Creating Comics!

Job:05-19413 Title:Creating Comics

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Creative Process

The biggest step of my creative process is to come up with the

concept. Whether I’m working on a cartoon, where I need to write

as well as draw it, or a poster, where I need to focus on design,

or simply an illustration, the concept is more than half the battle.

Ideas come to me at random times. Sometimes I jot down notes

while I’m in the middle of dinner or I get out of bed when I can’t

sleep at 3 a.m. and write down an idea that’s been swimming in

my head. Sometimes I get caught in a deadline crunch and just

have to force myself to brainstorm. Depending on the project,

I turn to various sources for inspiration—everything from the

newspaper or the Internet to old album covers, comic books,

or poster designs.

Once I’ve got a general concept, I begin sketching. Depending

on the project, I work in two possible ways. I may do a very light,

rough sketch in blue pencil and then go right over it with ink for the

final drawing. Or, I may do a much tighter sketch in ink, then blow

it up in size and draw on a vellum overlay for the final drawing.

Once I have the ink drawing done, I’ll scan it into Photoshop and

convert it to vector art. Then I’ll finish the piece in Illustrator, which

allows me to layer and combine elements and add color and

shading. Illustrator files are also easy to email to printers, art direc-

tors, and other clients.

W

ard Sutton is a cartoonist, an illustrator, and an

animator. He creates the weekly political car-

toon Sutton Impact for the Village Voice, as well

as a weekly political cartoon parody for the Onion. In 2005

Sutton Impact: Seven Stories Press published The Political

Cartoons of Ward Sutton. His cartoons and illustrations have

appeared in the New York Times, Spin, Rolling Stone, Enter-

tainment Weekly, TV Guide, and many more publications.

Sutton has created concert posters for Beck, Pearl Jam,

Radiohead, and Phish; the Broadway show poster for John

Leguizamo’s 1998 Freak; and the artwork for the 2000 Sun-

dance Film Festival.

His animation credits include the opening segment of the

cult show Strangers with Candy, as well as work for HBO and

TV Land. He currently lives and works in Greenwich Village,

New York City, with his wife, Sue Unkenholz, with whom he

formed Sutton Impact Studio in 2000.

Ward Sutton

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Job:05-19413 Title:Creating Comics

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