-
Step 1
Study the work of the comic greats you admire. Jack Kirby, Neal Adams, Jim Lee, Walt Simonson and Gil Kane are just some of the great artists of the past and present who have created artwork and who draw comic art with great impact on viewers.
-
Step 2
Copy page layouts and figure rendering of those artists whose work you admire. Far from being "cheating," copying gives you a "library" of skills and techniques which you can then make your own as you grow into your own style. Don't slavishly copy, however. Freely modify what you see, to determine which effects work for you and which do not.
-
Step 3
Branch out and study artwork in other genres as well. Look particularly at the masters of oil painting such as Titian, Rembrandt, Zurbarán and Goya to get a feel for the possibilities when dealing with light and composition on a two-dimensional surface.
-
Step 4
Study, as well, the work of contemporary poster artists and the album-cover artists of the 60s and 70s, when LP records were still big sellers. All of that art will inform, positively, your own attempts to create dynamic work on the page, inasmuch as they are designs whose impact has to be felt with immediacy and directness.
-
Step 5
Become very familiar with foreshortening, the ability to see and interpret bodies and buildings in ways that show them coming toward or moving away from the viewer at dynamic angles. "Flat" images are static and often uninteresting, and the best work pulls the reader/viewer into it through the use of dynamic foreshortening.
