Tutorials
Step 1: Reference
Gather all reference material of the characters you wish to draw. Now
you can either find stuff on the Internet, or go out and buy comic books
of the characters (i.e. I bought Scooby doo, Jetsons, and some Flintstones
comics) Some web pages, like the official Scooby doo Web Page supply
you with model sheets of the characters. This is most helpful when trying
to draw these characters on-model.
When I talk about putting the character on-model, I mean that your drawing
should look like the character you are trying to draw. Otherwise it
will probably end up looking like some long lost relative. Having reference
readily available makes your job that much easier. At least then you
are not trying to draw completely out of your head, and we all know
how hard that is.
For my comix I usually have my characters already established. I always
have my model-sheets at hand so I can quickly reference any of my characters.
Sometimes I go off model in my comix. This sometimes happens because
I am still developing that character.
If you are doing a parody comix, then you should definitely use established
reference material.
I have been thoroughly impressed with the Doshini that comes out of
Japan. Those drawings are their own versions of what we here in America
call Parodies. It is evident that those artist worked diligently in
recreating their favorite character in a compromised situation using
established reference material. There is of course some artist that
have fallen short of making their parody version look exactly like the
real version.
I cannot stress enough how important getting reference material is.
Every professional artist out there already knows this and they make
it part of there artistic expression. If you want to parody something,
it is best to know what you are going to parody in the fist place. To
do that, you must know your subject. How do you get to know your subject?
Reference material.
P.S. Using my drawings/parodies as reference material will not help
you get the character on-model. Even I am prone to making mistakes.
Next -> Step 2: Thumbnails