Minx

#2

July 2, 2008

SUMMER BLAB

Wherein the editor opts for silver nail polish instead of shiny black, a special shout-out is in order to writer Cecil Castellucci of PLAIN JANES fame for picking up the prestigious Schuster Award for best Canadian writer, and, as promised, more storytelling tips from the esteemed creators of MINX:

Inaki Miranda, artist of BURNOUT, suggests the following:

Tip 1- Flow: When planning your storytelling have two main things in mind: one, the camera and two, the characters acting. Try to keep both in "connected-constant-motion". This way, when jumping from one panel to the next in a scene, you can push yourself. Imagine not only the new position for the camera but also what trajectory it followed to get there. With this "backstage" thinking, you'll end up with much more fluid and graphic storytelling.

Tip 2- Settings "alive": When drawing a background, try to give hints of the world around and beyond. Try to convey space to transmit the sensation that it is not a fake cartoon-world. Put a window here, a corridor over there, a door, a far mountain -- our eyes like to see those things. They make us feel that we are just seeing a part of a bigger place, and that the characters can move, and have moved, freely around it. It makes the scene breathe and exist beyond the two dimensional comic-book page.

Ross Campbell, writer/artist of WATERBABY, has this to add:

1. Draw from life (photographs work too!). people, objects, environments, everything. it's the only way you'll ever really learn what you need to draw when doing comics.

2. Experiment until you figure out what works best for you.

Next Month: More creators speak out plus rare art extras, interviews with the Girls of Summer MINX and the latest gossip live from the red hot carpet of the San Diego Comicon.

See you in silver sequins,
Shelly