More critique please

Lil_Slime 2020-03-03 08:35:42 UTC #1

Hey guys, so I just recently finished chapter one of my comic, and I really want to improve on the rest of my comic a lot more (and potentially redo the first chapter, too). So yeah, here I am, asking for criticism.

Anywho, the thing I’m mainly looking for here is what did I do wrong (I.e. what annoyed you in my comic/what made you not want to read my comic anymore) and how I can improve on it, and also what I did right and what can i do to make it even more right.

So that’s about it! Thanks!

P.S.: If you want me to review your comics, too, feel free to post them down below so I can return the favor! (I can’t promise a high quality review, but it’s still something)

darthmongoose 2020-03-03 09:20:34 UTC #2

I'd mostly advise putting more thought into your backgrounds.

At the moment, it feels like a lot of the time, you're just kind of throwing absolute minimum effort at your backgrounds. I know they can be hard work and feel like the most boring part of the comic if you're character-focused, but remember that if you're making a fantasy comic, the fantastic world should be part of the appeal. Try to think of your environment less as a flat thing behind the characters, and more like a place that they are IN. Make your backgrounds interesting and tell us things about your world, have them set up an atmosphere!

Think about what is creating the light in your environments and how that can interact with the characters and create a mood. Is it a warm inn lit by lanterns? Have the warm orange glow of the lanterns on the characters and creating dust motes in the air and rich shadows as they discuss plans.
Instead of bare walls in your inn, you could have all kinds of things! Graffiti that people have scratched into the walls, wanted posters, old shields, paintings, tapestries, horse brasses, stains etc. Think about your locations. What's the background, who built the structures? What happened here? They should be designed just as much as your characters.

Skaarfy 2020-03-03 09:57:14 UTC #3

I agree with darthmongoose about the backgrounds.

From me, the anatomy on the characters still needs more polish. Like I can notice that you often tend to avoid drawing hands and its understandable, I've been there before, but you won't be able to draw them ever if you don't try to draw them more often. In your level, I suggest you practice more on breaking down the anatomy to simple 3d shapes like how arms, can be drawn as two cylinders connected by a sphere. That way you'll learn to give more structure to your character's anatomy.

Also, if there are poses you find difficult to draw, then you can't go wrong with using photo references. Many artist underestimate the use of references, but I can't stress it enough how important it is to use them. After all we can't draw everything from imagination if we haven't seen it before.

Lastly, seeing as you prefer to draw in the typical manga/anime style, I recommend watching some tutorials from DoKiDoKi Drawing on youtube. They give some pretty good advise for those who wish to draw anime-like style in general.