Collage Your Characters
This exercise is based on a something Lee Lai mentioned in a guest lecture she gave in one of my comics classes a few years back. She mentioned that, when she first started making comics, she would create her backgrounds completely separate from her characters and then collage them in. It was slightly more time consuming, but took some of the pressure off drawing backgrounds, which she feel confident drawing at the time.
What you need:
Paper
Any art supplies you like to use
scissors
glue
Instructions:
Recall an interesting conversation between yourself and a friend and write it down. Or if, like me, you can’t ever remember anything and you don’t have something written down, maybe pick a worry or concern to invent a conversation around.
Work out a location for your characters and give them something to do. If your characters are moving around I recommend a natural setting like the woods because visual continuity is less of an issue, but suit yourself.
Create some backgrounds and then cut them up into panels.
Draw your characters and then cut them up and glue them down. This process will take some trial an error. It took me a few tries to get a feel for this and I found that, as the story grew, I sometimes drew the characters first and backgrounds second. Do whatever feels right to you.
Tip! When I did this exercise, I found that using different materials and colours for the backgrounds and characters helped! It meant the characters stood out from the backgrounds no matter how poorly I planned my compositions were.
Example:
Thoughts:
I am such a huge fan of Lee’s work. Her characters and backgrounds always feel like they were drawn with such care, which in turn makes me care as a reader. Her characters feel distinct and real and many conversations in her books feel so true to life that I feel kind of… seen? And, even though I have not had the conversations her characters have, the tone and specificity of them, the way her characters communicate feels true to my own experiences.
I know, I know, I’m gushing a little (sorry Lee).
I draw very differently from Lee (a near constant disappointment). I tend to draw fast and loose and that calm clarity that Lee achieves just isn’t a thing in my work. However, I found that by drawing my backgrounds separately, I took a bit more time with them and the started to feel (a little) more atmospheric than usual.