lookin' for some [CRIT]ical hits: MEGA SATANIC DEMON EDITION

earthwormadam

WOW, the new forum makes it really easy to upload craploads of images at once. That's good news for me. I haven't been around much lately, mostly because I've been busy being a butt, hopefully we can move past that.

So that thread Iruka started a long time ago, where you had to make a comic in a month, I could never do that. I'm too slow. BUT I did bang out a really rough scribbly draft, and now that rough scribbly draft has become a readable comic. I'm about to begin inking it, and I'd like thoughts and suggestions, before I start finalizing the pages. I always get good crits here, so I'm back!

Each image is actually two pages, left/ and /right, it will fold vertically down the center. I wanted things to look block printy, so hopefully I don't loose that once I start cleaning up the lines for the final version. I've never made a comic this long before, so let the opinions fly.

AlexSmith

Really good! Awesome use of composition and negative space. I thoroughly enjoyed

earthwormadam

Thanks! It took quite a few revisions to get to this point. The ending seems abrupt, but I toyed with doing a few more pages. It seemed better to leave things more open ended, rather than spelling everything out.

I still have some referencing to do in terms of the insects, the skull and the computer chair. They don't look so hot right now. Also I wouldn't be against adding another page here or there, if anybody thought the pacing was too swift.

tapeslinger

I generally prefer a pretty swift pace in wordless comics-- it's easy to get lost if nothing's happening. You seem to be getting a relatively wide range of expression from a relatively simple set of forms, and I like the two-tone and the utility of negative space. I think, if anything, I want to know more about the super cool dying-earth world you've got going on.

earthwormadam

Thanks! I guess I wanted the reader to feel that way upon reading it...so....success!?

The idea was that a catastrophic nuclear war/event takes place and a group of scientists in a missile control center execute a last ditch effort to restart life on earth. The main character is basically a USB carrying the information to launch a missile that contains the nessisary elements to kick off the evolutionary process over again from the beginning.

I struggled with a way to show this, and I opted to not really show anything, aside from a few clues, in favor of leaving a bunch up to the imagination.

Topknot

I love the inversion of colors, pretty neat. Though visually it can be confusing at times whats going on. Not saying you cant tell, but it takes a second is all.

earthwormadam

Thanks! Feel free to point out any specific areas that seem confusing. I'm inking it now, but I can still fix any spots that could be more clear.

ninjai

killer dude. This was the kind of stuff I like to see in a comic. Your visual storytelling is very creative. ++

Topknot

Cells 3-5, 16, and 26 are pretty good examples. To reiterate, they're not bad. It's definitely a style which I can always applaud I just feel in terms of story telling it's not the most clear.

bronkula

Yeah there's definitely a sense of confusion in a number of panels that try to invert the color scheme, but all in all, I found it compelling, and it took me a very long time to realize it was supposed to be a usb stick. Maybe because the bend was there from the beginning?

Desimation

I like them a lot.

earthwormadam

Yeah the Bend was pretty necessary to give him a more humanoid shape. When I get into the final inking, I am hoping I can make his face look more USB-ish on a few of the close ups to drive the point home.

I don't think I'm too clear on what specific cells you mean though TopKnot. The first two cells are full pages, so 3-5 would be the panels where he is clanking down the pipes on the third page. Maybe if you could clarify what page we could go from there. I def want to remove as much confusion as possible!!

Thanks for the comments guys!

earthwormadam

RISE FROMMM THE GRAVVVE OLD DUSTY THREAD!!!!!

I've been arting a little bit here and there. Not as much as I'd like to, but I want to change that. I did finish inking the first half of Dongle at least, but I still haven't got around to posting that yet. I haven't been updating my Wordpress at all, so I threw my instagram and FB art profiles in my sig if anyone wants to see the stuff I've been doing more recently.

So...I started drawing a bunch of bad guys from DOOM for some reason. I don't know why. This one seemed like it would benefit from color, so I'm giving it a shot. I am not good with colors. I hope this one comes out better. So far I've dropped in some placeholder type flat colors. I want to keep the colors close to the source material, in terms of in game model. The third image shows how I hope to light source this when it's all said and done. I want the main light source coming from the right side, with inner light coming from the mouth and also perhaps rim lighting from around the back left side. Does that seem feasible??

Would love advice or crits now, or while I continue to work on it. Things that I'm trying to keep in mind are, I want the range of value to be strong, and also to have the lighting affect the different surfaces such as the flesh and bone. CHEERS!

earthwormadam

WHELP. I tried and I unsurprising don't like the first attempt. I don't know why I can't pick colors or do light sourcing for shit. I'm usually happy with my lines, but not my colors. In the second pic I removed the lines and it doesn't bother me so much. I don't know why that is.




HALP.

Iruka

Are you going for a hard edged, cell shaded look?

The dark background is why it looks different without the lines, color is relative.

earthwormadam

I'm not sure what look I was going for really. I might just go back to the flat color version and try again.

I have noticed my coloring process always boils down to the same thing. Start with all my flat colors on separate layers. Next, get unsure and impatient, flatten them into one so that it's easier to start scribbling everywhere.

earthwormadam

Maybe I'll go less sketchy and more cell-shaded. Is my light source at least some what plausible?? It's basically a circle, so I figured it shouldn't be that hard to get down...