PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Comics artist does
- Character design
- Page strip layout
- Sketching
- Inking
- Coloring
Comics Artist's Skills:
Drawing portraits, figures, buildings, landscape, interiors and about anything else.
Additionally in many cases, inking, coloring, digital painting and lettering.
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While some colleges and universities offer a degree in the field, its not a requirement for the job opportunity. The real requirement is to learn how to draw well and be able to tell a story though drawing, which can be learned even by simply practicing art at home.
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"The biggest misconception about my job is that the general population thinks what we produce is just for kids. What we create are entertaining stories that can be enjoyed at any age. Comics are a storytelling medium, so much like music, movies, and novels, it is capable of covering any subject matter and genre. The limitation is really only up to the creators." - Francis Manapul
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Some of my favorite comics artists:
David Lloyd
Sean Gordon Murphy
Tsunami Nihei
Although there are big publishing companies in the Comics industry, most of the artist work on freelance, pay-per-page basis.
While the salary of a comics artist working in a big company is over $40k, the average salary for a freelancer varies on type of work he does:
A typical fee per comics page is $100 regardless of what kind of job the artist does (inking, coloring or drawing). However if the artist does all the work by himself he can earn over $200 for the same page.
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Additionally, popular artist who are known to be reliable and have a fan base will be able to get higher fees since their work will guarantee sales.
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATION:
ComicsPRO is the only trade organization dedicated to the progress of direct market comic book retailers.
