Jim Lee Tutorials

I am guilty of having paid very little attention to Jim Lee and his contribution to the world of Comic Books.

At least, since the early Nineties and the first few issues of his Wildcats, as Image Comics burst onto the scene.

In the intervening years, I did occasionally pick up some series that he worked on but the "shine had gone off the gingerbread", for me and while I appreciated his ability to turn out good looking comic books, I was no longer drawn to his artwork.

Then, on the advice of a friend, I searched out some videos, on Youtube, where Jim explains how he draws things and I was enthralled by his easy manner and his "down to earth" approach to making comic book art.

It was a revelation!

Nothing, I hasten to say, that he says, in the course of his tutorials, all filmed, over several years, at the San Diego Comic Con, is in any way, revolutionary or magical and that is what is GREAT!

I have been teaching myself to cartoon for almost as long as I can recall, not always successfully but I found several valuable gems of information in his explanations.

After fifty years of buying How to Draw books and studying the works of the professionals in the business, I was amazed to learn new and easily applied techniques, that immediately improved my drawings.

It was interesting to discover that one of his earliest sources on how to improve his drawing skills, came from the books of George Bridgeman.

There are several books, about drawing individual parts of the human figure and at least one compiled edition.  Bridgeman died in 1943, after a long career as an art teacher and while the images now look a little bit dated, the information is still first rate.

So, thank you, Jim Lee, for sharing your hard won knowledge with me and the rest of the world.