Topic: Life Drawing
What method do you use when building up the figure's structure?

Response:
It depends on the panel. I usually do shapes and then fill in the figures. Often starting with the head. Generally the shapes are shaped like the things I'm drawing--it's mostly circles.

Topic: Penciling
Give me some examples of bad storytelling...

Response:
Confusing pages! Make your pages easy to follow! It should be clear which panel should be read in which order. Arrows look idiotic--don't use them. Sideways pages! Enough with the SIDEWAYS PAGES! I know that some big name talents have used them but as a reader, having to physically turn the books around takes away from the reading experience. It's also annoying. Please stop.

What's the correct way to break borders?

Response:
When you break the borders--you're establishing the border as a plane. Think of it as a window--the border should only be broken by the object that is the closest to the viewer. If a background element is breaking the border, you're essentially saying that it is in front of the other things in the panel. If a person in the background is breaking the border but somebody closer to the reader ISN'T, you're throwing off the illusion of depth and making the background character look like the Wasp buzzing around. DON'T have characters from one panel overlapping on to a figure from another panel--the characters shouldn't interfere in a separate reality. DON'T have a character have a character bleed off into a panel which isn't directly before or after that panel-- a reader may follow that extended limb to the wrong panel and read the page out of its proper sequence.

What can I do to draw faster?

Response:
The trick is to throw away your eraser and don't look back. If you use the philosophy that you'll get it right tomorrow then you're on the right track. Obsessing over details only slows you down. Make the things that are difficult to draw as minimal as possible. Bulky clothing, capes, silhouettes, back shots and rubble are your best tools.. I still have my eraser--I guess that's why I just do a book a month.

How do I make my penciling more inking-friendly?

Response:
DON'T use the side of the pencil for un-inkable effects and DON'T simply scribble[ Scribbling is OK, Erik means you must clean up the scribbles afterwards]. The pencils should look as clean and beautiful as inked pages- only lighter. The tighter your pencils are-the more the finished book will look like your work.

Topic: Inking
What do you think about "The Art of Inking" book by Gary Martin?

Response:
It's incredibly lame and extremely incomplete. It really doesn't prepare an inker how to do the many things he'll need to do such as problem solving. Pencils aren't inks and inkers constantly have to decide how to interpret them. The examples of pencils from Steve Rude are all quite good -- most inkers can only dream of seeing pencils like that. Inkers need to know what to do when things are scribbled in, half drawn or shaded with the side of a pencil. What to do when a black figure stands on a black background. There are tons of cool effects that any of the guest inkers could teach and little is covered by any of them. Gary doesn't explain how to do much of anything and there's tons of blank pages in the book. It's too bad that it came out -- now the chances of stores buying a good book on the subject are diminished. It is interesting to see how different inkers treat the same drawings and that's worth something but for money spent, I'd recommend potential inkers buy the second issue of Essential X-Men to see Terry Austin at the top of his game and skip Gary's book. You'll learn a lot more studying Terry's work in black and white than this book could ever hope of teaching you.

How do I 'break in' an inking nib to get the ink to flow satisfactorially?

Response:
It takes a while to "break in" a nib. Especially early on. Don't clean them. Use them for a while (an hour or two) and the ink should flow more smoothly. Usually, I try and ink thinner things like body hair with a fresh nib since an older one tends to make thicker lines. Just keep practicing.

Topic: Perspective
What are some good rules for dealing with perspective?

Response:
The most important thing is to establish a horizon line and relate things to it. An easy way to cheat a crowd scene is to draw a horizon line and then pick a body part to rest on that line (for example--everybody's belt is on that line--if they're short, just below it--taller just above it). Then, relate backgrounds to that--by putting belts on that line, you've established that it's 3 1/2 feet at that line so doorways are just over twice that etc. Often artists will put the horizon line at the bottom of character's feet  to make things easy. Remember that all sideways vanishing points are on the horizon line.

How does one handle vanishing points that go far off the board?

Response:
I plug a tack wherever that vanishing point is, tape down my paper and run a big ass ruler over to the tack and go to work.

Topic: Miscellaneous
How should I set up my portfolio?

Response:
Do pages with more than simply action scenes. You will be required to draw EVERYTHING in a comic book from clothes to cars to animals. Show an editor that you CAN draw EVERYTHING. Artists--DON'T get caught up in figuring out a plot for your samples! Find a comic that you think blows and show me that you can do better. Just remember--you don't need to include the same number of panels or panel configuration. Make it sing. Make sure your storytelling is clear! Make sure that a reader can tell which character is which in every panel. Don't confuse the reader! Keep your character designs consistent--don't alter details from panel to panel. Establish where your characters are and keep that consistent. Do 5 or more pages. It's good to show a few different scenes. ALWAYS send finished work. DON'T send works in progress. NEVER send art that you need to explain or apologize for. Don't send the stuff you think sucks--an editor doesn't need to know how bad you WERE--just how good you ARE.

I can't seem to settle on a realistic or cartoony art style, suggestions?

Response:
Most artists start out as an amalgam of other artists' styles. Try to stay consistent--girls like Joe Madureira -- noses like Marc Silvestri. You'll pull it together. Joe Mad started off as an Art Adams clone--Marc started off as a John Buscema clone -- they developed their own style. Most artists don't nail everyone's style so completely. You can still use basic body shapes, nose shapes etc. to start with and then try and render the final product like somebody else --sometimes a different artist in different panels. Even when I'm looking at a certain artist it ends up looking like I did it because there's so much of myself that I bring to the table. [Don't confuse this with downright swiping. Once you've established a style you are comfortable enough with, work hard to develop it as far from the source as possible.]

http://www.figma.com/home.shtm