Here’s the newest episode of It Aint Hard to Tell! Jamar and I talk at length about creating with editorial input, when to cooperate and when to stand firm, as well as how predatory corporations can be with artists.

Supporting subscribers get the show twice a month AND get to submit questions! So if you haven’t already, consider supporting the newsletter for just

Now, on with the show!

Read more

Every two weeks I record an ask-me-anything podcast called It Aint Hard to Tell with Scholastics superstar cartoonist Jamar Nicholas!

So every other “Comic art Tuesday” you supporting subscribers will get to submit questions that we’ll answer for that week’s show (released Thursday).

Not a supporting subscriber? Crazy talk!

Ok, let’s hear from Jamar -

JAMAR SEZ:

We had so much fun last fortnite om IAHTT #153 [I NEED LOVE], that I wanted to keep exploring the line between youth, creativity, business, and BUSINESS.

Case Study #154: NEW EDITION.

Roxbury projects in Boston birthed one of the most important, and critcally-disregarded groups of all time, all the way back in 1978. Without these at the time, children, superstars--there is no Bobby Brown, no NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK. No NSYNC. No BBD (Don’t trust a big butt and a smile!); and even tying into my lore, no BOYZ II MEN. Western music and the ‘boy group’ act can arguably be traced back to Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky, Mike, Ralph and later Johnny Gill (who replaced Bobby Brown after he got KICKED OUT THE GROUP and set the world on fire with “My Prerogative” and even bigger because it gets folded into 2020’s pop culture “Every Little Step” (Wayne Brady & Mike Tyson parody video included for funsies).

Speaking of Bobby, here’s some cold reality: Management pressured the kids to kick Bobby out of the group, and even worse, the story goes that their first manager paid the group $500 [total, not per member] and a VCR when they first began.

The predators always be predatoring!

Read more

I once again come to you with art!

I did a warm up figure sketch live and in real time for you all to enjoy.

I did it with a new pencil from my friends at Blackwing, the Vol. 343, which I found to be a firmer lead than most other Blackwings. I love that! A firmer lead is my personal preference, so this was a treat to draw with.

If you want to secure a set for yourself, get them here.

If you do want to read an article of mine, this week's Comic Art Tuesday talks at length about focus and acting in making comics.

Oh, and the newest episode of Life Studied goes live to the public this Thursday!

Thanks for reading and stay safe.

Your boy,
Mike

You can help us make the show and get it a week early by becoming a supporting subscriber.

Subscribe now

Without further ado, here’s this month’s show!

Links from the show -

Get the show’s companion artbooks here - https://www.thinktankcomics.com/product-category/art-books/

Online references:

Mairin-tajCaya https://www.patreon.com/mairintajcaya

https://quickposes.com/en

https://youtube.com/@NewMastersAcademyorgNMA

https://grafitschool.gumroad.com

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-Q1rsThNgN7C1GYQFQO9FmUR-Ey03W9W&si=J9r4XSyyFqNGlrg-

https://www.proko.com

Your boy,

Mike

You can get Blackwing pencils like the ones I use at my link: https://blackwing602.com/mikehawthorne

We’re hosted by the wonder folks at Curio Gallery and Creative Supply in downtown Lancaster, PA. It’s run by Matt and Nicole, both are artists and the absolute best. If you’re anywhere near the area visit them OR just reach out for special orders!

https://curiolancaster.square.site/

Welcome to Comic Art Tuesday, where I walk you through how I draw a page from an actual comic.

If you enjoy this kind of this, subscribe and enjoy!

Ok, now let’s talk focus & acting in comics!

In my comics I try to use as many subtle tools as possible to have you focus on the person speaking. I don’t ever want for the dialogue to come off as an after thought, only taking notice of who is speaking because of the balloon. I want the character to be acting in a manor that matches the dialogue, and I want the other characters to be relating to them like this is a stage and the speaker is who we direct our attention to. Additionally I want to use the environment put the focus where it belongs.

We’re talking about this page from Daredevil 26 this week, and I want walk you through how I used all of the above techniques.

First, let me show you the page flow chart.

We’ve talked at length of the implied “arrows” in every page. Parts of the environment, characters, or just page elements that give directional cues for the reader’s eye to follow, hopefully on a subconscious level.

The arrows show how I used the above elements to drive you from one panel to the next, starting and ending with a “dutch angle” shot.

I like dutch angles because you can add “weight” to a character by having them tip the panel in the direction in which they reside, imply weight and placing focus on them.

In this case, the big dude in scene one is tilting the panel in his directions. It puts the focus on him, as he’s literally tipping us towards him.

But to ensure he’s the center of attention I also placed the vanishing point just below his mouth. It’s a suble way of directing the viewer at the man we need to listen to.

In addition to his size tipping the camera angle, I emphasize how big he is by adding a third character to the scene, the guy at the far left, for scale. Having them both on the horizon line shows the height difference. DD is tilted forward, both to push the attention to the Big Guy speaking, but also to imply that DD is about to stand up.

The Big Guy imposing because of his size, but the acting is meant to convey something different. He’s challenging DD, not confronting him. He’s calling him out for an obvious double standard, as DD gets to wear his mask in jail protecting his identity unlike the other convicts.

The Big Guy’s facial expressions are meant to express frustration and pain, but not anger.

Here’s panel two. That’s not an angry man, that’s a puzzled man pointing out inequity.

Note how the raised eyebrow can give off both a puzzled and curious expression.

In panel three the focus shifts to DD, as he walks away, not wanting any confrontation. Note the use of the vanishing point again.

I also have the Big Guy focusing his attention on DD, while his face is neutral.

But DD’s acting is important here too. He’s avoiding any conflict by walking away, but he’s also turning his back on the Big Guy. This telegraphs both fearlessness, but also a bit of condescension. He’s not giving this guy the time of day, DD thinks he’s better than this guy because he’s an actual criminal.

Ironic considering he’s a convict too, and I try to get that across with the acting.

The next panel continues that sentiment fromDD, though the Big Guy calls it out. Not aggressively, notice the hand on hip and sarcastic look on his face as he points to his head, drawing attention to his unmasked face.

Using his facial expression, I repeat the point that this man finds this double standard puzzling and hypocritical. It’s written all over his face.

There is a momentary standoff in panel six, but there’s not really any tension. I draw it as static as possible to keep it feeling light, non-threatening.

Additionally neither man’s face says they want to fight, but rather they’re making their intentions clear. I even soften DD’s eyes a bit, as if to express that he “gets it”. He is in fact being treated differently.

We round out the page with a last dutch angle, pushing the weight over to the real threat here, the guards. DD and Big Guy get lifted up as a way to show their conflict isn’t that deep, but pushes the menace subtlety towards the guards.

I also have DD and Big Guy’s attention turned toward the guards, with their backs to us, as another way to direct us towards who’s speaking.

The angle of the page also serves as a slope for us to slide off this page and towards the next...

Which we’ll talk about next time.

Thanks for reading.

Your boy,
Mike

My adoptive Greek family and I were celebrating Easter yesterday. No one celebrates Easter like the Greeks and I love them for it.

Unfortunately I didn't get a newsletter written. I suppose I could have ahead of time, but honestly I just didn’t want to.

I get into these modes where I just don’t want to communicate with words, but am not feeling antisocial or anything. I’d just like to draw quietly.

Weird, I know and I’m sorry.

So, instead here’s a livestream of me drawing for this week’s newsletter.

Thank you all for being subscribers to the newsletter, I appreciate you all.

And if you’re NOT yet, well maybe you should…

Subscribe now

Thanks again!

Your boy,
Mike

PS - If you want to support my work and get the best pencil on the planet, like the Pearl I used in the above livestream, use this link. Every purchase supports the studio!

My good friend Jamar (who also happens to be a Scholasctics rockstar cartoonist!) and I talk about LL Cool J’s foray into vulnerable love songs after a career or pure bravado and how that can inspire us to get out of our artistic comfort zones.

Supporting subscribers get to submit questions AND get the show every two weeks!

Ok, on with the show!

Read more

Without further ado, let’s hear from Jamar…

JAMAR SEZ:

Mike and Jamar are many many things to many people. In Mike, you may think of him as an action-adventure comic artist. JN? Probably you think he draws ‘kids books’.

LL COOL J, on his second album BIGGER AND DEFFER, made a calculated risk; in a young artform built on bravado and peacocking-touggness, he decided to show the world that he, indeed, needed love too.

Read more

What is this column? I’m going to do that classic “answer by saying what it’s not” thing. First, it’s not going to be the definitive answer on anything. It’s not going to be “the way”, I’m not going to preach from on high on how things should be done.

I draw for a living in an age when folks are trying to crack the code to make art, but I want to share the human experience behind the images you all see. This business is wonderful and treacherous, I’ll share stories here about how I get by.

If that’s instructive, then cool. But none of this is gospel.

My name is Mike Hawthorne, and welcome to Draw is Life

I, like many artists, have a series of rituals I partake in. Little routines that help center me for my work. One of them is to do a warm up figure study of some sort. Sometimes they’re done directly in pen or marker, both unforgiving mediums that ironically have helped me to accept imperfection and value spontaneity. Other times I draw in pencil, my favorite medium. I use it to do loose, gestural figure drawings which has helped me embrace minimalism in my work. I also use pencils for long form, analytical studies, which has helped me sharpen my analytical thinking and observational skills.

However the underlying goal is the same; to draw better.

Drawing better means many things to me. I think it’s one skill that is made up of several smaller skills. Knowledge of proportions, understanding depth and space, recreating the gesture and grace of a human form, design, line, form, negative space, and more, all coming together to make up something we call “drawing well.”

There are artists that can make amazing work out of any one or two of those smaller skills. Some can make pure magic with nothing but line and gesture, or reflecting pure realism, or cartoon gestures and expressions.

During my studies I’ve always greedily wanted to gather all the tools up to keep ready when the time calls.

So, I practice. I practice with no end product in mind other than to sharpen and care for my tools.

I think it paid off, but I always suspected that as I got “better” I lost something of the unadulterated joy of drawing. But I’d tell myself that it doesn’t matter, practice promises improvement, not joy.

So, I drew on.

Then, a few years back, a loved one got very sick. It kicked me into a head space that did not lend itself to caring about anything but surviving the day. I still drew to earn money while sitting at my loved one’s side as they lay in their hospital bed. I’d hunch over their rolling dinner table, stealing away as much time as I could to try to keep my all-important work going, just to earn a buck.

That went on for a long, difficult month. In the end my loved one recovered, though not unscathed. I guess none of us in the family came out unscathed.

Once we were out of the proverbial woods, I found myself unable to focus on anything but my family. We’d come so close to cataclysm that my art, my desire to improve–it all felt silly.

I had trouble drawing for the first time in my life.

That’s not to say I didn’t draw. After all, it’s my job. So I drew. I delivered books on time. I told stories with my art. But my love for my work was vapor, fleeting, vanity.

I continued like that for some time. Often I found myself drawing scared. Scared that if I lost myself in the work my loved one might relapse while I looked away. Scared I’d miss something, anything that my loved ones might need.

I knew I couldn’t continue for long like this. I was burning out fast, and since I earn my living drawing, this was a disaster in the making. I knew I needed to return to my studies.

I needed to return to my studio rituals.

Ironically, I revisited my studio ritual while hundreds of miles away from my studio on a family vacation. One bright day, my family made their way to the beach and I found myself with a few hours to draw alone. I cracked open a new sketchbook and used a photo reference to begin a “warm up.” I expected a stiff disjointed drawing. A bad drawing.

But my ritual, my friend, had been patiently waiting for me to come back home. I’d easily slid into the routine, first building up tones then searching for contours, sometimes smudging out graphite other times building upon a previous nervously-laid line.

I enjoyed drawing for the first time since my loved one had almost died.

That drawing was done on August 3rd, 2022. I know that, because while writing this I dug up the old sketchbook I’d done the sketch in. I’d forgotten it was my birthday and that the sketchbook was one my daughter had brought back from Greece for me as a gift.

That sketchbook came a long way to bring me hope, and I guess we’d all come a long way too.

Recently I was listening to a podcast on Taoism and the host said, “Ritual does not punish absence, but welcomes return.”

Amen to that.

Happy Drawing.

• Quote taken from this episode of Life Wisdom. Unfortunately, I think they are using AI art for their thumbnails.

Hey art collectors! I have a few commission spots open, head here to order one.

Thanks!

Did you hear the news? I brought It Aint Hard to Tell, my AMA podcast with Scholastics superstars cartoonist Jamar Nicholas, to Substack!

Watch the newest episode below.

Thanks for reading.

Take care of yourselves.

Your boy,

Mike

As promised, I’ve brought my comics AMA podcast It Aint Hard to Tell to Substack! My good friend (as well as Scholastics superstar cartoonist) Jamar Nicholas & I make two of these a month and share them here for you all.

Supporting subscribers not only get the show but can submit questions for Jamar and I.

Ok, on with the show!

Read more

This is one of my favorite pages from the run. The story line saw DD in jail, which left room for lots of interesting visuals, big action scenes and subtle storytelling.

With this first page where we start out seeing Daredevil (DD from here on out) in a NY prison. I wanted to play with the point of view here, going from strictly focusing on DD from a prisoner’s POV then step-by-step getting into his head so we switch the POV from focusing on him to focusing on the world from inside his head.

I chose three tiled horizontal shots to give the reader a sense of DD listening to the world around him. But I played with the perspective to put a “spotlight” on DD.

Let’s look at panel one.

I put DD in this environment drawn in two point perspective. See the pink and purple lines? They’re both going to their respective vanishing points to the left and right.

Here’s a sample two point perspective grid to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

Read more

There is an image of comic artists and cartoonists in their studio. A kind of dark and crusty space, with a grump artists hunched over a desk. But it’s not realistic. I find most cartoonists find a way to make their work space feel good, since we spend so much time in them. So you’ll find studios filled with art on the walls, fun collectibles or thick art books filling the shelves.

We all try to make it a fun space you want to spend time in.

I have two studios, one in my home and one in a nearby converted factory. They’re both similar, fun and warm, but the number one thing they have in common is Dogs.

My wife found the studio out of the house and specifically looked for a place that allowed dogs. She knows that more than anything else I need studio mates.

I’ve worked my entire career alone in a studio with the only exception being that I have a mutt by my side. They’ve been doing the heavy lifting of helping keep grounded and spiritually safe while doing the vulnerable work of making art for my entire career.

There’s long been a dog in my studio, sleeping peacefully while I concentrate but also nudging me with a cold nose when it’s time to take a break. They instinctively seem knowledgeable when I need to work and when I need to be forced to take a break.

I hope you have a studio mate, if you are able have one. I wish this peace for you in your art practice. I know it’s a luxury not everyone can have, which makes me doubly grateful to have them.

I’m blessed with studio mates.

I’ve written about my “studio mates” quite a bit on this newsletter, so if you want more “pupdates” here’s some from the past :-)

When I give to the SPCA I prefer to donate directly to local ones, rather than the national organization. The SPCA we adopted Archie from is a very small operation, the folks there are very dedicated, but working with limited means. If you’re into it, feel free to donate to them here.

Thanks!

OH YEAH, COMICS!

You should see a couple of my covers hit the stands soon. One is the new Larry Hama & BOOM Studios comic, The Center Holds.

BOOM is putting out my color and line art versions for you hardcore collectors out there.

Also, the Black Panther 60th anniversary should out with my art on the cover!

If you want to get one signed by me, I have some upcoming shows you can reach me at.

Stay tuned, I’ll be announcing more appearances soon!

I have been creating this art/comics/music podcast with Scholastics cartoonist superstar Jamar Nicholas for years called It Aint Hard to Tell. We talk all things comics and life, and share it with our supporters (who also get to submit questions for the show).

This week we dropped a new episode of IAHTT and it was a particularly good one! Unfortuantely it’s on another platform so it’s been hard to share it with you here on Substack. BUT, that changes this week! I’ll be bringing the show to Substack for my supporting subscribers!

So stay tuned for that and thanks for supporting my work.

Take care of yourselves.

Your boy,
Mike

PS - My kid’s newsletter is fantastic and you should be reading it!

Writer? I Hardly Know Her!

Do you have to be friends with the person you're in love with?

I’ve often discussed on this newsletter how important my friendships are to me, and how these relationships mean more to me than a romantic love ever could. They’ve provided a sense of understanding, of stability and of joy, that I can’t always picture for myself when it comes to a romantic partner. No one that has pursued me romantically has ever reach…

Read more

a month ago · 7 likes · Maria Hawthorne

This is for an upcoming issue of Inglorious X-Force.

The assignment from Marvel went as follows, “For this, we’d be looking to spotlight Archangel and Hellverine, two of the more extreme members of this Inglorious squad, as they face off against some unseen foe off of the panel.”

So, fairly open for interpretation.

Often I use a full environment for my covers, or at least a hint at one, but I was pressed for time so I decided to just focus on the main characters in a big “action” shot.

Normally for layouts I hand in three variations on a theme to the editors. There’s usually one I love, one I like, and one I kinda hope they don’t pick. With my luck, they often pick the later, but it always seems to work out. Mainly because I believe that given some thought any illustration can be worked out.

With these layouts I always drop in a “TITLE” just to keep me honest, because otherwise I’ll get carried away and not leave enough room for the title. I also focus on big shapes, not a lot of detail or rendering. I just need it to “read” at a quick glance.

In my opinion a comic cover needs to be easily read from across the room, and starting with a simple shape-based layout gives me a sturdy foundation to build on.

Here were the three layouts.

I really liked #1. It had a nice close/far contrast I enjoyed as well as a chance to focus on each of the characters’ unique traits. Namely, Hellverine’s firey face and claws and Archangel’s metal wings. It’s also more dynamically “read” because it goes in such a strong diagonal from left to right.

Lately I’ve been drawing each figure independently on sheets of thin paper, sometimes overlapping them to get a sense of scale, then scanning them and placing them into a composition together. It allows me to experiment more with the figure, sometimes doing several takes of the pose. Fortunately things went well the first time and I settle on the poses I wanted quickly.

You’ll notice I block in the shadow areas for later. As with the layouts, I still don’t need much more than big shapes at this point as I’m focused on making sure it reads the way I want it to without the business of the rendering or detail.

At this point I size it to 10”x15”, “blue line” the art and print it out onto a sheet of 11’x17’ Bristol board.

I then start the tightening up process, filling in shadows and detail. You’ll see the “blue line:” under the graphite, just to give you a feel for what the color looks like.

I also added these “speedline” shapes in the background to add some visual excitement to the image.

With the pencil are sufficiently finished I scan it again into Photoshop at about 300dpi. At this point I submit the pencils to the Marvel folks for another round of “OKs” to make sure all is good to proceed.

Once I get the “OK”, I then “blue line” again, then again print the image out onto a fresh sheet of Bristol for inks.

I ink with a mix of brush pens by Zebra and Kuretake, Micron & Staedler tech pens, old school Sable brushes and a mix of flat brushes using black and white ink.

We ended up here.

I made the “actions lines” into big masses of black that I really liked. I went heavy with the blacks both in the sky and Archangel’s wings both because I just liked it and because it gave me a dark to contrast against the fire on Hellverine.

To break up the shadows on Hellverine I dry bushed in some of the blacks as well as splatters a bit of white ink.

Speaking of drybursh, I did that instead of any hatching or feathering along the edges because I just like the feel of it.

And that’s it. I scan the inks at 600dpi both as a Bitmap and a Color file (later deleting the Blue channel in photoshop and playing with the contrast) so I have both versions to compare and see which I like the look of best.

I then submit to Marvel and call it a day :-)

Hope you enjoyed this walk-through. Normally these are for supporting Patrons, but I wanted to share with everyone so you get a sense of what’s waiting for you if you decide to join us.

Thanks for reading!

Your boy,
Mike

If you enjoy this, here’s a previous examination of an X-men cover I did for Marvel.

My heroes had the heart to lose their lives out on the limb
And all I remember is thinkin’ I wanna be like them, mhm
Ever since I was little
Ever since I was little, it looked like fun
And it’s no coincidence I’ve come
And I can die when I’m done

- Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy

A while back my son comes into my studio holding his phone and asks, “Hey Dad, you ever hear of a guy named Sam Kieth?”

My son had just seen a Tik Tok about The Maxx that sent him down a Sam Kieth rabbit hole and was absolutely won over by this dude and his crazy style!

I never knew Sam, but I grew up with his work in my mind’s eye as a kid.

At a time when much of mainstream comics kinda looked the same, Sam was... weird. The good kind, the kind I wanted and needed as a young artist. I came up at a time when it felt like everything was up for grabs. New styles, new ways to make comics, new everything. But still, so many were playing it safe. So many comics looked like other comics because those comics succeeded.

Sam’s comics did not play it safe. We can look at that style now and take it for granted that it’s damned cool, but at the time I remember friends thinking it was just too odd for a mainstream comic. I can recall a literal argument breaking out amongst us because some dudes hated Sam’s take on Wolverine and argued for a return to a more Buscema-style Wolverine.

But I loved that someone whose work was so out of left field could make it to the pages of Marvel comics.

I think you need guys like Sam to be the tip-of-the-spear. You need someone like that to mangle up your expectations of what a comic can look like to push the art form in new directions. You need artists that don’t play it safe, that go out on a limb, so the rest of us can see just what’s possible.

So, yeah son. I heard of Sam.

I love that he’s still reaching new eyes and winning new hearts.

Rest in peace Sam. I hope your family knows you were loved and that it gives them some solace at this moment of loss.

I have some comic stuff hitting your shops soon!

There are two covers headed your way. One for the Inglorious X-Force...

...and one for Marvel Rivals.

Additionally, DC is putting out a Chip Zdarsky Batman omnibus that includes my run on the series!

The books are beautiful but weigh a TON!

Are you reading my Comic Art Tuesday articles?

I’m sharing my comic making process every Tuesday here on Substack, and I just wrapped up an examination of Daredevil 24!

Draw is Life with Mike Hawthorne

Comic Art Tuesday: Religious motifs and acting out feelings.

In the last article I talked about how we can use abstractions in comic art to illustrate something that has no real physical appearance to it…

Read more

a month ago · 4 likes · Mike Hawthorne

Any fan of comic art will love the articles.

Thanks for reading and please take care of yourselves.

Your boy,
Mike

This week I’d like to talk about using established, grounded imagery to get an idea across to the reader. There is a deep well of visual motifs that we can use get sell a scene. So let’s talk about how to use it!

I talked a few weeks back about using religious imagery for this scene, specifically the scene where Daredevil enters the courtroom.

This sequence started religious, so I wanted to end it that way too.

Hence this page.

Read more

We’re half way though March, and all I can think about are all the things I still need to do this month. It’s overwhelmed, since everything I need to do is on me, with no outside help (usually).

Every so often I’ll look back at my output for a month and it genuinely surprises me how much I do. It’s good for me to cut myself some slack.

Years back I started doing a “I did” list at the end of the night, instead of a “To do” list in the morning. It helps me gain some perspective oh what I’ve actually gotten done versus focusing on all I have to do. It’s a healthier way to end the day, at least for me.

This newsletter allows to do a version of this that I can share with you all.

Here’s a small peek at what I mean:

Every month I create a figure drawing podcast, Life Studied. I’d long wanted to do a show like this, drawing live while talking about art with a friend, in this case the amazing Mairin-taj Caya. It’s always a pleasure to get to practice figure drawing while making this show for you all.

Episode 33, the newest episode is now free to watch!

Also once a week I write a post about my coming making process. This week I talked about the challenges of guiding a reader’s eye around. double page spread.

It’s a cool way to share my thinking behind my comic process.

Every month I write my column Draw is Life. I usually post it the first week of the month. Which is crazy, for me. I’ve never seen myself as a “writer” but somehow I’ve been writing this thing for a few years now!

Oh, and It’s free to read!

Additionally I make two episodes a month of my AMA podcast It Aint Hard to Tell with the world famous Jamar Nicholas!

(Jamar honestly does most of the heavy lifting on the show, I just show up and answer questions :-)

I also design & order new stickers every month for my Sticker Club!

This is all in addition to my daily posts here as well as my normal illustration work, making my own comic series as well as covers for clients.

Oh, and I teach figure drawing once a week!

So, yeah… I’m going to try and let myself off the hook a bit. I’m producing more than I give myself credit for.

Honestly, maybe I need to chill a bit!

And you should too. I bet if you look back at your “I did” list you’ve done more than you give yourself credit for.

Thank you for supporting my work. I appreciate you more than you know.

Your boy,
Mike

PS - Speaking of support, if you’re not into a subscription you can support my work by picking up some of my favorite pencils and markers!

All the Blackwing pencils are great, but the Natural is my current favorite!

https://blackwing602.com/mikehawthorne

The OLO brush tip markers are absolutely fantastic! Use code ARTLOVE for 10% off!

https://olomarker.com

What I think makes comics special is the freedom to make your own visual rules. You can go from representative art to abstract without missing a beat, nor losing your audience. You can use any visual tricks you want, both subtle and obvious, to elicit the right feelings to serve the story. It’s a freedom that is inherently part of comics.

When you’re drawing a character with a special power or ability this freedom really allows for really creative visuals. As in the case of Daredevil’s “sonar”. It’s well establish that Daredevil “emits” a “high frequency wave” that allows him to locate things. He’s described as “seeing” in this way.

Every artist has a variation on this visual theme, but the established idea is that there are circles emanating off of DD to represent his sonar.

That last panel (above) kind of shows both the signal going out then “returning” to show what DD is “seeing”. In this case, a simple outline of a figure with little to no background.

As time went on, you saw artists give that second part, the signal returning to DD and thus creating an “image”, more thought.

Eventually artists landed on this much more nuanced version of DD’s “vision”. These kind of cross-contour lines are employed to allow for a visually interesting way to show what DD “sees”.

The thing is, it makes for an image that is busy. There’s a lot to manage and at times the story calls for something more subtle.

Read more

I feel a bit of guilt saying this, with all the madness going on in the world, but I’ve had a good week in art.

I got back into the classroom after our Winter break. My students seemed a little more refreshed and we had a great class with my good friend Mairin-taj. It was just one of those classes where things just clicked into place. The interesting part, for me, was that students were seeing a difference in their work during just this one class.

I love that. I truly believe that with actual concrete instruction students can see improvement immediately. Sure they need long term practice, but they can make quick improvements giving practice drawing instruction. Often there’s this vagueness about art instruction that drives me nuts. A sort-of “go work and figure things out” approach I always found frustrating when I was in school.

Not to get off track by getting in the weeds of art instruction, but we had this confluence of less-stressed students and a new practical concept that lead so an interesting and productive class.

So, yeah... we had a great class this week.

Additionally, I got to record a great episode of Life Studied with Mairin-taj. I think we hit on a subject that was fun, how to manage “stormy” patches in your art practice, and I really enjoyed the drawing part of the show.

Episode 33: Stormy Weather.

Often I’m self aware while drawing during the show, since I’m talking while drawing and trying to work out ideas while also working out proportions of the figure. However, this time I just kinda hit my stride, casually talking while drawing in a way that felt organic and fluid.

I’m not saying the drawings are amazing, just that I was able to lose myself in them while talking with my friend about our lives and struggles in our art practices.

This made for a fun show :-)

To round out the week I went to the grand re-opening of my friends’s Matt and Nicole’s NEW Curio Gallery and Creative Supplies! They host our Life Studied show, and we’ll be in this new space creating shows very soon.

The new store and gallery space is really beautiful! The turn out for the gallery opening was really great to see. It was a full house!

Here’s some pics of the grand re-opening.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18Qk25ib1N/

If you’re in the area, you have to stop by to see the show and pick up some hard-to-find, high quaility art supplies!

What else is going on here on my little slice of Substack?

Comic Art Tuesday!

My newest Draw is Life column!

Oh, and this (briefly) happened!

Of course, there’s plenty more to enjoy here. So, why not becoming a Subscriber?

Thanks!

Mike

PS - If joining us isn’t you thing, but art supplies are, you can support my work by picking up some of my favorite pencils and markers!

All the Blackwing pencils are great, but the Natural is my current favorite!

https://blackwing602.com/mikehawthorne

The OLO brush tip markers are absolutely fantastic! Use code ARTLOVE for 10% off!

https://olomarker.com