Your opinion on two style changes

[El_Psy_Congroo]

So I'd like people's opinions on two changes, the first being the outlines around my word balloons:

original/current page:

No outlines on balloons:

The second is a trimming down of my overall art style. I used a hand painted add/glow layer to add highlights of a sort. I'm thinking of not doing this at all, maybe replacing it with simple gradients on the overlay layer I use to balance my colors. (I would still use it on metallic objects) It would speed things up (a little but something) and it would allow for me to strategically use it for scenes where I really want an extra effect. Here's what it might look like (you may want to open this and the previous image in separate tabs and flip through them so the difference is more impactful):

[punkarsenic]

I'll admit, I like the shine in the first image (wrt colouring, not lining) - it might be because they're up high, with a lot of sky on them, so it'd make sense and brightens the image. It's nice, and gives another layer of depth - but if I hadn't seen it, the one without it wouldn't bother me - so I'd say only use it in certain times for effect.

The lineless panels is better; it looks cleaner and more dynamic but lineless bubbles could cause problems in some situations - I've been there - so I'd recommend instead, that the white of the bubble subtly gradiates out to a grey or blue or smth that's only noticeable when put against a white background, so the bubble's shape can still be seen.

[shazzbaa]

I lean towards outlines on the balloons myself; I like for the words to pop a little from the art since I feel like it leads the eye a little better! But that's personal preference. : ) Though balloons with no outlines can get a lil awkward over a white or light-coloured background.

As to the highlights layer.... I know this is kinda semantics quibbling, but to me, this isn't a style change! This is just "should I add this glowy effect or not." I guess the thing is that I really don't think this is a big deal -- it obviously has an ever-so-slightly different look with that layer there, and it looks nice, but it's fine without? It's about whether it's worth the time to include it to you, based on how it looks to you.

For me, which overlays and highlights I add to my pages vary a lot from scene to scene based on the lighting, so I don't think it's super important to keep the same effects on every single page!

[somvi]

I like the first sample as it seems the most polished out of all of them. I'd keep the outlines on the balloons as it matches your art style better. As you can see, the ones without are getting lost in the gutters so it can appear to be unfinished or sloppy.

[El_Psy_Congroo]

@shazzbaa As a linguistics major, I love a good semantic quibble. My argument would be that choosing how detailed one wants to be in representing light regularly would in fact be a consideration of style.

Your move! >=D

Haha, but really, I think since the lack of the highlight doesn't seem to detract too much from the art - going by the responses so far - I'm going to save such tricks for the occasional splash page or strong emotional moment.

So I tried a few tricks to make the white balloons on white gutters less awkward including making the balloons cast shadows (which was kind of cool but not the effect I'd like to go for). Here's something really subtle - I basically made the intersection with the gutter a bit "shadowed":

I can make the shadows darker but I tried to go for making them just dark enough that the shape of the balloon is readily perceived.