Critique on comic strip art

[GeorgeComics]

Hi everyone...I'm a little ashamed to admit that I've got a pretty thin skin when it comes to people critiquing my work. I always have, and it's always caused me to shy away from asking for critiques. However, I'm trying to get really serious about my comic, and I realize that you have to be open to critiques and you've got to form a thick skin because not everyone out there will like your stuff. That being said, I rather humbly place before you a sample of my comic strip art. I would appreciate any constructive comments, advice, suggestions, anything of that sort:



I'm leaving out the text for two reasons: This particular comic won't be released for about three weeks, and also I'd really like you to focus on the artwork at this moment than the writing...which eventually I'll get around to submitting for critique as well

[Warofwinds]

Good use of color and shadow, but the eyes are bugging me. I'm accustomed to eyes conveying emotion, and to me, all your character's expressions look scared, shocked or freaked out. Maybe try more of an eye shape, and less of a straight-up circle? (Mostly it's the red-head.) Other than that, the left hand of the guy in panel one is a little wonky, though I could accept the hands as your stylistic choice (keep in mind my comments may be more applicable to graphic-novel type rather than strip comics).

The wrinkles of the girl in green's shirt also bother me a bit. The shirt looks twisted rather than tight/stretched.

Random:

Why does the room change colors? I like the palette itself, but I question the reason.

There looks to be some cut and paste going on, which a change of pupil direction. Whether or not that's true, try to make it less exact, even if it's just changing small details like the wave of their hair.

(Hope that wasn't too bad. I don't much like getting critiqued either.)

[GeorgeComics]

No, that was fine...I got advice and commentary without being offended

Well, I'll start off with the room changing colors. That's something I picked up from years of reading newspaper comics (the color variety, of course, coming from Sunday funnies or collections). I noticed that lots of them (well, lots to ME, maybe it was only a few, but ones which piqued my interest) changed the color of walls or panel backgrounds from one frame to the next. I thought of it as a simple way to keep the comic looking a little more dynamic without being distracting. With text bubbles in place, it isn't quite so overbearingly noticeable

Okay, and the eyes...I know what you mean about them conveying emotion. I use them to the same effect ordinarily, though the "standard" character expression, used mostly when they are talking to each other, is one that in my mind is meant to suggest interest, alertness, sometimes eagerness--unless, of course, one or more of the characters is simply not interested, alert, or altogether eager, in which case they'll get the half-closed bored gaze. In the above example, the two women are in the middle of a quarrel when George tries to offer some advice to them; energy in the room is high and a little tense. In any case, I try to convey lots of emotions with the eyes, but if my wide-eyed characters are conveying shock or fear then I will most definitely take into consideration your suggestion of varying eye shapes and generally trying to tone down any shock and awe they might have!

Wrinkles in clothing...not my strong point. Something I admit I have to work on. If you (or anyone else for that matter) can tell me where I can go to improve on this, I'd be very glad.

Cutting and pasting...yes, the line work is frequently cut and pasted IF the character is not undergoing any big movement in that particular strip. Colors and shading are never cut and pasted, though, as I take some odd pleasure in doing that even more than drawing characters. However, I will try to make it more subtle in the future! Thanks for the feedback!

[Geekblather]

Burne Hogarth's "Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery" is an EXCELLENT source for learning to draw well, wrinkles and drapery, especially in motion with a body. Really really useful. I love mine. Other than that, just draw lots of fabric.

I guess the room changing color doesn't really bother me, because I do the same thing, to help the background coordinate with the foreground (ie. if the character in the foreground has red hair and a red shirt, I'll probably do a green background, if the shirt is blue, probably orange or yellow background.)

The eyes kind of remind me of Jim Davis, Matt Groening, Seth McFarlane etc. Big white circles with dots. I think it does kind of fit with your style, but it might be helpful to look at how they represent different expressions, with a similar style to the eyes.

One thing I noticed is that all the characters are drawn at 3/4 view, which is effective, but kind of boring. Showing characters in the same pose, and cut off at the knees in every panel isn't very interesting, mixing up the angles and perspectives, and zooming in and out makes the panels a little more dynamic.

A good resource for that is Wally Wood's 22 Panels, just type that into google and you should get a bunch of results. He has a lot of suggestions on how to mix things up to keep panels from being stagnant.

[GeorgeComics]

Very nice input, geek, thanks for the tips!

[Scyze]

Well, are you looking to make your characters really realistic, or..? Because if that's the case, then I can give you a lot of tips there; but until I know that, I won't say anything there.

I think the thing about the changing background is that in the Sunday funnies, you'll notice that most of them do not have a detailed background, and can change background colors because of that. For a detailed background like yours, it can be kind of unnerving. I don't mind it so much, but it's something to consider.

A trick you might consider is changing the background to fit a mood or theme; this is extremely apparent in Diesel Sweeties, and the background color changes very often with the mood (toilet jokes will translate into a sickly green or brown color, "love" moments are indicated with a higher-pink tone than normally), and such. Diesel Sweeties has very lightly detailed backgrounds, so even when there are background objects, the color change is subtle and pleasant. Yours works fine, but it's not so subtle, but not unpleasant.

As for the copy paste; if you really want to get serious about your drawing, don't copy-paste. Ever! Redraw your characters. You'll learn efficiency and your characters' anatomy much faster (and you'll need to, too).

[GeorgeComics]

Nah Scyze, I'm really not trying to focus on realism--but at the same time I would like body anatomy to be correct for the most part. Obviously with cartooning comes exaggerated facial features, sometimes out-of-proportion heads and whatnot, but that's also no excuse for body parts to be misshapen or at weird angles and such. Also, I realize I need to be able to draw my characters in any pose from any angle and do it well, and a basic knowledge of how to draw anatomy and figures is crucial for that to happen. I've received a lot of constructive criticism, advice and suggestions and I feel that the most important things I need to do is mix up the character position and perspectives often, and fix some minor anatomy details like oddly-shaped hands or arms bending at incorrect angles. Also, maybe I'll tone down the changing background colors a bit

[Scyze]

Yeah, might have figured that; it's pretty important for you to have a specific style when cartooning, anyhow. What you could definitely do is try some different angles, as others have said, but you'll have to beware the fact that your over-exaggerated body parts will possibly become extremely awkward in different poses; this is my guess as to why mostly, characters are always in 3/4th in most comics.

I guess something I could readily spot is your character's arm length; the arms normally go halfway down the thighs when totally stretched. Yours are just a bit short of that--if you make them a bit longer, they would probably feel more natural.

Otherwise, I really can't make any comments on anatomy without infringing on your stylistic rights as a cartoonist. For the oddly-bent angles arms, though, do the tried and true test: do the poses yourself. If it takes major exertion, dislocation or breaking of bones, excruciating pain, or even moderate discomfort to do, your characters would most likely feel the same way.

If you ever have any problems with any limbs, all you have to do is go outside, go to a public place or something, and just look around. If you have a firm knowledge of anatomy, you can easily reproduce it stylistically, and it'll look great.

[NakedElf]

Anatomically speaking, there are two main problems I see with this piece. The first is that the guy in blue's neck seems off. It just seems to me like it ought to be a little further back--its current positioning makes his back look a little humped.


The other thing, which I think is more important, is the breasts. I took the liberty of glancing through your archives, and this seems to be a consistent problem. You put a little too much effort into defining them, at least for my tastes. But if you think about it, in order to get the full definition of a boob through a shirt, the shirt would have to be darn near glued to the surface of the boob. Rather, your typical shirt will go *over* the boob. You'll get a little definition at the sides, and maybe some stretching or hanging across the middle, but typically what you won't get is heavy definition on the underside.

Now for things you do well... Personally, I don't mind the change in colors from panel to panel; your style is consistent and well-done enough that I can tell it's the same room, and I've read plenty of other comics which do that, so it's fine to me. Your shading and color choices are nice. Overall, the art looks good.

[Moder]

Personally I dont like the style... But It looks very good.
Good work!.