What To Look For In A Comic Artist

I’ve been doing some research lately into how one finds an artist. There are a number of different ways, from word of mouth, conventions, website forums, social media, etc. But not many people discuss just what they should look for when searching for an artist. Which is what I’m here to do.

Though probably a lazy place to start, finding an artist that can draw in a way you feel best represents your creation is no easy task. A good artist will be able to draw in multiple different styles but he may very well be noticeably better in one style over the other.

When considering an artist’s art style one key aspect to look for is consistency. Characters and other details in your comic should remain relatively unchanged throughout a comic. At least throughout a story arc.

You can expect characters to change slightly over time as a design gets committed to muscle memory, but you’ll want to make sure that everything else (i.e. line weights, the level of detail in the inking, border thickness, etc) remains the same. I personally prefer a consistent art style throughout a comic’s history like that found in The Walking Dead.

Also remember, you don’t necessarily have to have a single artist. You can divvy up the work for the different stages of a comic project; penciling, inking, coloring, lettering.

You should also consider how the artist draws. I have tried my own hand at illustrating and I have found myself to fail entirely at drawing hands, feet, and realistic muscle mass (I’m a writer, not an artist). But I found myself to be pretty decent at shading.

When picking an artist for your comic you should make sure that they know how to illustrate many different things.

Some examples being:

The degree of mastery from an artist’s craft that you look for would depend on the type of story you’re looking to create. If you’re planning on creating a comic about an alien war in space or a story about two guys who meet at a cafe and talk about life, what you’re looking for in an artist may very well be different.

A small little reminder, comic writing is like directing a movie or a show. You sometimes get to decide what angle you want your story to be told in. The artist you’re considering should be able to show the same scene in multiple angles.

A good artist can follow any given script and draw any given angle.

A great artist can look at a script and suggest a better angle that the writer hasn’t even thought of. (I may need to look into something like this…)

Word flow is a crucial design consideration in the creation of a comic. And it relies heavily on the artist.

Make sure that your artist can give you a good idea of how and where the dialogue will be on a page. This can be checked during a rough sketch before any serious penciling or inking work is done.

You don’t want to suddenly and awkwardly have a beautifully detailed illustration interrupted by a word balloon.

If you’re going to pick an artist to work on your comic their professionalism is going to be something to consider. You should make sure that they:

For the last point, let’s say that you hire an artist, and it’s already crunch time. You know that the work needs to get done as quickly as possible.

Make sure that your artist knows just what you need them to do before they begin. Don’t surprise them by telling them as they are ¾ of the way done that you’ll be handing in their inking work to a colorist just to make sure you meet a deadline.

You obviously must be understanding of unplanned complications like illness or other emergencies. Simply make sure that nobody is planning on going on any trips while they work on your comic, especially without giving you any fair notice.

You should know how you want to pay your artist before you even begin looking for one. Whether you plan on paying them using a milestone payment plan (stuttering their payments as they they complete an agreed amount of work), half-to-start and half-to-finish, or one lump sum.

Make sure that your artist makes clear how they want to be paid.

If it feels like I’m using the term agreed a lot it’s because it matters. Nobody wants to be surprised when money is involved. Whether you are expected to cough it up or ask for it.

Like I said before, you want to make sure the artist has something along the lines of a contract with the agreed payment plan included. It makes things significantly easier for all parties involved.