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Started a comic - advice/opinions wanted
Retro1978
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hi folks,
After 10 years of reading and enjoying webcomics, I decided to finally stop procrastinating. I found myself a writer and set about starting my own comic and I am now looking for opinions and advice on how I can improve the quality of the art.
The site is located here.
This is the latest strip
I'm after advice mainly regarding the inking/coloring side of the strip, I realise my art style can only get better with time but coloring especially can be improved ten fold I'm sure with perhaps just a few tips.
Now I realise this might seem like a blatant plug for the site on the forum of the best/busiest webcomic on the net and in some small part it is ;-) but I really am eager to improve my own skill and welcome all good and bad feedback.
Cheers,
Brian
After 10 years of reading and enjoying webcomics, I decided to finally stop procrastinating. I found myself a writer and set about starting my own comic and I am now looking for opinions and advice on how I can improve the quality of the art.
The site is located here.
This is the latest strip
I'm after advice mainly regarding the inking/coloring side of the strip, I realise my art style can only get better with time but coloring especially can be improved ten fold I'm sure with perhaps just a few tips.
Now I realise this might seem like a blatant plug for the site on the forum of the best/busiest webcomic on the net and in some small part it is ;-) but I really am eager to improve my own skill and welcome all good and bad feedback.
Cheers,
Brian
Retro1978 on
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Brian, we ask that you please not just post a website link, but instead, post actual examples of work in the thread. Just posting a website is known as "sitewhoring" and is frowned upon here. Please edit your post with some image examples of your comic so we can give you some critiques. Thanks.
"College starts.... today."
Overly dramatic IMO.
Writer's choice, not mine, I guess to symbolise the importance of the day.
also internet advice
don't sign your name on your posts it is lame
If it's possible (and I highly suggest you try and make it possible), it would be a good idea to find photo references for your poses. Anatomy isn't very good, here, and that will take some time to draw decently, as you seem to know...but in the meantime, every little bit would help! And I've seen people improve ridiculous amounts within a period of just a few months, or even just a few drawings, if they really take time to observe and study.
Just standing in front of a mirror and drawing sketches based off of what you see would help you immensely, I think. Not only with your anatomy, but with your shading and coloring, too. Your palette seems *very* saturated - which can be fine if you're going for that - but I would guess you're trying for a more realistic-looking comic. Really, the best advice I can give you now, I think, would be to LOOK at everything in the real world. Look at how light hits fabric - where the shadows are, where the lightest point is.......then look at a human face....where the planes of the face are, which planes stick out enough for light to hit them when the light is at a certain angle...
Here's a really crappy example, but it's a start, at least.
long story short:
Draw/color from observation. When you understand how clothing folds, you will be able to "fake it" without using a reference. When you understand how light hits the face, you will be able to draw this without looking in the mirror. When you understand what colors exist in the real world, you will be able to make realistic-looking colored works from your head. Until then, though, you're going to need to observe and internalize what you're learning, and you're going to need to do that often.
"The legend tells of a young man, marked by destiny, who will claim the sword and bring freedom to the land. But enough of that totally unrelated information... I'm late for work!"
it's like they're preparing to go off to war or something.
or maybe it's a batle royale kind of school?
and i haven't seen many blonde people with black pupils.
Doing the pupil and the iris all in black like that can just be a stylistic choice.
Wait, there are people who don't have black pupils?
I'd like to see pictures of that. Is it a disorder or something?
Sorry for the digression, just really curious.
My Website | My "photo-a-day" 2010
i did some reading up on shading/lighting, this is my first effort at applying more of proper shading technique, please let me know where I can improve (as I'm sure you will, vocal bunch that you are)...
Cheers,
(Name not added this time, since it's *lame*)
Get out this archaic thing called a pencil and a sheet of pencil.
Sit down and draw something from life.
You dude and chick look exactly the same.
And they both look pretty crappy.
Don't even worry about color at this point, you need to learn forms and basic anatomy. And draw from life, not out of your head.
1) I know that I have a long way to go, but seriously your assumption that I'm using a mouse or tablet is quite wrong. I drew this with that archaic system you described, inked it with an equally archaic system called a pen, then scanned it into photoshop for coloring.
2) They do not look *exactly the same* (in the 2nd post at least), there will be similarities of course because of the way I draw but I don't want to create a completely real life style comic, I want to retain an element of comic style to it, so there will be a bit of similarity to what I draw.
4) I realise that my anatomy is bad, i have started to read up on that side of it, but it'll take time hence the profile only shots in the 2nd set of images. The shading/lighting is something I can work on relatively quicker than anatomy.
Look, I get that you don't want to draw in a real life style, but you won't draw a style well unless you can draw in real life.
I think you should learn to draw before doing the comic because the art is really hard to look at (I'm not trying to be offensive, I don't draw awesomely myself). I just don't see why so many people who can't draw always start webcomics. You came here wanting to to learn how to improve your art, but you come back with another comic based drawing after being told to draw from life.
Lets see some real sketches.
Also, read the anime eyes thread.
I work a full time job, I have a partner to spend time with so my time to study and improve is impaired but I am committed to doing so, drawing is something I have loved to do for many many years now albeit without any training or refinement. Anatomy and basic figure structure will take time, however I feel that shading and lighting can be improved through reading and advice more than the other areas for improvement which is the reason for the new pictures. I said in the post "this is my first effort at applying more of proper shading technique, please let me know where I can improve", and I mean that sincerely.
I don't need to hear "your anatomy is crap, your facial structure is crap", I know this already and will improve this over time. Right now I'm asking the forum for advice in regards to shading and lighting, and while I appreciate you want to give you opinion, someone else has already given the advice you're telling me (and gone into more detail) so I really don't need to hear it again.
But fixing the hair line wont make your drawings better, you need to focus on some life drawings, observe how things look and more importantly how to express depth.
And yes, Virum is right, both characters look alike... ALOT.
EDIT:
Never mind about the life drawing remarks.
There's nothing wrong with practicing comic style stuff, and I for one don't recommend focusing on NOTHING but real life drawing to the exclusion of all else.
But you really do need to supplement your current efforts with some real life practice. Give it a try, it's not as boring as it sounds. It's actually a fairly entertaining effort in its own rite.
Also, if you're going to focus on something don't focus on shading. Shading is useless until you have a good grasp of the forms beneath it. It's ok to dabble in shading but I get the impression you intend to practice anatomy a little and focus on shading until your anatomy is better. Which is the exact opposite of what you should be doing.
I do not think webcomics is for you at this point. You are a level green beginner, and you're stumbling on every aspect of the page layout, let alone drawing anything with some actual depth and control.
In all honesty, THE best thing you can do for yourself is to do nothing but pencil sketchwork for a good chunk of time. What's the point in dabbling fusing pencils, inks, colors, AND panel layout when you don't even have a decent enough grasp on any of them to get by?
There's just so much to work on here it's absolutely staggering; proportions out of whack, no actual depth regarding anything in the drawings, no lines of motion to set up the characters, and flat flat FLAT colors. I could go on, but i've got sixteen comic pages to finish by friday, and i'm extremely behind.
Just practice drawing fluid lines, work on becoming more sketchy to set up everything, draw some fruit, etc. Yeah it's boring, but man does it work.
Ravenshadow I maybe haven't explained my intentions correctly. I realise that shading/lighting being correct or less wrong will not improve my comic, however on the overall finised product it will have an impact and it is something that will be less difficult to improve on that anatomy/perspective/etc, I do not want to focus on it over anything else, I just think that it's an area that can benefit from advice more than any other and in the mean time I can improve quicker than others. I have no illusions that it will be the solution to my many problems
Listen to this man; I honestly can't stress how important linework is.
I know i'm not the only one; for example, renouned French Realist painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was the one who thought that lines were a more important aspect of a painting than the actual colors.
Oh and seriously, stop worrying about coloring and inking your stuff at this point.
EDIT: Didn't mean to make the first post seem so dickish. Just kinda happened.
Compare and contrast.
Seriously. I was going to say "you can't shade properly without understanding the form you are shading", but it's already been said by my fellow forumers. SO. Study this purely for color purposes, as you seem opposed to working on any life drawing right now (yes, believe it or not, if you have enough time in a 24 hour period to make that drawing, above, you have enough time to NOT make that drawing above, and instead, work on a study from life. You don't have to spend three straight hours on it - althought that would be excellent - but don't draw from your head anymore, because that will not get you anywhere with anything.)
Again, your colors are oversaturated and flat. If you are using photoshop, take this photograph in my post and use the eye-dropper tool to take color off of HER, and put it on your drawing. Use her eye color, her skin color, her hair color. Does it look wrong when applied to your drawing? It should. Keep at it though, until your drawing is completely covered. That should introduce you to the world of "real color", and possibly even help you remember some "real color".
That is your first project. Go!
people can also have two different colored eyes. my aunt and David Bowie have them:
However, I think that you don't understand how hard it is to learn shading. This is a great tutorial on the interwebs, though. Correct shading that looks good is just as hard as correct anatomy, and to be honest I think anatomy is more important at first. Knowing how something is constructed makes shading it a LOT easier later on. Besides, having nice coloring will not have the kind of impact I think you're expecting. Alduar could come in and paint behind some of your linework, and it will still look like a beginner work. But that's just my two cents.
Good luck, and just keep at it. Learn from your mistakes and pratice. It takes a while. Read a bunch of books. et cetera.
[EDIT] Man, David Bowie is a freaking looking dude.
Please, tell me more about this crazy "sheet of pencil" you've been going on about.
It would actually make the errors stand out. The better the coloring the more the mistakes in the drawing stand out I've learned.
I started from the last quote moving up towards the top of the page, and my expressions can be labeled as such:
First impression (bottom):
HOOBA!:shock:
Mid section:
"That's a nice rack of lamb she's packin........pretty chin to boot."
And then the forehead with the big fuckin' logo completely ruined it for me.
Talk about killing the sex drive.