As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/

The Shaquille O'Neal Comic

VladieSharkVladieShark Registered User regular
edited March 2008 in Artist's Corner
Made by me and my brother for our basketball site: www.slamdumb.com

2_19_08.jpg

For those of you who don't know, Shaq, whose known for being one of the slower players in the league, was recently traded to the Phoenix Suns, who are known for being the fastest paced team in the league...

I'm proud of it, but feel free to criticize it all you want. You can also let me know if you like it, I guess.

VladieShark on
«1

Posts

  • PeterAndCompanyPeterAndCompany Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Just from first glance...

    1. Photoshop filters are NOT your friend. Avoid using clouds, lens flares, and motion blurs. If you want to have motion lines in your comic, draw them by hand, and learn coloring techniques that don't rely heavily on Photoshop's "webcomic-in-a-can" filter system.

    2. Your poses are completely static, like giant cardboard cutouts of the players. Practice gestures and study how the human body looks when it moves. This is particularly important in any comic centered around sports, since this is ALL you're ever going to be drawing. No one wants to read a comic about a bunch of basketball-playing department store mannequins.

    3. The sudden downward angle of the last panel is misleading because of the stationary camera in the other panels. It looks less like Shaq collapsed and more like he randomly ran into a wall, Wile E. Coyote-style.

    PeterAndCompany on
  • ShiboeShiboe Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I personally don't like it.

    Your backgrounds are decent, but the characters are pretty bland. Better use of line weight, and general anatomy is needed. That's not to say I think it should look realistic, because I know your first thought was "hey man, I'm not going for realistic, it's a cartoon!" That's what they all say. It's more to say proportion, shape, flow, consistancy, need to be correct.

    If you look at PA, they are far from realistic, but they have these elements that make the characters look aesthetically pleasing. The characters have "character."

    Concerning design, I think you're using too many frames for a simple joke. That, combined with a very gridlike setup, kind of kill any chance the comic had. 3 identical rectangles placed side by side isn't visually interesting, especially when it's stacked on another 3. Again, if you look at PA (since we are here anyways) while several comics are in this "meh" 3 box style, they use other elements such as speech bubbles, to break up the monotony.

    You don't have speech bubbles in this one, but that doesn't mean you can't be creative! A basketball or sun's player could be running "between" frames, an important frame could be on top of another, or longer, or larger, and so on.

    I'm not a comic artist, but these things come of as general tools of the trade. Also, I don't think having to explain the joke before hand is indicative of a good comic. It should be able to stand on its own.

    It looks like you gave it an honest effort, so I wish you luck, and probably someone else who can give you a more knowledgeable viewpoint.

    Shiboe on
  • MustangMustang Arbiter of Unpopular Opinions Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Och! tough room, at least you get an honest opinion here.

    My thoughts (keep in mind, I'm very much a novice, so take everything I say with a pinch of salt)
    - Ok filters do suck, they're too generic/unoriginal and it shows.
    - I like the last panel, it's an interesting angle and didn't confuse me at all.
    - That being said, another panel with a colapsing Shaq would help.
    - You probably could cut panel 2, 4 and 6 out without losing what you wanted to say, less is more as they say.
    - The floor and background look great, though I would rework or cut the camera flashes, they look unconvincing.

    Also, I don't think having to explain the joke before hand is indicative of a good comic. It should be able to stand on its own.

    This is true, and a basketball fan probably wouldn't have needed an explanation.


    Apart from that, I thought it pretty good and would be pleased If I had produced something of this ilk, so give yourself a slap on the back. :)

    Mustang on
  • earthwormadamearthwormadam ancient crust Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Shaq is a monster fatty.

    Needs more speed lines!!!

    earthwormadam on
  • in_absentiain_absentia Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Shaq is a monster fatty.

    Needs more speed lines!!!

    Wait, like Speed Racer?



    Pretty much, I think the comic was simple and funny but the art could have been better for what joke that you've given us. Listen to these folks; they know what they're talking about.

    in_absentia on
  • frrserfrrser __BANNED USERS regular
    edited February 2008
    just like that. haha...

    frrser on
  • multimoogmultimoog Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    It seems strange to me that Shaq is still alive, or at least in sports. I couldn't really tell you why, but anything that served as a basis for Shaq-Fu shouldn't exist anymore.

    multimoog on
  • rtsrts Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I do not agree with most of the comments here. I dont think people are giving you enough credit as an artist and I think the comic is solid. My main complaint would be the scratchy quality of the linework sometimes and the face of #13 in every panel he is in looks not so good.

    rts on
    skype: rtschutter
  • GrifterGrifter BermudaModerator mod
    edited February 2008
    My major problem with the strip is that there's a whole lot of lead up to a rather flat punchline.

    Grifter on
  • amateurhouramateurhour One day I'll be professionalhour The woods somewhere in TennesseeRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I really did like your stuff you posted earlier, and this is pretty funny as well, but I agree with grifter that you need a more solid punchline. Maybe like him moving so slow that they're already playing next weeks game and he's getting fined for not being there.

    Also, draw speed lines instead of photoshoping that blur. Just my opinion, but it doesn't mesh well with the rest of the comic. Your stuff is really good, a little static, but very realistic. I'd look up some reference shots of the flash running for all of your speedy stuff.

    Overall though, I like your strip, and I added it to my daily bookmark list, which is saying a lot, since I fucking hate basketball with the passion of the christ.

    amateurhour on
    are YOU on the beer list?
  • MC MysteryMC Mystery Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Grifter wrote: »
    My major problem with the strip is that there's a whole lot of lead up to a rather flat punchline.

    MC Mystery on
    Your sig is too tall. -Thanatos
    l_cd41a4eb4e2844f196a9c3046df33f47.jpg
  • LlyLly Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Grifter wrote: »
    My major problem with the strip is that there's a whole lot of lead up to a rather flat punchline.

    pun intended?

    Lly on
  • MKRMKR Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I'm not seeing a pun.

    MKR on
  • VladieSharkVladieShark Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Overall though, I like your strip, and I added it to my daily bookmark list, which is saying a lot, since I fucking hate basketball with the passion of the christ.

    Haha. That means a lot to me, especially because you hate basketball. Thanks.



    To Everyone who Posted: I appreciate all your compliments, criticisms, and advice. Thank you for taking the time to comment. I'll be updating my site a lot more often now that I have a break between exams, so I'll probably post some more comics on here in the coming weeks.

    VladieShark on
  • LlyLly Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    MKR wrote: »
    I'm not seeing a pun.

    The punchline is the guy flat on his back. maybe it's just me ...

    Lly on
  • (ohms)Crunchy(ohms)Crunchy Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Lly wrote: »
    MKR wrote: »
    I'm not seeing a pun.

    The punchline is the guy flat on his back. maybe it's just me ...

    Zing!

    (ohms)Crunchy on
    14e9iqh.jpg
  • SublimusSublimus Artist. nowhereRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I also would have to disagree with a few people in here.

    I dont think its so much a problem of filters, so much as it is with inconsistancy. The floor you've made looks sweet, it just stands out so much because nothing else in the strip is represented in the same style. Same with the background, i dont find it to be an issue that you use what looks like a lens flare (may not be, Im not sure) I find the issue to be that it matches nothing. In fact, the floor and background look better than your figures.

    I would tighten up those graphics on the figures, as they are the most important element.

    Im not going to touch on the writing except to say it wasnt that funny.


    [edit] Wait! What if shaq hulked out and ripped the little guy in half out of frustration. I would laugh at that, but I may be in a market niche here.

    Sublimus on
  • Goose!Goose! That's me, honey Show me the way home, honeyRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Lly wrote: »
    MKR wrote: »
    I'm not seeing a pun.

    The punchline is the guy flat on his back. maybe it's just me ...

    He's flat on his face actually.

    And yeah, the punchline is kinda lacking. I don't know why, but I think a puddle of sweat all around him would make it a little bit funnier. The more exaggerated the better.

    Goose! on
  • earthwormadamearthwormadam ancient crust Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Throw in a Shaq fu reference. That game was hilarious personified.

    earthwormadam on
  • brokecrackerbrokecracker Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Throw in a Shaq fu reference. That game was hilarious personified.

    Too Late, Already been done...long time ago...warning: may cause eyes to bleed...

    shaqattach.jpg

    so as not to highjack: are all the strips Basketball related only, cause...what will you do for the off season?

    brokecracker on
  • Goose!Goose! That's me, honey Show me the way home, honeyRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Throw in a Shaq fu reference. That game was hilarious personified.

    Too Late, Already been done...long time ago...warning: may cause eyes to bleed...

    *snip*

    so as not to highjack: are all the strips Basketball related only, cause...what will you do for the off season?

    Same thing the players do, comics will include paternity suits, club shootings, and other activities.

    Goose! on
  • ScirosSciros Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Hey guys, I'm the artist. Just letting you know that

    1) Critiquing the art is welcome, but it's mostly a question of how much time I feel like spending on it. If I want to I can make it photorealistic, but we'll get a lot less comics that way. All the "inconsistencies," sloppy lines, etc. that people have mentioned are the result of my opting for speed over anything else. Whatever I can do fastest, that's what I do in this case. Over time you can expect things to get better, though.

    2) To those of you who liked it, thanks! To those of you who didn't, punch yourselves in the face for me. Really hard. Say "bam!" when you do it so it's as if I'm really there.

    In response to some of the Photoshop-related comments, the motion blur is just the blur/smudge tool in this case rather than filter->blur->motion. There are no clouds... the cloud filter is almost never used on its own so you won't even know it if it were there unless you're *really* experienced with PS and can tell whether a realistic stone texture was made using a cloud filter as its base or using a different method. The lens flares serve to break the monotony of the background a bit. Without them it's rather empty. The lines not being very clean... that's because they're just sketched in PS. If I were to use a vector-based program like Illustrator you'd see cleaner lines.

    As far as things like the floor looking more realistic than anything else in the panels, I may as well mention that doing a floor like that is *fast* in PS. Very, very fast. If I have an option of drawing something fast vs. not fast, I'll go with the former 100% of the time, even if it doesn't look as good as it could otherwise.

    Anyway as the comic progresses you'll likely see a more defined "style" emerge for this whole endeavor.

    Sciros on
  • MushiwulfMushiwulf Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    And this thread was going so well.

    Mushiwulf on
  • ScirosSciros Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Well I would hope I didn't kill it ^^ All comments are appreciated, whether they're good, bad, friendly, stupid, useful, silly, etc.

    Noticed people don't like the blur/smudge much. Real issue there is not so much that it should have been motion lines/streak instead, but that it's a really rubbish effort on the blur on my part. Notice the blur is actually *behind* the characters. Yep. But, I played around with leaving that layer out and it didn't look as good so I kept it. Too lazy to do motion lines in this case. (All about balancing time vs. results ^^)

    Sciros on
  • amateurhouramateurhour One day I'll be professionalhour The woods somewhere in TennesseeRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Sciros wrote: »
    Hey guys, I'm the artist. Just letting you know that

    1) Critiquing the art is welcome, but it's mostly a question of how much time I feel like spending on it. If I want to I can make it photorealistic, but we'll get a lot less comics that way. All the "inconsistencies," sloppy lines, etc. that people have mentioned are the result of my opting for speed over anything else. Whatever I can do fastest, that's what I do in this case. Over time you can expect things to get better, though.

    I noticed you changed this from " critiquing the art is welcome, but I'll probably ignore it." and it's good that you did. Your lineart isn't horrible, but the photoshop and the art just don't mesh well. Also, you should be concerned what people here think. There's a lot of people here who make good money as professional artists, and their advice is an invaluable tool if you want to get more readers.

    WHO CARES if the comic takes a little longer to draw if you put more effort into it. Update it weekly like VG cats (used to), and then you've got seven days to get it right.

    amateurhour on
    are YOU on the beer list?
  • MKRMKR Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Just bear in mind that this is a forum for critique. It's not a parent's fridge or a close circle of friends.

    The reason I say that is because of this:
    "2) To those of you who liked it, thanks! To those of you who didn't, punch yourselves in the face for me. Really hard. Say "bam!" when you do it so it's as if I'm really there."

    It makes it seem like you don't want any advice, which would make this comic out of place here.

    MKR on
  • MushiwulfMushiwulf Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Yeah, what it boils down to is that the forum is for critique. If you don't want critique than the only thing posting this comic here does is advertise it. I don't think you want to do that.

    Mushiwulf on
  • PeterAndCompanyPeterAndCompany Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Sciros wrote: »
    There are no clouds... the cloud filter is almost never used on its own so you won't even know it if it were there unless you're *really* experienced with PS and can tell whether a realistic stone texture was made using a cloud filter as its base or using a different method.

    The coloring used on the crowd IS the cloud filter, and I don't think you realize that a good number of people who browse these forums are, in fact, *REALLY REALLY* experienced with PS and can spot filter abuse from a mile away.
    Sciros wrote: »
    As far as things like the floor looking more realistic than anything else in the panels, I may as well mention that doing a floor like that is *fast* in PS. Very, very fast. If I have an option of drawing something fast vs. not fast, I'll go with the former 100% of the time, even if it doesn't look as good as it could otherwise.

    Never, NEVER sacrifice quality for timing. I can bet a good amount of money that you do not have the equivalent reader base of Penny-Arcade where you would have thousands of fans complaining if you didn't update on a regular basis. What you DO have is the same situation as everyone else who has a webcomic: you are trying to attract new readers and get them to stick around. You do that by producing material that looks good, is well-written, and is appealing to them. I'll echo what amateurhour said and suggest you swap to a weekly update schedule, or longer if you need it. I myself have a comic I try to update weekly, but a good amount of time it ends up being every other week, so don't freak out if you miss an update here and there. It's not like this is a paying job. Produce something that will actually be eye-catching and not look like someone threw it together to meet a self-imposed unnecessary deadline.

    The first thing a new reader does is click on the archives to view your old material. If the only thing they see in there is stuff that looks like crap "for the sake of speed," they're not going to want to read anything else from you.

    PeterAndCompany on
  • ScirosSciros Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    @MKR, Mushiwulf - It was a joke. Surely those who frequent penny-arcade have a sense of humor!

    @PeterAndCompany - I've already said, it's not the cloud filter. It's simply the airbrush tool. :-P

    Though yes, there are almost certainly people on here who are very experienced with PS and know it well enough to recognize when there is use of filters; maybe one of them will take the time to post a suggestion as well, which would be fantastic.

    Regarding quality vs quantity, there are two points I need to make:
    1) The site deals with NBA *news* and as such needs to be timely. Every comic has a certain "window of relevance" within which it needs to be completed. Staying relevant is as important to attracting an audience for us as the articles/art being good enough to get our ideas across.

    2) The sites which attract the largest audiences are those which update frequently and regularly. And the art can matter little if the humor comes across well enough. Take spamusement, for instance. So, it's not a "law" that higher fidelity art wins out over all else. There's always a handful of factors and figuring out which ones matter most is tricky and to be honest I don't know what they are for our site just yet ^^

    Indeed, while the opinions of artists on here are great and I am glad to get them, the majority of any site's audience isn't usually that critical of art nor does it make much of a difference to them (comic book/manga sales charts alone can often clue us in on that), so there is such a thing as concentrating too much on the art.

    With that in mind, if some of the more experienced webcomic artists could offer suggestions on "efficiency," and doing the most with least, that would be awesome.

    Thanks!!

    Sciros on
  • HeartlashHeartlash Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    This probably isn't the best place to look for that sort of thing. The crowd here typically advocates understanding of the fundamentals of art (anatomy, perspective, etc) and expects discipline from those who wish to improve.

    I would suggest that you practice dynamic poses a lot. The more you do them, the faster you'll be able to achieve results you're happy with. Every day sketch someone running, dribbling, or taking a shot (probably using photo references from the NBA itself). This will develop your mind to the point where you can do it well as second nature, understanding exactly where each part of the body needs to go and how to capture it on the page.

    Heartlash on
    My indie mobile gaming studio: Elder Aeons
    Our first game is now available for free on Google Play: Frontier: Isle of the Seven Gods
  • MKRMKR Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Sciros wrote: »
    @MKR, Mushiwulf - It was a joke. Surely those who frequent penny-arcade have a sense of humor!

    @PeterAndCompany - I've already said, it's not the cloud filter. It's simply the airbrush tool. :-P

    Though yes, there are almost certainly people on here who are very experienced with PS and know it well enough to recognize when there is use of filters; maybe one of them will take the time to post a suggestion as well, which would be fantastic.

    Regarding quality vs quantity, there are two points I need to make:
    1) The site deals with NBA *news* and as such needs to be timely. Every comic has a certain "window of relevance" within which it needs to be completed. Staying relevant is as important to attracting an audience for us as the articles/art being good enough to get our ideas across.

    2) The sites which attract the largest audiences are those which update frequently and regularly. And the art can matter little if the humor comes across well enough. Take spamusement, for instance. So, it's not a "law" that higher fidelity art wins out over all else. There's always a handful of factors and figuring out which ones matter most is tricky and to be honest I don't know what they are for our site just yet ^^

    Indeed, while the opinions of artists on here are great and I am glad to get them, the majority of any site's audience isn't usually that critical of art nor does it make much of a difference to them (comic book/manga sales charts alone can often clue us in on that), so there is such a thing as concentrating too much on the art.

    With that in mind, if some of the more experienced webcomic artists could offer suggestions on "efficiency," and doing the most with least, that would be awesome.

    Thanks!!

    Look at PA and ask yourself: "Why does his art look so good on such a tight schedule?"

    Now, go back to 1999 and read forward from there.

    MKR on
  • biiirdmaaan!biiirdmaaan! Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I take exception to the idea that spamusement's art was "bad." Sure, he claimed it as such in the tagline, but he was always able to come out with a pleasing composition and the art did what it needed to . If a simple gesture was all that was needed, it's what he did. If the joke called for a recognizable portrait of Optimus Prime, well, he did that as well.

    If you want to simplfy, just use black and white and draw everything by hand. Fussing around with color takes a lot of time and looks like ass if rushed. By focusing on line art, you can get some good volumes and movement relatively quickly.

    Using photoshop shortcuts also looks like ass because it clashes in terms of style with everything else. For instance, your crowd and court look nothing like the figures. How can you take care of that? The simple answer would be just imply them with a couple of lines. You don't need to do much work to do that, since they are already implied by everything else in the comic.

    Why is this important? Why can't you say "I'll do this fast and that's all that matters?" You said it yourself - the humor needs to come through clearly. Right now, the sheer shittiness of the art competes with the humor. But there is a difference between simple and shitty. Simple art doesn't take long too do. But if you want to cram detail and color and god knows what other crap you can put in there with your years of photoshop experience without taking the time to do it right, then the humor is going to get lost in ugly art.

    biiirdmaaan! on
  • amateurhouramateurhour One day I'll be professionalhour The woods somewhere in TennesseeRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Seriously man, you couldn't be more wrong there. Saying, "oh, readers don't care about my webcomic art as long as the writing is funny and it's churned out at rapid speed." is bullshit. If that's you're opinion of the medium then you need to let your partner keep writing and also let him find a new artist. What you're saying is both misinformed and insulting to the magnitude of people who turn out good work on a daily basis, such as, for example, every single daily newspaper comic strip.

    amateurhour on
    are YOU on the beer list?
  • ScirosSciros Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Heh some of you people are bordering on the uncivil. I'll just add that with time the "shortcuts" will be integrated better and the roughness/inconsistency will likely go away. To read what I wrote as "art doesn't matter" is to make a misinterpretation. Like I *already said,* certain things matter more to different webcomics. It depends on a number of factors, such as the audience. If you are going to tell me that the art quality on maddox's site is on par with, say, P-A, then I can't take you seriously. But it is true that both get the indended effect.

    So, don't privilege art fidelity over everything else blindly. If relevance, humor, etc. tie into the product as well then you have to prioritize accordingly. With some work the art fidelity is paramount, but that's not universally true of all web comics. If you see that as a stab at the medium, then you're thinking in far more absolute terms than I am and disregarding when I say "it depends."

    Also don't attribute to me things I never said, such as what you quoted, amateurhour. I said there are other factors to a comic's success besides art (especially in our case) and you rewrote that as if I said art doesn't matter, period. If you will do me the honor of posting constructive criticism, at least do not relegate yourself to irrelevance by a lack of understanding.

    Sciros on
  • MKRMKR Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Maddox's art is pretty good considering how serious he is about it.

    MKR on
  • NightDragonNightDragon 6th Grade Username Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Yeah. If you're looking for quantity over quality, but still want it to look good, cut out your color, or just do *really simple* flats. Most of the critiques you're going to get here are going to involve the art, and while I understand your need to post within a certain time frame, I also understand that to be an excellent webcomic, not only do you need good writing, but good art. Saying that "it's okay if the art's not that good, because the writing will be" is just silly. I'll give you one really good reason.

    In my personal opinion (and in what I've seen), people will be initially attracted to your art. Why? It's immediate. It's simple. I can scroll through 5 comics on a site without reading anything, and if the art interests me, I'll have a much higher chance of actually reading the comics. I'll read one or two anyway, but even if the writing is *okay*, if the art is really subpar I'm not going to really care about the comic as a whole. The one exception to this that I've found has been Something Positive, which I usually find pretty amusing, although the art is atrocious. Almost all the other webcomics I read have BOTH good writing AND great art.

    I know you'll improve over time, but if you really want to churn out excellent work in the end, I would suggest working on just linework for now (and just think, that takes even LESS time than color comics, which means you can do MORE of them, and do them FASTER to get into the time bracket you mentioned). This way, if you feel like it down the line, you can start to incorporate color after you've developed really solid linework. Solid linework will look leagues better with color than shoddy linework with color. Don't compromise too much quality for quantity if you truly want to create a comic that will develop a large following.
    Sciros wrote: »
    If relevance, humor, etc. tie into the product as well then you have to prioritize accordingly. With some work the art fidelity is paramount, but that's not universally true of all web comics. If you see that as a stab at the medium, then you're thinking in far more absolute terms than I am and disregarding when I say "it depends."

    Mediocre art plus mediocre writing do not equal much success, typically. And the reason Maddox gets away with bad art is because he is hysterical. Not to offend you, but in my honest (for critique) opinion, I don't believe you/your brother have reached that level in your comic.

    You should be striving for both excellent art AND excellent writing, rather than figuring you'll "make do" with strength in only one of those areas. Again, strive for excellence, not mediocrity.

    NightDragon on
  • ScirosSciros Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Well I'm not asking where I rank among the top humor sites at the moment, obviously. I just want to stress that what people present as absolutes, simply aren't much of the time. I'm not disagreeing with many of the suggestions people have made per se.

    I will go with color over black-and-white, though, because color is a rather central element of the NBA. Take team colors, for instance. Is that a "Shaq 32" in a Miami uniform or a Phoenix uniform? Questions like that won't even come up if there's color. Otherwise they would need to be tackled in other ways that certainly aren't as elegant.

    I agree with the folks that say what gets most in the way are the "photoshop" elements of the art.

    Sciros on
  • PeterAndCompanyPeterAndCompany Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    No... you want to stress that what people present as absolutes don't apply to you because you can't be bothered to acknowledge the areas where you need improvement. Just because you cover your ears and go "la la la la" doesn't mean that the facts presented to you in this thread aren't true. You can take the critiques of the artists on these forums -- artists who specialize in the field in which you are attempting to make a name for yourself -- or you can write off their words as "wrong" and pick-and-choose the suggestions that make life easiest for you.

    Your work is poorly drawn, shoddily colored, and the lackluster writing fails to make up for it. You need to improve on all of these areas before you can really expect to see improvement on the final product. Draw more gestures, work on your choice in camera angles and panel layouts (see: comedic timing), and use limited flat colors. Go back to the basics and work from there. You need the practice.

    Also, do not defend yourself when given a critique. Critiques are not attacks on your work. It can be shattering to hear that your beloved work isn't perfect, I know, but if you're looking for nothing but asspats or free advertising and don't want people telling you how to get better, you're in the wrong place. That's not why we're here, and that shouldn't be why you're here, either.

    PeterAndCompany on
  • earthwormadamearthwormadam ancient crust Registered User regular
    edited March 2008
    I think critiques ARE attacks on your work.

    Rule of thumb: People who act defensively towards critiques usually are next to be attacked.

    Also, listen to NightDragon.

    earthwormadam on
  • PratleyPratley Registered User regular
    edited March 2008
    In the first panel, Shaq was clearly inbounds when he inbounded the ball. Panel 2 should be the ref whistling.

    As a peudo basketball fan, the joke is cute but not hilarious. I love the eye he gives him in the 2nd to last panel.

    Pratley on
Sign In or Register to comment.