How to Help an Artist Achieve Greatness

by Gary Walters

(All characters herein referenced are the explicit property of Gary Walters and Walters Comics Limited, LLC and may not be used, copied, or referenced without explicit permission of the companies President and CEO.)

Artists are amazing. They take the words of a comic book writer and turn them into images. And then the leterer adds more words to that picture and you reach that balance of words and of pictures that comic books are known for. I've met many aspiring artists since my time in the comic book profession. I met many of them at Chicago Wizard World. Aspiring artists like Jim Mahfood (who I met at Chicago) aspire me to be a better writer, so that they're talents are not wasted on sub-par words.

In this installment of "The Tricks of Turning Pro", I'm going to outline the creative process of character design. That I have accomplished with the new soon-to-be-super-star artist for my upcomming comic book "Even Steven", Wesley Gellar! So now that the big announcement is over, let's get down to brass tax as they say.

I met Mr. Wesley Gellar at the Chicago Wizard World Comic Convention that I covered as a journalist for YourMomsBasementdotcom. I had a plane to catch so we couldnt talk that much, but he was intrigued by my comic concept and wanted to hear more. Unfortunately, I lost his email address, but he checked out my column about the convention and contacted me directly. We began a back and forth through the internet about the characters designs.

So I will share with you now the creative process that went into the development of the look of two important characters from the comic: the hero/protagonist Even Steven (post transformation into the Night's Dark Avenger) and the beautiful love interest Estephania Danger.

So, the first thing I did was send him my drawing of Even Steven, so he could translate it in his own style:

We went back in forth via emails as Wesley worked to improve his artistic skills.

From: Wesley Gellar
Sent: October 10, 2005 4:25 PM
To: Gary Walters
Subject: Re: Even Steven Design
So what exactly is he wearing on his feet? Are those cuffed pirate boots, like Captain America, or are the cuffs of his pants rolled up, 80's-style? And that's supposed to be a high school letter jacket he's wearing, right?

From: Gary Walters
Sent: October 11, 2005 2:08 AM
To: Wesley Gellar
Subject: Re: Re: Even Steven Design
I thought you were going to translate this into your own vision? I need an artists who can take an idea and run with it and make it their own while achieving my specific vision.

From: Wesley Gellar
Sent: October 11, 2005 10:47 AM
To: Gary Walters
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Even Steven Design
Gary, not sure I understood your last email. I'm happy to help you out with some drawings for your comic, but I need some clarification about the drawing you emailed me. Is he wearing shoes, boots, or what?

From: Gary Walters
Sent: October 12, 2005 3:54 AM
To: Wesley Gellar
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Even Steven Design
Wes, great to hear back from you. If you have trouble drawing feet, don't be ashamed, some of our most greatest artists have some problem areas they need to work on. Some people even find fault in superstar artists like Rob Liefeld! If you can imagine. Listen, for the first issue, I can just rework the script so you don't have to draw any feet. how does that sound?

Eventually Wesley rose to the occasion and came back with this great sketch of the Dark Antagonist of Evil, Even Steven:

So after his success with Even Steven, I was very excited and asked Wesley to begin working right away on character sketches for the love interest in the comic story, Estephania Danger.

In the comic script for Issue Number One, Estephania is described as "A typical highschool girl. Beautiful and smart. The kind of girl every teenage guy wants as his girlfriend."

So, based on that, Wesley came back with this initial drawing:

I got nervous then... because it was so far off from what I imagined. And so completely NOT what I described in the script. We had some more emails back and forth.

From: Gary Walters
Sent: October 18, 2005 3:54 AM
To: Wesley Gellar
Subject: NO NO NO NO NO NO NO WRONG WRONG WRONG
Sorry, Wes, this is not what I had in mind. AT ALL! I'd love to work with you on this, but you need to get this right. There are tons of artists out there who'd love a chance to work on a script as good as this. YOU NEED TO DO BETTER THAN THIS! Estephania. Is. Beautiful. A gorgeous, vivacious babe. This "girl" you've drawn is anything but. Try again! And give her long hair for goodness sake! She's not a boy.

From: Wesley Gellar
Sent: October 21, 2005 9:32 AM
To: Gary Walters
Subject: Re: NO NO NO NO NO NO NO WRONG WRONG WRONG
Gary, here's another shot at "Estephania." I'm kind of busy with some other paid projects right now. Listen, I don't mind helping you out, but I don't appreciate getting "yelled" at.

From: Gary Walters
Sent: October 21, 2005 9:34 AM
To: Wesley Gellar
Subject: Re: Re: NO NO NO NO NO NO NO WRONG WRONG WRONG
If you don't like getting yelled at. Do it right. This new drawing is better, but try again. Estephania should be every guy's dream.

So we went back and forth some more after that. After another three attempts I think Wes FINALLY got it right.

Truly now Estephania could inspire our hero to battle the dark evil at the heart of their highschool!

Through working with Wes, I have learned that the trick to dealing with artists is to lead them. Artists are naturally lazy and need structure. They need you to tell them what to produce. To be their inspirations. And when you truly inspire them, they can produce the best work of thir careers.

So, with two of the impartant characters finally realized, and with Wesley finally being able to achieve my vision... we pressed forward... to greatness!

Next column: THE CREATIVE PROCESS CONTINUES!




Read Volume 1, Issue 6 of The Tricks of Turning Pro.



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