Those who do black and white comics, can i get some advice?

[daeygurart]

okay, so im trying to get used to values and i obviously made this one way too dark:

so i went and re did the panel and i was wanting to know if it looked better, if slightly even.

anything i should do to improve it?

[Lensing]

The difference is huge, the second one is way better.

I recommend looking into the work of Will Eisner and Jordi Bernet (adult content warning)
and the way they handle contrast and light and shadow. Jordi Bernet is a good example of
a very emotional / intuitive use of contrast. His shading doesn´t always make sense, he
just puts a black frame around the characters sometimes and leaves out the shading under
the characters (for example), it´s not very logical but works.
Will Eisners work is super pleasant to look at because of the contrast between black and
white and how it makes the characters stand out

[daeygurart]

thank you ill look them up!

[Lensing]

You are welcome, it would be interesting to see the further development.
You can try out to do the same picture just with hard shadows. Like leaving the whole
background completely black. I like the details in the window and would leave the details
like that. The dots for the shading don´t look good when you zoom out of the picture.
It´s maybe better to hand draw them with cross hatching or just don´t use halftone shading
at all and just leave it white with black lines

[daeygurart]

i see! i thought so too when i saw them. ill try doing what you suggested and then post an updated version to compare!

[daeygurart]

alright so i made some changes. should the shadows be a bit lighter?

[ArtGremlin]

It’s looking great! I think the shadow’s brightness looks fine to me. One thing I noticed is that the side of their chair/bench things aren’t cast in shadow when the light source appears to be coming from the other side. You might also want to add shadows in front of where their feet are blocking the light. Consistent lighting can be tricky sometimes

[Lensing]

That´s a huge improvement, it gives the characters a nice frame.
I like black shadows but I think you are going more in a greyscale kind of
direction and it looks good that way

[daeygurart]

like this? lol i have a hard time with lighting

[daeygurart]

thank you! the grayscale is actually really fun to do

[ArtGremlin]

It looks great!
(Word)

[daeygurart]

thank you! im so proud of it omg

[Shanny8]

Also a little sidebar note- CSP has a perspective tool(or downloadable perspective grids)...makes it easier to rule those floor lines.

[daeygurart]

yeah ive been using it. does it look wonky?

[Shanny8]

It's a bit off in the midsection...

[daeygurart]

i just saw that thank you!

[daeygurart]

does it look a bit better now

[Shanny8]

Some bit of guidelines...didnt use the perspective tool- just the grid.

[daeygurart]

i see thank you!! ill fix it