question about comics

[figure of frgt10]

hello, im 14 years old and me and a friend are doing a comic. i find it VERY hard to make the pictures tell stories, and above that get them to look good!
whenever i do full pages they come out fine, but pages with panels are much worse. ill have one panel that looks good and others just look like i didnt take the time, when i did!
i would post some pics but i have no access to a scanner

[Quinster]

I think I know what you're trying to say but do you think its possible you can be more specific to what your problem is? I'd be more than happy to help you.

[figure of frgt10]

hmm. alright right now im doing panels for this comic( going to a comic convention in charlotte to get my portfolio reviewed by marvel, hopefully they can give advice for this )
i think one problem is i cant pose the figure well, but alas im only 14 its not like i could get a model or anything
but lets just say i have a very hard time telling the story with the panels and the majority of the panels i do have a lower quality than most of my drawings.

[DavePalumbo]

this book: Will Eisner's Graphic Story Telling is amazing and the absolute best book I've ever seen on making your comics tell a story visually. Eisner makes me feel like an idiot for not already knowing things the way he explains it so clearly and easily. A good deal of the problem is likely just that you need more practice and experience drawing in general, though. Just keep practicing, it takes time. Work from observation as much as you can, it's the most reliable way to improve.

[figure of frgt10]

thanks alot, ill buy it as soon as i can
but the problem im worried about alot is my decreased quaility in my panels. the gestures i start out with look ok, the detailing looks fine, maybe its because the detail between the gesture and inking stage isnt enough?
i guess i have plenty of years to get good at it, but its just that im sooo much better in every kind of art i do, i feel like its a mile stone i must get past!

[Quinster]

Ah, now I get what you're saying. Yeah, it takes time to learn good composure. If only you had a scanner...you could get more help if people could actually see!

Comics can be though, and since its telling a story it takes alot of time, initiative and patience. I've been working on a comic since April of last year and it still isn't done! Sketching, inking, revising...what makes it "easier" for me is that I do it my own way. It pretty much freeform although, some people complain its too hard to follow.
Example:

[Taco]

Best way to start if you're not sure is with a standard 6 panel grid with all 6 panels the same size. Just look at Jeff Smith's comic Bone. It's wildly successful but for the majority of all 9 volumes maintains a standard grid.

[figure of frgt10]

thanks for your help guys, i also think one factor is im trying to get too much done at one time! im trying to do 3 more pages by tomorrow!
my writer friend pressures me, but i think its liable since hes been done with the script for a couple of months now.
i hope to get a scanner soon and i can show you what i can and cant do.

[DavePalumbo]

tell your writer friend that many pros do about ONE page a day and that's just pencils or inks, not both. Patience is one of the best lessons that a developing artist can learn

[figure of frgt10]

oh no, the pages im doing right now is a burden i placed on myself, the problem is is that i dont do a page a day, and then an event like this comes up and i try to do as many as i can. thankyou for your words, i think that my lack of patience and my unfullfilled knowledge of anatomy and posing is what results in the ranging quality in my panels.
thankyou everybody!

[timpaatkins]

Ahh yes, the first hard earned lesson on time management, I remember it so clearly...
Good luck to you Fig, and bring whatever experience you gain from this endeavour to the next one!

[t.m0]

Hey figure,

what size are you drawing those pages? 1:1? Or do you use a larger format. If not, try using a format that's up to 2:1 which is way easier to work on. And another thing, try not to get restricted by your panels... i.e. take a single panel (that you didn't like), draw the frame loosely on a blank sheet of paper and go wild. Draw over the lines and don't try fitting your sketch into those restricted boundaries..
hope that helps a bit

cheers.t

[Mirana]

Isn't Heroes Con going to be over tomorrow?

[figure of frgt10]

gonna go get some new paper soon! heroes con was awesomer than it was last year. i only went one day but it was still awesome. ive got a better understanding of how to do comic pages just by lookin at the pages in artists portfolios! got some great advice from some artists and i went to the quickdraw competetion. the age group was 11 to 15 so i had a much better chance than last year.
another good thing is that were gonna take a break fromt the comic for a while, to develop everything more.