All Entries Tagged With: "making comics"

Why You Should Pay Artists For Sample Pages

A reader on our Facebook Page asked

Hey Alex, I’m curious, when you look for artists, do you go strictly by their portfolio or do you pay for sample panels?

I thought my answer might be useful for others so I’m posting it up here.

How To Write Badly: The Idiot Plot Device

There are enough examples of quality writing in genre work that there is no excuse for writing stories that can’t stand toe-to-toe with more “mainstream” work. And I believe the first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem. Thus this series of posts on “How To Write Badly” – because knowing is half the battle.

The first shameful technique we’ll discuss is something I like to call “The Idiot Plot Device”.

How To Succeed As A Freelance Artist

The best advice Alex has found so far for making money while making comics.

Yaoi Art: Guys In Their Underwear! (“Artifice” Character Designs)

Hey, everyone! The first book of the Yaoi 911™ action-yaoi series (which I’m pretty sure I’m going to call “Firsts”) is well under way. And the first story in the book — “A Shot in the Dark,” which you’ve been watching us create on this blog — is finally completely colored and lettered and you can now download the entire comic for free. But there are, of course, more stories in this graphic novel and I’d like to begin previewing them here as well, starting with “Artifice,” a comic with art created from start to finish by “A Shot in the Dark” inker and colorist Winona Nelson.

Yaoi Art: From Pencils to Inks

I’ve covered writing and formatting the script as well as using thumbnail sketches as an aid to creating final pencils. Traditionally, the next step in the process would be to ink those pencils.

So, let’s talk about what that means, look at how the process has changed in the digital age and, of course, show you examples of cute boys covered in digital ink.

Yaoi Art: From Thumbnail Sketches to Final Pencils

The process of creating a graphic novel goes through many stages. First you write a script. Then, working with an artist, you come up with character designs. The next step is for the artist to create “thumbnail sketches” for each page.

The One Thing You Need to Do to Convince the Perfect Yaoi Artist to Work on Your Project

OK, so you’ve found the perfect artist to work on your book. On creator forums, the second most common request I see coming from writers is “How do I convince an artist to work with me on my graphic novel?”

How to Find the Perfect Yaoi Artist for Your Graphic Novel

On creator forums, the most common request I see coming from writers is “How do I find an artist to work with me on my graphic novel?” This request is usually followed by a tale of woe about how impossible it seems to be to find such an artist.

Well, I’m here to tell you that with a little perseverance, you can find great artists who will breathe life into your scripts and in this golden age of the internet, it’s actually easier to connect with fellow creators than ever before. You just need to approach it the right way:

How to Write a "Full Comic Book Script"

So, you want to create a Yaoi short story (or graphic novel!) Where to begin?

While you might have a bunch of cool images in mind (perhaps of cute boys fighting monsters and then making out…), it all starts with words on paper — a script. And in my humble opinion, that should be the king of comic book scripts — the full script.