Advice on Comic.

disdaind

Yeah, so, I kinda am afraid to even post here, knowing my crap-tastic art will prolly get bashed, but I am trying to start drawing this comic strip and well, I dunno.. I was looking for advice on best methods for things. I have been drawing them with pencil and paper, then inking, then scanning into photoshop to color. But I also have a wacom tablet, which mainly I use for just in photoshop coloring as of now. My lines don't really seem sharp or something and I was thinking maybe I should start actually drawing with it, so that I get crisp computer drawn lines. Also, I have yet to find a good coloring method that corresponds with my inking/drawing method, sooo I dunno, some advice would help. XD







[IMG]http://www.nabacomics.com/images/santas secret.png[/IMG]

CheerfulBear

Why would you get something notarized by the bank manager??

Furthermore, why would the kid be questioning if it's "mayo"? Is he 12???

Furthermore, why is everyone standing with their hands behind their back? This question is rhetorical.

Furthermore, why is the bank manager's desk floating in the air? Do his magical powers extend past simply "notarizing" and into other realms such as "levitation"?

Furthermore, why does the main character randomly have bulging neck veins or random shit on his face? If he has been intensely chewing something recently, this should be inserted into the comic to avoid confusion.

Furthermore, why is your signature so huge? Do you have trouble being moderate in your outward appearance to other people or do you feel the need to compensate for something else? Don't worry, through motivation and hard work you can overcome your self-esteem issues.

Furthermore, to cheer up this thread I've found a funny Mark Twain quote, in which he talks about German and how stupid the language is!

Mark Twain wrote:

Personal pronouns and adjectives are a fruitful nuisance in this language, and should have been left out. For instance, the same sound, sie, means you, and it means she, and it means her, and it means it, and it means they, and it means them. Think of the ragged poverty of a language which has to make one word do the work of six -- and a poor little weak thing of only three letters at that. But mainly, think of the exasperation of never knowing which of these meanings the speaker is trying to convey. This explains why, whenever a person says sie to me, I generally try to kill him, if a stranger.

bombardier

CheerfulBear wrote: »

Why would you get something notarized by the bank manager??

Are you always this stupid? Fuck.

disdaind

CheerfulBear wrote: »

Why would you get something notarized by the bank manager??

My World of Warcraft Account was banned and one of the requirements to re-obtain it is to get their official document filled out and notorized to prove it is you that actually owns the account. (Was banned for account sharing, prolly a key logger.) A bank manager can notorize official documents.

CheerfulBear

That sounds awful, how long were you without a WoW account??

srsizzy

Your sig is too big.

And...: Anatomy, Coloring, etc. No gradients please. Color the backgrounds? Write text then speech bubbles, so it fits better. Sorta funny...I mean, it's not not funny, but it's not making me laugh.

Also: Web comic? It might be a little overdone. I dunno, I've only seen like...1,000,000 of them in the past year, yet somehow I only find myself reading around 15.

CheerfulBear

I just realized that the bank manager is Chinese because he cannot seem to open his eyes very wide and generally looks sleepy. This also explains his mystical powers. Sorry for the confusion.

beavotron

The bank manager is clearly an Asian, cheerfulbear, how many times have I told you not to take off your detail spectacles!

detail the first: he is yellow
detail the second: he has squinty eyes
detail the third: he is levitating
detail the fourth: he has neon colored depictions of what i can only assume are asian lettering on his walls.

therefore, asian.

CheerfulBear

But this raises an interesting paradox, does it not?? If he is Asian then how is it that he is unfamiliar with "World of Warcraft"? I hypothesize that he is one of the Elder Ones, for they are obstinate and do not wish to accept the modern world and its technologies.

But then this raises the interesting question: "How is it than he can speak English so well?" Perhaps it is in fact not an Elder Asian but instead some sort of mischievous shapeshifter. Observe his obvious lisp with "Let me take a looksie." This is quite the conundrum you have introduced, disdaind.

beavotron

if this is a drawing of a shapeshifter posed as an Elder Asian, I want it tagged NSFW, PLZ.
I don't want my boss catching me looking at such filth.

NotASenator

So when does it deviate from "Look, we're obviously better artists than you so take our oft-repeated advice while we look down on you" to "Man, I am a gargantuan dick!"

I mean, is there an actual line that gets crossed, or is the barrier fuzzier than that?

erisian pope

Cheerfulbear & Beavo - what's with the derail? I thought this thread was a request for critiques? You seem wholly fixated on SE++ style "humor" and derailing. That's not cool.

@ disdaind - I agree with everything srsizzy said. Take it to heart. Your drawing isn't good but it could be. Practice practice practice. "Draw from life" is repeated here all the time, enough to make one sick, but it's seemed to help many forumers here get dramatically better. So I think it's good advice. Your jokes could use some work, too. Writing seems to be a tough aspect of comic-making.

Also, this is picky, but grammar is important. For example, don't use apostrophes to pluralize words. Ever. ("Mall Santa's are the only...").

Good luck!!!!

BenGPT

I can't believe no one's mentioned "pubically accepted pedophiles" yet...
For heaven's sake, art aside, get someone to proofread your comic. Multiple people, if need be.

Now, I'm all for the random Joe expressing his humor through webcomics, and this is probably hilarious to your circle of friends, and if that's all you're going for, you're fine. If you do want other people to read your comic, though, you'll need to clean up your art and writing (what everyone else said). In addition, I'd tell you to just practice drawing the same character over and over again. Through repetition, maybe you'll get your stuff to look cleaner. Try different styles and keep posting them here, no matter how condescending people get. It's all in your attitude, man.

disdaind

Thanks to those of you who were helpful. I'll keep that stuff in mind and work more on my actual drawings. :P
I'll post some more stuff up after I get some practice in. =]

srsizzy

erisian pope wrote: »

Cheerfulbear & Beavo - what's with the derail? I thought this thread was a request for critiques? You seem wholly fixated on SE++ style "humor" and derailing. That's not cool.

Seriously.

And sorry my response was so choppy. As erisian said, "work on anatomy, from life, etc." is basically the way new artists are greeted here, granted they haven't heard it elsewhere.