TDK- There are comic artists who can't really hack the 'rushed or intentionally messy feel of comics and still make it look good ,but you do. Your loosey goosey style really lends itself to the speed and action you have going on in this comic. Also, its clear machinery is where you're comfortable. In my eyes perhaps more comfortable than drawing actual characters. I know the tournament is cut throat and the time ot draw is rough, but I feel the deadline snuck up on you as you start off with three great pages, but your spot blacks and quality kind of waver as the comic progresses.
VIDEO- Not gonna lie, If I was in this tourney I'd be a bit intimidated. After coming off a stellar performance in arma, you definitely do not disappoint solo. It was mentioned by someone else, but after a second look I kind of agree that your colors totally remind me of old newgrounds flash animation. Its very stark and flat, so I'd be interested in seeing further dimension from you.
I love Jules goggles. They really enhance his character and make for a nice splash of color amidst the relatively dark palate of him and his ship. That last line was also a clever touch. ;)
TDK: This was pretty straightforward but maybe too straightforward? Over the years you've gotten better at spot blacks and it shows. I see you leaning more into digital and I'd say be wary of it becoming a crutching. You're certainly eliminating some steps but you're left with some pretty scratchy lines. Practice drawing shapes without lifting the pen. Draw lines in a smooth motion. Practice drawing with your arm and not your wrist. Above all, be confident in the lines you draw. I used to use those speed line tricks as well but because of that I can see it's hurting you too. The lack of anti aliasing makes them pixellated and clashes with your linework. And furthermore, your figures lack the same speedlines. For example on page 4, it's very inconsistent with the speed lines from before. You've got some good ideas but need more practice before your skill can catch up. Keep at it. For explosions, I'd recommend looking through references. I asked a pro once how he did it, and he told me he took pictures from Michael Bay films, put them in BW and studied the shapes.
Video: A nice colorful entry. While your panel layouts aren't bad and you have done well varying them, I feel that how tightly packed they are and how clean they are detracts from your art. I think this is also a result of the fact that you fill your gutters with black. I definitely liked the shading on Jules. It's very slick and looks great. But by contrast the rest of the comic lacks that same great shading. The water effects are very cool though. I'm not sure how I feel about your line variation. I am usually in favor of it as a technique to separate figures from backgrounds. But like for example page 6. When Jules lands on his plane, those are are very thick lines for the plane. I'd be more careful about what you're choosing to call attention to. In general though, this comic was very easy on the eyes and I liked a lot of the little gradient tricks.
One thing I'd like to see you challenge yourself with is a limited color palette.
TDK! i love that the race is IN VOID city. everyone swerving around buildings. Why didn't i think of that? You drew "Terrorgible" super badass which i appreciate a lot. If Jules goes down in round 1 I'm glad it was in a fiery explosion. probably the only way to keep that guy down. Good stuff!
tdk: elle's such a badass. i like the cool camera angles in this one like the shot from below on page 3 and elle looking back on the last page. of course it'd be nicer if it was more polished but there's good movement in these pages. i like all the technical military speak, it all sounds pretty authentic to me at least!
video: this comic is sweet. i like the rectangles in the water, that's a good effect. i like the silhouette of jules leaping 'cause he looks all crazy... but it would have been better when elle's wings get clipped to draw it out, that action loses a bit of impact being silhouetted, plus that panel is sort of small. if the snap had been the whole bottom of page 7, you could have moved those last three panels into page 8 which has pretty big panels. but that's being nitpicky, this comic looks great and is easy to follow, nice work!
this is one the more odd ones but it came out really fun.
TDK- this was one of the most intense shot comics the spot blacks are but a lot of the ink work is very sketchy at times, and the lack of environment gives me little frame of refrence for the action shots, regardless this is a really exciting comic.
Video- this is one of my favorite comics in the tournament so far the mix of seriousness and wacky was used in amazing mixture to give a great tone all capped off by that last line it just summarizes the entire tone of this comic and made me smile.
@TDK - Everything is good, a little messy, but I think one of the things that got me the most was that your explosions looked wet. It might have just been me, but they just seemed more like water. I hope that makes sense, I'm not sure of a better way to articulate how they read to me. You draw really nice machines though! And the contrast in page 3 felt really dynamic. I enjoyed it a lot!
@Video - The general lack of humor Jules has is great, because they end up playing the straight-man in an entire race full of goofs. I appreciate this SO MUCH. Especially the last panel. I thought your choice of bringing in Cue as a substitute announcer while Veronica raced was really clever and creative. The sequence where Jules is upside-down is also really fun for me. Thank you for that!
@TDK: A decent action sequence, but that's about it. Your comic felt really predictable and straightforward, and your work was really sketchy. Not unexpected for a 1-weeker, but I think you could have done much better. Try to surprise us with your story, and scale back if you need to so your quality can shine.
@video: Your comic had a lot of heart to it. It makes me happy to see you having fun with Jules, especially knowing how disappointed you were with him a few years back. I'm impressed that you were able to color the whole thing, too! I think your linework suffered from your rush to get the comic colored, but I'm such a sucker for color I'd take that tradeoff any day haha. That said, I did dock your quality score for your relatively rough artwork. Cue as announcer is fun, but I think you could have done without her, perhaps favoring more dialogue from Elle or Jules instead. Other than that, keep up the good work and let's see Jules get even sassier in the next comic! (That last line was so well-delivered and so unexpected; perfect!)
Teeds: This was certainly competent, but it felt really impersonal. There's a lot you can do with the contrast between Elle's stern professionalism and Jules' nearly campy dastardliness, but you really downplayed his personal touch to the scenario, making him little more than a road block. Fitting to Video's comic, it could've done with being more wacky!
Veeds: I do really love how nice and clean this is color-wise, and how varied your line width is! It's all nice and vibrant. Not sure what I could critique on that wouldn't take away from that. I guess the inking in some places is much looser than in others, and could probably be tightened up for some more consistency.
TDK: There's alot of action going on here but it's hard to read, we need more pullbacks and you gotta do something with the linework to make things easier to focus on
Video320: Alot happens in a short ammount of time here but it was very easy to read and understand, I think the colors help
On to round 2!
I'm excited for this tourney. I'm excited for this match. I like your work a lot TDK. I can't wait to see what come up with. But I will NEVER forgive you for making me draw an actual goddamn Jet.
Comments (13)