How could I improve my comic?

PixyByte 2016-09-24 04:16:26 UTC #1

Hi! I'd like it if someone could please check out my comic Pixy Byte and let me know what you think. It's about the life and adventures that Pixy, Penguin, Flippers, and Poot go on on a weekly basis.
Could you please check it out and let me know what you like, don't like, and what could be improved? I would really appreciate it. I don't seem to be getting a lot of views for my comic and I hope I'm not doing anything to scare people away!
Thanks

TrialAndError 2016-09-24 04:29:04 UTC #2

Who's your target audience? It's a cute family friendly, children's style comic strip. We need more of these on here. It's simple, newsprint style, easy to read work.

Just work on your art more. I can already see an improvement. I need to work on my art too. Check out my work if you want as well. I need some critiques too. Wild Cards

serenitysquirrel 2016-09-26 03:18:48 UTC #3

It's cute! I wish you sized it a bit smaller before uploading though. Takes a bit to load and alot of scrolling per panel to read on my standard monitor.

PixyByte 2016-09-26 04:55:21 UTC #4

This might sound stupid, but I don't really know my target audience. I just try to go for clean, simple goofy humor that seems to hit many different people. Could you please specify what you mean when you say I need to work on my art more? I'm still trying to find the right style that I like drawing in, it's a long process.

PixyByte 2016-09-26 04:58:18 UTC #5

Thank you!
I'm glad you mentioned the size of it, I felt it was a bit too large but I've gotten comments saying that previous strips were too small and everything was looking a tad squished and cluttered. I think I may have gone a bit too big. Thank you, I will definitely adjust the size of it.

eslameldeeb 2016-09-26 06:25:33 UTC #6

I've checked your comic, and i was gonna comment on the width size too, it needs to be smaller

Well, i suggest that you make a list of comic artists that you feel naturally attracted to their art styles, analyse what they have in common, there must be something there that makes you like them, work on that and eventually your own style is gonna appear, in a nutshell: be smart and don't re-invent the wheel, start from where great artists have reached

PixyByte 2016-09-27 22:04:00 UTC #7

Thank you, that's very smart advice! I do like my chibi-like characters, it's just I don't see (or I can't find) very many cutesy chibi/cartoony like styles to learn from.

vongcw 2016-09-27 22:27:23 UTC #8

Hey. I think your characters do have some charm to them! All of our characters will change and sharpen with time, but I thought you might like this article to help you bring out your characters even more! (Like I think the penguin could be rounder and Pixy's hair could be a more regular recognisable shape etc.) It would just help your readers identify the characters faster and give them a sense of uniqueness.

Hope this helps and inspires. (I know it did for me) :

http://lackadaisycats.tumblr.com/post/67909264429/notes-on-character-design

PixyByte 2016-09-27 23:23:21 UTC #9

Oh wow, thank you so much. I like your ideas on a rounder Penguin and fixing Pixy's hair (It's difficult to find a good hairstyle to work with, much like real life! lol). That link is very helpful too, I'm going to do some character design sketching later using that link!

GesuGesu 2016-09-28 06:09:25 UTC #10

I feel like there's a lack of concrete background in your panels. Often it's just a fill colour so the characters are standing in nothingness.

Other than that, I hope you steadily improve your art over time, it looks like it's still a fresh style and a bit wobbly/inconsistent.

allenthomas 2016-09-28 18:32:44 UTC #11

I really like your comic. I would just suggest continuing to improve and expand on your artwork. (which applies to all of us as creators) I like your style of humor. The recent Hunger Games page made me laugh out loud. A suggest, and this is just me, but maybe combine the line outside of your speechbubbles with the lines of your art. That way everything has a consistent look.

Doubtcent 2016-09-28 20:17:36 UTC #12

Here's a bit of advice to improve the overall quality of your art. You don't have to take this as gospel, but it certainly helped me out in the long run.

Lineart - it looks like your art is improving considerably, but there are a lot of times where it's broken up or you have weirdly thick linewidths. If you can, practice cleaning up your lineart by practicing varied linewidths and by cleaning up connections and stray lines.

Speech Bubbles - When it comes to your individual style, premade or automatic speech bubble makers are not doing your comic a favor. It looks like your dialogue was an afterthought to the art, and it was just slapped on over it. You may have to fix the settings on the program you're using, or perhaps draw your speech bubs by hand.

Text - As for text, since you're writing it by hand it looks like, you may benefit by making a preset font in your best handwriting, for clarity. Or perhaps look into a font that fits your comic's style. There are tons of free ones on the internet, so there shouldn't be a problem with that either.

Color - This is the big one, I'm afraid. When it comes to your choice in colors and shading, it does seem to bog down your overall presentation. Rule number 1 when coloring digitally is never use the color black. Unless you're making a black and white comic, never shade with black. Shadows in the real world are often dark blue, dark red, faded orange and many other colors depending on the scene.
Not to mention you like to blend your colors in a lot, like in "bouncy bridge" where you're fading them in when they should be strong and solid.
For a beginner such as yourself, I would look into cell shading. Basically you color your page with "flats" or base colors that are solid. On top of the flats you apply layers depending on how strong the shadows should be. These layers should not be blended in until you have a fine grasp of shading. You can then have a layer for light and highlights. At most, the amount of color layers can be 3 - Flats, shadows, highlights.

In general, you need practice, but I feel that you're headed in the right direction.

Herofeeder 2016-09-28 21:03:46 UTC #13

you need a gap closer..a killer joke at the end..the drawing is awesome

eslameldeeb 2016-09-28 22:17:39 UTC #14

No problem,
From my Reading List, i can recommend these webcomics:

PixyByte 2016-10-19 00:22:07 UTC #15

@Kimoisempai I feel like I've improved significantly since the first strip I did, and since I started out a complete 100% beginner to comics, manga, and cartooning, I know I've got a long ways to go. I am just looking for how to go about helping myself improve.

@allenthomas Oh believe me, I'm always practicing and trying to learn how to do things lol. I'm glad you like the humor in my comic and I did take your suggestion with the lines of the speechbubbles combined with the lines of my art.

@vincentprendick

I agree, and I was fairly aware of the lineart issue, and I'm almost positive it's because I rush things. The outlining is such a slow and tedious process (as others might agree), and I just don't have that much patience.

I use Manga Studio and the bubble options they have for speechbubbles, and hand drawing speech bubbles is NOT an option. I have the most shakiest hands ever. Line correction/auto lines are life savers. What do you mean my dialogue was an afterthought to the art? Is it not funny/match the artwork? I don't understand

I actually don't write by hand. I made my own font using my best handwriting. I take it that my best handwriting is still terrible, so I just used the Ariel font.

I tried to airbrush over flats with a light opacity, to give characters and things some depth. I know my color work needs fixing, I just don't really know what direction to go into. I appreciate the suggestion of cell shading, although I don't really understand it. Does it mean you have one layer for flat colors, another for shadowing, and another for highlights? Also, why never use black? The characters Flippers and Poot are entirely black, and Pixy's sleeves and shorts are black. Should I change those colors? Use like a dark brown for the cats and dark blue for Pixy's sleeves and shorts?

I feel like my comic is one big work in progress. I'm trying really hard to improve, it's just getting feedback helps so much with knowing what direction to go in. Thank you so much for your imput.

Doubtcent 2016-10-19 15:31:32 UTC #16

@PixyByte
I see, I wasn't very clear in everything I was trying to say. Sorry about that.

For the speech bubble issue, truly, the presets do not look all too great. There is a speech bubble editor, and I believe there are more that you can download for the program, but I find hand drawn speech bubs look better because they fit the style overall.
What I meant as "an afterthought" was that because the speech bubs look as though they're in a different style, they seem like they were thought up later and pasted in with a different program. I don't have any problems with your humor.

If you are going to use a font, and I really would suggest it, don't use the ones that everyone else uses. Find a unique, yet simple font that matches your style. Arial does not, in my personal opinion.

As for color, yes. Never use black. In a colored comic, black, both in flats and shading, bogs down the way things look a lot. Since you use clip studio paint, (manga studio) there is an easy method that I personally use. If you go to layer properties, there is a box that you can select, (next to the outline box) and it will allow you to change the color of the layer. I often shade in black so I can see what it looks like, then I change the layer to dark blue or dark red, or whatever color the scene needs. I also do the same thing to the lineart, to make the characters pop.

Here's an example of several different colors used for shading:
Dark Green,
Dark Orange,
Dark Yellow,
and Dark Blue.