Tutorial Request?

[KatDeMilo]

Hello :)
I'm more here to request tips and tutorials if you know any goods ones, please share away

In particular for layout, pacing and paneling.

So part time hobbyist artist here.
Been drawing and writing a long time but only two years ago started to attempt to develop a comic style and pages.
Went through 3 style tests at 100% effort, finally found my thing on the 4th attempt. Few months(okay maybe 6) in done my little intro chapter and onto Chapter 1!

The intro was just seeing if I could do it. An experiment of style and skill.

Now that parts over I really need to pay attention to layout and pacing of my story(long completed because I'm more of a writer. Imo anyway)

So any references or tutorials, reading material would be appreciated :)
I would note I definitely am not novice that would be putting myself down too much. Intermediate level.

Phone post if I've typo'd, sorry!!

[MK]

Pacing your story really has to depend on what your story is about.  Generally you want to build up to your conflict (physical or emotional) then once it peaks you have to build down into a resolution.  You can think of it like the stock market, you will see prices go up but there will always be points where it goes down even just for a bit.

Also I would always have a goal in mind for your characters, your antagonist should have a goal (maybe like taking over the world or stealing someone's girl/guy).  Then you protagonist should have a goal (building on his skills, winning a tournament or winning over a girl/guy).  Once you have the goals established then it is your job to introduce roadblocks for the character to overcome (maybe the mc doesn't like the other person, is not very popular or is too weak to fight the antagonist as is).

Once you have that down then paneling is easy.  You want to direct your reader's eyes downwards rather than sideways because people get confused as to which way to read all the time.  Make sure to have some panels just to show off the background to give your readers a sense of where things are taking place.  You can slow down chapters by having bigger, more detailed drawings or speed up the action scenes by getting rid of gutters (the empty space between panels).  Also by using non square shapes like trapezoids and making part of the character pop out of the panel, it can add to the dynamic poses of action poses.

For poses themselves, using a worms eye view (looking up to the character) makes them more imposing/heroic.  While the birds eye view (looking down on the character) can make them look a bit cuter.  Definitely practice on the birds eye view since you are also able to give the readers more visual information on the setting.  Always draw with gesture first then add anatomy as it makes the poses much more fluid and exaggerate that gesture too.  Generally avoid full profile views, it just doesn't give much information and tends to be more stiff.  Ideally you want a slight twisting motion where the waist is pointed in a different direction than the chest even by a little bit.  Of course there are exceptions (usually in formal settings like military and stuff like that)

[KeanFox]

Look up Scott McCloud: "Making Comics" & "Understanding Comics" They are fun light reads, they will walk you through the basics. Wich MK here gave a nice summary of the basics.


There are some nice "How to draw manga" books but I don't remember which one has good tips on pacing and paneling.

Spoiler

Manga in Theory and Practice also a good book. By the Jojo guy

Spoiler

Pick up a Manga/Comic/Webcomic you like and read, observe. Might learn a thing or two

Remember to not get stuck in knowledge seeking mode. There are things that only can be learned from doing the thing. You said you made a couple of test chapters which is pretty good, so yea...

[KatDeMilo]

Thank you all.

Oh yes Manga in Theory and Practice looks like just what I am after, I have heard of JoJo only that it is good. :) Thankyou!!!

(EDIT: I actually just brought this and am very excited for it to arrive)

Oh no, I am currently drawing the final (not test version) as in posting schedule, kept up for half a year now, have to draw everyday to meet it. So I'm not reading before doing, done that. I'm learning while doing now haha.
Like I have all the prep work down just, now that I have been working on pages a few years I'm finding issue with things other than art technique and tools :s less easy to fix.

Need to correct my thinking in some areas, learn from others with more experience :)

[KeanFox]

You bought Araki's book. What did you think? Anything that stood up for you? A lightbulb moment?

I like that it's structured like a story and he goes over his experience as a manga artist. Not sure is this the same book where he says the worst feeling is showing your manga to the magazine editor and the editor making the decision just by looking at the first page. I heard multiple stories about how ruthless the Japanese magazine editors were.   
 

[KatDeMilo]

You bought Araki's book. What did you think? Anything that stood up for you? A lightbulb moment?

Yes, He said every panel/page needs be relevant. Have a point. This has really stuck with me, I am redrafting a lot of pages to see if I can follow this good advice.
A few notes about creating suspense to make the reader turn the page was good too. I found it crazy how much detail he gets into with characters but makes sense- thought I was nuts for doing Myer Briggs tests under the personalities of my characters to understand them better, turns out he uses similar tools and recommends it.

I like that it's structured like a story and he goes over his experience as a manga artist. Not sure is this the same book where he says the worst feeling is showing your manga to the magazine editor and the editor making the decision just by looking at the first page. I heard multiple stories about how ruthless the Japanese magazine editors were.   

I remember that part, tears happen. I was like, gosh. Glad that isn't me.
I guess if your dream is professional you have to please the employers first.

Very good read thank you. Nice hardcover for my collection to, I will go back to it a bit.