This Is HUB #1 In My Series: Trying To Draw A Graphic Novel The Old School Way

OK here is a portrait sketch of one of the characters in my graphic novel. I had to sketch everybody's general appearance so I knew what everybody was supposed to look like as I drew them continually, scene by scene. Her name is Lisa.

So I have a computer with RAM (random access memory) from the dark ages and I can't play WOW, not any, not at all. A computer with a nice amount of RAM handles programs and sites with complex graphics with smoothness, detail and speed. And WOW is a game that needs just that, because you play with tons of other people and you play in fantasy worlds and situations and you play real time. If you've had any experience with WOW, you might consider it a blessing that a person can't logon to play. In a way it really was a blessing for me – you see, I was looking at the artwork on the Blizzard sites and I figured that since I can't afford art school and I really, really, want an art or design or computer science degree, instead of playing WOW, I should do what I can and that's draw.

I don't know if that will EVER make me as good as these two guys I have put up as examples:http://www.vozart.com/Storyboards.html or http://www.micahzak.com/ or ANY of the other mass of awesome artists I've seen out there, but I don't know what else to do but try.

I thought to myself: HUMANOID. YOUR COMPUTER SUX. BUT YOU ARE STILL ALIVE. AND THERE ARE ONE THOUSAND PIECES OF SCRAP PAPER SITTING NEXT TO THE PRINTER.

Then I thought: HUMANOID. YOU HAVE WRITTEN SEVERAL SHORT STORIES. ONE OF THEM IS SCIENCE FICTION. INSTEAD OF GAWKING WITH ENVY AT THE WORK OF OTHERS, TRY TO ILLUSTRATE THAT SCI-FI NOVELETTE THINGY YOU WROTE.

Another thing I thought was that I am soooo incredibly picky that I'd never, ever get past page one!

I was wrong! I'm on page 11! (I was right about being picky.) Now I've just rough sketched things out on some pages. And this whole entire experience so far, has taught me that most editors and producers and writers must be insane!

I mean that I have had to dramatically edit what one character says to another, which from the writer’s viewpoint; I thought would mess the story up. But I found out it doesn’t, probably because I am editing my own work and I know what I mean when I say it and what I was thinking when I wrote it. Got it? So for me personally to uh - truncate things, if that is the write word (pun alert), doesn’t bother me one little bit. To be a writer in a studio or something might make anybody who has to deal with an editor or producer or what have you, changing things just to fit – well might just make the writer crazy!

I also found out that I can use a character's facial expressions to say something, instead of illustrating an entire paragraph, which helps as I stare from a written page to a not yet illustrated one….

For some weird reason I decided to draw on notebook paper instead of the left over printer paper, I don’t know why…and even when I draw on notebook paper I LOVE IT! But I need to find some more erasers.

When I look at the work of some of the other artists I've seen out there and I've only listed two guys here previously, there are HUNDREDS (some I think are weirder than weird, but hey), then I hear that they are using Adobe and stuff and I don't have so much as a digital drawing tablet, I wonder how the deuce I'm gonna break into their world, being from my tiny one….

It's CRAZY me writing this hub! Why? With the amount of time and thought it takes just to sketch from my original story, I've got to stop chatting to you! I've got to get going!

BUT I PROMISE ANYBODY THAT READS THIS: I will replace the Hubble telescope image I put on my profile with something from the comic when I'm done!

(UPDATE: I liked the Hubble photo so I decided to just add some sketches of the characters into this hub instead)

See all 3 photos

Here is another char in my graphic novel. His name is Judge the Elder. I guess at some point I will upload a page with some action that I like for you. "Char" = character