|
Young World
Stories in pictures
PAROMITA PAIN
|
Find out how you can be a comic book illustrator.
|
Dermaut: Bring alive the characters.
Comics are fun, aren’t they? They are funny and ever so easy to understand. They can make serious stories entertaining and simple to read. Did you know that drawing these pictures is serious business and implies great artistic skills and intense attention to detail? Ask Francois Dermaut...
A renowned illustrator of French comic books, his first work was putting the story of Oliver Twist in pictures. “It was a make or break thing for me,” he recalls, “it was my first break and I had to do it well.” He did and there was no looking back after that.
First break
Reading the novel, (an abridged one), only once before he started his sketches, Dermaut today cautions that knowing the characters in the story you are going to portray, is among the foremost stuff any illustrator has to get right. At the workshop organised in the Alliance Françoise, Dermaut helped the curious audience get some fascinating insights into the art of comic book illustration.
Born in Roubaix (north France) Dermaut was a lucky child. His was a family where creativity was encouraged and his parents weren’t the sort to blow their tops if he was caught drawing on the walls. An amateur painter, painting on Sundays, Dermaut’s father encouraged his children to follow their hearts. “It was an area famous for miners,” he says, “many famous painters would come and stay with us.”
For Dermaut a good comic is one that is complete in what it has to say. A comic is different from caricature. “A comic character can be used to teach with great effect,” he says.
And that’s something we could all use. So next time you have to draw up posters to create awareness on any issue in school, you could try using comics to get your point across.
A few tips for budding artists:
Work till you perfect what you have set out to do. It is easy to do a drawing. But set yourself targets. Better it in the next box that you draw.
Through the characters you tell a story. So make sure you have a good story, and then give your characters well-defined characteristics.
Nothing beats observation. So look around yourself. Observe your surroundings and you might get some great tips for developing a wonderful comic strip from stuff right around you.
Next time you are at a coffee shop observe how people are drinking their coffee. “Gestures reveal feelings,” he winks, knowingly, “An angry man will roughly put on his glasses and bang his mug down. A peaceful person will move gently. Watch their expressions and you will know how they feel. So make sure your comics have well etched expressions especially since you can’t use too many words.”
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Young World
|
