Advice and Critiques to Creators

[Liorlen]

Ah, it's really cool that you're doing this,, I'd just like to ask for any advice on A Guardian's Death, if that's alright.. I know it's short I'm sorry;; I'm also curious how you utilize paneling so well... sorry, I'm kind of new;;; I probably made some mistakes

[whitesl]

Hey! I haven't made a comic yet, but I do have one in the works and I'd like a critique on some artwork that I did with the characters of my future novel. I have one with my characters and/or one with a more complex backgrounds with some of my secondary characters

Both works were done with Copic markers, if that helps any. Thank you.

EDIT: So I just got a Wacom Intuos for Christmas, which i've enjoyed using, but my picture looks...off. I've been using a trial run of Autodesk Sketchbook and have finished a picture, but the colors seem dull and unless I use the airbrush, which seems to be the thing dulling the colors, nothing wants to blend. I'd really like to get this down as it's the one of the only things holding me back from starting my comic.

Picture:

[Momomori]

ive been told before that my paneling could use some work. i just do it by eye tbh, but is there any advice to help my comic, or just me as an artist, about anything i should work on? (im sorry this is so vague) https://tapastic.com/episode/421888

[whispwill]

The biggest thing is your contrast... everything is roughly the SAME shade of dark gray with ever so slight hints of light and shadow. I flipped through most of your comic and it's the same trend throughout. It makes your pages difficult to read and understand, which is a shame as I can tell they are quite dynamic and well drawn.

I suggest starting with just pure black and pure white to block in large shapes/areas of light and dark. This might help you build some contrast :3

[whispwill]

Went through your comic again and even in the newer pages it's kind of the same problem.

This is a flat, 4 panel, comic: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/ac/63/b6/ac63b6a435eab18a4efe7ff309bbecda.jpg
Character drawn in similar pose, same, angle, same perspective, same size.

While this is more dynamic: http://www.rightstufanime.com/images/productImages/9781421585642_manga-one-punch-man-1-sample2.jpg
The angles change, the view changes, the character varies in size.

The more dynamic kind of panel takes a lot more thought and effort but it really helps to sell the world and the story, if that's what you're after. Both are perfectly fine, and I chose very extreme examples... but I hope that helps with what I was trying to say ; v ; ♥

[whispwill]

Lol I want to burn all of my old pages all of the time, I guess you just have to come to terms with it xD.

If the writing is bad though, you might want to go back and touch up some of the dialogue in the older pages in order to avoid confusing with future pages. Just make it subtle and try to change as little as possible. It'll be tempting to rewrite everything, but see what you can do to make what you had then work with what you have now.

[whispwill]

You might benefit from some gradients. Your flats are fine, but this is just a nit pick... just that one little thing to help push the art a bit. On your backgrounds/things that aren't as important as your figures, keep lighter and add a gradient. It will help to separate your figures more.

Black and white comics also tend to look best with some line variation. It's what separates the beginners from the pros. Think about practicing some brush pen/ink stroke stroke if you want to give your comic a more polished feel.

Otherwise, I enjoyed reading your story. The paneling is simple but very easy to follow ( simple isn't bad lol ).

[whispwill]

You have a pretty nice little comic here.

My only advice - figure/anatomy studies. You've got the basics down but everything still feels pretty stiff and ridged.
I suggest grabbing a ballpoint pen (( yes, a pen... no erasing )) and doing some 1 to 5 minute studies. No long than 5 minutes. Get the entire figure in. You just need the gesture. There are several websites that have figure drawing reference... I don't know any off the top of my head though... apologies.
Gotta get that pencil mileage in.

[Sleepyowl]

Ah, if that's the case than the panel style is intentional. I much prefer flatter more panel based comics, more manga style comics where panels are non-existent aren't particularly interesting to me. On occasion some characters may "break" out of their panel partially, but that's the extent of it.

And when I said newer pages, I meant way further down the line haha . But I hear what you say about similar poses and such, and I will try to fix that! Thank you so very much! <3

[sofiapmoya9]

Well, I would like if you could check out my comic! Is like an interactive comic so I made the pannels purposely almost the same size. Also I know I have so little text that is very difficult to actually know what´s happening, how to improve on that? I´m having like a looooot of problems with backgrounds and I don´t know how to start drawing backgrounds, and all tutorials I see are the same but not helpful. Could you help me on that?
Sorry it´s so long!

[kirahaydenyin]

thanks i'll definitely keep that in mind, and thanks once again for your time, i appreciate it.

[Damatris]

Thank you! I'm glad you like the comic. Ahahaa... Yeah, I've definitely been neglecting croquis for... gosh I realized it has been 2 years. Basically ever since a course about it ended. :'D I really, really need to pick that up again! I have couple of those websites in my bookmarks that you're probably thinking about.

Seriously, thank you! This is something that I had kinda totally forgotten about so a little wake up call is definitely appreciated! <3

[SpavVy]

My friends and family have been urging me to get a table at a convention to sell my comic...but the thing is I have a bad case of stage fright : frowning: I also recently tried to submit to a small publisher but got rejected because I have no con experience yet.

[Puppisama]

Hello, Im the creator of VCvsDvsCFAD, I'd like to get a critique, but if its too much work, I have many pages already hahaha, I'd like to get advise for spreading more my comic, it's getting a lil' difficult to me to get more exposure, and I like to know what other creators do to expand more their readers.

[ekmoryl]

So, this is just kind of a general question, but do you know of any good references for body proportions? I can't seem to find any, and I am having a lot of trouble with it.

[blinkingkills]

I hope you don't mind me butting in unwelcome but even though i'm a n00b at comicking I've been drawing figure drawing stuff for a while. i would suggest Senshistock for poses because she has amazing poses for like comics and manga stuff and its all free. She has great male stock photos too, though less of them because most of the stock is photos of herself doing cool things. She and the other models wear tights or tight clothing so you can easily see the proportions on the body.

[ekmoryl]

Thanks! That will definitely help.

[pandaxpuma]

Thanks you so much for doing this! It's amazing to get an opportunity like this
If you could give a glance at our comic Friki Romance and tell us how we could improve it'd be awesome <3

Thank you again for your time <3

[GFalconDX]

Thank you for taking the time to critique. IF you could take a look at my comic, The Chronicles of SolLuna, I would appreciate it!

[ryoko]

omg...I think of you as one of the biggest names here on Tapastic! O.O Thank you so much for offering to help us all out! I'd love to have some advice for my comic The cat, the vine and the Victory

There are rather a lot of pages and the earlier ones have problems with things like the text being a bit too small, but I would very much appreciate you taking a peek. Having someone like you offering advice and critiques to help me learn and improve means so much. Thank you again for taking the time out to help us ^_^