Hi there. Y'all probably don't know me too well, but I lurk here quite a lot, and harass people in the live feed chats.
Regardless, I've been working on both honing my art (which has been lackluster forever and a day) and trying to create a new, lovable world, though I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm mainly looking for any thoughts you may have on my latest set of comic strips. I'm trying to bring together something that is both unique and professional looking.
I'm gonna beat you to the punch and say that none of my comics (the 'Happily Inked!' series) are laugh-out-loud funny, since I've discovered that I'm just not a very funny person. Instead, I've gone for more of a charming set of lead characters.
A little exposition - the two leads are "Inky" and "Dinky." Inky is a mild-mannered, borderline naive American who lives alone with his pet primate "Dinky."
Anyway, any suggestions on how I can improve the style of these comics would be of much help. The style is meant to be as simplistic as possible while stylishly portraying a story in every 1-6 panels. Thanks.
http://www.happilyinked.com
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If you care to see where I kind of stand in my (lack of) artistic skill, here's some of my most recent works.
I COMPLETELY screwed myself on the lightning and effects on this one. I'm pretty embarrassed to even show it.
Posts
I'm not a big fan of the way you've stylized the characters as well. The hands and feet resolving as simple corners feels like it was a shortcut and not a legitimate tactic to enhance look and feel. Overall I think there's a ton of room for improvement. Keep at it though, the aesthetic is pretty unique and that gives it potential. I think the best thing you could do would be to convince yourself that each panel will require about twice the amount of time you've been spending on it already. You have a decent eye for perspective and changing POV (panel 1 to 2 in your first strip, for instance), but the execution just isn't there yet.
Our first game is now available for free on Google Play: Frontier: Isle of the Seven Gods
Unfortunately for the stylization of the characters, that's something I think is unique to me and not really willing to compromise. I appreciate your input and hopefully a lot more strips will help me refine it to a more precious ore. I will definitely work on what you said.
you should do that- and by that, i mean draw hands and feet. I'll add new life to the characters- digits are very expressive. (these are all comic specific comments)
Our first game is now available for free on Google Play: Frontier: Isle of the Seven Gods
Of course, I absolutely agree with you. That's why they're different in the latest strip (and the one before it to an extent.) It's definitely the direction I'm taking it in all future strips.
This one, I added hands/feet to both Inky and Dinky.
This one, which my friend demanded was superior, (since she couldn't stand the hands/feet on Dinky but thinks they worked perfectly on Inky) is my likely choice. That is, all pets/animals will have simplistic hands/feet while humans have complex ones.
edit: I should also point out that in the second image, Dinky is not holding inky's hand. He just looks pasted.
Then I guess that's what I'm gonna have to call him.
Off-topic: Are they ever going to fix these forums? It takes 5 refreshes to get anything to load.
the forums been running good for me today....
thats kinda the style. its suposed to be stick people. and last time i checked sticks dont have fingures.
We've been over this already in another similar thread, but stick people smack of laziness and they dont' make the characters easily identifiable for the reader. You should not use stick people esp when you can draw better, which this guy can.
While I appreciate your kind words and advice, I'm going to have to disagree with you. I think Inky and Dinky are very recognizable characters, and I wouldn't call them stick figures at all. They have body mass, flow, a feel of presence in a 3D world and color (white being every color.)
I pondered it for 3 days and eventually decided against hands, because that would not be nearly as iconic as what I have now. I also thought of characters who didn't have hands that are still functional and recognizable. Bloo from Foster's Home, Frylock of ATHF, Squidbillies, etc., though I suppose one could argue that they're not human and are precluded from any such assumptions of phalanges, though I digress.
I'm forced to wonder if my character started with hands if this discussion would not have been about his neck instead, then the realism of his face, then his absence of clothes all the way down until he looked like a realistic human.
Anyway, here's my latest that goes up Wednesday.
Here I went for a more colored approach when it came to lines, so they didn't all feel so dirty and black. I'm still having trouble with varying line widths, but the characters (mainly the third frame) are a lot more fluid, and can move really almost super humanly, but still exist in an attractive manner. I also added one level of values to give the characters a bit more of an existence to the frame.
I really hope I don't sound defensive, because I'm not trying to be. I very much appreciate all the advice, encouragement and help being provided. I hope you keep trying to help me.
I don't think there is a problem with his face or with his neck. The emotions are depicted well enough with your simple lines, and the neck is suggested without issue. Look at Rayman, he has no arms or legs, they aren't important to the character so they aren't necessary.
And there is no problem about the face or neck really, but hands are a very important thing that your characters noticeably lack and need.
At the same time, the whole pointy limb thing does not work for me at all either, so why not try somewhere in between, like what you did with the man dudes feet. You didn't give him toes, you just gave him a shape, and it looked nice. So do the same thing with the hands. Your characters are way to simple to have detailed hands with multiple fingers, imo.
And I agree that you kinda need some sort of visual hooking point to grab attention, because character design wise it's rather bland.
INSTAGRAM
Anything would be better than points.
Or maybe NO HANDS AT ALL.
Just chop off his arms. Then he'll be easily recognizable.
The thing is, he can draw hands well like in the "hand demo" he showed us. They added so much to the characters, esp when holding hands with the monkey...You can feel their relationship because it looks like they actually have one... I'm not sure why he wouldn't want to follow that line of expression up.
Yeah, that's what I was just thinking. Maybe pull an mspaintadventures and have the hands only show up when they're being used? I dunno.
I'm sure you all hate me by now by not going through with 'handing' my comic. I don't want you to think I'm being stubborn or throwing it in your face.
I've drawn a few webcomics, and they all had characters with full appendages, clothing, etc. I really wanted to create something simple, interesting and attractive and I really think I've done that here. I made a conscious decision to draw 'inkydinks' as I call them in a very particular, simple way. It wasn't an effort to cut corners or assault the viewer's eyes. It was to make people think, which I'm happy to say has happened here.
I really appreciate everyone's opinions on my work, and I want to further explore possibilities for the improvement of something I care about. I sort of just wanted this to die because I'm worried that you'll feel I'm being ungrateful, but I didn't want you to think I abandoned you.
Thanks again.