The Stroke

Ripeville

Hi Everyone!

I just re-released my webcomic from awhile back, and I have begun updating on a regular basis again. So far, I have received mix reactions regarding my new style. It is not much different than my old style, but I have moved back to black strokes around all of the characters and environmental objects. I'm really not too sure if I like it, but I was wanting a change. I would love to know your feedback on what you think. Black Stroke or Darker Colored Stroke?





Thanks so much for your input! It is greatly appreciated!

Stupid Mr Whoopsie Name

I really prefer the second one with the softer lines.

Mustang

I'm not really leaning towards either. Whatever makes you happy I guess.......I don't get the joke though.

Ripeville

Mustang wrote: »

I'm not really leaning towards either. Whatever makes you happy I guess.......I don't get the joke though.

Sorry, I meant for this post to be related to the style of the strip, but for your info:

It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time

TheMorningStar

I agree with the above poster, the one with softer lines is better.

Mustang

I feel dumber for having watched that....but at least your comic makes sense now.

Stupid Mr Whoopsie Name

Dude, did you just sitewhore your comic in someone else's thread?

TheMorningStar

Mars Elliot wrote: »

Dude, did you just sitewhore your comic in someone else's thread?

uh no, I just character whored my banana. I'll delete my post though. Sorry.

desperaterobots

I would have thought that of all the problems that may or may not exist within the comic, the finer nuances of line quality would be amongst those with a low priority.

But if we're talking about it, at least practice some consistency. If you're not going to outline the characters in black, dont do any other lines (ie their eyes) in black either. It looks like you just... forgot.

Ripeville

desperaterobots wrote: »

But if we're talking about it, at least practice some consistency. If you're not going to outline the characters in black, dont do any other lines (ie their eyes) in black either. It looks like you just... forgot.

I'm sure I could ask for input regarding other ways to improve the comic, but I felt that since this is an Artist Forum it would be inappropriate. I also find the stroke to be quite high priority, given that it provides a different look and feel to the strip, which I find very important.

I do agree with you regarding the lines on the mouthes etc. I will be looking into testing those and seeing how i could provide a higher consistency. Thanks for the input!

desperaterobots

What program do you use to create this comic? These are all vectors, right? Do you create the vectors from sketches or do you just jump into whatever program you use and start building?

Ripeville

All of my strips are vector drawings, created through Adobe Illustrator.

When I re-released my strip, I redrew all of my characters by hand numerous times. I then scanned my favorites and re-drew them in Illustrator Before then, everything was drawn straight onto the computer.

You will notice that the character styles look very similar than before. This is because I did not want too much of a drastic change to the style. Originally, I had different angles for almost every frame, but I felt that this would bring a very large change to the strip. I did not want that.

(ohms)Crunchy

Peanut Butter Jelly Time: It's not funny, and it never was.

Ripeville

@(ohms)Crunchy: I, actually, agree with you. I don't think I ever laughed at the Peanut Butter Jelly Time video. I simply found that Ripeville was relevant since the video featured a dancing banana - and one of my characters is a banana.

desperaterobots

Ripeville wrote: »

All of my strips are vector drawings, created through Adobe Illustrator.

When I re-released my strip, I redrew all of my characters by hand numerous times. I then scanned my favorites and re-drew them in Illustrator Before then, everything was drawn straight onto the computer.

You will notice that the character styles look very similar than before. This is because I did not want too much of a drastic change to the style. Originally, I had different angles for almost every frame, but I felt that this would bring a very large change to the strip. I did not want that.

Is there any reason you're choosing vectors to build these characters? Is it just because it allows you to create maximum imagery with minimum effort? I see lots of reused shapes that are just rotated or flipped. It looks lazy and really... I don't know... dry? For instance, there's a total lack of variation in your line widths, so everything looks flat as fuck. The shadows on the banana change depending on which way he's looking rather than being dependent on the light source....

Lazy.

Ripeville

I draw Ripeville in a vector format because I enjoy the clean, crisp look that it gives. I do reuse the character models over and over and yes, I will even flip them. This is for a few reasons:

• Redrawing the same fruit and vegetable would be almost pointless, given that they will retain the same shape and size in each frame.
• It is part of the style of the strip to reuse the same models. You will find another example of this by looking at Little Gamers.
• To Save Time

As mentioned earlier, this strip was created awhile back and I have just resurrected it. I plan to put a bit more time and effort into the drawings and styles. Yes, you will find new angles that do not appear as flat, but I would expect to see reused models in almost every strip. This is for the same reasons listed above.

If you take a look at today's strip you will see that I have adjusted the lines around the mouth as you mentioned. I like it, actually. Thanks for the input!

DeeLock

/Facepalm

desperaterobots

The clean, crisp look of an ice cold Vector. Mmm, refreshing!

I dig the attempt at efficiency, I just think it's costing your art more than you're gaining in time. Gabe and Tycho are always 'the same shape' but I can't imagine PA getting away with flipping and rotating the characters to save time. I mean, how much time are we talking to vary line widths and draw a different pair of eyes? It shouldn't be more than an hour. If your not comfortable with Illustrator because it's taking too much time to perform simple tasks like that, you're not going to get any faster or better by using cheap shortcuts to 'save time', and you're costing your strip a lot of the character that might elevate it to something great.

Hell, at the moment you're not doing much more but pushing custom clip art around.

Brolo

Little Gamer's artwork works against it a lot of the time. The characters can't show emotion (or just plain motion) at all. It's very... sterile.

Also why are there so many comic threads? Is it because it's spring?

Zombiemambo

In the second and fourth panels, the banana's face doesn't looked attached to the rest of him. Tim Buckley face syndrome, perhaps?