You, Too, Can Do Artwork for a 'Star Trek' Fanzine
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| Title: | You, Too, Can Do Artwork for a 'Star Trek' Fanzine |
| Creator: | Judith Yeatman |
| Date(s): | July 1985 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
You, Too, Can Do Artwork for a 'Star Trek' Fanzine is a 1985 essay by Judith Yeatman printed in the New Zealand zine Nome v.3 n.3.
Some Topics Discussed
- techniques: stipple, pencil shading, dot shading, ballpoint pen or fountain pen with crosshatch shading, felt pen line drawings
- using photo references and tracing
The Essay
Have you ever looked at Michael McGann's, or Harvey Kong Tin's pre-computer, artwork or some other artist's work in an overseas 'zine and wished you could draw as well? Well, you can, Yes, even if you think you have no artistic ability.
The secret is that Harvey's work, some of Michael's work and no doubt some of the artwork seen in overseas 'zines is traced from photos. And tracing's easy, right! We've all traced maps in geography, or something similar. But have you ever noticed how every map done in a geography class is different from every other? They are. Some are done in black ballpoint, some in coloured felt pen. Some have all of the most miniscule details included to produce a fine, ragged outline, while some have very little detail, being simply a shape vaguely approximating the true"geo graphical features. And so, you can trace "Star Trek" photos and create original draw ings from them. Originality comes about fr'otr the materials you use, the techniques you use, and your style. Also, if you try to choose photos that haven't been used before, it will be more original.
In doing a drawing traced from a photo, it is not ideal to try to create a literal technically-correct copy of the photo; nor to make it look like a photo. All you would have achieved would be a time-consuming copy which could have been better produced by a photocopying machine. A drawing is more creative and has more life than a photo does. There has to be more in a drawing for it to be good. There should be subtlety of line; lines of different thicknesses and darknesses Some lines which are present in a photo would look wrong if copied faithfully in a drawing. It helps if the photo you trace from has the person moving or doing something or obviously thinking about something in particular, or with a special facial expression. Also, in a drawing, the eyes should show some expression. This is not always present in a photo, and even if it is, it's not easy to duplicate.
Don't worry if you can' t manage these things, especially at first. They are ideals to aim for and, in the meantime, your drawings will be quite acceptable. The first time you manage to do a drawing with expression in the eyes, you will be really excited and will think to yourself 'Did I create that?'!
Of course, there's no reason why you have to trace. Try some freehand copies. You never know, you may have more artistic ability than you thought. Also, after you've done a few tracings, you get to know the shape of various parts of a particular character and how to draw them (e.g., Spock's ears) and also the relation those parts have to others, i.e., distance apart, angle apart, etc. and this assists free-hand drawing.
If you mainly resort to tracing for drawings because you have difficulty drawing things in proportion, then don't forget that many aliens and monsters don't have to be in proportion; so you can draw them free-hand. If one part ends up crooked, or a different size from that intended, it doesn't matter; you can just say that's the way it's meant to be; that's the shape the alien is (or it went through the transporter the wrong way)!
An alternative to tracing existing ST characters is to trace pictures of ordinary peopled then put the ST uniforms, antennae, pointed ears, and arched eyebrows, etc. on them. To produce original action scenes, trace different people in different posts and put them together in your own individual newly-created scene.
The technique you use in your final drawing is up to you. You may like to try a technique which someone else has used, develop your own technique, or use a combination of techniques in one drawing.