This week’s tutorial focuses on the basics of making compelling panel compositions using the Comic Draw app.

The best approach to panel composition is to make sure it is pleasing to the eye and that it gets its message across clearly and interestingly. ​Here I have a 3 panel script with all of the credentials, titles, dialogues, sound effects and panel descriptions complete.

On Comic Draw I can work on both the script & art at the same time.

The crucial rule you should never forget- The simpler the design, the easier it will be for the reader to understand and enjoy it.

Make your designs exciting, startling, powerful- but keep them simple. As you can see in the first panel I put the hair tie up close in the foreground, the lady in the background huddled and the storm farther in the background.

The most important elements of each panel fall within the shaded areas. Though these areas seem to be abstract formations, they create unified pictures. The important elements are grouped together rather than scattered.

Sketch out the pictures with the shaded areas taking form in your mind.

Sometimes, after a picture is drawn, too many important elements fall outside the basic shaded areas. Make sure all important elements are grouped together as a pleasant, unified mass. Train your eye to find the patterns.

Find the best angle for the picture you want to illustrate for your reader.

For example in this strip:
I setup the scene with an establishing shot showing the storm, the lady and her hair tie flying away.

The second panel is a close up showing that she is in fear.

The last panel is a middle shot that has a glimpse of the hero coming to the rescue, but focuses on the main character being relieved.

Composition is where your personal storytelling skills come into play. You can take a group of artists and hand them the same script yet each and every one of them will tell the exact same story in a totally different way. The same goal is still kept in mind:

Keep your reader engaged through clear & interesting art and camera angles. 

The trick in sequential art is to compose your panels in a way that each play off of each other and make all elements fit together well. You can have one really good panel that you’ve labored over but if it isn’t in harmony with the others or the elements are impeding on each other then it doesn’t work for the storytelling. Make your art impactful with smooth eye flow so the reader doesn’t get taken out of the story.

Thank you for tuning into this week’s tutorial. I hope this has been helpful for you on your comic journeys. Feel free to try your hand at the script below. I’d love to see what you come up with!
​ 
Check out the additional resources below for links to the reference material I use.

Peace,
​ 
Loso


special thanks to our official sponsor Plasq for providing the invaluable app Comic Draw!
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This week’s tutorial goes over the design process for developing your characters on the iPad Pro using the Comic Draw app.

Write down as much information about your character as possible. Flesh out descriptions using the scripting feature on the app.
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Description: age, facial features, background, character traits, clothes they wear & why, and setting of where they live are necessary for making a believable character.

Use your notes as a launching pad for research. These will help you have an idea of what to look up for reference material. I recommend using Pinterest because you are able to create boards to collect and store a batch of images in a central location. Saving images and creating a photo album works fine as well but it takes up storage space. Going through the research process to develop your ideas helps you gain a strong foundation to build your characters.

When you start drawing your initial character sketches silhouettes are the best way to get a feel for your characters without having to worry too much about details. Strong interesting shapes that are fun to draw work best for developing dynamic characters. Make as many variations as possible (about 25-50) with your silhouettes before settling on one.

Choose your favorite silhouettes and lighten the opacity on it. Create a new layer and draw mannequins to begin fleshing out your characters.

Having an interesting balance of black & white shapes gives your designs a pleasant look. 

The final challenge of character design is being able to draw your figures in all and angles. It is a must to be able to do a full turnaround of your character when making comics. 

Character designs are fun to do. Creating believable heroes/ villains are the foundation of powerful stories. Using these steps will put you well on your way to making them memorable and come to life.

Thank you for checking out this week’s tutorial. I hope this has been helpful for you on your comic journeys!
​ 
Check out the additional resources below for links to the reference material I use.

Peace,
​ 
Loso


special thanks to our official sponsor Plasq for providing the invaluable app Comic Draw!
follow on us social media!

@Prime_Vice  #primevice 

@AnanyaVahal

@Plasq

@ComicDrawApp #comicdraw #startyourcomictoday

@ComicConnect

A cool feature of Comic Draw is that you can import photos directly onto your drawing surface. In this week’s tutorial I go over how to import and use pictures to create comics. 
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-Hold down the Marquee tool until the 3 options pop up


-The Paste Image from Photos option allows you to pull pictures from your photo library


-The Paste Image from Camera option activates the camera so you can take a direct photo


-The Paste Imported Image option allows you bring in pictures from other locations such as your iCloud, Creative Cloud or Dropbox 


-Paste your image and make a new layer to draw on so that you won’t scribble on the original photo


-After pasting your image you can draw from or over your pictures.

Photos are a great reference to use for many reasons. Just make sure you don’t let it be a crutch for good drawing.  For example photographs are great references to pull realistic details for scenes and characters and understanding composition but relying too much on them can cause your art to look awkward and stiff since pictures are already distorted.

Thank you for checking out this week’s tutorial. I hope this has been helpful for you on your comic journeys!
​ 
Check out the additional resources below for links to the reference material I use.

Peace,
​ 
Loso


special thanks to our official sponsor Plasq for providing the invaluable app Comic Draw!
follow on us social media!

@Prime_Vice  #primevice 

@AnanyaVahal

@Plasq

@ComicDrawApp #comicdraw #startyourcomictoday

@ComicConnect

Last week I went over how to draw and apply the perfect square. This week’s tutorial goes one step further with the fundamentals of cubic form.

The cube is a square in perspective and is the fundamental building block for any geometric form in perspective drawing. It has 6 equal sides, or planes (unequal sides would render it a rectangle). The plane is the primary component of all cubic forms.

Some tips to remember about planes:

• ​The side edges of a plane go vertical. 
• ​Horizontal edges converge back in space toward vanishing points

Cube fundamentals

• Knowing how a cube exists in space makes it easier to understand perspective drawing.
• Knowing how to draw a cube will enable you to construct more complex drawings in perspective.
• Cubes can be used as a unit of measurement to scale the subject matter in your drawings appropriately.
• You can build a box around drawn objects or build objects within the box. This also includes round objects!
• It’s important to imagine forms having volume. Drawing through the form helps.
• Mastering drawing the cube in all angles and positions freehand is an invaluable skill for drawing objects from life and imagination.

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​As you become more proficient you will be able to envision a cube before drawing it.

The Comic Draw app has excellent tools that makes drawing planes and cubes simple. I recommend taking advantage of these as much as possible to save time and quickly get your ideas out.

• ​There are perspective tools that you can use to layout grids for pages and panels in 1,2, & 3 point perspective. There are two 3 point perspective options, bird’s eye view & worm’s eye view available.
• You can select the rectangle tool to create planes in perspective.
• You can use the circle tool to create ellipses.
• The perspective tool allows you to locate vanishing points easily.
• There is a Snap to guide option so that you can keep lines consistent.

Mastering how to draw the cube has been an invaluable skill that can not be emphasized enough for any aspiring and professional artist. It is my sincere hope that this tutorial has helped make this skill easier to gain and master. Thank you for reading. Please comment & share!

Peace,
​ 
Loso


special thanks to our official sponsor Plasq for providing the invaluable app Comic Draw!
follow on us social media!

@Prime_Vice  #primevice 

@AnanyaVahal

@Plasq

@ComicDrawApp #comicdraw #startyourcomictoday

@ComicConnect

This are resources I used for this post. Click on the images to learn more about them. Also feel free to check the ever growing Prime Vice Library to see other essential resources.

 The beginning of all good drawing, including the proper application of proportion & dimension, starts with the square. 


The Importance of the square:

• It is the most valuable and necessary shape for any type of technical drawing ( environments, props, vehicles, etc.)
• It is Invaluable for perspective drawing
• You can construct nearly all other forms in perspective from squares
• It Is a basic means of measurement because of its equal dimensions

Here are some ways to become better acquainted with the single most important shape in comic drawing:

• 2 diagonals will locate the middle point of the square
• A horizontal & a perpendicular line will divide a square (or rectangle) into 4 equal parts

• Place a point on the X
• Draw a horizontal line and vertical line from the point within the square
• Complete the square

• Extend the X beyond the initial square
• Locate a point
• Draw parallel lines

• Create one perfect square
• Extend the top and bottom lines of the initial square 
• Draw a line from the top left corner through the vertical midpoint on the side of the square until it intersects with the newly extended line
• Draw a vertical line from this point to the top of the extended line- parallel to the initial square
• You can also use this technique vertically

Being able to draw the square properly is the foundation for good drawing. This tutorial only deals with the two dimensions of length and width. Next week we will get into the third dimension- Depth. How to turn your square into a cube.

Thank you for reading. Please comment & share!

Peace,
​ 
Loso


special thanks to our official sponsor Plasq for providing the invaluable app Comic Draw!

follow on us social media!

@Prime_Vice  #primevice 

@AnanyaVahal

@Plasq

@ComicDrawApp #comicdraw #startyourcomictoday

@ComicConnect

In this week's mini lesson I share some insight on drawing facial expressions focusing on smiley faces.

When studying and drawing facial expressions notice what the muscles do to the face. When it comes to smiley faces notice:

• The major muscles pull the mouth up and backward 
• The eyes tend to partially close
• The actions of the mouth and eyes usually correlate to each other
• Feel free to experiment with mouth shapes and placement. In cartooning its best to exaggerate to communicate!

As you build your drawings use yourself as a reference, use a mirror, take pictures, act out your poses and emotions to give it an impressionistic feel.

Happy drawing all, hope this helps you along your drawing journey!

Peace,
​ 
Loso


special thanks to our official sponsor Plasq


follow on us social media!

@Prime_Vice  #primevice 

@AnanyaVahal

@Plasq

@ComicDrawApp #comicdraw #startyourcomictoday

@ComicConnect 

This week's How To focuses on drawing angry facial expressions on the Comic Draw app. When drawing your comic characters you have to be able to create facial expressions that reflect how they feel in a clear way. 

When drawing facial expressions try doing the expressions yourself first to get a feel and look for the expression
​

Use the marquee tool to take selfies of yourself 


Press & hold down the marquee tool and press  paste image from camera to 


Take a picture and use it as reference


For drawing angry faces pay close attention to :


A_ Bringing the eyebrows down and toward each other


B_ One or more furrows in the forehead


C_ Mouth drops at the corners


D_ Frown lines from nose around the mouth 


Remembering these features will allow you to apply angry expressions to any face you draw 


​Thanks for checking out this week's mini lesson. Hope you found this useful.

Peace,
​ 
Loso


special thanks to our official sponsor plasq


follow on us social media!

@Prime_Vice  #primevice 

@AnanyaVahal

@Plasq

@ComicDrawApp #comicdraw #startyourcomictoday

@ComicConnect