The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Hey, guys, thanks a lot for your posts and comments, really appreciate them!
Heartlash - Thanks! Yeah, that´s one of her abilities. She´s about to pull another one out of her hat this next page I´m drawing (she already did it early on but I don´t think anyone noticed it ^_^).
srsizzy - Hi, srsizzy! Thanks. I addressed that in the dialogue in those pages, but I probably wasn´t explicit enough?
I´m always in the fence here, wondering how much I must tell the reader and hwo much I should let him figure out for himself.
Nadra was starving, so she went to her friend´s house (the skinny guy).
Guy lets her in and says he´ll give her something to bite but his mom better not see her.
Mom´s in the company of her "associates" and turns out they just found out one of them is an undercover cop. Fistfest ensues. ^_^
Mykonos - Thank you for your kind word, Mykonos. I´m doing "Lady of the Horde" just for the fun of it, like I did "Silversparrow" a couple years ago and "Airla" just this summer. No plans to run a webcomic site yet.
I have been working professionaly as a freelance artist for 12 years now, very low key but yeah, I´ve had stuff printed here in Portugal and in the US ( Moonstone Books released this week a comic drawn by me, The Phantom#20).
I do think I have a long way to go still and it´ll take a LOT of work and dedication to be able to rub shoulders with the likes of Adam Hughes or Travis Charest.
A LOT of work .
Fantasyrogue - Thank you as well, Fantasyrogue! If you do have doubts about anythiing, transitions or otherwise, just say the word and I´ll gladly explain (or correct if it turns out I goofed ^_^).
I'm a little confused about the transition into her most recent power. Not artistically, but from a writer's standpoint. She was just getting her ass rocked by that dude, why is she suddenly awesomeofied? Why wasn't she awesomeofied in the first place?
Nadra may not play with all her instruments but she´s pretty awesome in her own. Ability to channel dreams and nightmares into corporeal entities or the power of suggestion ("- Look what I´ve got!" people see what they wanna see, a videogame or a baby glove).... that´s not bad at all.
The merit for her latest turn to major badassness, however, is not entirely hers but something/one she felt in that building a page ago.
Notice her facial expression, she´s in awe.
There´s something so powerful in there even the panel borders went apeshit.
You summon a dream/nightmare form whatever that is and it´s bound to turn the table.
Ahh, see I think my confusion came because I interpretted her face in the prior panel as fear (like the I'm on a ledge and he's backed me into a corner fear), not awe. It's hard to distinguish the two sometimes.
Oh.
yeah, now that you mention it, I can see how that could raise a confusion.
Nadra´s affraid of a boatload of stuff (I would actualy classify her as a chass A chicken, which IS a depart from my usual brave and fearless superheroines ), but heights don´t really frighten her.
You´ll recall that just a couple pages ago, she haad one of her ghouls carrying her across the rooftops.
www.etherlair.com
(there´s a prob with the gallery´s software, when you first enter, no artwork shows. You have to click "top" and from there proceed to the various sections of the gallery for them to show).
Thanks, Mykonos.
I tend to use the same techniques both in my in-book and cover art, though the later gives me more room to go wild, being a glorified splashpage and whatnot... ^_^
In panel four you've got the base of her left eye socket extending past her brow. Perspective seems way off in panel five, and the brushwork on her butt is down right silly. There could be a lot more foreshortening on her left hand in panel six (would you call that forelongening?) Also, her eyes are looking in two different directions in the last panel, and the lines you put down indicating the base of her throat look weird and mayhaps a little high. I also think you need new fonts.
Impressive work though.
Mrrr, I get what's happening, but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense out of the context that you're just doing this for fun. Okay, so first she's remembering the old days with a friend, then she's homeless on the street, then she goes to get food, then her friend's house is full of thugs, then one of the thugs is aware of her "magical" abilities and wants to stomp her, she then runs, she chases, she beats him down, then suddenly is called by some giant beast (that might be her creator?) which is kept in some government/magical facility. Am I getting it so far?
I was just reading some comics yesterday, and I was noting what narrative techniques are required for the message to be relayed to the reader in an optimum way. I think your comics could benefit from some sort of narration/present thought boxes (like there are boxes that say what the main character is thinking or is some how narrating what's going on so that the reader isn't left in the dark).
Like when you said she was shocked by feeling a particularly strong nightmare from the little girl. Even though it might be out of place, you should have her say "What's this?" or something along those lines so that the reader better understands what she's thinking.
Aside from that, color would also help because with the amount of detail in your inks a lot of it just blends together and you really have to look for things sometimes for them to be apparent. For instance, I wouldn't have noticed the knife under the woman's pillow if you hadn't mentioned it. Actually, I just realized, I think a lot of the blending together of details comes from the amount of gray that you incorporate into the inks. It helps with depth, but sometimes the amount of shading and lines can be a tad overwhelming.
I'd also look for some new fonts for action sounds. The font you have is good for dialog, but it's better to mix it up with the sounds and the shapes of those words (*boom*, *bang*, etc). You ten to do a lot of curvy stuff with the same font. There's a lot of good fonts for stuff like that, and it's good to find a font that fits the sound you're doing.
Aside from that, I love your inks, and you do a good job keeping the character features rather consistent. Also, your nightmare/demon shit is superb, and very intricate, so good job with that. It's cool to see you just doing something this detailed and worked out for fun.
srsizzy on
BRO LET ME GET REAL WITH YOU AND SAY THAT MY FINGERS ARE PREPPED AND HOT LIKE THE SURFACE OF THE SUN TO BRING RADICAL BEATS SO SMOOTH THE SHIT WILL BE MEDICINAL-GRADE TRIPNASTY MAKING ALL BRAINWAVES ROLL ON THE SURFACE OF A BALLS-FEISTY NEURAL RAINBOW CRACKA-LACKIN' YOUR PERCEPTION OF THE HERE-NOW SPACE-TIME SITUATION THAT ALL OF LIFE BE JAMMED UP IN THROUGH THE UNIVERSAL FLOW BEATS
Thank you so much for your post and your extensive analysis, I really appreciate the thought you´ve put into your review and I agree with your arguments, especialy regarding the narrative which i think is this story´s main problem.
These stream of consciouness projects of mine often suffer from a lack of consistency throughout the pages, in drawing whatever it is that I feel like drawing, the story starts taking roads that make everythign extremely convoluted.
I don´t agree with the color issue since I think that given my lacking coloring skills, it would only hurt the pages but I agre that a better use of grayscaling would help the pages instead of blurring them.
LOL
Reading you summarise the story, it hit me in the face how outlandish/convoluted the whole deal is. I´ll make an effort to stay a bit more consistent the next chapter and not jump so much from theme to theme.
Promise. ^_^
Whew!
Insane week this was, but a new finished page I managed to cook, yes?
Swear to God I only noticed the ghoul cleaning his nose on Nadra´s coat when it was already done.^_^
It's late but no one has pointed out that the title on your cover page is difficult to read. If it were easier to read I'm not sure if that font choice is the best, it does nothing to catch the readers attention. Have you thought of creating your title without using a font?
Haha, well it leaves WAY too much unexplained.
Though I got a little confused and thought this actually the ending of chapter I (I think it would work better this way).
Eliseu, since the day I first saw your work, I must say your inking has gotten even better (beyond levels described by words to be honest). But there's still something about the way you draw faces that bugs me and I can't put my finger on it specifically. I think it might be that they're a bit flat at times.
Please keep up the great work though. The plot THICKENS! XD
Posts
Heartlash - Thanks! Yeah, that´s one of her abilities. She´s about to pull another one out of her hat this next page I´m drawing (she already did it early on but I don´t think anyone noticed it ^_^).
srsizzy - Hi, srsizzy! Thanks. I addressed that in the dialogue in those pages, but I probably wasn´t explicit enough?
I´m always in the fence here, wondering how much I must tell the reader and hwo much I should let him figure out for himself.
Nadra was starving, so she went to her friend´s house (the skinny guy).
Guy lets her in and says he´ll give her something to bite but his mom better not see her.
Mom´s in the company of her "associates" and turns out they just found out one of them is an undercover cop. Fistfest ensues. ^_^
Mykonos - Thank you for your kind word, Mykonos. I´m doing "Lady of the Horde" just for the fun of it, like I did "Silversparrow" a couple years ago and "Airla" just this summer. No plans to run a webcomic site yet.
I have been working professionaly as a freelance artist for 12 years now, very low key but yeah, I´ve had stuff printed here in Portugal and in the US ( Moonstone Books released this week a comic drawn by me, The Phantom#20).
I do think I have a long way to go still and it´ll take a LOT of work and dedication to be able to rub shoulders with the likes of Adam Hughes or Travis Charest.
A LOT of work
Fantasyrogue - Thank you as well, Fantasyrogue! If you do have doubts about anythiing, transitions or otherwise, just say the word and I´ll gladly explain (or correct if it turns out I goofed ^_^).
Noticed the panel borders?
- Last wishes?
Disgust me with jealousy.
God they're so amazing
Thanks, Spectre-X!
I think... ^_^
It's looking great though.
Our first game is now available for free on Google Play: Frontier: Isle of the Seven Gods
Nadra may not play with all her instruments but she´s pretty awesome in her own. Ability to channel dreams and nightmares into corporeal entities or the power of suggestion ("- Look what I´ve got!" people see what they wanna see, a videogame or a baby glove).... that´s not bad at all.
The merit for her latest turn to major badassness, however, is not entirely hers but something/one she felt in that building a page ago.
Notice her facial expression, she´s in awe.
There´s something so powerful in there even the panel borders went apeshit.
You summon a dream/nightmare form whatever that is and it´s bound to turn the table.
Our first game is now available for free on Google Play: Frontier: Isle of the Seven Gods
yeah, now that you mention it, I can see how that could raise a confusion.
Nadra´s affraid of a boatload of stuff (I would actualy classify her as a chass A chicken, which IS a depart from my usual brave and fearless superheroines
You´ll recall that just a couple pages ago, she haad one of her ghouls carrying her across the rooftops.
Two questions:
Do you have a webpage and do you ever collaborate with writers?
I do have a webpage:
www.etherlair.com
(there´s a prob with the gallery´s software, when you first enter, no artwork shows. You have to click "top" and from there proceed to the various sections of the gallery for them to show).
I´m also here:
http://eliseugouveia.deviantart.com/
and Here:
http://www.comicspace.com/zeu/
I do work for writers (been a freelance artist since 95), theyré usualy from the US... did a couple gigs for a couple australians... a french (belgian?)....
I just added you on my comicspace, bro. Sent you a little message.
You work is just goddamn dandy.
Yeah, I just came back from comicspace. Cool!
Thank you, I´m glad you like my stuff.
sorry for being away for so long but you know how the freelance life goes...
"I was born; six gun in my hand; behind the gun; I make my final stand"~Bad Company
I tend to use the same techniques both in my in-book and cover art, though the later gives me more room to go wild, being a glorified splashpage and whatnot... ^_^
Impressive work though.
Tumblr/Artblog | DevArt
I was just reading some comics yesterday, and I was noting what narrative techniques are required for the message to be relayed to the reader in an optimum way. I think your comics could benefit from some sort of narration/present thought boxes (like there are boxes that say what the main character is thinking or is some how narrating what's going on so that the reader isn't left in the dark).
Like when you said she was shocked by feeling a particularly strong nightmare from the little girl. Even though it might be out of place, you should have her say "What's this?" or something along those lines so that the reader better understands what she's thinking.
Aside from that, color would also help because with the amount of detail in your inks a lot of it just blends together and you really have to look for things sometimes for them to be apparent. For instance, I wouldn't have noticed the knife under the woman's pillow if you hadn't mentioned it. Actually, I just realized, I think a lot of the blending together of details comes from the amount of gray that you incorporate into the inks. It helps with depth, but sometimes the amount of shading and lines can be a tad overwhelming.
I'd also look for some new fonts for action sounds. The font you have is good for dialog, but it's better to mix it up with the sounds and the shapes of those words (*boom*, *bang*, etc). You ten to do a lot of curvy stuff with the same font. There's a lot of good fonts for stuff like that, and it's good to find a font that fits the sound you're doing.
Aside from that, I love your inks, and you do a good job keeping the character features rather consistent. Also, your nightmare/demon shit is superb, and very intricate, so good job with that. It's cool to see you just doing something this detailed and worked out for fun.
Thank you so much for your post and your extensive analysis, I really appreciate the thought you´ve put into your review and I agree with your arguments, especialy regarding the narrative which i think is this story´s main problem.
These stream of consciouness projects of mine often suffer from a lack of consistency throughout the pages, in drawing whatever it is that I feel like drawing, the story starts taking roads that make everythign extremely convoluted.
I don´t agree with the color issue since I think that given my lacking coloring skills, it would only hurt the pages but I agre that a better use of grayscaling would help the pages instead of blurring them.
LOL
Reading you summarise the story, it hit me in the face how outlandish/convoluted the whole deal is. I´ll make an effort to stay a bit more consistent the next chapter and not jump so much from theme to theme.
Promise. ^_^
Whew!
Insane week this was, but a new finished page I managed to cook, yes?
Swear to God I only noticed the ghoul cleaning his nose on Nadra´s coat when it was already done.^_^
Booom.
No, not really, but thanks, Gredavin!
Hey, Crowleston, thanks for pointing that out, you´re very right about it. I´m gonna talke a looksee as soon as I get myself some time.
So, who´s up for chapter#2?
Congratulations
LOL
"Ending"? We´re still in the begining of act 2...
thanks, Mayday.
Though I got a little confused and thought this actually the ending of chapter I (I think it would work better this way).
Eliseu, since the day I first saw your work, I must say your inking has gotten even better (beyond levels described by words to be honest). But there's still something about the way you draw faces that bugs me and I can't put my finger on it specifically. I think it might be that they're a bit flat at times.
Please keep up the great work though. The plot THICKENS! XD