Artists Alley at a convention

When you are a writer setting out to create a graphic novel project and you are not yourself an artist, the biggest question can be “How do I find an artist?” You may have friends who are artists, but who have never done sequential storytelling. Or you may like their style for many things, but know that it doesn’t quite fit your story. When you really want everything about the project to be “just right”, you face some challenging decisions when you look for an artist.

If you don’t know a lot of professional artists (or even semi-professional ones), how do you find an artist? You can check a number of online website, that’s true. A site like Deviant Art will let you browse through the galleries of established and aspiring comic book artists. But you can’t always tell if the artist who has great pin-ups can also handle the sequential storytelling of a graphic novel.

Artist Tone Rodriguez in Artists Alley

Another place you can go to find an artist is at conventions. Most all conventions that are geared toward the popular culture of comics and graphic novels will have an Artists Alley, where working artists display their work, create works on commission, or even work on assigned paying jobs while making themselves available to fans. You can talk with them, look at a variety of their works, discuss collaboration possibilities.

This is just the briefest bit of advice on selecting an artist for your project. In Creating Graphic Novels you can find more information on what to look for in an artist, as well as the factors you need to consider in connecting with a creative partner (because that is what your artist in the graphic novel will be). Check out the book for the most accessible introduction to the business of comics and graphic novels.