Great question! Unfortunately, I haven’t taken any art classes, aside from a couple in high school and middle school. I got angry when my 7th grade art teacher told me my drawings of hands relied too heavily on outline, but I think she was probably right.
I learned to draw comics by studying the work of cartoonists I admired. I’ve been most influenced by the loose, expressive drawings of Roz Chast and the precise, minimally designed panels of Tom Gauld. I think that drawing style and ability is fluid – it changes drastically over the course of a career, and sometimes over the course of a single comic strip. I try to constantly search for new visual influences to inspire my drawings, and I still get frustrated at my artistic limitations.
My best advice is to become a connoisseur of color, composition, and line quality. Hopefully by trying to draw like a few different people at once, you’ll end up drawing like yourself.
Wise advise on how to learn! #ds106
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