NUMBER 4

SUMMER
2002

THE HOW-TO MAGAZINE ON COMICS AND CARTOONING

$5.95
IN THE U.S.A.

THE SAVAGE PENCIL

OF ERIK LARSEN
A STEP-BY-STEP
COLOR DEMO BY
DAVE COOPER
AN INTERVIEW AND
TECHNIQUES WITH
KEVIN NOWLAN

FIGURE COMPOSITION
BY BRET BLEVINS
THE DESIGN PROCESS
BY PAUL RIVOCHE

JACK B. QUICK TM & 2002 AMERICAS BET COMICS, LLC

PRODUCT REVIEWS
BY ANDE PARKS

THE PROFESSIONAL
HOW-TO MAGAZINE ON
COMICS & CARTOONING
SUMMER 2002 VOL. 1, NO. 4

Editor & Designer Michael Manley

Publisher John Morrow

Logo Design John Costanza

Front Cover Illustration Kevin Nowlan

Proofreaders John Morrow & Eric Nolen-Weathington

FEATURES
PENCILING A DISCUSSION AND DEMO WITH ERIK LARSEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
DESIGN DESIGNING FOR COMICS AND ANIMATION PART 2: THE DESIGN PROCESS BY PAUL RIVOCHE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
DIGITAL COLORING A STEP-BY-STEP DEMO BY DAVE COOPER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45
TECHNIQUE AN INTERVIEW AND DEMO WITH KEVIN NOWLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50
THE CRUSTY CRITIC REVIEWS OF COMMERCIAL DRAWING PAPER WITH ANDE PARKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68
FIGURE DRAWING COMPOSING FIGURES BY BRET BLEVINS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73
LETTERS COMMENTS FROM READERS ON OUR SECOND ISSUE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90

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DRAW! Vol. 1, No. 4, SUMMER 2002, 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, 1812 Park Dr., Raleigh, NC 27605. DRAW! and its logo are trademarks of Action Planet Inc. All contributions herein are copyright 2002 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 work-for-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, Batgirl, Man-Bat, Lobo,The
Joker, Brainiac, Super Girl, are TM and 2001 DC COMICS Captain America, The New Mutants, The Human Torch, Wolverine,Nova, Colossus, Iceman, Katie Pride,Storm,
Iron man, The Thing, Sub-mariner, Absorbing-man, Dr. Doom, Captain Marvell, Mr. Fantastic, Dr. Strange, Sleepwalker, Spider-Man, The Hulk, Angel are TM and 2001 Marvel
Characters, Inc. Dalgoda 2002 Strnad and Fujitaki The Savage Dragon and all characters and TM 2002 Erik Larsen The Phantom TM and 2002 King Features
Syndicate Aliens Havoc 2002 Dark Horse Comics, Aliens TM and 2002 20th Century Fox. Vampirella TM and 2002 Harris Comics Tom Strong and Jack B. Quick TM
and 2002 Americas Best Comics, LLC This entire issue is 2001 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.

Insult drawn by Bret Blevins

FROM THE EDITOR

Convention season is in full swing and I had a great time in Pittsburgh (despite the wrath of
God rainstorm and tornado which shut down the show early Sunday afternoon). I also had a
blast at the Wizard World East show, the best con in my own home town of Philly since
Comicfest in the early 90s. We need a good east coast show in a main event hall and this first
year success will have me returning next year. I got to meet and hang out with many luminaries
such as Darwyn Cooke, Mike Oeming, Jeff Amano, Neil Vokes, folks from Marvel and DC.
By the time you read this I will be attending the annual San Diego con (mayhaps you are
reading this while attending). This annual 5-day hazing event is a great place for me to see old
friends and line up new artists to contribute to upcoming issues of DRAW! If you are attending
the various cons like the Small Press Expo in Bethesda or the Baltimore Con
(www.comicon.com/baltimore) I plan to be there so stop on by.
Speaking of traveling and being out and about, this is a great excuse to drag along a sketchbook. That's right, dont let the summer pass without recording some of the world that passes
before your eyes down on paper. Oh it doesn't have to be formala small sketchbook, legal pad
and a marker, mechanical pencil or ball point pen will do. See that sexy gal on the beach or
standing in line to get some ice cream, or buff dudes strutting, tourists, kids at play, street scenes
and fare. There are thousands of opportunities to sketch down some doodles in your sketchbook.
Theres thousands of characters out there waiting to be drawn, faces and body types you couldn't
think up on your own. See, observe, remember, was the old Famous Artist School motto, and
summer is a great time to put this to use. These doodles and drawings, while not formal, will
Im ready for my costume contest!
inform your artistic eye long after summers warm days have given away to winters chill. So
draw, draw, draw. You will find that this will make you a better and more observant artist. So if you see a big, sweaty man staring at
you, smilehe's got a pencil in his hand.
Best,

Mike Manley, Editor

The DRAW! message board is up and running, so please post feedback and ask questions at: http://66.36.6.76/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi

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PENCILING

ERIK LARSEN

THE SAVAGE
PENCIL OF

ERIK
LARSEN

THE SAVAGE DRAGON 2002 ERIK LARSEN.

One the cusp of the

10th anniversary of
The Savage Dragon,
(issue #100, approaching Jack Kirbys historic numbers on the
60s Fantastic Four)
Draw! Magazine Editor
Mike Manley catches
up with Erik Larsen.
The only Image creator
still drawing his title
since the first issue
(without a fill-in),
Larsen gives forth on
technique, drive, commitment and Jack
Kirby in this funny and
frank interview with
one of the most
dynamic creators working in comics today.

DRAW!: Id like to start off and ask how you go about

approaching your work. Since you both write and ink the Savage
Dragon, how do you start? Do you work up roughs or layouts
from your script or plot and then transfer the art to the final
board?
ERIK LARSEN: At this point Im going right to the boards and
start drawing but I tend to reinvent the wheel every so often.
There was a long period where I was drawing out the comics on
81 2" x 11" paper folded in half and blowing them up. Ive done
thumbnails at various other sizes as well. But I get bored if I
keep doing things the same way over and over. Ill do something

for a while and switch. Ill talk to somebody and

theyll tell me how they work and then Ill try it out to
see how it works for me. These days Im going right to
the boards. It keeps changing.
One of the things I like about going directly to the
boards is the mistakes that result. If you plan things out
too much in advance, if you figure everything out and
adjust things there arent those wonderful happy accidents that
you get when you just dive right into it. Your work can get very
stiff and restrained when youre doing too much preliminary
drawing, I find.
DRAW!: When you said you were blowing them up, what were
you doing? Were you blowing them up and then tracing them on
an art-o-graph, or tracing them on a light box?
EL: A light box. Ive got a photocopy machine in the room with
me at all times. [chuckles] So it makes life easier. And Ive got a
light box so I can do such things as go over and blow it up
DRAW! SUMMER 2002 3

PENCILING

ERIK LARSEN

exactly. I can do things where Im doing sketches in my sketchbook. Oh, that turned out really cool. I should use that as a
cover. And then blow that up.
DRAW!: Do you keep a sketchbook?

THE SAVAGE DRAGON 2002 ERIK LARSEN.

EL: Yeah, but its really out of date. I started right after our house
had burned down. At that point I had all these comics that I had
done as a kid, and after our house burned down, I didnt have
any of them anymore. So I thought, Ive got to put down on
paper all of the characters I can remember now.
DRAW!: Oh, wow.
EL: [laughter] I was basically, How did that cape go? Stuff
like that. So I tried to get it down. Once the whole Image thing
started up, it was kind of important for me to keep the sketchbook so I could figure things out before I started my book. At
this point, Ive been doing it on and off, and Im confident
enough in the work that I do that Ill just design something on
the page for the most part. Theres not much in the way of preliminary stuff at all.
DRAW!: So you dont tend to work up little model sheets of
the characters at all?
EL: No, never. Never. The best model sheet I ever get would be
like, Here is a front view. But I never would go, Here he is
from the front, here he is from the side, here he is from the
back. Not at all. I just sort of... pray that they work. [laughter]
DRAW!: Then you turn them around and go, Oh, wait, that
looks weird!
EL: Yup. And sometimes you design things and you go, Really,
this stinks. This character with spikes on the inside of his legs is
going to have to walk. You know? Oh! What do you know? I
have a character named the Kid Avenger who has spikes right on
the insides of his legs pointing toward each other. And whenever
his legs are apart, you can see that, and whenever his legs are
together, somehow or other they work fine.
DRAW!: I see, nano-technology or something. The magic of
comics.
EL: Yeah! They either shrink into his leg or... theyre just never
drawn that way. Nobodys ever written in and said, Wait a
minute! This doesnt work at all! I actually think maintaining
some of that magic is important. Comics are drifting to a point
where we can no longer buy that Clark Kent could hide a big red
S under a thin white shirt and the drive to make these books
believable takes away from the fun of them, I think. The Hulk
was exposed to Gamma Rays during a bomb testthats
GREAT! I mean, I watch the Powerpuff Girls and Im right
there, you know? Sugar, spice, everything nice plus Chemical-X
equals little girls with superpowers! That works for me! This
burning desire to give Spider-Man an updated origin and make
4 DRAW! SUMMER 2002

all of these things work takes away from the fun. Super-hero
comics are supposed to be fun. Having radiation give you hair
loss and diarrhea may be more realistic but its not that entertainingunless its Dung, of course! If you give the runs to a
villain its a hoot and a half!
DRAW!: Thats one of the things Ive always enjoyed about
your work, too, is that theres obviously a sense humor at work.
EL: [laughter] There has to be.
DRAW!: Now that youve been doing the Savage Dragon for a
long time, 10 years, youre up to issue 102, 103?
EL: Ive done 102, 103 issues, something like that. Im actually
working as we speak on issue 99, but there were about five
issues of material that predated starting up the series at Image,
so theres been more work done than that. At this point Ive
done, I dunno, 2200 pages of the Dragon, or more. And I dont
sell any of it, either, so Ive got ungodly piles of the stuff.
[laughter]

PENCILING

ERIK LARSEN

Marvel on Spider-Man, etc., and you left, formed Image and

started working on the Dragon, did you change your process
at all, since now you were in charge of writing the stories
and pacing and everything?
EL: Its much more half-assed, if thats what you mean.
[laughter]
DRAW!: So you are less formal? Would you plot the whole
issue out, or would you sort of leave things loose to kind of
figure out as you went along?
EL: I plot to generally page by page. And its generally the
numbers 1-22, and it has all of points I want to hit. If theres
some important dialogue, Ill put it in there just to remind
me of it. And then Ill go to draw it and change every
damned thing. [laughter] If dialogue occurs to me while Im
drawing Ill scribble it on the page to remind me when Im
scripting.
DRAW!: So when you start drawing on the boards, you
work directly, breaking down the story page by page from
the plot? Do you draw in non-photo blue or in HB pencil? Is
this how you work?
EL: Yeah, HB. All these school pencils with erasers on the ends.
THE SAVAGE DRAGON 2002 ERIK LARSEN.

DRAW!: Oh really?
EL: Yeah.
DRAW!: So youve got a big pencil sharpener there? No
lead holder, or mechanical pencils?

LARSEN: (Left) Typical underdrawing for a Dragon

page. I ink this directly. Sometimes Ill tighten up
faces or hands a bit (if needed) but most of the
time I just jump right in there (above) and start
slapping down ink.

DRAW!: Thats great, though. A lot of creators dont get to

have a complete run of their work from the beginning to the end
on a character. Most artists get back only a percentage of their
work from the books they do. The artists from the old days, the
Golden Age or the Silver Age, they didnt get back anything, or
rarely. It often got cut-up. The exceptions might be if you were a
strip artist, then you usually got to keep some of it. Although
even a lot of those artists didnt keep the originals because they
never thought they would be worth anything.
EL: Yeah, it doesnt or didnt have any value.
DRAW!: Now some of that art goes for a hundreds, thousands
of dollars. Its amazing. Now, when you were working for

EL: [chuckles] Its great! I was using a harder lead earlier on

and I just got tired of it. I was tired of it digging into the
paper and having to erase it and not being able to erase it
real easily and all that stuff. So I just thought, screw that. Just
let me go with this squishy thing here. Just drawing it with lipstick. [laughter] You can really fly with a soft pencil.
DRAW!: So you go straight through... you pencil the entire
issue?
EL: Generally, I try to. But the last few months, Ive been getting
about halfway through and then sending off those pages and
then scripting them and then doing the second half, another
batch. But generally I like to sit down, pencil the whole bloody
thing, send it off... and generally what I would do is lay out the
whole issue in one or two days.Very rough circle-for-a-head type
stuff. And then I would send it off, script it that night, script like
half the book. Stay up until, like, three in the morning scripting
it, doing balloon placement. Then Chris Eliopoulos would get
the pencil boards on that next day. He would letter however
many pages he could do that day, then send them back. So during the day that hes lettering that first bunch, Im scripting the
rest of it. The next day Im done scripting and I get the pages
DRAW! SUMMER 2002 5

DRAWING AND DESIGN

PAUL RIVOCHE

DREAMING DESIGN:PART 2
THE DESIGN PROCESS

2002 WARNER BROS. ANIMATION

In my previous article I discussed some ideas about the role

of observation and memory in drawing and designing. Now Id
like to outline some thoughts on the process of how I go about
designing for comics and animation. I wont pretend that this
will be an exhaustive listing of every last bit of that process, nor
that my approach is for everybody; but I will offer some suggestions that I believe apply to most design challenges, regardless of
whether the item to be designed is a background character, costume, or a vehicle. Some of these thoughts are specifically about
science fiction design, because that is the subject matter I most
enjoy and have done the most of; but the general principles Im
talking about can be applied to any subject matter, not just science fiction.
Some designs arrive in an instant, fully formed; you see
them clearly in your minds eye, and the only challenge is
whether or not you can trace them down on paper quickly
enough, before they dissolve and vanish. In my experience, these
instant designs are the rare exceptions. And sometimes these
design miracles which arrive fully fleshed out later prove to be
full of problems not first glimpsed in the heat of enthusiasm. In
26 DRAW! SUMMER 2002

most cases I find that arriving at a satisfactory design takes

work, experimentation and struggle, and involves following an
evolutionary process of growing the design from first roughs
to final drawing.
At any rate, when you are a working designer in a production situation, you simply cannot rely on miracles. You cannot
always expect to instantly jump to the final solution. You need a
working understanding of how to break down a design problem
into steps, which can more easily be solved one at a time.
Especially because even the most inspired designer will have
off days, when the designs wont flow easily. In those
moments, having a problem-solving approach can make all the
difference in getting things back on track quickly.
Having a working process doesnt mean having a rigid formula; it really just means taking an analytical approach to the
problem at hand. It means organizing your thinking a little,
before plunging into drawing. This organized approach, instead
of being a limiting constraint, really can instead serve to free
you up, by eliminating confusion and clarifying your thinking. It
gives you a set of guidelines, to keep you on track, and also help

DRAWING AND DESIGN

PAUL RIVOCHE

2002 WARNER BROS. ANIMATION

2002 WARNER BROS. ANIMATION

2002 WARNER BROS. ANIMATION

you in trouble-shooting if you discover youve gone off the road

into the ditch. These guidelines form a structure within which
you may freely experiment with variations until you arrive at the
best possible solution in the time available to you. Now lets
begin at the beginning:
1. RESEARCH:
I hope that the necessity for this step is obvious. But just in
case it isnt: research is vital. You must understand, to a reasonable
degree, what you are attempting to depict, or else your depiction
will inevitably fail. You must understand the subjects structure,
its varieties, and its mechanics, even its history. And its not
good enough to assume that you already know something. In any
case, as I discussed in my previous article, often we know far
less than we imagine we do about things, mistaking passing surface familiarity for intimate understanding. As the old saying
goes, Ignorance aint what you dont know, its what you know
that aint so!
Research, or the lack of it, may determine your success or
failure. By spending some time on research, gathering information
about and images of a given subject, you will discover things
that you missed, even in familiar subjects or settings. Research
uncovers gaps in your knowledge, useful details that you had
never noticed, or a chance image that serves as a perfect starting
point from which to evolve a design. Research often suggests
many more possibilities for designs. Even if you are creating a
wholly imaginary, fantastic setting, vehicle, or character,
researching the nearest real-world equivalent is still worthwhile.
RESEARCH SOURCES:
A. Real-life research: If youre designing something that exists
in your city or area, e.g. a train station, barbershop, whatever,
go and visit a real one and take
notesboth sketch notes and mental
notes. Use your surroundings for
suggestions of form and content.

LEFT: To design these

related views of a futuristic log cabin, I did some
quick Internet research to
learn about the details of
log cabin construction.
After that I experimented
with various exterior
designs, playing around
with combination of forms
until settling on this one.
Once the exterior view
was finished, it was easier to imagine the living
room, and the study; I
tried to match the window details to keep
things consistent and
believable.

DRAW! SUMMER 2002 27

PAUL RIVOCHE

B. Photos: These can easily be

obtained on any subject. Sources:
newspapers, TV, Internet, books
and magazines. The Internet is a
great help for reference photos,
especially when the deadline is
short. There are many image search
sites such as Google, Altavista, etc.
The images are usually low-resolution, but often still provide enough
information for the purposes of
doing a comic/animation drawing.
C. Memories: Examine your memory
carefully for useful reference material. For example, if you are
designing a character, a person you
know could provide a great starting
point. Think through the faces and
personalities of some of the many
people youve met through the
years up until now. Theres a lot of
raw material therethe way they
stand, dress, move, and speak. Or
the apartment where you lived 20
years ago could have precisely the
arrangement you are seeking for
the background design you are creating. And so on... Visualize different people you know, places youve seen, examining them for
possible useful material or starting points.

ABOVE: STEELWORKER ILLOThis design was

suggested by the worker in the photo shown here.
His haircut seemed somehow appropriate for the
character I had to design for a comic book story,
who was a depressive steelworker. The subject in
the photo had many other interesting features that
suggested possibilities for exaggerationhis nose,
eyebrows, ear, etc. After a lot of sketches I settled
on the version shown here in pencil; also shown is
a panel from the final Tom Strong comic.

2002 WARNER BROS. ANIMATION

2002 WARNER BROS. ANIMATION

BELOW: For TV animation or comics, designs often

have to be completed extremely quickly. Thats
where observation and memory can help. In these
examples I had no referencethere really wasnt
time because of the deadlinesbut I based them on
familiar settings from today: the cyber cafe was
suggested by coffee shops, and the hotel was a
typical arrangement, with an expanded scale.

TOM STRONG AND ALL CHARACTERS AND ARTWORK AND TM 2002 AMERICAS BEST COMICS, LLC

DRAWING AND DESIGN

28 DRAW! SUMMER 2002

DIGITAL COLORING

DAVE COOPER

digital coloring technique

by dave cooper, 2002

coloring a pen & ink drawing

m often asked by friends & colleagues if I could

give them some tips on coloring in Photoshop.
And I always have to say that although I love to
share tricks, & although Ive developed a wonderfully intuitive method, its way too complex to describe
over the phone & it would take way too long to write
out. So when Mike asked me to write a how to
piece for Draw!, I saw it as an opportunity to finally
get it all down on paper. I hope it will be helpful to
you. Like any art tool, there are many ways to use
Photoshop, these are just a few.
A warning: this piece is not intended for the absolute
novice. In the interest of brevity Im assuming a lot of
basic knowledge on the part of the reader. There are
plenty of good resources where you can find out the
basics, Im just going to tell you some of the tricks
that I think are somewhat particular to my technique.
Another warning: this piece is also not intended for
the casual reader. Im not even going to attempt to
make it clever or witty. Its just plain instructions. For
entertainment,
may
I
direct
you
to

www.davegraphics.com? (nice plug, huh?)

Now, lets begin shall we?
Im going to use this very simple drawing for the
tutorial.
It has a foreground
and a background,
all drawn with black
ink on paper. My
digital tools are the
following: a sweet
Mac G3 blue & white
Tower; Photoshop 5
(ooh, old school); an
812 x 6 Wacom
Tablet (do yourself a
favour & get one if
you havent already); an unremarkable old Umax
scanner.
scanning

Scan your artwork at the Lineart setting, at 800 dpi.

Once the scan is done, Save A Copy. Call it scan.
Now save the document youre actually WORKING
on. Call it in progress. This version will be the one
youre always working on.
Now convert your document to Grayscale, 300 dpi.
Save A Copy again, calling it grey.
(In fact, save a copy at every major stage. Then if you make a
mistake, you can always go back. Or if you ever need a b-&-w
version of the drawing, youll have it archived. Also if you sell
your original artwork, your will always have the scan document archived for The Huge Retrospective Coffee Table Book that
youll publish when your 70. Its also a good idea to temporarily
keep a copy of these, & all the other versions of your document
on a zip disk in case of crashes. Then when all your zips are full,
Archive everything onto CDs.)

setting up in layers
Convert your document to CMYK. Go into your
layers pallette & rename your Layer lineart. Now
put it on multiply.
Next, copy your layer so you
have a lineart copy. Then
make a new, blank layer (selfnamed layer 1). So now there
are three layers in all & they
look like so.
Now turn off the lineart eyeball so that that layer is not
visible. Now you have to
change the order in which the
layers are being displayed in
the layers pallette. Bring layer
1 to the bottom, lineart to the top & leave lineart
copy in the middle. Now fill layer 1 with a color
of your choosing (I use a dull, light
yellow, C:11, M:4, Y:40, K:1). (To fill, just hit Option
+ Delete. Or make that an Actionthats what I
do.) Now merge the two visible layers & rename the
DRAW! SUMMER 2002 45

DIGITAL COLORING

DAVE COOPER

resulting layer paint.

Now you can turn the lineart layers eyeball back
on. At this point you should
have two layers in total. Your
layers pallette should look like
this.
You are now set up to color
using my adjustment method
of coloring...

adjusting colors
All coloring will be done on the paint layer. From
now on well use the lineart layer for nearly nothing. Its really only there as a master of the image that
will act as an overlay once the paint layer is finished.
& also for making selections occasionally.
Now at this point most people would start going
back & forth to the Colour Swatches or the Colour
Picker to sample colors with which to fill spaces.
Thats a huge bore, & half the time you end up settling on an imperfect color because youre trying to
guess what color will look right in the illustration
while looking at it in that nasty little interface.
Instead, try this: while on the paint layer, use the
Magic Wand* tool (a tolerance of 60 is a good general setting) to select an area that you want to color.
Now hit Command U (the shortcut to get to the
Hue/Saturation adjustment interface). Youll be
using this command a lot, so get accustomed to it.
Now by adjusting the three variables (Hue,

Saturation & Lightness) you can achieve any color

you like. & it soon becomes very intuitive if you
always use the same starting color. For instance, if
you want red, you know to slide your Hue knob to
46 DRAW! SUMMER 2002

the left, if you want blue, slide it to the right. The

Lightness knob makes the color lighter or darker &
the Saturation makes the color either more saturated
or more dull & grey. From there you can achieve any
color you like.
So now you select every space, one at a time & adjust
it to whatever color you choose. Its a pretty long
process, but it can be amazingly exhilarating. Dont
be afraid to re-think some early color choices as others
are introduced. It should be an organic, relaxing
process of give & take. & besides, the fact that colors
are so easily changed when youre working digitally
is one of its greatest advantages over traditional
methods, so you should embrace that.
*The Magic Wand tool is most useful if you use an inking style that closes in areas. An open line style will make digital coloring much more timeconsuming. There are some good ways to make selections on open line
drawings using the Quickmask tool, but thats a whole other subject.

shading using quickmask & a tablet

If you want to do any modelling/shading, use the
Quickmask tool. Select an area of color (or many
areas at once, by holding down the Shift Key while
using the Magic Wand), then hit the letter Q key
(shortcut to Quickmask mode).
Now your selection will be displayed as a darkened area rather
than an area with the dancing
ants circling it. If I remember
correctly, Photoshops default
the dancing ants selection
color for Quickmask is red. This
can be very confusing, so I suggest you change it to Black at
40% opacity. To do this, go to the
little quickmask icon in your
tools pallette & double-click on
the selected area as
it. From there you can change
a quickmask
the color & opacity to anything
you like. Oh, & put color indicates: to Selected Areas.
(Now if you dont have a Tablet,
you can still use this method,
subtracting from the
selection with the eraser.
but youre severely handicapped in terms of expressiveness & subtlety. Did I already
mention that Tablets are a Godsend?)

TECHNIQUE

KEVIN NOWLAN

DRAWING THE LINE

WITH
KEVIN NOWLAN
Only a handful of artists in every generation come along and turn heads, grabbing the attention of everyone else working in their medium, and certainly
Kevin Nowlan is one of those artists. From his early fan-artist days to his early work for Marvel and DC to his Eisner Award-winning work on
Jack B. Quick with Alan Moore for Tomorrow Stories, Nowlans lush work has set high standards and influenced many. Draw! Editor Mike Manley
spent a late spring day interviewing Nowlan from his Kansas home, talking craft and revealing some of this popular artists work habits and techniques.

DRAW!: Why dont we just start right off in the beginning

and have you fill us in on your childhood and your early
interest in art and comics.

BATMAN AND ARTWORK 2002 DC COMICS

KEVIN NOWLAN: I was born in Nebraska, raised in

Kansas. Im the youngest of six kids.

KN: Id say around 1963 through 1968. I remember

CARtoons magazine and some of those black-and-white
horror magazines. Mostly DC comics like Batman,
Blackhawk and some westerns.
DRAW!: What were some of you favorite books and
artists?

DRAW!: What year?

KN: 1958.
DRAW!: Did you grow up reading comics?

KN: Batman, Superman, Metal Men, Teen Titans, Archie.

When I was ten I got the first issue of Angel and the Ape
and it was my favorite book for a long time. Gorillas, GoGo Girls and Bob Oksners art... whats not to like?

KN: Oh yeah. My older brother always had a steady supply.

DRAW!: At what age were you aware of wanting to

become and artist?

DRAW!: What years were this and what was your brother
into reading?

KN: Very young. Before I started school. My mother used

50 DRAW! SUMMER 2002

TECHNIQUE

KEVIN NOWLAN

to try to keep me quiet in church by giving

me a pencil and paper. Heres how to draw
a rabbit... first you make two circles, like a
snowman.
DRAW!: Was this encouraged at home?
KN: Yes.
DRAW!: So your mom was an artist? Was
art something appreciated or done in your
home?

BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS, ALL CHARACTERS AND ARTWORK 2002 DC COMICS

KN: No, as far as I know, she just knew

how to draw that one thing. My brother,
Mike was a real artist. He drew hotrods,
monsters and flying saucers. He did at least
one really beautiful oil painting in high
school. I used to love to look over his shoulder and watch him draw. He said later that
no one ever encouraged him so he didnt
stick with it.
But I wasnt drawing because of the
encouragement... I drew because I loved it. I
would see him drawing, or notice a really
cool cover on a DC comic and I would have
to scrounge up some paper and draw. I filled
up a huge sheet of butcher paper with a
scene of Batman and Robin fighting Nazis.
DRAW!: So there was, despite what your
brother says, some encouragement at home?
KN: I guess so. I remember comments here
and there from my parents and my sisters.
Theyre also pretty creative... although out
of the four of them, only one ever put any
serious effort into drawing and painting.
DRAW!: Did you have any formal art education or attend any art schools? What did
you do there?
KN: Yeah, but I didnt really learn anything
that relates to working in comics. I feel like
I really just figured out a lot of this stuff on my own. I didnt
know anyone who could teach me how to draw a figure or what
tools to use for inking. I just assumed Id have to teach myself
all of that stuff. I learned some basic information about printing
because of a part time job I stumbled into. When I was 12, I
started working at the local weekly newspaper as a printers
devil. In the old days, that meant that you were an apprentice.
In 1970 it meant that I swept the floor and could help myself to
all the paper scraps that I wanted. They were still using the old
sheet-fed letterpress with lead type. The place really looked like
it had been frozen in time since 1890. If youve ever seen one of
the old Linotype machines, you know what I mean. After the
paper was printed, I would gather up the type, melt it down and
pour it into long lead bars called pigs. They hung on the

NOWLAN: This is me trying to be a serious comic

book artist. Lots of little lines and textures.

Linotype machine and were gradually melted to make the new

lines-of-type. Once this had been state-of-the-art technology,
but by the 1970s it was almost completely obsolete. I was able to
see all of this just before it vanished from the face of the earth.
DRAW!: Wow, thats great. Another one of the things you do
well and are noted for is your lettering and logo design, like
DRAW! SUMMER 2002 51

TECHNIQUE

KEVIN NOWLAN

Hellboy. Would you say that doing

this old fashioned hands on work
with type gave you a skill and
appreciation for lettering and calligraphy?
KN: Maybe... but I think I already
had some appreciation for the lettering in comics. I didnt know his
name at the time, but I was crazy
about Gaspar Saladinos work at
DC. Toth would often do his own
lettering and I had a strong preference for those stories. I always
wanted to figure out how to do my
own lettering and I practiced it
quite a bit... especially as I got
older.
To finally answer your
question: After I graduated from
high school I took a two-year
course in commercial art at a local
trade school. But the instructors
kept saying that there werent any
illustration jobs out there anymore
so they wanted us to focus on
design: logos, letterheads, advertising stuff.
DRAW!: I assume this was back
before computers took over all the
layout and mechanical work like
key-lining, etc.?

DRAW!: When did you start working in comics, do your first

story?
KN: I drew my first story at Marvel in 1982. It was literally the
first story Id ever drawn.
DRAW!: So you never drew your own stories or comics before
you worked professionally? There are no comics you made up
with your own heroes, etc.?
KN: I tried doing some of those, but I never did more than a
few pages. I was just chomping at the bit to draw a story, and
52 DRAW! SUMMER 2002

2002 DETAILS MAGAZINE

KN: Yes. For some of those

Comics Journal covers I drew, I
did my own hand separations.
The line art had three overlays
with black zip-a-tone tints to create the colors. Now it seems unbelievably crude, but at the time, it
was almost magical. You would be
working in black and white and
wouldnt see the color until it was
printed.
NOWLAN: Can you tell I enjoy doing my own
lettering? Sometimes its the most enjoyable part
of the job. This was an ad section for Details
magazine.

after I penciled a little of it Id realize that I really didnt know

what I was doing.
DRAW!: Did you continue to do commercial art early in your
career during the time you started in comics.
KN: No, not after I started in comics. Ive done lettering and
logos, but no commercial art since 1982... unless you count the

stuff in Details magazine a few years ago. They

were product advertisements that were worked into
a comic story. It was nice to get some Madison
Avenue money for a change.

JACK B. QUICK AND ALL CHARACTERS AND ARTWORK AND TM 2002 AMERICAS BEST COMICS, LLC

TECHNIQUE

KEVIN NOWLAN

NOWLAN: (Far left)

This is a very old
photo of the house
weve lived in since
1997. It was built
around 1891. For me,
it was the perfect
model for the Quick
family home... and its
handy. We dont really have a barn, but
our neighbor does.

DRAW!: When you began trying to get work did

you do the con circuit, carrying your portfolio around?
KN: No. I never did that. I was hired without really meeting anyone. Terry Austin took some samples up to Marvel and they gave me an issue of Dr. Strange to
pencil. I wasnt really ready, but they gave me the job anyway.
The drawings werent very good, but at the time, I was getting
very serious about improving my work and theres probably no
faster way to learn than being handed a script and told to have
22 pages finished in 30 days.
DRAW!: How did you come to meet up with Austin?

DRAW!: I became aware of your work when you were doing

illustrations and covers for magazines like Amazing Heroes and
other Fantagraphics publications. Was this your first published
work?
KN: Yes.
DRAW!: How did you end up getting work from them?
KN: I just sent them some drawings and they printed them.
DRAW!: I seem to remember your style being sort of more
open and simpler then. I think I am specifically remembering a
Star Wars drawing, a cover for Amazing Heroes I believe that
was really nice. Later I remember some of your Marvel work,
specifically on Moon Knight, which was more detailed like the
Batman and the Outsiders issue you did for DC. It seemed your
style was really evolving constantly.

JACK B. QUICK AND ALL CHARACTERS AND ARTWORK AND TM 2002 AMERICAS BEST COMICS, LLC

KN: Ive never actually met him. He wrote a nice note to me

when he saw one of the spot illustrations I did for the Comics
Journal. It showed up out of the blue and I was stunned. He volunteered to show samples of my work to some Marvel editors.

KN: Ive always been fond of rendering, but Im also suspicious

DRAW! SUMMER 2002 53

PRODUCT REVIEWS

ANDE PARKS

ILLUSTRATION BY JOHN HEEBINK

THE CRUSTY
CRITIC

2002 ANDE PARKS

PAPER
P

ens, pencils, brushes, markers... all of them are useless

without a solid foundation. A comic artist needs a good piece
of paper upon which to ply his trade. Without it, all of your
beautiful drawings end up decorating your drafting table. Its
true that some artists today are using computers to produce their
work, bypassing paper altogether. Most of us, though, still count
on a nice piece of bristol upon which to work.
Thus, your own humble critic again hit the internet, ordering as many different types of paper as he could lay his inkstained fingers on. I ordered everything from cheap drawing
pads to outrageously expensive illustration board. It didnt take
long to figure out two things: I need to hit up TwoMorrows
Publishing for an expense account, and only one type of paper
was really appropriate for my purposes... bristol board. What is
bristol board, exactly? Dont bother me with questions. What do
I look like, some sort of paper geek? Its good for comic book
work. Thats all you need to know. Some of the cheap drawing
pads featured paper with a nice surface, but I found them too
flimsy for my purposes. Some of the illustration boards were
fabulous to work on, but hardly feasible financially for the production of a comic.
Review Criteria
So, what exactly was I looking for in a paper? That one I
can answer. There were four factors:

Surface Quality: Some artists like to work on a very smooth

surface, while others prefer a rough paper (also said to have a lot
of tooth). Personally, I like a paper with just a bit of tooth. If a
paper is too smooth, it can be hard to pencil on, particularly with
a hard lead. Smooth (or plate) surfaces also make effects like
drybrush hard to achieve. On the other hand, if a paper has too
68 DRAW! SUMMER 2002

much tooth, it can be tiring to ink on... either with a pen or

brush. Brushwork on especially rough stock becomes tricky. Its
often hard to get anything but a drybrush effect.
Thickness: Generally, this is referred to as ply. As with toilet
paper (and Ive seen some artists work on paper that toilet paper
might favorably be compared to), the ply number refers to how
many individual layers the manufacturer used to make the paper.
A one-ply paper obviously has just one layer. Ill trust you to
figure out how many layers comprise two-, three- and four-ply
papers. The thickness of a paper is important for a number of
reasons. A flimsy board can be very frustrating to work on.
Some artists like to use electric erasers, or even a simple razor
blade, for corrections. A one-ply paper would never hold up to
those tools. Besides, who wants to produce originals as flimsy as
a Kleenex? I decided to exclude any paper that wasnt at least
two-ply. Three-ply papers cost more, of course, but are a pleasure to work on. Anything more than three-ply seems needlessly
expensive for comic book work.
Ease of Use: A few companies are now offering specialized
comic book papers, with dimensions and guidelines printed right
on the pages. These papers are very similar to what publishers
supply to their freelancers. Needless to say, these types of preprinted boards are a lot more convenient than cutting large
sheets and ruling your own paper. This convenience, though,
does not come cheap.
Cost: Whether youre doing your first set of samples, or producing the one-hundredth issue of your self-published masterpiece,
you want to work on a good piece of bristol. You dont, however,
want to go broke buying the stuff. I found suitable boards in a
wide range of costs. Ill offer my own opinions, but it will ultimately be up to you to decide how much youre willing to spend.
Types of Boards Reviewed
The papers I finally included in this review break down into
three categories: pre-ruled boards made specifically for comic
book production, large bristol sheets, and bristol pads.
Before we get to the judging, let me remind you of the
Crusty Critics standard disclaimer. The opinions youre about to
read are those of one humble critic. My taste is impeccable. It is
not, however, universal. Please, check out some of these papers
yourself, and make your own determinations. I can only hope to
help clarify what youre looking for in a paper, and point you in
the right direction to find it.
Pre-Ruled Comic Book Boards
The most prominent suppler of this type of paper is Blue
Line Pro (www.bluelinepro.com). They offer a wide variety of
boards, from a cheap, entry-level paper to the best bristol:
Blue Line Pro Comic Book Art Boards
Surfaces available: Smooth
Thickness: Three-ply
Cost: packs of 24 list for $15.95 ($0.66 per page). Available in
standard and full trim pre-ruled formats. If youve seen comic
book paper for sale in a comic store, odds are it was this product.

FIGURE DRAWING

BRET BLEVINS

THE NEW MUTANTS ALL CHARACTERS AND ARTWORK 2002 MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC.

COMPOSING
FIGURES
Composing figures in groups in essentially a multiplication
and combination of the principles discussed in previous DRAW!
articlesparticularly silhouetting. When grouping several figures you must choose a dominant character (or characters), and
arrange the secondary figures to support him, her or them. Ive
assembled a set of examples and explained their structure and
designyoull see that there are many approaches to establishing clarity and controlling the viewers focus.
The diagrams vary in the compositional elements they
explainlines or shapes ending in arrows indicate eye flow
and accent the controls or aides that direct the paths a viewers
eye follows when looking at an image. Other shapes and lines
indicate balance, placement, scale, rhythm or a combination of
these elements. In some of the examples Ive used words to
describe the narrative motivations of the composition and left
the analysis of visual mechanics to you.
Silhouetting is so fundamental to good composition well
revisit it hereeach figure you draw should scan or read
clearly as a flat patterna simple device for achieving this is to
insure each pose can be understood as a solid black shapeit
takes only a moment to verify this in a rough doodle, or by actually laying a piece of tracing paper over a figure and blacking in
its contour. (Or just outlining it, though the black is more vivid.)
Even though interior definition and detail can explain a poorly
silhouetted figure (or any other subject), a composition will
always be stronger and more satisfying if each element in it can
be scanned as a flat shape. Poor shape clarity of any part of a
visual composition weakens its force, much as a sour note or out
of key instrument
spoils a musical
composition. Here
are a group of silhouetted poses of
figures randomly
selected from the
following demonstration pagesas
you look through
the article see if
you can find them
and notice how
effectively their
clarity as a
flat pattern
compliments
and strengthens
the entire
composition.

DRAW! SUMMER 2002 73

FIGURE DRAWING

BRET BLEVINS

ALL CHARACTERS AND ARTWORK 2002 MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC.

The monster is an amateur actor grabbing an

amateur actress on a
cardboard set, hence the
coy body language and
the unimpressive background. the composition
is structured over an X
shape to keep the viewers attention focused on
the odd characters

Once again, character motivation is the starting point of any figure compositionwhat is this person (or group) like? Kindly,
indifferent, cruel? What are they doing? Why are they doing it?
Are they scared? Angry? Delighted? Nervous? Confused?
Worried? Each characteristic or combination dictates a different
treatment, pose, acting, and of coursecomposition. Here are a
few images and detailed explanations of their structure.
When composing action decide what the narrative or emotional point of the scene is and design accordingly. The variety
of possibilities here are as endless as the range of human emotionthese examples represent just a sampling of the endless
amplitude of body language and dramatic situation human (or
other) beings can express and experience.
74 DRAW! SUMMER 2002

FIGURE DRAWING

BRET BLEVINS

Panel 1: She throws a smoke

bomb in front of her assailant
most of the main compositional
lines direct attention to the burst.
Panel 2: closer as the unseen
director calls cutthe sudden
change in both characters attitude tell us the conflict is fake.
the horizontal shape of the panel
shows the pace a bit, too.
Panel 3: wide to reveal the college movie set, the cameraman
and director.
Panel 4: the director and actress
have dialogue herehe speaks
first, then she complains about
the stench of the smoke, but a
third key story point is the cameramans exhausted yawn. careful silhouetting explains each in
proper left-to-right reading order.

ALL CHARACTERS AND ARTWORK 2002 MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC.

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW,

CLICK THE LINK TO ORDER THIS
ISSUE IN PRINT OR DIGITAL FORMAT!

Panel 5: as she walks by she

chastises the groggy yawner,
who is also her boyfriend,
though she is annoyed with him.
Her tilting, finger prodding figure
looms over his and crowds him
down into the corner of the
framethe heavy weight of the
camera placement adds to his
oppression and clearly communicates hes in the doghouse.

DRAW! #4
Features an interview and step-by-step demonstration from
Savage Dragons ERIK LARSEN, KEVIN NOWLAN on drawing
and inking techniques, DAVE COOPER demonstrates coloring
techniques in Photoshop, BRET BLEVINS tutorial on Figure
Composition, PAUL RIVOCHE on the Design Process, reviews
of comics drawing papers, and more!
(88-page magazine with COLOR) $5.95
(Digital edition) $2.95
http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_59&products_id=428

DRAW! SUMMER 2002 75