Hollywood Comic Artist David H. Ross Shares His Comic Journey

Nowadays, we have throngs of fans who wait impatiently for the release of the next Marvel, DC or Star Wars movie. There are those who analyze trailers second by second, frame by frame in search of ‘Easter eggs’ and there are those who know the entire origin story of each character well enough to come up with mind-blowing fan theories. But before these movies are filmed, released and take over the box office, they all began from a comic.

Comics have been around for a long time and to this day are still bought and read by many. The methods of producing a comic has changed with the times and technology has eased the production process of it. However, the essence of freehand drawing and designing characters for comics is not lost and is considered an art form in itself. To commemorate the release of his book ‘Freehand Figure Drawing for Illustrators’, renowned Hollywood comic-artist David H. Ross was invited to The One Academy in Subang Jaya to share his inspiring journey as well as impart some knowledge about illustration to the students and lecturers here. He spent three days at The One Academy conducting a workshop for both lecturers and students and he concluded his visit with a three hour long sharing session. Besides his talent at drawing breathtaking comics, his passion for teaching and generosity in sharing his knowledge was very clearly seen through this event.

Ross has worked with has worked with Marvel Comics, DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics amongst other major North American comic book publishers. Besides that, he has also produced storyboards for feature films, prepared artwork and advised on special projects for TV. His sharing session, ‘My Comic Journey’ highlighted his road to becoming the artist he is today, the challenges he faced when starting out as well as key pointers on how to nail freehand figure drawing. Attendees were treated to a live demonstration by Ross as he elaborated on his technique and skills.

“One of the hardest things to do in drawing is to start with the head, it is hard to make it seamless with the shoulder area, most of the time it is required to go back and redraw and redraw the neck and the shoulder area”, said Ross as he advised students to start drawing the body of the figure to establish a natural flow and line to it before tackling the head and facial features the last. He also explained that it is important to incorporate actual parts of the human anatomy, like the deltoids, when drawing the first sketch as it will help “to lock down some of the natural landmarks of the body to understand the movement”.

When speaking about his role as a comic-artist or a penciler, he reminded the participants that in comic, you are given the task of manifesting 3D characters via a 2D medium. “We are all just illusionists, everything we do when doing our artwork is to create the illusion of 3D depth in a flat piece of paper. Shading, depth and cross-contouring helps to bring the illusion to reality”, said Ross He also stressed on the importance of knowing how to draw a multitude of subjects, as a comic-artists, one is expected to draw not only the characters but also the scenery, convincing city-scape, jungle scenes, fire, smoke, lightning, mist, and heavy rain. “You have to draw people with all of their dramatic over the top action, you have to be able to draw very quiet scenes and restaurants. It has all got to be convincing.”

His top advice to the students was to get their work shown to publishers, editors and anyone else who is big in the creative field. He highlighted the convenience that social media brings in terms of being able to put their work out there and also making the right connections, all of which were not so simple last time. “When you get a chance to see and meet people in the industry in all the different areas, pick their brains and don’t be shy. You will find that they are very friendly, very accessible and more than willing to share information with you. And if you can get them to look at your work and give you some useful tips, that’s great, that’s like gold. By all means, seek those people”, he concluded.

Although the digital era has simplified the means of creating and producing comics, it has also diminished the number of those who do it freehand. “Digital drawing is easier, but picking up the pencil and putting it to paper and creating something is beyond amazing, I want many people to know how that feels”, he said when asked about the aim of publishing his book. Ross’s book, which has been translated and sold in 3 different languages so far aims to educate the current generation and give them the opportunity to feel the same way.

The One Academy is committed to providing the best art education programs and continues to nurture its students passionately through its ‘Masters Train Masters’ coaching philosophy, which has been practiced for the past 28 years, by providing diploma and degree courses namely Advertising & Graphic Design, Digital Animation, Digital Media Design, Film Visual Effects, Interior Architecture & Design, Illustration, Fine Arts and ESMOD Fashion Design & Pattern Making. For more information on The One Academy, visit www.toa.edu.my or call +603-5637 5510 or e-mail your enquiries to [email protected].