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carreonaiwille
Oct '20
1

I've been on the novel side since I started posting content online and the little art I do was mostly random illustrations or illustrations of the characters in my novel.
Recently, I've thought that practice sketches alone are becoming aimless for me, so I've thought about trying to make a comic to force me out of a comfort zone and make a sort od commitment. It won't be long, just a short comic. I've tried doing a 7 page comic of an excerpt in my novel. But this being the really first time I'll tackle something like this, I have a few questions.

First, I'm planning to make the storyline an adaptation of a play written by a playwright famed locally. It was close to me because I was in the production and I've been drawing people in period clothing so I thought it might be fit. My question is would there be any rules in posting it since the storyline is not originally mine. The play was written in the early 1900s I think.

Second, how do you make one character's face look the same across the whole story? When I draw, the faces seem to be of different people though I intended otherwise.

Third, how do you handle color palettes and clothing design for periods where the dresses are not that varied?

Last, any comments on the initial sketch for the design of the characters?

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CarltonIsaac
Oct '20

That would be FanFiction, sort of.

Practice. Keep similarity in basic identifying traits - as in eyes, nose, mouth and hair style.

Study the art/images of that time period.

Not bad at all. Study anatomy, poses and movement. Practice, practice, practice.

Puck
Oct '20

Simplify the facial attributes. You can still give characters more detailed faces in later comics.
Do the 30 facial expressions with every character. You will know your character better after
doing it and you can test out the attributes.
The sketches are good!

30 essential expressions.jpg564x867 47.6 KB

migxmeg
Oct '20

2nd question: I'm illustrating a first-time comic and let go of having the characters' faces look the same. If it's obvious who they are based on their character design, people apparently don't seem to mind. It's also hard to let your style evolve if you try too hard to be consistent - I'm actually pretty thrilled these days when I look at how much cooler my characters look (to me at least, haha) compared with the first episodes.

3rd question: I think if you focus on the silhouettes of your characters and give everyone a unique hairstyle and accessory (like a specific colored bowtie for example that they always wear), you should be fine.

Last - looks cool! Lots of personality in one sketch. Seems like a great project :).

carreonaiwille
Nov '20

@CarltonIsaac I will study the images although there are few art that exists but pictures will do.

@Puck Thanks for the resource!I'll see where the characters go with the expressions.

@katie99 For question 3, Pictures from the era are all in black and white and it always seemed that people only wore white, black, cream, yellow or brown (the impression I get from movies taking place in the period) I am quite weak with colors and I was thinking how to use the colors properly.

Thanks. I have tried doing the lineart digitally and traditionally. Digital takes me a long time while a traditional lineart takes minutes. I'm unsure which to use since traditional seems to have more energy but is rough while digital is clean, too clean.

@lion.scar
Thanks :slight_smile:

@migxmeg Thanks, I'll see how I can use these the silhouette and create distinctive character design.

CarltonIsaac
Nov '20

You might find paintings of portraits and scenery of those time periods that are in vivid colour in museums or art galleries / private collections.

HGohwell
Nov '20

Research the play thorough. "Written in the early1900s I think" is fine if you have no ambitions for making money off the comic, but you can't monetize it if it's fanfiction, so if that is something you're even a little bit hopeful for, research thoroughly. Depending on when it was written and so, it may be public domain already, meaning it's fair game to adapt, like you can do Romeo and Juliet if you want, and that could be monetized.

carreonaiwille
Nov '20
CarltonIsaac

@CarltonIsaac Yes, I'll do. Colorized pictures and few paintings might work

@HGohwell I don't believe I'm at the place yet to make money off my art but starting with classic works because I'm hoping the comic adaptations might be useful in my day job.
I'd want to research it thoroughly, but even a mention of the play on the internet is almost nonexistent. I remember finding a hard copy of the script but it is in a library an hour drive from our place so I'm settling with asking around the other people who've worked on it.

Legendofgenii
Nov '20

I really like your sketches and I do love period settings and themes. I don’t really mind muted colour pallets or traditional clothing either.

I struggle with making my characters faces consisted too - it hasn’t stopped me going for it though. :sweat_smile::+1:

Now that I’ve been drawing them more often (since June) I’m now sneaking back to older pages and redrawing them, but honestly if it’s obvious who is who I think there’s no need to worry.

I might have a go at that 30 expressions challenge @Puck mentioned too.

darthmongoose
Nov '20

Draw each character's face a bunch of times before you start in different expressions and angles to get used to what the distinctive traits of that face are. The meme @Puck posted is a good one, though you might not need to go quite so far as thirty times per character!
I tend to think in terms of things like: Eyebrow shape/thickness/height, eye size and shape, nose shape, size and height of nose bridge (often ignored by manga style artists, but particularly helpful to pay attention to for depicting a diverse cast) and jawline shape. Some artists who draw more detailed mouths might also pay a lot of attention to mouth or lip shape.

Here are some of my sketches I did for a character appearing next chapter in my comic:

Jules_Joodles.png1287x1791 715 KB

I always try to give each character a distinctive set of facial expressions, so they don't all necessarily smile the same way, laugh the same way or look shocked the same way. Often the shape of their features will influence this in interesting ways! :supicious_stache:

carreonaiwille
Nov '20

@Legendofgenii
Thanks :slight_smile:
I guess we just have to keep going.

@darthmongoose
I grew up drawing manga style. I'll take note of the nose shape. I started sketching three of the characters, tried to vary the way they do the same expressions.

chiptunemacaroon
Nov '20

The fact that you started out doing manga style you can use to your benefit. Anime and anime-inspired art styles are very popular right now, plus a lot of anime styles are simple enough you can draw a lot pretty quickly. If it really bothers you considering the time period you can change it, however I've seen period-inspired manga and anime work beautifully stylistically.

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For example, the Interview with the Vampire manga above, adapted from a novel that took place in 1791, or the infamous Black Butler... Though I wouldn't recommend going that detailed for a single-person passion project.

As others said before me your comic would be fanfiction since it's not an official adaptation. As far as I know there are no problems with that so long as you don't try to profit off of it (and even if you did it's unlikely the creator would even find out).

For character consistency: I agree with what others have said before me, but I'd also highly recommend making a three point character turnaround!

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Since this is a webcomic I don't think you need other views of the character; this should be enough to keep your character mostly consistent. Decide on a design and really stick to it, then make this turnaround. Keep the turnaround open at all times while you draw so you can reference every part of the design. Try to make it match up as much as you can. This will be slow going at first but over time the design will get into your muscle memory and you'll be able to draw without checking the reference much if at all.

For color palettes and clothing design: perhaps this is an easy way out, but have you considered making the entire comic in black and white or even sepia tones? Webcomics are a huge workload regardless of how simple the art style is and color is a whole other animal. When you have a story like this where you want to evoke that vintage feel, you might have an excuse to actually go black and white or sepia!

The variance in outfits you have for the characters is good so far. Like others have said before me though I'd also recommend making them more distinctive from each other; think of what makes the character unique and try to communicate that through the design. With the best designs, you can get a sense of their personality from a glance!

I hope that was helpful and if you have further questions lemme know!