Greetings Artisan!
There are so many cool art styles in the world!
Especially when it comes to comics!
And it's not just that they are different… it’s the striking ways that they can be different. It boggles the mind.
Especially when you are trying to figure out what style you want to go with.
Now… I have talked previously about how important it is to consider the practical side of style. The utility of why things look a particular way. How technical limitations often play a large part in art style.
But even with this understanding, it's hard to know where to take your art.
I remember being drawn into the laid-back colorful world of Tintin. Or the historical satire of Asterix. These seemed full of adventure and excitement, but they were somewhat restrained…
Compared to Toriyama's Dragon Ball, they were tame!
Compared to Miyazaki's Mononoke they lacked a certain raw psychoactive brutality.
As a reader of comics, or someone who enjoys art, it's possible to widen your horizons. To appreciate many different forms of style and artistic achievement.
But as an artist, as a creator, this can be a real brain-melting problem.
Styles are so different, and often an artist's style is linked to the type of story they can tell.
Hiroaki Samura's (with Assistants) work on the visceral Blade of The Immortal.
Yes, style has technical roots. And yes, it is just something we build slowly over time…
But style is also linked to how we communicate. We build tools and methods for conveying mood, and our toolset becomes specialized over time.
Not all artists can best tell all stories.
One of the questions I had early on was simply… ‘Can I pick the wrong style?’ What if I get it wrong? What if I mess this all up and end up with the wrong way of drawing things?
Last week I made a YouTube video talking about why Manga, Comics, and French BD look so different.
You can check it out here.
|
One of the main points I make in the video is just how much the deadlines and schedule of a comic book artist define the way it looks.
The publishing schedule is a major thing to consider when you are building/choosing/discovering your art style.
- An average Western/English speaking schedule is 22 pages per month (5 pages per week)
- An average French schedule is 46 pages per year. (1 page per week)
- A Japanese Mangaka often needs to work on a weekly schedule of 20 pages. (20… pages per week)
These are just averages and typical numbers… but still, you can see the difference between these types of sequential art. We can see those numbers at work on the page!
Juanjo Guarnido's sumptuous work on the artist's favourite Blacksad.
It's also true that the actual production workflow for each industry works a bit differently.
- In Japan it's common to have a team of assistants help get those 20 pages per week happening.
- In English-speaking markets it's often a production line of different specialized tasks (a writer, a penciler, an inker, a colorist, a letterer)
- In France artists often collaborate with a colorist and a writer. But frequently handle their own inking and lettering.
This changes further the way things look and the types of stories that get told!
I personally had to alter my own style and process quite a bit when I went from creating French books where I had a week to create a page… to doing a 12-20 page Monthly schedule with Star Atlas: CORE.
There were some good comments that pointed out how some of the Manga I showed was actually done on a monthly schedule. Which is closer to 30 pages per month. Or 7 pages per week.
Which is still quite a lot!
Certainly it seems that Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä was published outside of a regular schedule. Given the detail and scope of the art… it makes sense!
Nausicaä of the Valley of The Wind is something special. A great combination of manga simplicity and storytelling with a sense of design and worldbuilding… along with detailed cinematic scenes and effects.
Hayao Miyazaki's living breathing linework in the Manga version of Nausicaä of the Valley of The Wind.
It makes a statement for what is possible with simple drawing (the lines were actually done in pencil and then processed to look darker).
It says that even with simple black and white art you can create a world of unrivaled cinematic splendor!
Sometimes the raw black and white art of Manga can evoke emotions and stories that are just not possible with more polish and more color and more rendering.
So while style plays a major role in how you communicate. I think it's hard to make a case for mistakes when discovering or choosing your own.
You can tell any story with any style… it will just be a different story. One that is more personal because it has your voice.
But there ARE some things to take into consideration!
There are some critical decisions that will make or break you. That will cost you a lot of time and headache.
As I mention in the video it's important to consider your natural proclivities with art.
Do you have patience? Do you enjoy rendering a lot of detail? Does the idea of spending a week on a comic book page sound like fun? Or would a helter-skelter 20 page dash really get you up in the morning?
We are all different in some pretty fundamental ways. And from my experience these things don't change that much over time. They don’t change as we build and develop our skillset.
Another Page from Nausicaä.
Some of us have the patience to spend 200 hours on a single image. And some do not.
Some will relish the thought of never creating anything finished in their life because they work in Concept Art… where art has to be rough and tumble.
For others this is a nightmare!
You might think, sensibly, that these are simply skills that can be learned.
And you would be right!
But learning a skill is different to having an innate taste for it. For the thing to be a natural act you are drawn to. Something you just enjoy for no reason. Or dislike for no reason.
Art is about the process. We have to like doing it. And if you get stuck in the wrong industry or the wrong medium or with a style that cuts against the grain of what you really like to do… it's not fun!
Personally this is something I found out the hard way. And I have seen students do the same.
It's critical to always meditate on what type of art we really like to make. The more we develop the more experience we gain, the closer we can get to really understanding ourselves here.
- For some the pace of penciling one page per day is really going to hit the spot… working in the English-speaking market, you get to make art that is pretty detailed… but you don't ever need to put a background in every panel. You don't need to even finish it off by inking the page yourself! It's a great way to do the fun stuff!
- For others the hectic pace of a webtoon or a regular manga style deadline is a rush! There is nothing like drawing up a storm. It becomes like breathing.
- And for some the ability to really dig in and spend a few days to draw a whole page is the only option. The only way to really make something you are proud of. Each panel a work of art. Each page a symphony of perfect panels. Each Tome a hardbound statement of what is possible when you really put everything into a project. To create something that will stand the test of time!
Dave Gibbons' Penciling and Inking, (and Lettering) on the ground breaking Watchmen.
And this goes for non-comic book art as well obviously. Each type of job, each industry. Each application of your artistry and craft is a bit different.
Finding the right pace, the right level of polish, the right mix of creating new or re-working old… is key.
So yeah, there is always a lot to think about when it comes to style. Because it is linked to the way we make our art. And when you find the right mix of everything, it opens many doors.
Anyway, if you haven't already check out the video. I look at many many different books and talk about how deadlines and schedules often majorly influence the look of comic book art!
-Tim
If you haven't lately:
Check out The Line and Color Academy:
In the course I cover a few different ways of making art. From the most simple line and color process to highly polished illustrations with painted backgrounds
