later on they offered me the chance to create my own character: They wanted something about a rock band, so I created Los Chapas, a really pathetic band with bad luck in the music business. That lasted several years. At first I was doing the art and writing, but it was really hard for me (being too young and inexperienced) so I called my friend Bernardo Vergara (a pro artist who had done a lot of work for the comic agencies) to write the stories for me.

He agreed, El Jueves agreed, so we became an artistic team.

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JOSÉ AGREDA

©2004 José Luis Agreda and Ediciones Mairi

INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT

Sketches and little illustrations for Eva and Bea. DRAW!: Were you thinking of yourself as an artist and writer, or just an artist?

JA: There are a lot of things I want to write and draw by myself, and have not artistic problems of doing just art for 76 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

someone else’s stories. As I said before, I was not thinking of myself as a comic artist until I became a comic artist, so I haven’t given it a lot of thought. Obviously I’m more self confident (not much) about my artistic skills, so I illustrate other people’s scripts, but I don’t write for anybody but myself. I really do want to tell some stories, write and draw them in my own way, some commercial and some more independent, but I also want to work with other people’s stories so I can focus on the art.

INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT

JOSÉ AGREDA

DRAW!: How would you say it’s normal to approach doing comics as a profession in Spain. Are you trying to do the weekly strips or comics, or is the goal to do the album or graphic novel type format?

JA: There are not many opportunities here, so if you are a humorous artist you only have one professional weekly (or monthly or whatever... there is only one) magazine you can work for, El Jueves. If you are more underground, there is only one magazine, El Vibora and I think, sadly, its last issue appeared this month. There is also only one comic magazine for children.

For the graphic novel formats... you can choose from only four or five publishers, but they don’t pay much, so it’s really hard if you have to make your living with just comics. Almost every artist I know here does a lot of illustration work. So the goal here is to work for foreign companies!

TECHNICAL SIDE BAR DRAW!: Describe for us what your studio set up is like.

JA: I live in my own studio, so it’s just a room near the bedroom. The essentials: drawing table, music, shelves with all the books I use to look for when drawing (reference, art that inspires me) and the computer on another table. I do really need another table just for spreading all the papers, materials, books and everything I use to display as I draw. I like to have everything in its place, although I don’t usually have time to do so while working, so the room is a mess most of time.

JA: I work on PC (K7 XP, 1800 MHz., 512 Mb, Matrox G550), and I bought this computer a year ago so I think it’s all old fashioned by now. I’m proud of my IBM pivoting monitor which helps a lot when drawing comic pages, because you can rotate it and see all the vertical page and work at a good scale at the same time. I’m also happy with the Wacom Graphire tablet.

Recently I bought another one, bigger, Intuos2 A4 Regular, but I haven’t had time to adjust my hand to it. I find it too big and slow to go from one point to another. (Although I haven’t read the instructions yet and I should because I’m sure I’m doing something wrong.) The scanner is an Epson Perfection 1650 and it also works fine. Previously I had a Mustek Paragon—a bit slow, but very trusty for a lot of years. I just bought the Epson because I broke the other one moving. I bought a digital camera, for posing reference. I use it mostly for the weekly illustration featuring the female writer in El Pais. It helps a lot for doing natural posing of the characters, and for real drapery. (Although it’s a bit embarrassing, cause I’m the model who’s posing with RIGHT: “Fairy Hunter is a project I’m developing very slowly with Bill Wray.

I have to take time from somewhere to finish it, because he has written a beautiful and emotive story.” Not yet published anywhere. Or... soon to be published by Action Comics?!”

©2004 José Agreda and Bill Wray.

DRAW!: What kind of computer set-up do you have? It seems like a lot of your work is colored on the computer, so I suppose you also deliver the work via the Internet as well?

INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT

JOSÉ AGREDA

female gestures... better to delete the photos just after use!)

I use the computer for coloring in Photoshop, sending the work via e-mail, and looking for reference.

DRAW!: What type of materials do you work with?

JA: As I’m very dirty with my pencils, I used to draw with a H pencil—it’s not too hard, but hard enough for not having the page all black with the side of the hand. I erase a lot while drawing, with an eraser pencil, as thin and sharp as I can. I used to have the pencils very tight before inking.

I’m not very confident with the inking, so I leave as little work as I can for this part of the process. When erasing bigger areas I don’t use any specific eraser, I just look for one that doesn’t dirty the paper.

The best paper I have found for penciling and inking, that allows sharp inking, but also dry brush, is Schoeller Durex. For inking, I’ve always used brush, and I’ve been inking with the same kind for the last four years, a Winsor & Newton Designer’s Sable, series 3A, number 2. I also use Winsor & Newton Black Indian Ink. It’s still black enough even after erasing.

JA: When I work with Bernardo writing, he gives me a drawn script. He used to work that way at the Comic Agency and it’s easier and faster for him to draw than to describe the scene. But later he gives me a lot of freedom to change the things I need to draw it my way. In fact, I used to spend time just looking for a way to draw things different than he had drawn, any other way and it would have been boring.

When writing, and the same with the penciling, I used to start as soft as I can. First, I write all the ideas that can happen in the story, then choose those I really need and think about the best way they can be expressed; I start drawing little sketches, thumbnails here. I decide how much space on the page I’ll need for each part, drawing little layouts with specifications and determine what will be in each panel. These are small and dirty layouts. Then I write the dialogue, which is the hard part for me.

DRAW!: So you do small layouts and then blow them up and trace them off, or do you draw straight ahead on the board?

JA: I don’t usually do it that way, although I’ve done it several times.

I usually draw much bigger, more than twice up from the actual print size. As I have already done small 78 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

©2004 Dark Horse Comics

DRAW!: How do you approach the page? When you do your strip, does the writer (if it’s not written by you) give you a full script? Or is it scripted after you draw it?

©2004 Dark Horse Comics

INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT

ABOVE and OPPOSITE PAGE: “These are the sketches, pencils and also the final illustration I did for the 9-11 book published by Dark Horse. The editor Phil Amara was very kind.”

RIGHT: Character designs for Enanito.

layouts, the first step I do is light drawing, just placing the characters and main shapes, usually the entire page, to see if it really works. Then I start drawing each panel defining the shapes and then placing the details.

Sometimes, having no time, I’ve tried to do it faster drawing directly from the head, but it has been a failure. It’s much faster for me to do all the process, from the rough phases to the final steps, because I always know what I have to do, I’m always working and don’t have to stop and think if what I’ve done is right or wrong.

DRAW!: Who were your artistic influences growing up?

JA: Apart from my bother Joaquin, who doesn’t draw anymore, I have a lot of big influences on my work. I have passed through several phases, and all have left something, some more obvious than others. Tintin, The Smurfs, and Superlopez (a Spanish

JOSÉ AGREDA

super-hero parody) from my childhood. Later I was exposed to classics like Raymond, Caniff, Robbins, and Eisner. I didn’t have many comics by them (except Eisner, whose better Spirit work was published widely), but I read the ones I had time after time. I didn’t specifically study them, but read and re-read them a lot of times. Hugo Pratt, Breccia, Carlos Gimenez and Alfonso Font came later. I had a deep Wrightson phase, when I drew everybody with dislocated hands, at the same time I was after Egon Schielle paintings... Chaland and Daniel Torres were another important moment in my artistic education. Bernet, Toth, and of course, Frank Miller. I think we have reached my 18th year.

Now I get everything I can by Chris Ware, Marc Hempel, Mignola, Bill Wray, Kyle Baker, Dave Cooper, Bruce Timm, Shane Glines, French artists Dupuy and Berberian, Italian artists Mattotti, Barbucci and Canepa... a lot of people I adore and whose work I study with admiration.

Sometimes artists whose work is not as famous leaves a deep influence. I read a Ron Frenz SpiderMan story that impressed me. Also artists I only have seen a dozen drawings by (Bill Pressing, Paul Rivoche, Carter Goodrich...) are influential on my style. A friend used to have a saying when asked about this: If you copy one artist, you are a plagiarist. If you copy several artists, you are in a school. And if you copy everybody...

YOU HAVE YOUR OWN STYLE! I think I try to be on the last description, open to everything that can improve my art.

DRAW!: What is your work week or day like? With doing the DRAW! • SPRING 2004 79

INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT

JOSÉ AGREDA and start again until 9 PM. After that it’s really difficult for me to do anything okay, so I have supper and relax before going to bed.

DRAW!: Do you do drawing and sketching outside of the jobs? You know, drawing and study for yourself? Keep a sketchbook?

© El Pias

JA: I used to, because it’s really useful for future work.

But lately I don’t have the time. Now I draw for fun just when I’m doing Christmas cards for friends, or pin-ups, or that kind of free stuff.

weekly comic pages I suppose there is a good amount of pressure. How far ahead do you have to work?

TUG AND BUSTER TM and ©2004 Marc Hempel

JA: Yes, I don’t usually have time to be ahead on anything. I just draw and draw, praying to God nobody calls demanding the work.

Anyway, the hard days used to be the weekends, then Monday and Tuesday. From Wednesday on it’s more calm, and this is when I try to write the scripts I have to draw next week.

But it all depends on the extra work (advertising, or illos for press...) that can come in and break all the schedules. Anyway, I’m always thinking about the scripts and gags for the magazine while drawing, eating, or walking... this saves a lot of time!

I like to wake up very early in the morning (four or five AM). Well, I don’t like to wake up that early, but I work better that way if I need extra hours to finish something. I work until 1:00 or so, then I lunch and take a one hour siesta, rest a little

DRAW!: What projects do you have coming up in the future?

JA: I’m preparing a new children’s comic series for a new Spanish magazine. I showed the editor the project and they OK’d it, so now all I have to do is write and draw.

I’m also drawing a short story written by Bill Wray, a twisted fairy tale, which I really love to do. I have to find more time to finish it—I’m trying my best on it, taking extra care on backgrounds and reference, and improving my inking with a more expressive dry brush treatment.

I also continue slowly with the adventures of “Eva and Bea,” two girls in love, and their adventures in London. At the same time that comic is in progress I’m developing a new exhibition, this one about a strange group of punk architects from London whose work in the late Seventies was pretty interesting. This will be a very small show, but original and surprising I hope.

All that on top of the usual stuff on the weekly mags, and the advertising work, so I’m happily busy. I would love to try drawing something there in the USA, and in France, but I can’t find the time to prepare something to show.

A recent photo of the artist.

80 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

JOSÉ AGREDA

©2004 José Luis Agreda and Bill Wray.

©2004 Walt Disney Productions, Inc.

© El Pias

©2004 José Luis Agreda

INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT

ABOVE: A Kim Possible sketch done for fun.

RIGHT: More development art from the Fairy Hunter.

OPPOSITE TOP and TOP: “Maruja Files” and El Pais files: Copyright by El Pais.

“The Maruja files are samples from the illo I do for every Sunday article of Maruja Torres.”

OPPOSITE PAGE BOTTOM: An illo for the Spanish edition of the Tug & Buster comics.

DRAW! • SPRING 2004 81

JOSÉ AGREDA Superman TM and ©2004 DC Comics

INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT

ABOVE: The pencils and inks from the cover of the Spanish edition of a book about super-hero comic writers by Mark Salisbury.

© Agreda and La FactorÌa de Ideas

.

RIGHT: Cover for the Youth Section of the El Pais newspaper dedicated to young people and pop culture.

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JOSÉ AGREDA AGREDA: “These are pages from Cosecha Rosa.

You can see one of the detailed layouts of pages.

Three pages, the cover and some tests I did before, and a promotional poster.” ©2004 Agreda and UndercÛmic.

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JOSÉ AGREDA

Sketches from Agreda’s sketchbook.

©2004 José Louis Agreda

84 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

JOSÉ AGREDA

©2004 José Luis Agreda

INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT

AGREDA: “All these are for an adventure comic I was preparing with my brother Joaquin. Now we have stopped for the moment, although we continue developing the idea. The main character, and the project, is called Barabbas. The rest of the characters are Õo, the girl, and the bad guys.”

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JOSÉ AGREDA

ABOVE: Cover designs for Cosecha Rosa.

NEXT PAGE, RIGHT TOP: The cover for a magazine about comics. This issue dedicated to the best comics of the ’90s.

NEXT PAGE, BOTTOM RIGHT: An illustration for a magazine about films called Fotogramas.

86 DRAW! • SPRING 2004

©2004 José Luis Agreda

©2004 José Luis Agreda

©2004 Ferrovial Inmobiliaria

©2004 José Luis Agreda and Fotogramas.

INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT JOSÉ AGREDA

These are illos for advertising

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© 2004 José Agreda