Blue Corn Comics -- Artists' Guidelines

Artists' Guidelines

Seeking Native artists for adventure series

Concept
See the Writers' Guidelines for the full explanation of this project.

Plan
Blue Corn Comics plans to do prose, illustrated, and comic-book stories. These stories will require everything from single illustrations (sketches, drawings, pinups) to whole comic-book sequences. Many artists will be able to do the former. For the latter, see the next section (below).

Illustrations for prose stories
Many artists will be able to do this kind of artwork. The illustrations should be realistic, detailed, and dynamic. The primary medium will be black-and-white pen and pencil drawings, although other mediums are possible. We may do color illustrations that require oils or watercolors someday, but for now line drawings, perhaps with greyscale tones, will suffice.

Sequential comic-book art
We're planning to do at least one graphic novel in a traditional comic book style. For that we're seeking talented pencilers, inkers, and colorists. Candidates must work in a realistic superhero style with professional quality. For an idea of the style and quality needed, see the comic's pages and covers online.

At the moment we're looking for Native artists to do several tasks on the PEACE PARTY graphic novel (in progress):

1) Pencil and ink one story.
2) Redo sequences in an existing story
3) Color one or more stories.
4) Drawing and painting a cover.

If you're interested, browse the website and check out what we're doing. Make sure this type of work fits your interests and abilities. In particular, check out the posted pages of PEACE PARTY #1. We need an artist who can do sequential storytelling better than that for the next PEACE PARTY edition.

Pay
For prose illustrators: $xx per illustration.

For comic-book illustrators:
Penciling: $xx/page. Inking, $xx/page. Coloring, $xx/page.

For character designs and model sheets:
$xx per character.

(Rates to be determined.)

Native preference
We have a strong preference for Native artists, since they presumably know the look and feel of Indian people, places, and things. We're also committed to helping their careers as one way of giving back to the community. But we'll also consider minorities and others who feel they have a strong connection to Native culture.

Professionalism needed
We hope to develop relationships with artists for long-term projects. We'll need to verify not only that you can do professional-quality work, but that you're reliable, communicative, and open to constructive criticism. As a responsible employer, we'll contract with you if we decide to employ you and use your work.

How to submit
We encourage talented Native pros and amateurs to submit their artwork. Illustrators for prose stories should send 10-12 sample drawings. Comic-book artists should send story samples of 4-5 pages.

Send hard copies of art to:

Robert Schmidt
#204, 6150 Buckingham Pkwy.
Culver City, CA 90230

You also can refer us to URLs that contain posted artwork, e-mail samples, or fax them to (707) 313-3608.

Amateur artists and writers
Artists and writers, especially young ones, can participate in other ways. You don't have to be Native American for these possibilities, although it helps. Some thoughts:

For artists, the best possibility is to submit drawings. Do spot illustrations of Billy and Drew, our main men. Show them talking, walking, eating, driving, interacting with Oliver and the other characters, etc. See our Photo Reference page for details on how they look.

You also can do random shots of life in Indian Country (Arizona/New Mexico version): pueblos, mesas, canyons, cacti, petroglyphs, trading posts, powwows, casinos, rodeos, art shows, tourists, whatever. We'll use the best drawings on the website (to illustrate stories and features) and perhaps in the next print edition.

See Graphic Novels as Pay for one way we might compensate you for your work. As noted above, royalties are a possibility if your work merits it. Other arrangements are possible also.

Note: Inkers, find a penciler to work with, or I can give you some pencils to ink. Colorists, try coloring some of the black-and-white illustrations on this website.

More ideas:

Volunteer to draw or write a short story—as short as one page—about our characters. See Billy and Drew Discuss Carlos Reynosa as an example. If it's good, we'll publish it online. If it's really good, we may include it in the next edition. We can't pay you for this, but it's a great way to build your resume. A one-page featurette is enough to gain you free admittance to the San Diego Comic-Con as a pro (a $60 value).
Submit your own stories—as Ruben Chavez (Hispanic/Native American) did with his historical hero El Ojo. If it complements our goals, themes, and style, we'll create a page showcasing it as we did for El Ojo.
Help design one of our Native superheroes in the Make a Hero contest.
Submit cartoons and comic strips for a Native humor section on this website. As an example, consider our Political Cartoons 2001 page. If you don't have an idea but want to submit something, draw Billy and Drew talking and we'll supply the captions.
Submit fine art (paintings, drawings) with a dynamic, graphic style akin to comic book art for our artistic showcase and for our next publication of PEACE PARTY.

* More opinions *

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