Stronghold Issue 5 Cover! (nsfw)

Lalilulelo

Issue 4 of our book-gone-web comic is approaching, so I needed to get a cover done. Here it is. Issue 4 Starts 12/21. Link to the comic in my sig. Here we go.


And not necessarily in Issue 4, but of the same book, some giant robots:

Minotaur



Haelos

winter_combat_knight

HOLY CRAP these drawings are great. Loving the colours.
Just a little crit... His crotch space seems a little... small. Give his boys a little more freedom
my favorite is the Haelos robot!
*thumbs up

srsizzy

I really think these would benefit more from keeping everything as tightly rendered as the heads and upper bodies of the robots. The spots with broader and more general strokes (including the backgrounds) don't help the pieces work in my opinion. The rendering in the more clear areas is great.

DeeLock

Yeah I have to agree with Srsizzy.

Especially on the robot concepts, the more you scroll down the more the image falls apart for me. On the first robit, the worst bit is that you cropped his foot! There is not reason for this, it just looks strange. The second one's feet are very chunky and look off when compared to the amount of rendering you did for his top half.

The cover is suffering from some of the same issues. His face is really well done, but the rest of the image seems very unfinished, especially the background.

That being said, I love your robit designs, i think they're really nicely done.

Keep it up! It's great to see you improve so much.

NibCrom

I agree with the rendering comments. But the designs are very nice! I like how the legs give you a sense of the scale.

winter_combat_knight

I can see why Lalilulelo decided to simplify areas of the robots. I was showing my work to a concept illustrator a few weeks back (for critique/advice) and he said that images that are too detailed all over are really difficult to look at. He suggests that areas be simplified, to almost block colours and shapes, to contrast areas of higher detailed.
I would think Lalilulelo's bottom two images would work better if the simplified areas where a bit more sharper and crisper. ATM they are a little splodgy (sorry for lack of technical term).
Also, agree with DeeLock on the cropped foot. Why?

Mustang

I actually don't have a problem with the loose rendering. The legs though are unpleasent to look at, they remind me of photographs of elephantitis sufferers. Ungainly and completely unfunctional.

Lalilulelo

Guess I could tighten up the graphics a little bit on the robots' legs.

Nappuccino

It's likely way to late to change it now, but the legs on the last robot scream gundam. For the most part i think the mechs are pretty successful at standing out from the other mechs I've seen but the legs kill that illusion for me.

Lalilulelo

Well, Nappuccino, it's never too late to change, in a revision, or if I have time/and feel like revisiting that drawing. We haven't scripted any issues where it even appears yet. Prrrobably if I changed the design of the ankles. Simultaneously, I do try to incorporate multiple mech influence I've seen. But your point is valid.

Ikage

I am an avid robot lover and just buy the figures out of my love for badass things.

And these robots are quite badass. Though the legs do seem a little on the chunky side. I think thinning the legs down for you might be best but overall very nice concept work. Here is an amazing place for robot ref: http://conceptrobots.blogspot.com/

Though one also has to ask what do legs really serve a purpose for in space for robots. Besides drop kicking other robots in the face or Space Soccer. Which is badass but not very functional.

And I adore your comicbook cover.

L.E.O.

the last robots feet look like he has on nikes basketball shoes. i say make his feet look more like the first one with just stubs, but its your rodeo.

Spectre-x

The guy's face is great, but his body is not. The shape lacks definition, especially in comparison to the face, and as such it comes off as incredibly flat. Also yes, I agree with everybody who said that the robo-legs need more definition. As they are now they're actually kind of ugly, and that is a terrible shame.

And also yes, their legs look awkward anyway on account of being about as thick as their waist. The first robot's legs are way thicker than that, even, damn. I think you should try and fix that, too.

And the last robot's feet don't really match the rest of his design, either. They're made of an entirely different set of shapes than the rest of its body.

Lalilulelo

Aside from personal preference, I think giant robots would need big legs for support. Regardless, it's a design choice, always has been.

Spectre-x

Ah, but if you're going in that direction, they'd need much bigger feet, too, or they'd sink into the ground whenever they'd take a step. And the white robot's legs still don't really fit with the rest of its design.

Lalilulelo

Yeah I do need to redesign White's legs, agreed. At least from the knee down.

Mumrik

Lovely.



I see a lot of Neon Genesis Evangelion in Haelos.

Lalilulelo

(re)Design of an original character in Stronghold. Still yet to be introduced in the comic itself though. Lyche.

srsizzy

I'm going to make the comment that it seems like she's suppose to be attractive when she's in that pose (and based off of your .gif), but the anatomy is not leaning towards the attractive side--I'll say this without the time to drawover or anything to demonstrate how to fix it, but it's mainly in the curves (or lack of), the hips, the really awkward cleavage, the thickness of the ankle, the jaw, and the stiffness of the pose (related to curves). (If she's not supposed to be sexually appealing (to humans), disregard this.)

Also, looked at your actual comic for the first time, and I really admire the amount of dedication you have to the rendering of every page. It looks like it's really paying off (comparing issue 1 to issue 4). However, I think the font is really unappealing for design reasons I can never put into words other than "bleh."

Daniel_Araya

Browsing through issue 4, I'm blown away at how you're really painting the whole thing, more power to ya!

Having said that, I agree with srsizzy about this alien chick. To add a little to what he said, I think you should re evaluate the curve of her spine. Right now her torso is really rigid and vertical, I feel like a little "swooshyness" would help sell the pose a bit more. I like the actual design of the character though, I feel like I could easily see her in mass effect or something.

Lalilulelo

I see it now (that I finished it ¬_¬), plain as day. Thanks for that. I should come back to it once I feel like looking at it again. The curves of her hips and spine, specifically. I wouldn't want to change much else.
Danke.

Lalilulelo

Looking at it myself, looks like his legs from the hips down need to move to the right a bit..

Fletcher

something seems off about the perspective on his upper arms/shoulders (more specifically the right shoulder)

from the feet up to around his sternum he is turned to the right, but his shoulder looks like its been wrenched out of place to face straight forward

winter_combat_knight

Judging from that last pic, you suffer from the same drawing problems i do atm. your digital rendering/colouring is pretty decent, but your anatomy is lacking accuracy.
HIS left leg is too short and his foot is facing a little too much to the left. also his torso and up is front on, but his lower half is side-on. Set up a digital camera, shoot a photo of yourself and do the basic line drawing referening that that. it just makes this sooo much more easier. once ou've got that structure frame out of the way, you can have fun being creative and drawing on top digitally. its worth it.

Daniel_Araya

I don't think I agree with winter_combat_knight in that I don't think it's an issue of anatomy, I think it's an issue of setting up your perspective (as Fletcher said). I think you were making his left leg smaller because it's receding in space right? Just make sure to line everything up to the same vanishing point to keep it consistent. And make sure you draw a centerline and you're conscious of what direction parts of his body are facing. Like winter_combat_knight said, his upper body is facing more towards us, and his lower body is facing more to our right.

Reference will definitely help with this. But don't just copy your reference though! I think a much more effective thing to do is to take a reference photo of you in this pose (or better yet, get someone to pose for you and draw from LIFE), and then do a shitload of studies of the pose. After you've got that pose in your head and thoroughly understood, try to see what you can push and exaggerate (even for a realistic style). What you'll end up with is
A) A pose in your visual library which you've taken the time to thoroughly understand and which you can call upon from here on out.
A pose that has been slightly exaggerated and pushed, so it's not as stiff and "posed" and it'll have more life to it. The problem with copying directly from reference to your piece of art is that you don't absorb and process the information. And drawings that are taken directly from the reference tend to be really stiff and lifeless.

I really think your designs have a lot of action appeal man, I like 'em a lot. Kickass stuff! Hope I didn't ramble on too much!

Lalilulelo

That's it, thanks man you're on point. Drawing late at night as always, but as soon as I post it I see the flaws.

F87

Lali,

I'm impressed with Stronghold. Keep up the good work.

Lalilulelo

Thanks F87.
Update on Phanesis, and a character that'll be in the next issue.

L.E.O.

i like the blue guy, looks very mass effecty.

Lalilulelo

updating daily you philistines! latest page.

Lalilulelo

I'm gonna start issue 5's cover... which of these thumbnails do you like the best. Please tell me.

Faded_Sneakers

Bottom left is the best imo because the character isnt lost in the design. In the others with the arms close to the body and the rose and the girl occupying the same space they are difficult to seperate visually and so you dont get as interesting a composition because of the lack of complicated versus uncomplicated space.

In the bottom left you have to two elements interacting together plus you have the girl breaking from the roses boundary and floating in uncomplicated space.

By spaces I mean negatives. If you take what you have and black it out even without anything more the bottom left is more interesting in form then the others which if negatived out would seem like amorphus blobs except for the top left one which is similar in the breaking away but is limited because as the arms are on top of one another her gesture is isolated and limited.

Alowing the arms to flow away from the body and the body to bend like a flower would in a slight breeze or as it reaches for sunlight makes a better composition.

God damn I write a lot without saying anything.

Look forward to seeing the final product.

Lalilulelo

Thanks Faded Sneakers, your opinion was very helpful. I assumed everyone was just ignoring me to death.

Lalilulelo

Issue 5 Cover.



Covered the breasts in case we get to print it again, but not a concern while we're doing the online thing.

Daniel_Araya

very very nice figure/cover! Her face is gorgeous man. Something that bugs me about the composition is that the values of the girl and the values of the background are very close, and she almost gets lost. I'd either make her a dark shape against a light BG, or a light shape against a darker BG. Just so that she pops out more.

Lalilulelo

Aight, aight. thank you.

Edit: It seems like making the jpegs (or any format) desaturates the image noticeably. I hate that. Opened the PSD and there's definitely a value difference between foreground and background...
By overcompensating the saturation for the jpeg compression, and implementing your crit --pushing back the BG a bit, slightly adjusted image.