OBComics

sharky t

I really want to get better at comics! I made a 16 page comic over the last year and it turned out pretty awful. It doesn't mean I won't go back to that project but in the mean time, I really want to get better by making short comics and then try my hand at something a bit longer.

So I thought I'd make a blog (http://obcomics.tumblr.com) and an individual thread to post my attempts and get some feedback from you guys, if you'd be so kind.

To start off here's a quite dark one-page comic I made recently (you might have seen it in the doodle thread, so sorry for re-posting.)



And here's one that was inspired by the 'Strip Search' elimination challenges. I set myself the 90 minute time limit and picked two ideas from separate elimination challenges-'Dinosaurs' and 'Ukuleles'. You can read it full-size in the spoiler.

I like the characters and the experiment with the colour palette, but I'm not sure if it reads too well, mabye I should've stuck more to my initial joke idea of 'T-Rexes only being able to play the ukulele because of their short arms' and made that more clear.

This comic also has a stupid dinosaur song to go along with it, which upon listening again kinda just sounds like noise but it was fun to do.


Sorry for the rambling post!

m3nace

Awesome stuffs. Any chance of seeing the "awful" 16 pager?

sharky t

Cheers m3nace I'm sure that comic will rear it's ugly head again someday when I go back to it properly but I want to take some time away from it. For now though, here's a page I was quite happy with



I coloured that 'Henri McCabre' comic so I could submit it to an anthology comics magazine here in London.



Better quality in the spoiler!

sharky t

Here are my pages for the Bartkira project.


Planes are clearly not my strong point.

I was hoping for some more character-heavy pages but I think it did me good to go out of my comfort zone a bit and I feel like I learned some useful things from copying one of the masters of comics.

NakedZergling

Bartkira?? like Bart Simpson? Like (and im serious here) is that first panel SUPPOSED to be bart simpsons head?

sharky t

Yup... http://www.booooooom.com/2013/05/21/the-simpsons-akira-bartkira-community-project/

Iruka

I'm glad SOMEONE on the forums is doing it! I love your pages, man.

Tiptup The Turtle

Planes may not be your strong point but I'm digging the angles and the red/blue environment. Show us more. May I add, the man in your most recent post resembles Otto ' The Busdriver.'

francium

Looks good dude, more please.

sharky t

Thanks guys
Some little previews of a comic I'm looking to do.
Might try the webcomic format while I've got some time over summer

sharky t

Lady Knight

Started out totally not Brienne of Tarth, ended up pretty Brienne of Tarth.

Want to get back to more actual comics soon but this was just a bit of relaxation after some hard days.

McD

Those character sketches for that comics project look great, man... Fantastic job on the Bartkira pages, too! Looking forward to seeing more of your stuff!

sharky t

Thanks very much @McD

It's been ages since I've posted anything in here! But I'm back with yet another comic idea!
I've started a new webcomic type thing called The Scoundrel & The Bastard over at http://scoundrelbastard.tumblr.com which I plan on updating every Monday.

Here's the first page:

And a little intro image of the main character:


It'd be great to get some feedback from you guys. Pretty scary starting something like this, I hope I can keep it updated.

transatlanticalien

Hoorayyy another Bartkira contributor!! Hi-5

I'm really digging everything in this thread! I'll definitely be keeping an eye on the new comic too

m3nace

"I'm not the guy she used to know" really reminds me of that Gotye song, perhaps mostly because it has a lyrical quality to it when it rhymes with "I didn't have the heart to say hello."
Her hand is also pretty awkward, I assume she's a bird or something? It just looks sort of lumpy sticking out of her sleeve so far.
Looks promising though. What's the font you're using? Did you make it yourself? It really fits the style.

sharky t

Thanks @transatlanticalien I'd love to see your Bartkira pages.

Thanks for the feedback @menace I hadn't even thought about it being like that song! Oh no! Haha
Yeah, that hand is looking a little wonky, I'll have to revisit that. Thanks for pointing it out.
The font is called Amatic SC, I didn't make it myself and I'm struggling to remember where I got it from. I'll try to find it for you, could be a Google font.
It's upper and lower cases are actually just different versions of the upper case letters which gives it a nice bounciness if you alternate between the two.

sharky t

Just uploaded the next page of the comic.
Excuse the language!
http://scoundrelbastard.tumblr.com/

MyGfsDog

You understanding of color is spot on! It's just right on each account. Drab when it needs to be, bright and bold when it needs to be, etc. You mentioned planes not being your strong point in the Bartkira pages, but I think they are fine. They fit the rest of the art. Any "better" and they would stand out too much in a way that you don't want. Cool stuff indeed. My only minor criticism is in regard to the font used in the above page. The letters are a tad thin. But...that's just me.

sharky t

Thank you very much! I've been trying to get better with colour, so that's encouraging!
Thanks for the feedback about the text too, still testing the water a little bit so I'll try to spend a bit more time working it out.

sharky t

Here's the next page going up tomorrow. A bit of a change of pace.

Hi-Res:

sharky t

Do the speech balloons look ok?

sharky t

Here's some work in progress stuff from a 4 page comic I'm working on at the moment



And a new page I really enjoyed making for the Scoundrel & the Bastard which will be going up tomorrow. I'm not sure about the colour of the cocktail that the barman gives him, might change that before tomorrow and I've just noticed I forgot to put rain in the last panel.



Hi-Res:

Iruka

Sharky do NatCoWriMo with us!

sharky t

Was ist das?

Iruka

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/181252/natcowrimo-augscripting#latest

You may not have time with the full on webcomic. haha.

I really like the style so far. It may be hard to gain much readership when you have a long format story that only offers up for panels a week, but maybe later you can increase the update schedule.

sampangolin

Sharky I just want to agree that these are great, please keep making them! I really like how you use colors, both in bartkira and in TS&TB. I think the planes read really well. If something is drawn badly or the perspective is out then it can really stick out, but I didn't think that happened at all.

sharky t

Iruka wrote: »

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/181252/natcowrimo-augscripting#latest

You may not have time with the full on webcomic. haha.

I really like the style so far. It may be hard to gain much readership when you have a long format story that only offers up for panels a week, but maybe later you can increase the update schedule.

Aw man Natcowrimo sounds awesome! I have a few of those projects that I've been 'meaning to start on forever' I'll have a proper think about it and see if it's feasible as I go back for my last year of uni in October.

Thanks for the feedback on the webcomic. Yeah I should really update more if I can, I haven't really thought too much about the promotion side of the webcomic to be honest, I think starting out I just wanted to do something that forced me to update every week.

sampangolin wrote: »

Sharky I just want to agree that these are great, please keep making them! I really like how you use colors, both in bartkira and in TS&TB. I think the planes read really well. If something is drawn badly or the perspective is out then it can really stick out, but I didn't think that happened at all.

Thanks dude. I'm really enjoying using colour right now, I used to think it was such a tedious process but I've changed my mind since I started actually using the brush tool to manually colour areas rather than letting the paint bucket fill them.
Guess those planes were better than I thought. Thanks!

Jobafett

Hey thanks for the critique! I really like the variety in your art styles! Keep em' coming!

Nappuccino

Why have i not seen this thread.

Bartkira is worth it alone. I forgot that project existed and now I'm delighted.

sharky t

Thanks, Nap! Yeah, looking forward to seeing the finished Bartkira comic if it ever actually gets done haha.

I've been neglecting this thread and the webcomic for most of August, what a lame-o!

Here's an update to the comic that went up a few weeks ago. Funnily enough, I've planned out more of what happens next than when I started, but haven't been able to put the time in for final pages.

Hi-Res:

And here's a preview of a comic that is so nearly done I can taste it! Just needs some text and gotta make sure the juices run clear so I don't get salmonella

nocuddletime

Great colors in the Bartkira stuff!

sharky t

Thanks very much @nocuddletime

Here's the first page of the comic I just posted some panels from. I think I'm happy with it.


It's a story about a case of PTSD in the first world war. The Grey Lady is a famous ghost in the town where the man is from.

For some reason this 4 page comic is taking SO long!

McD

Looks awesome, man. The colours look great, it really reminds me of Rob Davis' Don Quixote comic...

sharky t

@McD Wow, that's good company! I love Rob Davis and those books. Thanks a lot.

Here's the full comic, spoilered for size:

For a bit of backstory, see the post on my blog: http://mikeob.tumblr.com/post/60208954639

Iruka

Dude, it looks fucking great, you should print that shit.

sharky t

Thanks, Iruka. It's actually a submission for a publication by my university, so hopefully it will be printed! Fingers crossed!

mully

is that your printing or a font?

sharky t

The lettering was actually done using a slightly embarrassing technique I was recommended by Stephen Collins, which is to type out your text in Comic Sans (I know! I'm sorry!) for the spacing, set down the opacity/lightbox it and do your own hand lettering with your own serifs and whatnot.
Hey, embarrassing but handy!

tynic

that's actually not a bad idea ...

sharky t

Hey guys, haven't posted for a while but here's something I've been working on


Hi-Res in the spoiler:

I hope it reads ok. It's designed with print in mind so I'm hoping when it's stapled and folded it'll be easier to tell that it's 2 pages rather than one wide page.

m3nace

Fucking awesome! I love spreads that have stuff in the center. Maybe I'd make the plate in the middle a bit larger to really hammer it in that these are two pages meant to be read separately.