Comic Genesis Forums

I'm trying to learn to draw these things better. Fire, flame, explosions.

If you have drawn any of these things, please link to the strip or image where you did it, in this thread. I'd like to look at as much as possible, and if needed, ask questions to certain individuals among you!

I don't care if you feel your art is advanced or poor, if you've done fire, flames, or explosions, show me. I want to see them all. (that includes candles which I'm also interested in)

obviously I can find examples on my own, but I'd like to see them particularly used in comic form and in as much variety as possible.

Thanks so much!

http://tnb.comicgen.com/images/stuff/tnb1.jpg
http://tnb.comicgen.com/images/stuff/linda.jpg
http://tnb.comicgen.com/images/stuff/skull.gif
http://tnb.comicgen.com/comics/20030401.jpg

http://warofwinds.com/?comic_id=151

Including the white on the bottom of the log was really the only thing that made it work, IMO. I try to stay away from explosions. Luckily, my world hasn't rediscovered gunpowder yet.

it's definitely tricky! I'd been fancying myself as pretty experienced with photoshop and accomplishing certain things in my comics, but I realized I absolutely SUCK DONKEY at any kind of explosion! I just can't make one that I find satisfactory. So I've been trying to learn.

More please!

Jason Springer of The Jade Revolver painted this in a coloring contest of mine too:
http://warofwinds.com/ask/2_jasonspringer.jpg

Mm'mm, looks alive. And judging by how quickly you improved in your drawing women thread, I'm sure you'll be making a tutorial on this soon enough

I don't draw explosions and the only fire I've done was by hand:

NSFW: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v63/M ... s/nfh1.gif

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v63/M ... oodle1.gif

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v63/M ... bigger.png

Candles would be the easiest of any, it's just a single teardrop-shaped flame with the same shape inside in various colors.

http://www.ninjaverses.net/d/20051017.html
http://www.ninjaverses.net/d/20051201.html

Depending on your drawing style, you could try out Kirby dots:
http://www.ninjaverses.net/d/20060202.html
http://www.ninjaverses.net/d/20060327.html

http://demonocity.comicgenesis.com/d/20050929.html
http://demonocity.comicgenesis.com/d/20060211.html <-- not an explosion, but it's blood splatter, and rather similar.

For fire effects, I use the liquify tool, and smudge around several globs of color until I like it I'm technical.

http://paralleldementia.comicgenesis.co ... 60210.html
http://paralleldementia.comicgenesis.co ... 60215.html

Some readers asked me to make a tutorial. I know you're looking for specific comic examples but:
http://paralleldementia.comicgenesis.co ... efire.html

I like how this fire came out:
http://swiftbow.comicgenesis.com/53.html

Yes, I draw mine. Good old ink. Unfortunately they were never big dominating explosions, just smaller ones like this:
http://spacejams.comicgenesis.com/d/19960411.html

http://operationneko.comicgen.com/d/20050810.html
http://operationneko.comicgen.com/d/20050815.html
http://operationneko.comicgen.com/d/20060404.html

834n wrote:http://paralleldementia.comicgenesis.co ... 60210.html
http://paralleldementia.comicgenesis.co ... 60215.html

Some readers asked me to make a tutorial. I know you're looking for specific comic examples but:
http://paralleldementia.comicgenesis.co ... efire.html

Damn traitor, that's a good tutorial. Wish I saw that when I came up with this scene:

http://www.angrydmonkey.com/d/20040417.html

I don't know what help I can be on the topic but my comic has featured its fair share of flames and explosions.

The first ever strip had an explosion occur off-screen:

http://fourthfloorcomics.comicgenesis.c ... 50723.html

And in the last panel of this strip there's a fire:

http://fourthfloorcomics.comicgenesis.c ... 50826.html

The thing to remember about fire and explosion effects is that, regardless of your style, there has to be a certain degree of realism. Little details can really sell fire - like in my fire you can see the reflection of the yellow light in objects around the fire. Light seels fire. Light and smoke. Fire always has smoke. Whether it's a little heat-haze ripple from a candle flame or big oily black clouds.

It's the difference between something looking like half-real and looking like a bad special effect in an 80's B-movie. That said, I do favour a very 'cartoony' style so this might not be your cup of tea.

For distant explosions such as you might get from an oil tanker explosion in a Bond film, I've found a simple and effective method is to draw a cluster of small circles like bubbles and draw a column of larger circles emanating from that point, so that the further the circle is from the point of origin, the larger it appears. Don't leave any gaps. It doesn't look terribly effective until you colour it - make the smallest circles at the base of the explosion yellow, the ones above that orange and the ones above that black to represent the smoke. It's simple and quite stylised but we are, after all, in the business of representing phenomena rather than copying them exactly.

Best of luck in your endeavours!

Fire example
Fire Tutorial

The fire tutorial has a mistake in the 3rd step - don't merge the layers before you use the eraser tool.

My styles more cartoony - which might help given your style.

For fire I keep it pretty basic.

If you're making explosions, though, remember you actually see more SMOKE and shrapnel than fire. Here's another.

Fire is tricky, and I've tried to learn as many different ways to draw it as possible.

Here's some classic "spikey" fire from page 7 of my strip
More "spikey" fire on page 13 of my strip
Fire balls
More classic "spikey" fire
Even more classic "spikey" fire
MORE FRICKIN' "SPIKEY" FIRE!

When I draw it, depending on the circumstance, I try to let my hand loosen up as much as possible and let it jut out randomly. In essentia, fire is random and when you try to give it a defined look (Like I did on page 7) it looks too fakey.

The way fire is done should be based entierly on how comfortable you are with drawing it in your style. As with anything practice makes perfect and only through practicing drawing fire will you learn a way of drawing that is good for you.

Guildmaster Van wrote: Here's some classic "spikey" fire from page 7 of my strip
More "spikey" fire on page 13 of my strip
Fire balls
More classic "spikey" fire
Even more classic "spikey" fire
MORE FRICKIN' "SPIKEY" FIRE!

I dig your style.

Thanks.
I practice it as much as I can, and it has really evolved since I started using it two years ago.

Although I can draw in different styles I draw almost exclusively in that one now and consider it my "official" style.