Mastering Visual Storytelling - Angles, Shots, and Camerawork for Comics

One of the unique storytelling features of comics is how an artist choreographs story beats and action through intentional camera placement and movement. Veteran comic book artist Mike Hawthorne provides an introduction on how to use camera angles and shots to pace visual storytelling in comics. He compares comic layouts to cinematography, advising artists to choose shots that best convey the story, like closeups for emotional moments and long shots to establish settings. Mike demonstrates how to use different angles like worm’s eye and bird’s eye views to build atmosphere and perspective. He analyzes example comic pages, explaining how he mixes shots on a page and moves the camera to underscore character relationships and lead the reader’s eye. Mike also stresses the importance of research and acting choices to make the most of angles and advises using extreme closeups sparingly for biggest impact. 00:00 - Intro 00:41 - Building the Right Shot 01:18 - Long Shot 03:14 - Medium Shot 05:13 - Close Up 06:02 - Extreme Close Up 07:59 - Low Angle & Worm’s-Eye View 09:24 - High Angle & Bird’s-Eye View 10:27 - Mixing Up Your Shots 13:43 - Outro RELATED VIDEOS: How to Start Drawing Comics - Working with Primitives - Drawing Loose Yet Controlled: Penciling Techniques from Ryan Benjamin - #comicbook #marvel #comicartist Subscribe to Proko: Don’t miss new tutorials - Hit the BELL! Premium Videos - Pose photo sets - FOLLOW PROKO: Email Newsletter- Instagram - Twitter - Facebook - Tumblr - Pinterest - WATCH MORE PROKO: Latest Uploads: Figure Drawing: Art of Caricature: Popular Videos: ABOUT PROKO: Instructional How to Draw videos for artists. My drawing lessons are approachable enough for beginners and detailed enough for advanced artists. My philosophy is to teach timeless concepts in an entertaining way. I believe that when you are having fun, you learn better. I take pride in producing high-quality videos that you will enjoy watching and re-watching. CREDITS: Artist | Instructor - Mike Hawthorne () Producer - Stan Prokopenko (), Sean Ramsey (), Patrick Bosworth () Production Assistance - Patrick Bosworth, Sean Ramsey, Stephen Clark (), Kristian Nee () Editing - Ash Lo Russo (), Charlie Nicholson () Publishing - John Birchall, Alex Otis Music Used with Permission from the ABC Music Library
Back to Top