|
|
|
The Artist Is Your Friend |
|
|
|
|
Written by Jeffery Stevenson
|
|
Sunday, 19 December 2004 |
You're a writer. Telling stories is your passion. You studied the basics, and you know how to craft a good story...know how to spark some life into your characters...know how to manipulate logic and reason to pull your reader into your world...know how to pull it all together in a coherent fashion. While developing your story, you decide that it would be perfect for the comic medium, and that puts a small wrinkle into your story's formula. A new variable to consider...the artist.
The artist translates your writing into a story that's visually engaging--the honey that lures the reader into your trap of plots, subplots, dialogue, cliffhangers, and characterization. They're your liaison to the comic reading public, and they're critical to the success of your story. And yet, many aspiring writers never consider doing things to make the artist's job easier when they develop the story into comic script. Some writers want to control every minute detail of their story, and some just focus on the story and none of the steps beyond that. Yes, a good story is the most important thing to you, but if you want to make a career out of this, know how to build that story into a script that makes the artist look good and makes the job fun for them. Let's look at some of the little things a writer can do to help the artist out.
Open up the lines of communication.
The first thing to do is get in touch with the artist. Chat with them and find out what kind of person they are. Let them know you're easy to get in touch with, so they know they can contact you whenever they have a question, whenever they have a suggestion for improving the story, or whenever they encounter something that's off in the story. Artists are people, and if they know you're just a phone call or email away, they'll be more willing to contact you when they run into a problem with the script...instead of just plowing on through it.
Every artist is different.
People are different. Artists are people. See the connection? Some artists like to run with full script for the script format. Some prefer the plot style or even a screenplay style. Find out ahead of time and use that format. Sure, you might lose a lot of the control the full script format gives you, but the artist might be used to working another way. Adapt your script and put the artist in the right mood for working on your story. Give them the opportunity to "wow" you with what they can do.
Know the artist's strengths, weaknesses, likes, and dislikes.
If an artist loves to draw expressive facial expressions and really hates to draw cars, scene after scene of traffic jams, car chases, parking lots, and used car dealerships will turn the comic into an act of drudgery for them. But give them a good number of head and bust shots with a wide range of emotions and watch the pages start flying. If an artist is weaker at detailed architecture, minimize how much of that shows up. If an artist is strong with equipment and props, toss some more of that in there to liven up your script. As soon as you find out who will be drawing your story, study their work to get a feel for all this. Look for anything that tends to dominate their portfolios...backgrounds, action sequences, a wide variety of fashions, fantasy monsters, and the like. Look for patterns where things might seem off or rushed to get an idea where they might be weak. Look for the things that just take your breath away when you see them. Gather up as much info as you can into your own private little list, and then ask the artist what they like to draw and what they dislike drawing. Ask them what they feel their strengths and weaknesses are.
Give them some freedom.
In one of my scripts, I had a scene that took place in a throne room. The main character was in shackles, the king sat in a tall-backed throne made of stone, there were guards in the room, and one wall contained a large, stained glass window. Those were the only things in the room that were important to the story. When the artist and I were in the thumbnail stage and reviewing the script, he asked me if I had any specific ideas for the throne room because he had some ideas for some columns and some other decorative bits. I just reiterated what absolutely had to be in that room and told him to have fun with the rest. And he did.
This is just a matter of giving the artist a way to flex their creative muscles a bit. If something absolutely has to be a specific way or historically accurate for the story, give them a good description or a reference, but give them creative freedom with all the other elements. Give them a chance to make an investment of passion and creativity in the script. But also keep in mind the advice from before--every artist is different. Some artists might want to have everything spelled out for them, and some might want you to loosen up your descriptions a bit more. Be flexible and let them invest as little or as much as they want into the story.
Write with an enthusiasm and energy that's contagious.
Comics revolve around dynamic depictions of people and places, so write them that way. Ditch some of those progressive verb forms and that passive voice to help make the panel descriptions feel dynamic and full of energy. Describe it so the artist visualizes the motion of the panel and gets to pick the very best freeze frame to represent the action of the panel. Implement a wide range of verbs into your writing and drag the artist into your story...your world...your vision.
Decent: "JEREMIAH is running down the alley."
Better: "JEREMIAH sprints down the alley."
Decent: "CHARLOTTE is biting her lip hard."
Better: "Blood trickles down CHARLOTTE's chin as she bites into her lip."
Mix it up a bit.
At a convention once, I flipped through an artist's comic, and I turned to a double-page spread of two opposing armies rushing headlong into battle outside a detailed citadel. The first thought that crossed my mind was, "This is gorgeous." The next thought that hit me was, "This must have been a pain to draw." Some scenes need to make their presence felt in a comic, and often, those scenes become grandiose feats of drawing to create something that will immerse the reader into that critical moment of the story. Those pages allow the artist to really show off what they can do and impress readers, and they'll probably be tough and time-consuming for the artist to draw. A necessary evil...but there's something you can do about it. After one of those tough pages, give the artist one or two easy pages before jumping back into some sense of normalcy. Headshots, close-ups of hands or props, single characters per panel, partial views of larger objects (a door to a building, a peephole, a wheel on a car, a pressure gauge in a boiler room, a lamp, etc). Make those pages so the artist can just fly through them and still meet their deadline with ease...even if they have to spend a lot of extra time on those tougher pages. Deadlines are important. Give an artist the means to consistently finish ahead of their deadlines, and they'll look like a hero (and they'll be a little more eager to work with people that take the extra time to make their job easier).
Give the artist a "quick" issue once in a while.
Those techniques for balancing out the tough pages in an issue also make for some creative ways to speed up production on a book. Imagine putting together one issue every now and then where half or two-thirds of the book utilized those techniques to allow the artist to crank out the pages super fast. They could finish the issue early and get a jump on the next book in the series...or they could dedicate some time to some other projects that they've wanted to work on. In this business, time is an important commodity, and it can leave a good impression when you present the artist with a chance for extra time as a bonus for working with you on a project.
####
There you have it--some things to think about when working with an artist in the comic medium. Start with a good story...artists, editors and readers really like good stories. From there, know how to kick that story into overdrive by learning the artist's preferences, giving them some things to have fun with and get excited about, keeping the story flowing for them, and helping them easily meet those pesky deadlines. Practice the little things in this medium that help give the artist you work with an edge both motivationally and professionally, and make yourself someone artists continually enjoy working with.
|
|
|
