Aspiring Webcomic Artist

samuraiguy

Hello Everyone! This is my first time posting so I apologize in advance for any of my mistakes. I'm creating this thread to get some feedback on some comics I've been drawing. My goal is to someday create my own website and make weekly post on it. As for now this is just a hobby that I really enjoy doing. What I'm hoping to get out of this thread is some tips and tricks when it comes to creating comics. I'd also love to hear any advice anyone has as far as creating a website goes.

Just to give a background on my experience level, I'm a completely new to this. I just started drawing comics this past June and have been drawing here and there for a couple years. My inspirations come from Artist like Luke Mckay, Mike Krahulik, Monica Ray, and Andrew Gregoire. Currently what I'm using to draw my comics is my Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Tablet with Sketchbook Pro and then I use Sketchbook Pro on my PC with a Wacom Bamboo tablet to color them in. My aim with these comics is to make a gag-a-day style comic based around geek culture or generally anything that makes me laugh. Here are my two most recent comics




I think this one needs a little back story. This is what I posted with it when I posted it on my facebook.
So every year during fall here in Spokane, these little "Blue Fuzzbugs" appear. Legend has it that once these nymphs appear, snow soon follows. And for this, I hate them :P

I have a few more comics that I can post too if anyone is interested. But yeah, please let me know what your thoughts are and if you have any suggestions. I really appreciated everyone's time!

Mabelma

I think you should try and focus on the basics of character design, keep making comics because doing them will help you improve but try and expand your knowledge on the human body. Do anatomy sketches, and tons of tons of gesture drawings. Otherwise keep at it mate. The writing needs some improvement and so does the set up, I think the second comic would had been stronger if in the first panel he was just a normal guy wearing normal clothes but as soon as he catches the bug, on the last panel he turns into the super Game of Thrones character you're trying to invoke with the joke. The premise is well not all that funny since it needs context but with the context and the suggestions I mentioned it might make for a better comment. Regardless try and steer clear of making jokes that require back story other than the one presented in the strip.

Iruka

You are at that very early stage in your work, and there are a lot of uphill battles from here. The good news is that seeking critique and looking for feedback is a sure sign that you can improve. The bad news is that, overall, you are going to have to do a lot of not drawing comics to get good at drawing comics. If you'd like to maximize the usefulness of critiques and your rate of improvement, start studying the basics for the majority of your output. Do a comic after you tackle a lesson on some subject, breaking up the difficulty, but try to keep a balance of both.

Your listed major influences are other web comic artists, and you are going to want to cast a much wider net. When it comes to art and illustrators, how would you measure your knowledge? Have you ventured to buy any books on drawing?

There is no monthly enrichment up this month, but you should check these out:
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/172670/feb-monthly-enrichment-simple-shapes-light-and-form
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/180484/july-monthly-enrichment-character-construction

You can also check out the proko videos here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/ProkoTV?feature=watch

samuraiguy

Mabelma - Thanks a lot for the advice! I'll definitely start trying some anatomy sketches snd gesture sketching. I'm hoping to be able to improve on my writing by just keeping up with my comics. Your suggestion to improve my comic is awesome! Wish I had come up with that :P

samuraiguy

Iruka- Thanks for leaving suggestions as well! I'll definitely do some more studying with my basics. I kind of just jumped into comics and learned as I drew :P As for my knowledge rating, I'd say I'm at the rookie level. Most of the artist I find are through looking at webcomics. I forgot to mention Scott Ferguson as a favorite artist too. I have one book by who I think is Chris Hart (sorry I'm not near my bookshelf) It goes over figure drawing. I guess it wouldn't hurt to look over again :P Thanks for the links too, I'll be checking those out soon. And again thanks for taking the time to look over my work and leave some advice. I really appreciate it.

Belruel

Chris Hart's books are... not really a great place to start. The Questions, Discussion and Tutorials thread here in the AC has a wealth of resources that could help you get started out.

samuraiguy

Awesome! Thanks for the tip Belruel. I'll check it out!