Tag Archives: comics

Art Tutorials, Blog

How to Draw Smoke + Clouds + Explosions for Comics

In my latest Youtube video I explain how to draw some of the basic dynamics for smoke, clouds, and explosions. These effects are widely used for comics and other forms of storytelling.

Drawing Smoke Clouds and Explosions for Comics
Drawing Smoke Clouds and Explosions for Comics

Check out the video below to see these two effects created!

Hopefully this post + video will help you get a bit better at drawing these elements within your own work. Remember if you don’t get it right the first time there is nothing to worry about. I didn’t either! Let’s jump in and start practicing.

Drawing Smoke

Let’s first start by drawing some basic smoke coming off a smoke stack. This is used in countless scenes in comics and is pretty much my favorite one to draw.

You can have this effect swirling in the background and make any city scene immediately look 10 times cooler. ( In my opinion of course! 😉

Step 1 – Start by drawing the area of influence or the basic flow of the smoke. Don’t be afraid to swirl it around a bit. I like to think about ribbons and scrolls when drawing smoke.

Drawing Smoke - Step 1
Drawing Smoke – Step 1

Step 2 – Erase back your construction lines or turn the opacity down on your layer. Then draw the smoke again with a bit more clarity. I like to go back and forth from thick to thin forms as the smoke rolls around. This way it looks more organic and dynamic. Use S and C curves for energy.

Drawing Smoke - Step 2
Drawing Smoke – Step 2

Step 3 – Draw in some of the interior lines. These can swirl around any which way you want. I like to start envisioning how the smoke might look with color at this stage. It helps me to think more dimensionally about the work as I go. You can also add in some line weight at this stage as well.

Drawing Smoke - Step 3
Drawing Smoke – Step 3

Next just ink and color it and voila! Comic book smoke! Just play with lots of variations and see what you can come up with. There is no right or wrong way with comic book smoke and art in general for that matter. If you’re having fun then your on the right track! 🙂

Watch my this Youtube video on the subject and get more tips and tricks on creating more effects.

I hope you enjoy the tutorials and more on the way soon!

Check out my Gumroad Store here for Video Course Content and Custom Brushes – http://www.gumroad.com/robertmarzullo

Let me know what other topics you would like to see covered on this blog and I will do my best to answer them with a new tutorial. I love doing break downs like this and your ideas help me to focus on what to do next.

Keep Drawing and Keep Having Fun!!

-ROB

Blog

Procreate Brushes – Comic Inking Set – Free Download

Procreate Brushes - Comic Style Shading - Free Download
Procreate Brushes – Comic Style Shading – Free Download

Hello Everyone!

I am excited to share some new brushes with you today! I have been playing around with some comic style inking brushes for the app Procreate.  I was able to come up with a few cross-hatching brushes that I think you might find helpful within your work.

I’ve noticed that a lot of artists struggle to get good effects with their cross-hatching. Almost to the point where they decide not to do much of it. This is where these brushes can help. They are designed to make that part much easier to accomplish. Keep in mind this shouldn’t deter you from drawing out your own, only to aid you in getting better at the process. These brushes look much better if they are correctly mixed with hand drawn shading.  They also help to save time in certain areas of the work. Deadlines have to be met at any cost, right!

I have been using Procreate for a few years now and I really enjoy the brush creation process in this app. It is easy to do and the brush settings are extremely versatile. I will be making more of these brushes to add to this pack. There are all sorts of neat things to create for comics. Background textures, brick patterns, various brush tips, and so on.

NEW PROCREATE BRUSHES ADDED TO THIS SET!

UPDATED! Just to let you know I added 16 NEW custom Procreate brushes to this set on 5-11-2021.  They included some more cross hatching brushes, background texture effects, and a couple of quick clip art brushes.  I have more ideas to create so be sure to check back often!

If you want these brushes head over to my Gumroad and get them here – https://gum.co/JYdba  

This is a Pay What You Want item! So if you want them for FREE just type 0 during checkout and they are yours. You will also get any updates to this pack for free as well.

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If you want to learn How to Create Digital Art with Procreate please check out my full course here. This is my discount code – View here

Procreate Like a Pro: Create Awesome Digital Art on an iPad
Procreate Like a Pro: Create Awesome Digital Art on an iPad

In this course, I explain all the tools and features within Procreate. You also learn my process on using this app to create my digital art everyday. I now create 90% of all my illustration work with my iPad Pro and Procreate!

Thanks for stopping by and let me know if you have any questions for me. Feel free to email me through my contact form.

Yours Truly,

-Rob

Blog

Update on How to Draw Dynamic Superheroes – Start to Finish!

How to Draw Dynamic Superheroes Start to Finish
How to Draw Dynamic Superheroes Start to Finish

How to Draw Dynamic Superheroes – Start to Finish!

Hello Fellow Comic Artists!

I have been working on some new content to add to my existing Udemy course,  How to Draw Dynamic Superheroes – Start to Finish!”

I have just included over 5 Hours of new content in this course.  Putting it at over 9 Hours long with 28 NEW lessons.  In this section, I show you how to draw, ink, and color a fully detailed comic book scene or cover piece.  This helps to implement all of the previous lessons taught throughout the course.  Which should help to commit the important parts to your memory!

Here is a breakdown of what the current curriculum looks like :

Section 1 – Basic Proportions of the Superhero Male

Section 2 – The Superhero Female

Section 3 – Drawing the Muscle Bound Brutes

Section 4 – Drawing Dynamic Superhero Poses

Section 5 – Drawing Characters with Perspective and Foreshortening

Section 6 – Creating a Comic Book Scene – Superhero Flying Towards Camera

In this course you will learn how to sketch poses, refine the sketch, measure and adjust proportions, create suit designs, render various materials, create shapes of shadows, draw bodies in perspective, use thumbnails to save time, create dynamic poses, draw a cityscape in perspective, ink the work, apply colors and add final touches!

By the end of this course, I have no doubt you will have a lot better understanding of what it takes to create comic book artwork like the pros! You also get all the art files to study along with.

If you have any questions about this content you are welcome to leave your questions in the Q+A Section.  I will answer you back as soon as I can.  I am also open to any feedback you have for me to improve the quality of this course for everyone! I will continue to add lessons as needed and you will get all additional updates for free.

Here is my Udemy Discount Code to get the Lowest Price on this course – https://www.udemy.com/how-to-draw-dynamic-comic-book-superheroes-start-to-finish/?couponCode=RAMSTUDIOSCOMICS

Here is the Promo Video for this course –

Thank you for checking out this course and good luck with your art! More videos are on the way soon! 🙂

Robert A. Marzullo

Ram Studios Comics

 

 

Blog

Drawing Comic Style Art in Procreate – On the iPad Pro

Venom Comic Art by RAM
Venom Comic Art by RAM

Hello Everyone!

I hope all is well on your side of this crazy rock. I am having fun drawing some new fan art and I wanted to share a few things I have learned while doing so.  For those of you that don’t know my process let me explain.  I have been drawing comic art for over 20 years now and I used to work on good old bristol board but a few years back I decided to start working digitally. ( I was a messy inker! :>)  I know people are rolling their eyes right now.  Real artists use traditional tools, right?  I get it, you’re in love with the feeling of real paper.  I don’t blame you, I draw on paper as much as I can too.  Something about it just feels…..you know…natural!  I switched because I am a big fan of technology and I like to be on the forefront  of it all.  Plus, I really just wanted to ink digitally but then later realized the pencils were possible as well.  By creating all of it digitally I was saving a lot of time.  I no longer had to scan my pages which was always a pain.  I know a lot of artists just don’t want to make the switch.  I truly don’t blame you, to each their own I guess!

So when I started drawing digitally I bounced around to a few different drawing softwares.  I quickly realized Manga Studio 4 could create full comic books as a single document and gravitated over to that.  I was a little less than enticed about the drawing process on there.  I was still using an  Wacom Intuos 3 at the time so that was a bit of a hinderance as well.  I hadn’t fully gotten used to drawing on a “lap tablet” as I like to call them.  Then I switched to Sketchbook Pro for the pencils and it started to feel more natural.  Once I finally upgraded to a Wacom Cintiq 22, I was like a kid in a candy store!  I finally had a really nice drawing experience going on.  I could pencil and ink all on this device and with the two programs I felt like I was really getting somewhere.

With each new update the programs have gotten better and better. ( For the most part. ) I still didn’t feel like I was creating to the level that I could achieve on paper though.  Keep in mind, there is a learning curve with any and everything, so part of it could have been that.  I truly believe you can create amazing art with anything if you put your mind and heart into it!

Almost two years ago I started hearing people talk about the new iPad Pro coming out.  I was a bit skeptical at first.  Maybe good for amateurs but I am a pro and I need a big fat Cintiq on my table.  ( By pro I mean a starving artist of course. lol )  Upon seeing other artists work on this device I was quickly sold.  I loved the fluid marks they were making.  I also thought the Apple Pencil looked more comfortable to work with.  Plus I really wanted to be portable with my art creation process.  After taking the leap of faith I was quickly at home using the device.  It was very intuitive and I was creating the style of art I like rather quickly.

The only issues I had was not being able to use all my favorite programs.  I felt a bit stuck.  I really enjoy the feel of the device but was missing some great apps to take advantage of it.  I even used Astropad for a short time to help bridge the gap but it didn’t fit well into my workflow.  I then started using Procreate more and more.  Within a few updates this app was really starting to appeal to me.  Plus, it records videos and I am such a Youtube junkie these days! 🙂

You can check out my channel here by the way – http://www.youtube.com/c/robertmarzullo

The Procreate app is extremely well designed.  It moves quickly and the interfaces is so streamline you will forget it is there.  The brush engine is nothing short of amazing and it has the most natural drawing experience I have found thus far.  The Venom art above was drawn in this app.  About 90 percent of my work is done there now.  I still jump over to my Cintiq when I need dual monitors and have to get some multi-tasking done but I quickly jump back over to my iPad Pro and Procreate combo to knock out some sketches or comic art.

So I just want everyone that reads this to know that the iPad Pro and Procreate is a VERY solid solution to creating professional art on the move.  Great battery life and stable as can be!  I am here if you have any questions I can help with and if you want to learn more about how I use these two together you can check out my Udemy course here – https://www.udemy.com/procreate-like-a-pro-create-awesome-digital-art-on-an-ipad/?couponCode=RAMCOMICSPOST101

Good luck with your art and thanks for your support! 🙂

Robert A. Marzullo

Ram Studios Comics

 

Blog

Why It’s Important to Thumbnail the Artwork First

Spider-man and Spider-Gwen
Spider-man and Spider-Gwen

I often get into a bad habit of drawing whatever comes to mind.  I mean to say, when I start an image I don’t always know exactly where I want it to end up.  When I see myself do this too many times I get back to the basics to fix it.  That is when I go back to drawing thumbnails like a good little artist should! 😉

Thumbnailing  helps you to know where the artwork should end up. It is a way to establish a set of ideas without wasting a huge amount of time.  Another way to say it is just “rough sketching” but I think thumbnails are the preferred terminology in comics.

You can work out things like poses, composition, camera angles, movement, energy of the shot, and shapes of shadows.  In my opinion, you want to get as much information about the end result as you can within about 2-5 minutes of sketching.  This also sparks creativity immensely!

After rough sketching about 5 thumbnails I am usually pretty set to go on my drawing but hey at 2 minutes long no big deal if you need to create a few more, right?

If you want to see a video of this drawing from the thumbnail sketch to the finished pencils  you can watch it here on my Youtube channel –

Let me know what you think of it and as always, Keep Drawing and Keep Having Fun! 🙂

Robert A. Marzullo

Ram Studios Comics

 

 

Blog

New Lessons on How to Draw Comic Style Hair – Male Characters

How to Draw Comic Style Hair Male
How to Draw Comic Style Hair Male Characters

Welcome back everyone!

In this class you will learn how to draw these 3 hair styles. We will cover basic form and rendering techniques that will apply to not just these but lots of other various hair styles as well. This should give you a basic understanding of how to design your own favorite hair style for your cool characters!

You can get this class here on my Gumroad – https://gum.co/KsSja

Or on my Skillshare here – http://skl.sh/2Bu5spR

Run time is 49 Minutes / 5 Lessons / 2 Art files

You will start with a male face that I have created for you. This allows you to simply focus on the hair drawing and not worrying too much about the characters face. Try creating lots of variations over the same pose. See how much you can change the characters look with a new hair style! Have fun with it! 🙂

If you have any questions I am here to help and thank you for your support of my lessons! More on the way real soon….

Robert A. Marzullo

Ram Studios Comics