Need help and critics...

Xantor · Post by **Xantor** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 4:37 am

Hi I'm new here and currently trying to get a webcomic uploaded...
At first... I'm Austrian, so please ignore the grammar mistakes... I'm doing my best.

Ok, I said it earlier I want to create a webcomic. The first one is already done, but there are many problems...
1) I can't really draw. I'm learning it and already made progress, but I think I could do better... I wonder how much time other people need to learn it...
2) I forgot to ink... yeah I know it's a mortal sin... I think I will ink the comic and then scan it again...
3) I don't really know what positions the characters should take... I heard that a char. should never look directly to the reader (except for sometimes...). Is there a guide in what direction the characters should look in different situations?
4) (thats the smallest problem I think) My englisch isn't the best, but I'm improving and I have a friend who corrects my mistakes...

Sooo... heres the Pic (I will compress it more in the future...)
http://img9.myimg.de/Issue1Seite1Englisch0e3d3.png

Should I ink it and make it new or should I just try better for the next time?

Thanks
Xantor

Black Sparrow · Post by **Black Sparrow** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 8:26 am

I'll give this a shot.

1) Drawing is an ongoing skill. That is, it always keeps improving, and the only way to get better is to just keep drawing. I've been drawing for ten years, and I can still spot ways that my drawing needs improvement, even though I know some people who can't. So just keep practicing. Maybe read some drawing books. Time is the only real way to get better at drawing.

2) Inking is not the end-all-and-be-all, and not inking is not a mortal sin. There are plenty of comics that never touch a pen, and still turn out great. However, I do think your art would look neater if it were inked.

3) I do not know about any books that talk about that issue directly. If it helps, think of yourself as a cameraman, shooting a movie. Your job is to move around the scene and get interesting angles of the action that is taking place. Actors CAN look at the camera, provided the camera is in the same place as another actor... I do it all the time to make conversations more interesting. Watch your favorite movies and see how they handle camera angles, and then you'll know how to position your characters.

4) You're English is actually pretty good. I haven't noticed any glaring errors. Like with drawing, the only way to get better at English is to keep practicing (I think this post might force you to look up some new words... Yay, I'm helping!). And make sure to thank your friends... it's cool of him/her to do that.

Xantor · Post by **Xantor** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 1:04 pm

thanks for the professional help, I see that you actually know what you are talking about...

I will try to make the next comics with inking... I hope it'll look better (I mean without the dots, my drawing won't look better^^)

What surprised me is that you said my english is good... a few years ago I only got bad marks on english tests

Ok, thanks again... any critics?

Geekblather · Post by **Geekblather** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 10:11 pm

The best advice I can give to anybody doing a comic, is to study anatomy. Knowing how all the bones and muscles fit together makes it a lot easier to position people, and to make things look 'right' even if you distort them to make them really cartoonish. Once you know the basics, it's a lot easier to see how to exaggerate them to make expressions and body positions easily readable.

Dan The Lefty · Post by **Dan The Lefty** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 2:26 am

The more time you spend drawing, the better you will get. I've been drawing for most of my life, and I'm still trying to improve my art. Other than this advice, her are some general technical tips:
1. Look at reference material for stuff when you are drawing.
2. Read some tutorials and books about figure drawing. Like geekblather was saying, knowing how the human body goes together and how it is proportioned will greatly improve your work.
3. Do some work with shading. Our minds perceive depth partly due to shadows. Shading takes a lot of practice, but it adds a lot to your work.

One site that has a lot of good tutorials and references is http://www.elfwood.com/farp/entries/drawingdiary.html. I would also recommend reading some of Scott McCloud's books about comics. They helped me a lot with my comic. His site is http://www.scottmccloud.com/.

You can also learn a lot just by studying the art of other people and seeing what they do.

As far as positioning the characters goes, there isn't much advice I can give that Black Sparrow didn't already mention.

And ya, your English is better than you think.

Laemkral · Post by **Laemkral** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 9:47 am

I'm gonna agree with Sparrow and everyone else on what was said. You've got a simple style, and I think that with practice and time and by forcing yourself to try to draw new things you can make improvements.

As for where people face, Sparrow put it perfectly. You are the director of a movie, and shooting still shots to convey the scene. Orient the camera, characters, and background to accomplish that. Whatever you do, do it to accomplish that goal.

Xantor · Post by **Xantor** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 12:55 pm

At first thank you all, there is still hope^^

But I will draw the comics again and then ink them. It should be alot easier then to color and shadow them on the computer (Yeah I know the prototype doesn't has shadows...)

I'll draw it new and then upload it... and this will be the point where the shameless advertising begins^^

Tpiro · Post by **Tpiro** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 11:04 pm

As for positioning the characters, in Scott McCloud's recent book, Making Comics, he has some great tips and examples. Another thing I have found helpful is to watch a movie, pause it, and then sketch some of the characters during dialogue scenes. This provides some great examples of how to position characters.

-Tony

[geoduck] · Post by **[geoduck]** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 9:42 pm

One nitpick: Your promo banner is a little large and overwhelming. You might want to cut away some of that extra black space.

LibertyCabbage · Post by **LibertyCabbage** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 3:43 pm

I would avoid using modern slang like "dude" in a fantasy setting. Unless it's a parody, which this doesn't seem to be.

Also, I would give more consideration to the spatial relations in your scenes. I get the impression that the characters are in a fairly large room, but due to the perspectives the scenes come across as very claustrophobic. Don't be afraid to zoom out and get into detail, especially in this case where an Archmage's room seems like a particularly interesting place and is presumably filled with various magical trinkets and specimens and such.

And, as general writing advice, every good story lets you get to know the characters at least a little before the main plot begins to unravel. I mean, here you already have several major plot points (the protagonist embarking on a quest, and the Archmage's betrayal) and we don't even know anything about the protagonist yet besides his name, that he uses magic, and that he seems to be evil. So, be careful about furthering the plot at the expense of characterization, because then people won't care about what happens to the characters and will lose interest in the story.