Aspiring artists, drawing tips and colonial perspectives out of Africa

I remember thinking putting a funny joke int the script how everyone seems to immediately be on their cellphones before the plane has come to a full and complete stop.

I don't know if it translated as well as I hoped it would in the picture, but I sure tried. It was a long time drawing all those folks. Also, you might recognize some of the faces, of the passengers. If you don't, then I failed again. A clue would be Ajira flight 316. If that means nothing to you - you probably won't recognize them anyhow.

Anyhow - you can read the scene at Just a Little Escape.

Moving on ...

I've found a very neat post with some advice on how to approaching designing and drawing your panels in a graphic novel, followed by a post by Sarkus who's interested in pursuing their own graphic novel, but wants to bone up on their artwork, and a final post that links to some interesting comics news and analysis from Africa.

How to Illustrate a Graphic Novel
Sarah Snow
ehow.com

Graphic novels are a new literary form that are often confused with comic books. Although both mediums utilize comic illustrations and bubble dialogue, graphic novels tell a single story while comic books are serialized. Graphic novels, which often cover social and political narratives, benefit from visual storytelling and the use of symbols to convey powerful situations that are otherwise left to the imagination in a memoir or novel. Illustrations in a graphic novel range from simple line sketches to detailed and colorful artwork.

Snow goes on to elaborate on the finer details of:

• Sketch the elements of your graphic novel
• Draw thumbnails of each panel
• Illustrate each panel

Click to read more.

A diary for getting better (NSFW?)
Sarkus
penny-arcade.com

Sarkus is looking to pursue his own graphic novel, and is looking to bone-up on his artwork before moving forward, but I think some of his stuff is pretty awesome. If he's not ready to get started, then he'd be appalled with the artwork I'm publishing - granted nobody's paying me to do it. He obviously take it far more seriously than I am. In any case, check out some of the work he's putting up - and look at some of the awesome hand pictures. Seriously - hands are hard.

One story I want to pursue, however, I decided would best be suited as a graphic novel. Right now I don't have the talent to execute something like that to my satisfaction so before I begin that I need to improve my art.... I decided I finally needed to take this seriously, I'm starting this thread to measure my progress.

Click to read more.

Africa: Graphic Novel News Dump (2011)
bunmi
bombasticelement.org

Not sure what to say about this - the picture is pretty funny, though definitely out of date - interesting depiction of colonialism from the perspective of the colonists - not so flattering for the "colonized."

Click to read more.