LibGuides: Comics & Graphic Novels: Creating a Comic

How To Books

Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes by Walt Stanchfield; Don Hahn (Editor)
Drawn to Life is a two volume collection of the legendary lectures from long-time Disney animator Walt Stanchfield. A vital tutorial for students who are now poised to be part of another new generation in the art form.
Making Comics by Scott McCloud
McCloud focuses his analysis on the art form itself, exploring the creation of comics, from the broadest principles to the sharpest details (like how to accentuate a character's facial muscles in order to form the emotion of disgust rather than the emotion of surprise.) And he does all of it in his inimitable voice and through his cartoon stand-in narrator, mixing dry humor and legitimate instruction. McCloud shows his reader how to master the human condition through word and image in a brilliantly minimalistic way.
Drawing Words and Writing Pictures by Jessica Abel; Matt Madden
Drawing Words and Writing Pictures is a course on comics creation - for college classes or for independent study - that centers on storytelling and concludes with making a finished comic. With chapters on lettering, story structure, and panel layout, the 15 lessons offered - each complete with homework, extra credit activities, and supplementary reading suggestions - provide a solid introduction for people interested in making their own comics.

Open Access Drawing Resources

Line of Action
Full of several free references and tutorials this site is mostly free to use. From figures to environments, you can use this platform to practice drawing from life.
Ctrl + Paint
Ctrl+Paint is a free learning resource dedicated to the basics of digital painting. It is primarily a video-based resource, with lots of brief clips covering all aspects of digital painting.
Drawing Coach
This free site is run by a creative director of a computer game company whose aim is to help anyone go from stick-man skill level to fully-fledged artist.
Proko
Offers professional, paid drawing courses but there are enough free drawing tutorial videos on the site to warrant a mention on this list, and to recommend a visit. Proko represents a collection of artists headed up by Stan Prokopenko, an artist and teacher, who hosts many of the free videos. The videos are good quality and quite often start with a basic tutorial before going into more advanced techniques.

Assessing Online Sources

A note on assessing web sources.

Not all websites are created equal! Anyone can make a webpage. For academic purposes, it is important to always consider the following when using the web as part of your research:

Authority

who made the page? Are they an expert in the knowledge that is being presented?

Appropriateness

is the information appropriate for your assignment/research? Consider things like language, age level.

Currency

how old is the page? Is the information itself current? When was the page last updated?

Objectivity

is there a bias to the point of view of the page? Is it hidden or overt?

Purpose

what is the purpose of the site? Does it inform, sell, persuade to an opinion?