Comics 101

Since 2017 Cloudscape has been running free workshops for creators looking to learn more about comics and the comics-making process. In an effort to make our Cloudshops more widely accessible, we've begun recording them. The first recorded Cloudshop is now up on our youtube page! Join Jonathon Dalton as he walks us through strategies and tips for completing a long comic without getting burnt out. You can find the video here. ...
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By Evan Waterman To see more tutorials about making comics, check out Cloudscape’s Comics 101 page. Han Solo, Sansa Stark, Forrest Gump… Everyone has their favourite characters. Characters are the lifeblood of your story. Without strong, likable characters there is very little chance your readers will be interested in your comic. That is not an exaggeration. I truly believe that this is the single most important step when writing your story. If I had to choose just one thing to ...
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By Evan Waterman To see more tutorials about making comics, check out Cloudscape’s Comics 101 page. There are many different ways to format a comic script. They can be very tightly worded, describing the details of every panel, or they can be loose, only giving a vague overview of each page (aka the Marvel Method). The approach you take largely depends on whether or not your writing a script for a publisher, as well as if you're scripting for another ...
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With the Kickstarter well under way for Kathleen Gros' new book, she posted a comic today about some of the work Last Night at Wyrmwood High has gone through in going from web to print. The topic is lettering, so if you letter, take a look at Kathleen's advice on lettering ...
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by Jeff Ellis Here is a breakdown of my process for creating a page for my webcomic. I am also using Adobe Contribute to make this post, so I can hopefully learn something at the same time you do. Teach English In Japan is a collaborative effort between myself and my friend Jonathon Dalton. We’d both been abroad to teach English for a time; Jonathon was stationed in Taiwan and I was in Japan. For this comic, we are trying to combine ...
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For the Vancouver Art Gallery’s Family Fuse, Mara Coman and Chris Eberle developed a series of booklets that guide the fledgling cartoonist the four steps of comic creation using numerous examples from the works of various Cloudscape creators. The booklets proved incredibly popular and so we have placed them here on our website for all to use. Step 1: Creating the Story What it means to write a great comic story. Step 2: Designing the Characters The ins and outs ...
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by Colin Upton ...
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Over at cartoonSNAP, Sherm Cohen has a bunch of stuff about story boarding and cartooning. I personally have his Character Design book to use while teaching my 6-12 year old students to break out of some of their drawing habits. His tutorials are, by no means, a replacement for some good, hard education in animation and drawing, but some of the tips work nicely for the comic artist just starting out. We all have to be reminded from time ...
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by Anise Shaw July 20th, 2011 Part One | Part Two | Part Three These lessons are intended for beginners, those just trying their hand at comics for the first time and feeling overwhelmed. Feel free to discuss more advanced concepts in the comments! Lesson 3: Character Design Old Woman, character design. Storytelling is comprised of three main elements: a setting, a plot and some characters. In this lesson we will go over a working methodology for creating compelling ...
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by Anise Shaw July 13th, 2011 Part One | Part Two | Part Three These lessons are intended for beginners, those just trying their hand at comics for the first time and feeling overwhelmed. Feel free to discuss more advanced concepts in the comments! Lesson 2: Basic Cinematography and Perspective Now that we have practiced going from panel to panel, now it’s time to focus on what will go in those panels. Let’s think of our panel as the frame ...
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by Anise Shaw July 6th, 2011 Part One | Part Two | Part Three These lessons are intended for beginners, those just trying their hand at comics for the first time and feeling overwhelmed. Feel free to discuss more advanced concepts in the comments! Recently I was asked to teach an adult graphic novels class at Bonsor Community Centre in Burnaby. I jumped on the opportunity to work with an adult group, something that I don’t always get to do ...
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by Bevan Thomas June 25th, 2011 “Where do you get your ideas?” is a question so common that it has become a cliche, the thing the creators supposedly least like to be asked. All works of art, indeed all human creations, develop from ideas, but each person finds ideas in their own separate ways. What may be a font of inspiration for one person may be a dry ditch for another. That said, there are a few generally reliable sources: ...
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