Artist insight

From adding a dash of humour to choosing the perfect panels, Simone Ferriero shares his advice for creating fantastic comics

When a comic book artist is confronted with a script and a blank page, they have the challenge of translating the actions described into images. Everyone has their own way of doing so, developed over time and through some staple techniques for bringing a comic page to life.

Although many artists might say there are set rules and techniques for creating comics, the truth is that anything can work! There are no limits, beside ourselves, in how artwork will look, or how it can be approached. This doesn’t mean rough comics don’t exist, but that it all depends on the final result the artist is aiming for.

When we set ourselves free from any rules and restrictions, I’d still argue that some best practices can be beneficial, if we have specific goals in mind. For example, if we want to make our characters consistent, or if we’re aiming to make everything readable, following an approach that’s been proven to work feels like a good choice.

1 DESIGN UNIQUE CHARACTERS

It’s important to make a character memorable in the eyes of the reader. Besides the style, the most vital quality is how distinguishable they are from the rest of the cast. A good practice is to draw a cast with strong differences in shape, silhouette and mannerisms. Avoid the classic static pose when designing a character and try to give them personality early on. This will help get the gist of how memorable they’re going to be.