What do you think there aren't enough tutorials on in regard to comics?

[jamontoast98]

I've seen many many tutorials on all sorts of topics, but one thing I haven't seen enough tutorials on is storyboarding (ie. the act of translating the ideas from your head/script into rough drawings on the page). Most tutorial series I have seen skip and move straight from scripting to sketching, skipping this step entirely, having the storyboards already done off-camera. I think that's a shame because it's the first time seeing your comic in a visual format. It would be awesome to see someone going through the process of storyboarding from a script, trying different layouts and camera angles, making mistakes and going through the process of trial and error until they are satisfied with the page. In-fact I'm half-tempted to do that myself if people would be interested in that!

Anyways, what do you think? What would you like to see more tutorials on?

[Legendofgenii]

In-fact I'm half-tempted to do that myself

That sounds like a great idea.

[allenT]

Second that. If anyone has the heart to make it, we'll be very welcomed.

[VibrantFox]

totally agree that various parts of the planning phases are very much overlooked in terms of online tutorials, granted there realy are tons out there but stuff like story mapping, how to make a solid script, translating writing into drawing etc just feel really underrepresented

[Scarlet_Cryptid]

I don't see many tutorials for storyboarding either, but I do remember one in the back of a 'how to draw comics' book I had in college. The rest of the book was forgettable and only varying levels of helpful (hello Christopher Hart...), but the storyboarding explanation in the back of the book had been done by a different artist, and was actually fairly helpful.

Wish I could remember which book it was, but it was a Christopher Hart book about drawing comics, so there are, like, at least a dozen of them...

[NickRowler]

I don’t see a lot on dialog. Like I see stuff on fonts and formatting text or spelling/grammar. But not really a lot on word choice or stuff along that line. It’s hard to really explain why someone has weak dialog and how to fix it. I think maybe part of this ties into scripting.

I would also like to see more on pacing. I think Scott McCloud addressed it in one of his books but I have not really seen online tutorials address it.

[darthmongoose]

Ohhhhh no, this thread is going to get me back on my "I should write a book!" train. Noooooooo....

Things I wish there'd been more info available on when I started comics:

• Visual storytelling. I recommend "Making Comics" by Scott McCloud (not "Understanding Comics", the sequel book, Making Comics) for this, but also resources aimed at film TV and animation storyboarders are really useful. There could definitely be more on this though, and particularly aimed at writers, because oh god, the hardest thing about working on a comic with a writer who describes panel by panel instead of just describing what happens and giving me a script for the dialogue and letting me handle panelling is when they keep putting things that should be two panels into one.

• Lettering. Just generally things like "what fonts to use and why" and "how to make a good looking speech bubble" and "what are the rules for speech bubbles?" (like not crossing the tails etc.)

• Trim, Bleed, Safety Zone and general print specs. This can be a nightmare if you want to make a print comic and don't have comics friends to explain it all.

• Composition. People always just throw Wally Wood's 22 Panels that Always Work at you and call it a day, but it's really limited because as it even says on the image, it's about talking scenes specifically and it's also designed around quite a specific style. Personally I think the best resource on Composition is The Famous Artists Course chapter 3, but it doesn't have some stuff specific to comics, like how gaze or point direction interacts with panel layout, for example.

• Writing. It is consistently frustrating that because of manga and webcomics, it's commonly accepted that a comic artist is probably also a comic writer..... and yet resources for creating comics seem to consistently forget that when you're learning to draw, you don't necessarily learn to write, so you end up with beautifully drawn comics, often with well-realised characters, but then the plot just meanders, doesn't set things up properly for payoff, doesn't clearly explain the stakes, fails to properly introduce important characters and setting details.... an awful lot of webcomickers, even ones with good art and dialogue writing skills, would really benefit from reading a copy of Save the Cat! or something like it, or just generally learning how narratives work.

• Designing a logo. I swear, the number of people who would increase their chances of getting onto the front page of Tapas tenfold if they only made their logotype a bit more professional looking... There's so much a webcomic creator who doesn't have access to designer friends and lacks funds to hire a designer could benefit from learning some basic rules for fancy but legible typography, like where to get good design and sound effect fonts, how to use styles like stroke, gradient, various drop shadow styles and bevel/emboss or 3D effects in combination, plus things like letter spacing and effective padding between the text and the edges of the cover... That would be an involved but really useful tutorial. There are tutorials like that online, but it feels like comic artists sometimes don't think to look them up. Side note, it's not a tutorial but the book "Just my Type" by Simon Garfield is a fascinating and fun read about the history of fonts!

[DokiDokiTsuna]

It would be awesome to see someone going through the process of storyboarding from a script, trying different layouts and camera angles, making mistakes and going through the process of trial and error until they are satisfied with the page. In-fact I'm half-tempted to do that myself if people would be interested in that!

This is the exact issue I wanted to bring up (although you worded it better than I would have). I've never seen anyone talk about storyboarding in the context of comics, and it was a weak spot for me for a long time...I only started to improve when I went to Twitter and watched people talk about storyboarding in the context of animation, which is a lot more ubiquitous.

If you did make a tutorial about it, I would definitely take a look. ^^; One of my main artistic goals nowadays is learning to create more interesting panels, especially when it comes to establishing shots.

[alliascompany]

Aside from font and logo design, I don't see a lot for panel layouts for scroll formats and how to take best advantage of it.

[Shanny8]

@NickRowler @darthmongoose I've gotten lots of insight on fonts/lettering by reading articles and stuff from letterers...

Comicraft:

Balloon Tales

Blambot:

Lettering Tips

Jim Campbell:

Lettering In Adobe Illustrator: Three

I just wish there were more info on lettering with different programs. A lot of the industry letterers stick with Adobe Illustrator(as do I)...I havent heard enough critique on programs like Affinity Designer(though I have heard quite a bit on CSP just isnt up to par yet).

Also picked up Blambot's "Guide to Comic Book Lettering"; gonna read it as soon as things slow down in February.

The Essential Guide to Comic Book Lettering

[DualDragons]

Wish there would be more tutorials on exporting files and maintaining crisp resolution to avoid pixely and compressed images. Especially for instagram purposes.

[NickRowler]

Instagram will compress all images to it's worse quality no matter how crisp they are.

[jamontoast98]

Dialogue is a really good one, I couldn't even give you any advice on what to do/not to do for that XD

[gabriellabalagna]

Yes!!! I would love a tutorial like that. I struggle so much with going from script to pages. Specifically, I need to improve my pacing.

In regards to comic tutorials that are uncommon, I end up doing some research and writing about it on my comics/drawing blog.

Also, I wish there were more analytical, matter-of-fact type tutorials for comics. For example, "Here's what makes good pacing. And here's ten steps to improve your pacing."

[system]

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