Marvel and Disney artist Derek Laufman explores which moments to illustrate and how to create visual interest in panels.
(Image credit: Derek Laufman)
A comic is a series of snapshots from a story. But which snapshots do you choose to illustrate? And how to you ensure your panels keep your readers interested without exhausting them? Every comic artist will have their own approach, but below I'll share my tips for how to approach this.
Derek is a cartoonist from Canada. He has been a professional illustrator for over 25 years, self-publishing graphic novels while working for Marvel, Warner Bros., Disney, Hasbro and more.
Having clear, readable panels is important. Details can be great, but over-cluttering can destroy a good composition. Use positive and negative space sensibly.
Avoid giving everyone the same body type. A variety of shapes and sizes in your main characters creates easy-to-read silhouettes and allows for more interesting compositions.
The shape, posture, colour and size of your character can do a lot of heavy lifting for the reader to understand who they are. Design your characters’ shapes to match up with their personalities.
Drawing a pose and expression sheet for every main character is a big advantage. This will save you a lot of time in the long run and help to keep your characters on model.
Everything you put on the page, from the characters to the architecture and even the shrubs, should tell the reader something about the world that you’re creating.
This content originally appeared in ImagineFX magazine, the world's leading digital art and fantasy art magazine. ImagineFX is on sale in the UK, Europe, United States, Canada, Australia and more. Limited numbers of ImagineFX print editions are available for delivery from ouronline store (the shipping costs are included in all prices).
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Derek is a cartoonist from Canada. He has been a professional illustrator for over 25 years, self-publishing graphic novels while working for Marvel, Warner Bros., Disney, Hasbro and more.
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