Looking for an Artist to draw a comic with me, temporarily?

Basically, I write graphic novel scripts. And I was wondering if anyone would be interested in drawing a bit of it, just so I can use them as a way to see if I'm properly writing them.

I uh...can't really offer anything else, except maybe art practice, just wondering if anyone would be interested. >_>

Things I'm looking for:

• Variation in body types and faces
• Backgrounds

edited 18th Jan '12 11:23:10 AM by MrAHR

I wouldn't bet on it. This kind of request is pretty tired and, for many artists, inconsiderate too. You should just try drawing your own thumbnail outlines for paneling and stuff. Even in professional artist-writer teams in comics, it's often the writer's job to draw the page layouts themselves, not the artist. It doesn't matter how well-drawn these drawings are, even even stick figures or blobs will do.

almyki

Not true at all.

According to this pdf with submission guidelines for Dark Horse Publishing

In Japan, I'm aware that's how it tends to work, and I recall stories about specific pairs in America that worked similarly. I said 'often', not 'always'. Personally, I'd hate to work with a guy that seemed to be off-loading 90% of the work onto me as an artist when he's supposed to be covering writing and story. Paneling, framing, etc. accounts for so much of how the story is being told and how it flows. If all the other guy is doing is writing is a script, it seems to me like he's not pulling his weight in an even relationship.

Either way, the point being, you'll have little luck searching for a skilled artist willing to work for free for a little experiment anyway. And, 'graphic novel writers' seem to underestimate how much they can contribute to the creative process just because 'they can't draw'.

Oh, and also, with zero details about what comic you want drawn in your OP, I'm not sure what types of artists you're attempting to attract anyway. 'Backgrounds' and 'varied faces' is very vague.

almyki

edited 18th Jan '12 11:59:24 AM by almyki

Dark Horse is an American publishing company. Not Japanese. I think you might be letting your personal preferences cloud your judgment there.

I've seen scripts for comics before. Comics published in the united states. DC and Marvel comics. The scripts don't usually have specific layouts, and not everyone does thumbnails.

Skirt the main issue if you want. Keep fishing, if you think you're that lucky.

almyki

^^ That may be true, but almyki is right in that panelling=pacing. If I ever find an artist for any of my stuff, I'll draw all the thumbnails, not because I'm just such a wonderful person, but because I'll want to have control over the pacing of the story. And in any case, drawing thumbnails in not really that difficult. This is how this stuff looks like.◊ The double spread above is the writer's thumbnail, and the one below in the artist's thumbnail (drawn to be shown to and discussed with the editor), and the tiny one below are the finished pages.

More of these here: http://mangahelpers.com/forum/showthread.php/53391-Bakuman-Names

edited 18th Jan '12 12:09:56 PM by fanty

Almyki, why did you sign your name? We already know that it's you talking.

Fanty: I do control the panelling. Just not the specific layout.

That's how publishing companies in the US dictate comic writers to, well, write.

Once again, here is a basic script used by most people in the business

edited 18th Jan '12 12:11:23 PM by MrAHR

Well, the thing is, collaborating with an artist is not working with a company. If you want to submit to Dark Horse, then by all means, follow their guidelines, that's what guidelines are for. But if you want to collaborate with an individual artist, then all guidelines have to go through the window. Some artists may want to have you drawing thumbnails, while some may not even want you to tell them where one panel ends and another begins because they just like being completely free to draw the page the way they want.

Here's the podcast with the artist-writer team of Powernap, where the artist said that he liked the fact that writer was just basically sending him dialogues with hardly any descriptions at all, so he was free to make all the artistic decisions. Some artists, though, many not want to have such "freedom", because it's a lot of work.

I don't remember what I was arguing for any more. Anyway, beggars can't be choosers.

edited 18th Jan '12 12:20:29 PM by fanty

If I were an artist, I would find just dialogue to be a bit overwhelming.

Besides, it sounds like all AHR is asking is for a person to see if the way she's laying out her panels WORKS or not.

Oh I'm sorry, I'll just give the artist who wants to draw my stuff some thumbnai—

Oh wait no. I didn't get any artists. Just people telling me what I'm doing is wrong, even though it's a complete matter of personal preference.

edited 18th Jan '12 12:26:01 PM by MrAHR

Yeah, what I was basically trying to say there is that everybody and their grandmother is looking for a webcomic artist, so you have to be flexible.

Uhm, I'm not sure why I signed my full name. Habit? I usually write ali because that's what I prefer being called (but ali is often too short or already taken as a username...), but for some reason I didn't feel like it X_x .

I didn't say that drawing layout panels would give anyone a higher chance of being picked up by an artist, though I do believe it might. I don't think you have much of a chance of finding an appropriate artist regardless, and that asking like this at all is pretty naive, especially with your lacking presentation.

-You're- the one who wants to see how well your script looks in a graphic novel format by fleshing out a part of it visually. Drawing your own layouts would go a long way towards doing that, without having to rely on asking for someone else to do free skilled work. Even with amateur doodles, paneling and flow can still be good or bad, and that will be easier to see if you draw it out rather than in a script. Part of the point I was making was that it's not impossible for someone without artistic skill to, at least, make their own layouts. Since you probably won't get lucky with finding an artist to draw it for you, that's something you could try instead.

aliii

Locking this thread at the request of the OP. While this isn't OTC, and some derailing is acceptable, completely ignoring the OP from the first response on is still rather thoughtless.