New Web Comic: The Epic of Vlád

Johasu

Hello,
I have begun a new Web Comic. http://www.epicsofvlad.com/ The comic may be seen at this link. I post daily and the website is growing and developing on a daily basis.

This is an example of a strip from the comic.





The Epics of Vlád is a web comic about the journeys of the most epic hero ever known. Vlád. The web comic itself is a general satire on video game and anime cliches. Specifically focused on the more rpg style and fantasy setting types of these two mediums, the story sees the hero romp through a myriad of challenges and adventures which pit him against a number of mythological beasts both re-envisioned and made up. He will face off against some of the most common and standard villains known to fans of these settings. He will endure unspeakable hardships and terrible crushing blows to his person on multiple levels as he fights his way towards a showdown with his nemesis, The Dark.

If you like video games, anime, superheroes, monsters, or mythology then you may find this web comic enjoyable. Please check it out.

I am a fledgling artist and if you look at the comic you can see that I am developing as I go along. I do encourage any sort of criticism and helpful advice.
I am currently drawing the comic with a pencil and then using a scanner. After scanning I use threshold adjustments to black/white it and I color it using graphicsgale. It's what I have available. Pixel art isn't something I have a TON of experience in but I don't have a tablet so I use a mouse and make it work.

Thank you for your time,
Johasu

valhalla130

When I was in high school, I wrote a set of silly adventures called the Adventures of Vladimir, Warrior of the Wayfare.

Enc

Johasu,

Don't be a site whore.

Sincerely,
The Internet

Johasu

That is fun. I based the name of the character loosely off of my brother who plays a lot of online games and enjoys using the name Vlad. However, the name is always taken so he began using the accent mark and the rest is, as they say, history.

Johasu

A thousand pardons for the act of site whoring. I was unaware that it would be considered somehow uncouth or rude to introduce my web comic in a forum about web comics.

Sincerely,
Internet site whore, AKA Johasu

amateurhour

Johasu wrote: »

A thousand pardons for the act of site whoring. I was unaware that it would be considered somehow uncouth or rude to introduce my web comic in a forum about web comics.

Sincerely,
Internet site whore, AKA Johasu

It's not a forum about webcomics, it's a forum for art critique. They welcome webcomics, but you need to actually post the images of the comics here using the image tags so we an take a look at them and critique them.

Just do that and you'll be good to go.

Enc

Johasu wrote: »

A thousand pardons for the act of site whoring. I was unaware that it would be considered somehow uncouth or rude to introduce my web comic in a forum about web comics.

Sincerely,
Internet site whore, AKA Johasu

At the top of the page there is a rules thread, conveniently titled: Rules Thread - Read Before Posting!

Among other things on there, #7:

7 ) No Site-Whoring
Site-whoring, plugging, or advertising of your personal Website, product, or Webcomic any kind will not be tolerated. You can include a link to your site/gallery in your sig, but do not start a new thread simply directing people to your site.

Asking for help with Website design/layout is acceptable as long as users are not required to navigate out of the forum to see your site (take a screenshot). Remember: we are artists, not programmers.

Pretty much, if you want feedback for your comic the way to do it here is by actually posting images. Just linking to your page is considered site whoring here (and most online communities around the internet). It is rightly frowned upon.

The Lovely Bastard

I don't say this much, but there really is not a single thing salvageable from this comic

And the fact you are sitewhoring it depresses me in a way you can never understand

FANTOMAS

okay, show us the sketches, or other drawings other than the web "comic" itself. As it is, like it was said above, nothing seems salvagable from that one comic, drawing OR writing.

Johasu

Well thank you for taking the time to look at it. I do appreciate any level of consideration.

m3nace

Helpful advice -> draw from life. Teaches you a shit-ton and makes you improve radically.

Linespider5

If I were you, I'd definitely at least study layout and composition a little, in terms of experimenting with the placement of figures, scenery, foreground and background elements, emphasis of all these things. I know it sounds like we're slagging you, but I'd bet that if the individual panels were a little more carefully placed and the characters were doing more than standing facing forward in the center of all but one frame, people might be okay with the art. I mean, this looks like it should be an action scene of some kind, right?

It looks like you've got six actions taking place by choice of six panels.

Do some thumbnails (tiny, simple sketches) of each panel. It doesn't have to be perfect or anything, but figure out the best way each panel can take advantage of the space on its own. Imagine each panel is your only panel, and that one action is the only thing going on. Make that work.

Once you've got some that you like for each panel, now try redrawing them on, like, post it notes or other small pages. Play with the layout of these panels, how they might look good together. Two rows of three? Three rows of two? A vertical stack of six images? Maybe you decide one panel should be a lot bigger than the rest. Just play it out.

That'll give you some interesting stuff to try, and will make a world of difference in terms of how strong your stuff can be well before you're even ready to colour it and so on.

Johasu

Thank you.
Every time a person gives me advice like this I think to myself. "Wow, why didn't I post in forums sooner and get this kind of help before?" The internet is such a powerful tool and I am constantly impressed by how many truly helpful people are knowledgeable about so many things.

I don't take offense to people torching me. I know that some people delight in such things. Take the good with the bad.

David Barrentine

Try reading an art book. I don't mean that offensively but rather to say, learn perspective. Part of what would really help is the understanding of where the horizon line would lie. Usually it rests right about eye level. Your backgrounds are incredibly flat and don't allot for a sense of depth that would be needed for a fantasy web series. I also agree with sketching from life. Read books understanding the basic processes for that as well as viewing and it should help you.

Prospicience

Yeah check out our questions and tutorials thread stickied. At the beginning of the thread there's a vast amount of resources for learning, even a few great books for downloading. And as said by others - you can't go too wrong with drawing from life if you do enough of it.