For your title/mark like srsizzy said you want to start off by considering a new typeface. I like the chevron/badge though. You want to try to make the logo reflect what you want the comic to be. Just off the top of my head I'm thinking a personnel file with the title stamped across it could work or something resembling a typewritten document but it could be anything as long as its reflective of the comic and can stand on its own to attract interest and convey the idea of the comic.

This girl was so happy we gave her a toy. Don't know how I missed this. Not gonna lie... Spoiler: show spoiler hide spoiler This picture made me tear up like a someone just ran my dog over, but I don't care to admit it!

That girl was adorable, much cuter than the one that stole $10 from one of us while posing for pictures with us. Well lets see if I can do this without fucking it up.

That image is coming together nicely! Also, I'd have to agree it's hard to top that picture of the happy little one. It's color coded so wonderfully and that bear has a frog on its head. The bear. Has a frog on its head. I'd be that excited too if I were her!

I think his eyes could be a bit more deeply set into his sockets. They seem to be bulging a bit right now.

Well here it is so far. I'm stopping for the night to let this layer dry. Due to lack of personal ability, I'm really not trying to make it look exactly like the model. I just want it to look decent. -_-

This girl was so happy we gave her a toy. Don't know how I missed this. Not gonna lie... Spoiler: show spoiler hide spoiler This picture made me tear up like a someone just ran my dog over, but I don't care to admit it! I'll definitely second that. The photos you put up on the first page of this thread are amazing.

don't be afraid to mix up some cooler colors to come in and describe some form on the side of his face thats in shadow. Oil paints scrape off quite easily. I dont know if you have the patience for it but you can rub the face out and paint it again and I guarantee you will paint it better the second time. Not saying that you need to, just in the spirit of getting you more comfortable with the medium.

don't be afraid to mix up some cooler colors to come in and describe some form on the side of his face thats in shadow. Oil paints scrape off quite easily. I dont know if you have the patience for it but you can rub the face out and paint it again and I guarantee you will paint it better the second time. Not saying that you need to, just in the spirit of getting you more comfortable with the medium. This might be a mistake, but I've been using Liquin as a medium so it would dry quicker; since I'm trying to get a decent amount done before Wednesday. Would I be able to just paint over the shadow with cool colors? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/MaximasXXZ/HappyGirl_small.jpg This girl was so happy we gave her a toy. Don't know how I missed this. Not gonna lie... Spoiler: show spoiler hide spoiler This picture made me tear up like a someone just ran my dog over, but I don't care to admit it! I'll definitely second that. The photos you put up on the first page of this thread are amazing. And since no one looked at it in the Chat thread, I'm posting my Iraq Deployment video here. Don't worry, it's PG, and no animals are hurled off a cliff. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wo9ATFvHg0

You can paint back into the shadow I dont see why you couldn't. IF your worried about the color muddying up on you just wait till the paint dries. The big thing for avoiding muddy color is laying it down and then not fucking with it. I dont do it as much any more but I used to mix out every color and every tone of the color I Was going to use in the painting then id just pick them up and lay them down. did a quick digital shit of what I was talking about with cool colors. I noticed some value problems, I started correcting them then quit. Im assuming your reference is that picture you posted on page 2. Id suggest Converting it to greyscale and painting from that. Color saturation makes it difficult to see value sometimes. If you have a camera with that feature take a picture of your painting in black and white mode and look at it. Spoiler: show spoiler hide spoiler

You can paint back into the shadow I dont see why you couldn't. IF your worried about the color muddying up on you just wait till the paint dries. The big thing for avoiding muddy color is laying it down and then not fucking with it. I dont do it as much any more but I used to mix out every color and every tone of the color I Was going to use in the painting then id just pick them up and lay them down. did a quick digital shit of what I was talking about with cool colors. I noticed some value problems, I started correcting them then quit. Im assuming your reference is that picture you posted on page 2. Id suggest Converting it to greyscale and painting from that. Color saturation makes it difficult to see value sometimes. If you have a camera with that feature take a picture of your painting in black and white mode and look at it. Spoiler: show spoiler hide spoiler I see what you mean. I'll give it a shot, it doesn't look like it'd be too difficult. PS: You need a better image host.

Max, finally got around to watching that video. That's something else. First and foremost, I'm so glad to see you've kept your head down and hope you continue to manage. Given that, how often were you able to get any drawing done? Seems to me it's something I would try to get in as often as possible! EDIT: Oh yeah, and the very last bit of that video--during the credits--is incredible!

This one's freakin' fantastic. nice work.

Max, finally got around to watching that video. That's something else. First and foremost, I'm so glad to see you've kept your head down and hope you continue to manage. Given that, how often were you able to get any drawing done? Seems to me it's something I would try to get in as often as possible! EDIT: Oh yeah, and the very last bit of that video--during the credits--is incredible! I was in a rut for the first half of the deployment really, being depressed and not knowing what to expect. But after I got settled I had my wife send out a bunch of art supplies and I did what I could when I had time. Usually I tried to do something everyday, but I was so tired and pissed off most of the time and didn't keep it up everyday. Edit: Dumping some stuff off. More or less doodles and random concepts. Watercolor Digital Ink (real media) Ink (from above) with digital coloring

Much like the ancient zombies of lore, I WISE FWUM MY GWAVE and post new pictures from my current Iraq deployment. These were all taken within the last 2 weeks or so. Hot off my issued Canon 1D Mk II. And... got bored standing by for 12 hours so we started playing with long exposures and a flashlight. And since we're Marines... its a dick. I have very little editing power over here. Just a little Dell laptop with some Adobe programs on it. Plus, with the amount of pictures I take its hard to sit down and edit just one or two.

I am glad I sometimes frequent the art threads - you should post some of these to the photo thread, too. I completely love the helicopter shots, especially the first two! You have captured/created some intense mood in them that is perfectly appropriate for the subject matter. Top notch!

Haha... A dick. Awesome photos man. Stay safe.

the second helicopter shot is amazing national geographic quality there

Working on a book cover for our year book thing. My CO is really big on paying homage to the past, so he really liked the idea of a WWII Marine in the image. Yay or nay? Frankly I think I tried too hard to go Shinkawa and fucked it up.

I'm not sure it's working. The soldiers are kind of hard to read, and I think you've gone a bit overboard with closure. The left side of the closer solder, for example, just disappears completely rather than my mind filling in the blanks. It might benefit from some sort of background or something. I can't really judge the concept since it was suggested to you, but the composition seems solid.

The composition is a little off, imo... I'd center the crest (and possibly shift it up a touch), and I'd have the illustration cropped a little tighter to the crest, perhaps bringing it down as low as the top of the front figure's chest (you'd lose his gun but it's difficult to make it out anyway...). You'd then be left with some open space to the right of the illustration (i.e. mirroring the WWII soldier's gun -- is that an M1 Garrand?), which might look fine but if in doubt, you could add the silhouettes of helecopters or something. If it were me, I'd distress & break up the border so it looks slightly mis-printed, and possibly add some all-over grainy texture. It's almost there. ... Great photos by the way, I just took a look at your blog also. Very interesting reading.

Flay-- I think you're right about the closure thing. The design is based off of Yoji Shinkawa's box art for MGS2 Substance. I think the reason his style works is because he uses really light coloring to fill in the areas not described by the ink. This is really difficult to replicate. Grenn-- I'm working on doing what you've recommended. I think it will work better that way. This is just a rough composition I threw together to get the general idea. Thanks for your input guys!

Like the graphic, make it smaller and lose the black border. I'll work up an example later if I have a spare moment.

is that an M1 Garrand?) ^ yeah that. I agree with the closure and lack of forms. I think it would be better to push the contrast of shadows, rather then try to imitate Shinkawa's style (which really does need colours and washes to work) Pics are tits.

Wow you've got some great arts and photography going on. How do you remain productive while in the army? I don't have shit to do all day, and you completely destroy me in work completed!