EncA Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered Userregular
Eric?
If you are planning on webcomicing it up as a serious hobby, I'd suggest saving up about $300 to pick up a small Wacom tablet and a legal copy of photoshop. It's relatively cheap given the amount of hours most people sink into it as an enjoyable hobby (you will get more than 300 hours of entertainment out of it), and it can help your art a ton!
I'm going to have to disagree with Enc and suggest avoiding expensive tools like tablets and Photoshop. If you're looking to improve your art at a basic level, I think it's much easier to do with cheap disposable tools like pencils and paper. Not only is it less of an investment, you can concentrate on improving your art skills instead of concentrating on learning computer programs.
I'm going to have to disagree with Enc and suggest avoiding expensive tools like tablets and Photoshop. If you're looking to improve your art at a basic level, I think it's much easier to do with cheap disposable tools like pencils and paper. Not only is it less of an investment, you can concentrate on improving your art skills instead of concentrating on learning computer programs.
Oh, oh oh, and yeah, if you have a scanner you could always draw the thing, naturally drawn doodles look better than digital doodles.
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EncA Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered Userregular
I'm going to have to disagree with Enc and suggest avoiding expensive tools like tablets and Photoshop. If you're looking to improve your art at a basic level, I think it's much easier to do with cheap disposable tools like pencils and paper. Not only is it less of an investment, you can concentrate on improving your art skills instead of concentrating on learning computer programs.
I was more considering the fun factor than the learning to draw factor. I "wasted" almost two years drawing crap because I didn't study he basics on pen and paper, but I had a ton of fun the entire time for a relatively small investment (hundreds of hours of doodling for super cheap). It won't make you a better artist at all, but it is something that is a fun toy to have and play around with (both the software and the tablet).
It will help improve his casual doodles significantly from just using paint and a mouse, though.
But yeah, if you want to learn to draw better, you can't beat a #2 and some blank paper.
Here is a more polished version of Tali. It took me like an hour to do, which is too long. I'm sure there's a better way, but I don't know it. Also, for some reason my scanner really dulls the colors.
btw I made sure to get a creative commons lisence for my website. Not that anybody would want to steal my stuff...
Here is a more polished version of Tali. It took me like an hour to do, which is too long. I'm sure there's a better way, but I don't know it. Also, for some reason my scanner really dulls the colors.
btw I made sure to get a creative commons lisence for my website. Not that anybody would want to steal my stuff...
Why does she have Pac Man eyes and only one extremely low hanging breast? You might want to create some sort of divide between her shoes and pants as well.
MustangArbiter of Unpopular OpinionsRegistered Userregular
edited January 2012
Honestly I would suggest stepping back a little from your cartoony type work and turn some of your focus onto life drawing. Learning how to draw 3 dimensional shapes onto a page and studying how the human form moves will make you a much better cartoonist/comic artist than just drawing stylised images alone. Top artists like Stephen Silver and Bobby Chui preach this advise non-stop and have reams and reams of life drawings as evidence. I'm certain Mike Krahulik does the same, even though he has never directly mentioned it, but the improvements in his art certainly have all the hallmarks of someone who has done a lot of life drawing.
I'm not saying stop what you're doing, because you should always try to make your drawing fun, but putting in some effort in other areas is going to make you a much more rounded artist.
I'm sure there's a better way, but I don't know it. ]
The better way is to do what Mustang said. Improvising cartoonish features in any pose/expression comes quick & easy to folks who've put in the time studying actual human anatomy. No one ever wants to hear this because they want some kind of instantaneous magic trick but there isn't one. If you do decide to get serious about studying drawing we've got a lot of resources collected in the OP of the questions/discussions/tuts thread.
@wonderpug thanks for that link. I googled some pictures of Ripley from Alien and Aliens to try and get some good expressioins, and the ones I did for Tali actually turned out pretty well. (I think...)
I love the guy at the bottom in the first panel. his expression is funny... though it seems a bit like he's going down a sinkhole. I'd suggest changing your font to something more appropriate to the style you're illustrating in. May I suggest Blambot.
Speech bubbles might help break up each panel into more interesting layouts.
Put some more effort into them character designs because right now 3 out of 4 of those have identical head shapes. If you're going to have a cast of characters, they shouldn't all look the same, especially if they're from different planets.
@earthwormadam two of those characters don't even exist anymore, and the other two I've changed drastically. I've also added some more. One is a plant with eyes, and I'm pretty sure he'll be the ship's Chief Science Officer.
@Esh The idea was for people to get the reference, so noticing is a good thing. That is, unless I can be potentially sued for copyright infringement...
@Esh The idea was for people to get the reference, so noticing is a good thing. That is, unless I can be potentially sued for copyright infringement...
I don't think that's something you've got to worry about at this point, but I'd still consider changing the ship design... Maybe even do it in a funny way, like in the third or fourth strip have the current ship destroyed and make a joke about the poor design flaws.
are YOU on the beer list?
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EshTending bar. FFXIV. Motorcycles.Portland, ORRegistered Userregular
@Esh The idea was for people to get the reference, so noticing is a good thing. That is, unless I can be potentially sued for copyright infringement...
I don't think that's something you've got to worry about at this point, but I'd still consider changing the ship design... Maybe even do it in a funny way, like in the third or fourth strip have the current ship destroyed and make a joke about the poor design flaws.
You're not talking shit about E.L.O. are you? ; )
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amateurhourOne day I'll be professionalhourThe woods somewhere in TennesseeRegistered Userregular
I'm just saying there's a lot of humor in destroying a ship that resembles a giant flying simon says
@amateurhour if you really want to see me destroy the ship, I was plannning on having it collide with a star in the next one anyway. Then in the one after that, I'll reveal that they just passed clean through it. The crew will be relieved that they didn't collide with something solid, like a- [COLLIDES WITH PLANET]. After that one, they'll be like "We survived the crash with just a few scuffed knees and elbows". I'm pretty sure that the punchline of that particular one is only crewmember got every knee and elbow scuffed, while the rest were completely unharmed.
You still need to work on your designs because the make Keanu Reeves seem like Jim Carrey in terms of expression. Your designs are stiff and expressionless and just generally uninteresting and amateurish, I'm sorry. They look like hadly any effort went into drawing them or thinking them up. There's expressive cartoon characters out there that are about as simple as these, but those are all either based on powerful shapes or lines. They're dynamic, whereas your characters don't even look like they could move if they tried. Everything's ridiculously static and uninteresting as a result. The fact that your linework is blurry, your colouring is garish, your lettering painfully amateurish, and your copy-pasting blatantly obvious doesn't do you any favours, either.
I don't even know where to start on the writing. The jokes are, I don't know. Non-existent? Merely invisible? A brilliantly absurdist exercise in anti-humour? I have no idea. They're the kind of jokes Data would write. Like they were written by a robot that only ever had the idea of a joke described to it, poorly.
You need a work on everything. A lot. Your characters need to be more expressive first of all, I think. They're what offend me the most. You really need to figure out the basics of how the human body is constructed and how it works before you can start to stylize properly. I'm not saying drop cartooning or comicking to do all life drawing all the time, you can learn about anatomy and do cartoons at the same time. Just make sure to at least try to get an understanding of some basic structure.
@Spectre-x my character's expressions offend you? You've got to remember that I've never worked with this medium before, and considering what my comics used to look like, I'd say I've made quite a bit of improvement. The only way to get better is to keep making them, and that's just what I'm going to do. Also, would you mind actually showing me what I can do to improve my work rather than coming up with metaphors for how much it sucks? I'm sorry, but that's not how constructive criticism is supposed to work.
@Spectre-x my character's expressions offend you? You've got to remember that I've never worked with this medium before, and considering what my comics used to look like, I'd say I've made quite a bit of improvement. The only way to get better is to keep making them, and that's just what I'm going to do. Also, would you mind actually showing me what I can do to improve my work rather than coming up with metaphors for how much it sucks? I'm sorry, but that's not how constructive criticism is supposed to work.
I don't mean that they make me feel insulted, I mean that they offend my sensibilities. They are unpleasant to look at for the reasons I've mentioned.
As for improvement, I'm not sure I agree. You went from stick figures with actual expressions and poses to expressionless lumps whose only plus is that they aren't stick figures, and even then I'm not sure if I'd call that an improvement since they stopped emoting. It's a lateral move at best.
And bullshit that's not how constructive criticism is supposed to work. I am giving you constructive criticism. The fact that I'm being harsh or that I'm not telling you how to improve specific parts of your comic has nothing to do with whether my criticism is constructive or not. I am giving advice, and it's decent advice. It's a bit general, but that's because literally every part of your comic needs a lot of work. I have told you how to improve. Maybe you could read my post again because it's right there, or do you want me to quote the relevant parts for you in case you simply missed them?
I'm glad you're taking all of this well, though, despite getting a bit defensive there. We're just trying to help and even though some of us can be harsh about the advice we give out, we're only really interested in helping you improve. And if we're harsh, it's only to try and jolt you out of any sense of complacency you might be settling into.
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amateurhourOne day I'll be professionalhourThe woods somewhere in TennesseeRegistered Userregular
Spex has a tendency for BRUTAL honesty, but he's right, and he's also a talented artist.
You're making a lot of the same mistakes that I made when I first started getting brave enough to post here. You're worried too much on materials and other people's work. It's good to have influence, and expressive tutorials are fantastic, but you've got to have the fundamentals down first.
YOU DO NOT NEED A BAMBOO TABLET. You have a scanner, pens, and paper. That's enough for now.
There's a ton of great resources in the tutorials thread, one of them being the andrew loomis art books. Get yourself a little 5x7 sketch book and just start doing those exercises. Work on how the camera plays out in each scene.
When I posted my first comic here in 2008 it was terrible and I was told that very quickly. Now people tell me that the art has gotten better (although I've still got a LONG WAY to go) but they're actually reading it and giving me advice on the individual strips rather than the overall art because I've worked to figure out some of the basics I was missing, like head shape and camera angles.
My advice would be to take a break from the strip itself and post more work in the doodle thread (something I need to be doing more as well) and get some advise there.
Keep at it though, no one here wants to see you leave. They're friendly. : )
I don't plan on going anywhere. I just wish that people would tone down their criticism a bit, but at the same time still coveny their salient points. They probably aren't trying to be inflamatory, but that's how I've interpreted much of it. I suppose that's the major problem with communicating through writing, as people may take something in a way that it wasn't meant to be taken. Sorry if I came off as defensive Spex, I know you're only trying to help.
I think those are your best two yet. It's astonishing how much having your characters move and emote just a bit will improve a comic. It's easily ten times better than your some of your other stuff. Keep it up.
I like it, and the same position thing isn't a deal breaker in this one, for some reason. It does feel like they're in purgatory, and I think it would be better if you kept it exactly the same, but drew a background in, so it looked like they were on a cutting board.
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If you are planning on webcomicing it up as a serious hobby, I'd suggest saving up about $300 to pick up a small Wacom tablet and a legal copy of photoshop. It's relatively cheap given the amount of hours most people sink into it as an enjoyable hobby (you will get more than 300 hours of entertainment out of it), and it can help your art a ton!
make a rough background, even if its just a splash of colour
click on "layer" at the top of the program, make a new layer
draw whatever you're going for in thick black, very simply, since you're using a mouse
write the whatever text you want, before you make a word ballon
make the word balloon by hand
click on the "mode" style "behind", which will let you colour underneath your black line work
crop it and paste it onto a new file perhaps
or use the Eraser Tool to make the square and change the canvas size (which is under the Image dropdown) so you can draw another panel.
Something like that, you get the gist.
Oh, oh oh, and yeah, if you have a scanner you could always draw the thing, naturally drawn doodles look better than digital doodles.
I was more considering the fun factor than the learning to draw factor. I "wasted" almost two years drawing crap because I didn't study he basics on pen and paper, but I had a ton of fun the entire time for a relatively small investment (hundreds of hours of doodling for super cheap). It won't make you a better artist at all, but it is something that is a fun toy to have and play around with (both the software and the tablet).
It will help improve his casual doodles significantly from just using paint and a mouse, though.
But yeah, if you want to learn to draw better, you can't beat a #2 and some blank paper.
btw I made sure to get a creative commons lisence for my website. Not that anybody would want to steal my stuff...
Why does she have Pac Man eyes and only one extremely low hanging breast? You might want to create some sort of divide between her shoes and pants as well.
EDIT: I think I may have left the Pac Man's mouth too far open. Maybe that's the problem.
I'm not saying stop what you're doing, because you should always try to make your drawing fun, but putting in some effort in other areas is going to make you a much more rounded artist.
The better way is to do what Mustang said. Improvising cartoonish features in any pose/expression comes quick & easy to folks who've put in the time studying actual human anatomy. No one ever wants to hear this because they want some kind of instantaneous magic trick but there isn't one. If you do decide to get serious about studying drawing we've got a lot of resources collected in the OP of the questions/discussions/tuts thread.
Speech bubbles might help break up each panel into more interesting layouts.
Put some more effort into them character designs because right now 3 out of 4 of those have identical head shapes. If you're going to have a cast of characters, they shouldn't all look the same, especially if they're from different planets.
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Edit: Hello? Anybody?
Did you intentionally rip-off the E.L.O. spaceship?
@Esh you noticed! I was hoping someone would! I didn't rip it off too much, did I?
I noticed didn't I?
I don't think that's something you've got to worry about at this point, but I'd still consider changing the ship design... Maybe even do it in a funny way, like in the third or fourth strip have the current ship destroyed and make a joke about the poor design flaws.
You're not talking shit about E.L.O. are you? ; )
I don't even know where to start on the writing. The jokes are, I don't know. Non-existent? Merely invisible? A brilliantly absurdist exercise in anti-humour? I have no idea. They're the kind of jokes Data would write. Like they were written by a robot that only ever had the idea of a joke described to it, poorly.
You need a work on everything. A lot. Your characters need to be more expressive first of all, I think. They're what offend me the most. You really need to figure out the basics of how the human body is constructed and how it works before you can start to stylize properly. I'm not saying drop cartooning or comicking to do all life drawing all the time, you can learn about anatomy and do cartoons at the same time. Just make sure to at least try to get an understanding of some basic structure.
I'm getting a goddamn mirror. I'll show all of you expressive.
I've also been watching Mike Krahulik draw PA strips. I think I need to invest in like a bamboo tablet or something.
I don't mean that they make me feel insulted, I mean that they offend my sensibilities. They are unpleasant to look at for the reasons I've mentioned.
As for improvement, I'm not sure I agree. You went from stick figures with actual expressions and poses to expressionless lumps whose only plus is that they aren't stick figures, and even then I'm not sure if I'd call that an improvement since they stopped emoting. It's a lateral move at best.
And bullshit that's not how constructive criticism is supposed to work. I am giving you constructive criticism. The fact that I'm being harsh or that I'm not telling you how to improve specific parts of your comic has nothing to do with whether my criticism is constructive or not. I am giving advice, and it's decent advice. It's a bit general, but that's because literally every part of your comic needs a lot of work. I have told you how to improve. Maybe you could read my post again because it's right there, or do you want me to quote the relevant parts for you in case you simply missed them?
I'm glad you're taking all of this well, though, despite getting a bit defensive there. We're just trying to help and even though some of us can be harsh about the advice we give out, we're only really interested in helping you improve. And if we're harsh, it's only to try and jolt you out of any sense of complacency you might be settling into.
You're making a lot of the same mistakes that I made when I first started getting brave enough to post here. You're worried too much on materials and other people's work. It's good to have influence, and expressive tutorials are fantastic, but you've got to have the fundamentals down first.
YOU DO NOT NEED A BAMBOO TABLET. You have a scanner, pens, and paper. That's enough for now.
There's a ton of great resources in the tutorials thread, one of them being the andrew loomis art books. Get yourself a little 5x7 sketch book and just start doing those exercises. Work on how the camera plays out in each scene.
When I posted my first comic here in 2008 it was terrible and I was told that very quickly. Now people tell me that the art has gotten better (although I've still got a LONG WAY to go) but they're actually reading it and giving me advice on the individual strips rather than the overall art because I've worked to figure out some of the basics I was missing, like head shape and camera angles.
My advice would be to take a break from the strip itself and post more work in the doodle thread (something I need to be doing more as well) and get some advise there.
Keep at it though, no one here wants to see you leave. They're friendly. : )
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I think the main problem with this one is that they're always in the same position.
EDIT: My friend's server seems to be down.
EDIT: It's back up again.
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