Hey people!! I need to know which side is better so I can include it for my next update. The one to the left is my original concept, but I don't know what would look good on Tapastic's comic page. Thank you for the help. Peace. :))
8 days later
Hey everyone. Recently started a new comic called 'The Little Story of Jean'
The art style is a HUGE change from my main series Shade2, but I won't be using that for a comparison, because I'm trying to go for something entirely different (though you can still check Shade out and give me your thoughts.)
I'll post the first 3 pages here (sorry for clogging up the thread)
Can you tell me whether the entire thing with unprecise lines and watercolour is effective? Is it satisfying to your eyes? Tell me what kind of things I could change to make the experience better.
For comparison, I'm drawing a lot of inspiration from this manga, Takemitsu Zamurai1
Depends what sort of feel you are going for. Number one looks nicer but two would be better if you had a comic with heavier or darker themes.
It's looking nice! I'd recommend using a type font instead of writing your letters by hand. Writing by hand is very tedious when writing a long form comic and if you use a type font it means that your text stay legible.
There's a nice free software called firealpaca that I think you might find useful, it has some nice features for comic making. In this software you can put a 'clipping' layer above your line art and change the colour of it. I think this could help in some places like Carlos's trousers or Neill's hair.
This is just my personal opinion, so you can take it or leave it, I'm just an amateur myself! 
If you're writing this by hand I'd recommend this Handwriting Font Creator.6
Your style looks good and it's visually effective, I personally quite like the imprecise lines. The only thing I'd recommend is using darker hues so your pages don't look washed out but still retain their water-coloured feel.
Other than that it's looking lovely, great job!
Holy crap that handwriting font creator is great, I'll work on that.
I also had the lingering feeling about the washed out tones, I'll try to make more contrasting shades in the future. Thanks for the feedback : )
thanks!! (his name is actually 'Carter' but tbh i might change it lol)
im doing everything from my school computer,,, (cant downoad shIT,,,,) so,,,,, i may have to move computers to download somethin (ive worked w/ firealpaca tho, it's good) though,,, id really meant to keep the lines like that,,, i thought it looked kinda nice /shrugs lol,,, but yeah,,, im gonna finagle a typing program
hey-o! I'm working on a new series, and I'm trying to create the cover image for it. I'm not sure which one looks better =_= I'm not used to working with watercolors, either, so I'm wondering if it looks messy? Or is that a stylistically acceptable choice? I'd appreciate any feedback!!
A)
B)
I love wotercolors! To me they're supposed to be a little messy! Also I prefer the first one as the background colors are more saturated and vibrant.
^w^ thanks for your feedback! I also think I prefer the first one, but the more I looked at it, the more I began to worry that it looked muddled. I was aiming for "their colors are blending together", and I like the feel of watercolors (so dainty and delicate!), but I'm a natural worrier.
I like the first one too! I'd recommend layering colours with less opacity instead of single colour layers if you want it to look cleaner and more watercolour-y.
This is my latest Warmage page:
I am trying for a delicate balance here. The page starts out in a 3D programme, then goes to GIMP for post work. I do a stack of layered filtered and altered images for each panel, and then adjust transparency until I have the look I am going for. I am not trying to hide the 3D origins of the page, but I am trying to give it more of an artwork vibe, kill the photoreal look, and eliminate or at least minimise the uncanny valley look.
Currently, the stack of layers goes like this, in this order:
Outline (with alpha colour)
Inkdrawing (with alpha colour)
Shadows (picture reduced to B&W with alpha colour)
Pastels (with strong strokes)
Comics (The standard reduced colour outlined filter, set to 50 colours)
Paints
Original
I generally set the paints to 100% and then the other layers to varying degrees of transparency depending on lights, shadows, and so forth. There's no formula that works, I just have to play with the levels on each panel before I load it into the page.
So the question is, does this solve the listed problems?
Eagle
(As that is the goal)
The sepia does have a nice tone to it. It's not overbearing and provides contrast.
Just a personal note, if you can get away with it, always try to have your shadows as a dark color rather than just black. It can change and entire feel for a comic.
Like having the color set to orange for a warm moment, blue for a cold or sad, and red for anger. It can help with what types of emotions you want portrayed for a scene.
14 days later
The first version looks cleaner. The tweak just seems like extra noise and is out of place in my opinion.
Hello, I need help! Some people told me that in my comic Life of Panda1, sometimes it's difficult to identify the main character, and that I could try coloring it in a diferent color. So here it is:
Is it better? Should I use a different color for the main character? Stick to just one color?
Thanks!
I personally didn't have a problem figuring out who the main character was. She is the first one to speak and she has a different hair style then everyone else. These are two important ways to make the reader know who the protagonist is, and you did it.
While I kind've like the idea of the main character being a different color, I don't think it's entirely necessary.
Hi there! I'm working hard on my comic, Xander's Legacy, and I have two versions of the same panel. I would like to know what version looks the most appealing to you. Should I use thick lines or thin lines? How's the shading? What do you like and dislike about both pictures? Please let me know.
A:
OR
B:
The hard shading definitely looks better. If you want to use a softer style of shading, you really need to blend it more. At the moment you're using the softer brush as if you're cel-shading, and the soft edge makes it look untidy rather than giving it depth or realism. Make sure you stay within the lines either way, and try to keep the edge of the shaded area smooth, so people can't see the edge of your pen strokes.
For the inks, the thicker lines look more dynamic, and you've got some variation in line width there. It does make mistakes in your lines more obvious, though. For both styles, it would look better if you drew the lines more quickly, so you get a smooth line with less wobbles. If you do make a mistake, or need to join two lines together, use the eraser to hide it. Also, I don't know what you're using, but your lines are blunt rather than tapering off, so you might want to consider using a tablet with software that supports pressure sensitivity.
For both images, there are some anatomy issues. The most obvious one is where you haven't drawn the hands. For tricky poses like this one, take a photo of yourself or a friend/relative making the pose you want, and copy it. Don't cover up the hands or feet to avoid drawing them. It will look weird and the readers will know, and if you don't start trying, you'll never get any better.
The first one catch my attention first. Though, I'm in no position to give criticism and point out helps like others- A stood out more than B as it's more bolder and cleaner. It's more pleasing to my eyes at least. 
B might seem more recessive compared to A. The font seems like it's fading together with the background- maybe if you put an outline around it it'll separate from the background and give more impact.
//Cheers on you from the sideline 
//
Actually for me the problem is not with the character but with the compositions of the panels.
Your drawings are nice and your characters are different enough, but when you draw a comic there is some rules you might want to follow so the readers can understand the action and where the characters are.
Here I tried to do a quick drawing to help understand what causes the problems (I actually spend a while thinking about this haha, composition is tricky) :
First of all, as you can see, in the second panel, the action lines were in the wrong direction. She turns her head to the right, so the line should guide the movement. I also add her friend behind so we might understand better were we are)
On the third panel, what I add is not necessary but I thought it would be easier to understand that the person who's talking is not on the set with the bubble lines going out of the panel (and as the girl in her costume is somewhere to the right, the bubble should point to the right).
On the fourth panel, the girl in her costume was in the wrong direction (it might be easier for you to draw a rough plan of the top of the set to understand better where are the characters, and where they goes).
Also it's better to keep the sister to the right in the different panels, because it's easier to recognize her right away (you might understand better why by reading this1) . I add her shoulder, it's not necessary but I think it's more readable.
In the last panel I had to change the posing because I changed the direction of the character in the previous panel, so she would have been in the other way, not looking at her sister anymore.
And that's it, I hope this will help you
Composition is really hard, I have myself a lot of hard time with it, I think drawing a comic is 80% about thinking of the composition (which makes me sad cause it's really a pain in the ass).
Hm. I like B, if it had the font direction of A. Thinner lines are definitely better, however it would go so much further if there was a bit of line weight (Even just the lines that are against shaded areas, or the back of the hair, etc) It makes things "pop" more, which is what I'm assuming you were trying to accomplish in A. Also, your font direction in B is a little confusing. The top line is angled in one direction that the second line doesn't follow, giving a very confusing sense of the direction of movement (this is also apparent in A but to a lesser degree, however I like the extreme angle a bit more --it gives a more immediate feel of fast movement) .
This is my main characters design so far and im not sure if what i should i improve with - thanks
im sorry theyre so big (◡△◡✿)
*also for Takara's age im most likely changing it to 13 instead just in case anyone would reply about that
Hi! so i've been playing around with how i color hair and I was hoping to get some opinions. If you think theres anything i could change to make it look more visually appealing if you think it doesn't.
I guess whats really bothering me is that near the middle and towards the end, the hair just seems to feel like its gotten flat. :\
This depends on what style you're aiming for coloring wise, but often times its not a good idea to shade/draw every individual strand of hair. Drawing every individual strand can make hair lose its appearance of volume, and as a result make it appear flat in a drawing. It's easily remedied by treating the hair in clumps! If you group the strands into shapes, you can easily show the volume of the hair and avoid making it look flat. I'm not exactly sure how to word it so I hope you don't mind that I drew over your drawing ^^;
however! if you did want to keep drawing the hair as your example, you could try to shade/push the contrast. in your example, i'd push the shading in the hair that goes behind her shoulder, like so!
10 days later
Hello again! I'm experimenting with art styles for my main manga/comic and I'd like your opinions on the change.
It's an action story with a good chunk of slice of life parts between heavily violent arcs.
The first one is my current go-to style
This is the new 'experimental' style (takes more inspiration towards this manga's art)
I'd just like your opinions on whether or not this new art style would suit some of the manga's serious themes (burden of guilt, amnesia, death). I guess it could be done in an ironic sense.
Do you think this is a good move? If so, what can I improve in this new style? If not, what can I improve with the previous style?
Experimental page give the story, as I see it, some darker edge, like in "dorohedoro" or Nihei's early works. It looks more interesting/challenging visually and the textures bring good "obsessive" feel to it. It's somehow hard to make a real comparison - cause there's almost no backgrounds in the first page shown, - but overall, I think more detailed style works better.
P.S. - I like you frame and page compositions. They are dynamic, with good rhythms and dark/light balance. Great work.
Thanks for the feedback! I found that the experimental page was usually more fun to draw in comparison to my previous style.
I may stick to that in the future and keep playing around with different techniques I can do.
Here's my first issue's style:
I drew, inked, scanned, and then colored in Photoshop.
I did more coloring in Photoshop in issue 2:
As you can see, I added shadows and highlights to the local colors. I also used less non hand-drawn pictures.
Issue 3 is in progress, and I've done more effort on the coloring.
I've also changed the way of making it.
This time I just draw it, then scan it, and then I ink it in Photoshop (digitally) instead of before when I inked it traditionally. This makes the lines more crisp.
What techniques do you recommend for me to try out to make the art better and how?
I suggest that you have a look at this page for different techniques and methods of improvement.
http://hubpages.com/art/how-to-draw-learn5
In all honesty, from what I see, you don't have the greatest grasp on anatomy, especially on the last page that you posted. The facial structure seems off, which is something I believe you can fix by doing some portrait studies.
I also see that there's an almost complete lack of backgrounds, which doesn't do well when it comes to immersing a reader into the story's world.
With the action scenes in your first few pages, I can see that you have a great eye for composition, but I feel that your lack of 'fundamental' skills may be holding you back.
I think that, especially with the photoshop colouring, that you're trying to tackle too much at once. Colour theory and lighting is something that can be very difficult to learn.
I can't really say a lot since I'm not much of a pro, but I think the link above may do you well. Heck, I've been drawing for a while and even I learned some things from it.
Just know that improvement doesn't come with a click, it takes hundreds, thousands of sessions to get to even a decent level. Work like there's no tomorrow, and the results will be pleasing to you.
Oh, and remember to have fun, that's the most important bit.