Leave space for the word balloons. Speech is always at the top of the panel – they are balloons, and like balloons, they generally float upwards. It’s important to leave space for people to talk – so generally it’s best to place the characters’ heads mid-way or lower in the panel. The side effect of this is that you can spend less time on detail at the top of the panel. This will save time, and prevent from having awesome art covered up.
Photo reference can be extremely helpful – if this is helpful you can use the internet, or run around outside if it helps. The latter will help connect the project to the city you’re in.
Ask your fellow participants to pose for you. This is a good way to get reference for specific, weird poses (and also potentially for the organizers to get photos they can use to promote the event which will haunt you forever… so, maybe make sure to ask the participants if they’re okay with that).
Try to draw the story you’re given in as few panels as you can. Example: If you have a shot of a gun on a table, and in the next panel your character is holding a gun people will understand what happened, and so you wouldn’t need to show a panel of the character picking the gun up.
Listen to the writers (they will be there so talk to them as much as possible – they do need to collaborate with other artists, as well, but without your product, there’s little they can do), but be yourself. They have the story in mind – they are the writers and the directors of this project. But you are the actor and cinematographer. You will decide how it comes out, and how it looks. Try to bring their vision to life as best you can. Make sure you understand them, and do what they need in a way that is true to yourself.
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