With voting over I wanted to gush about our battle because I caaan. :DDD
For those who didn't know, Flytee took on my battle challenge via the entervoid discord with the stipulation that it had to be wholesome/festive- only to find out as I was brainstorming that was quite a challenge for me. Still, I really enjoyed the prompt and having to think outside my comfort zone for the character but still make it fit in universe for him. Flytee and I heckled each other via DMs, asking IC questions, reading each others backlog and just generally doing our best to get to know each others characters in order to do them justice in our respective battles. It's how I love to work, and made for a really fun battle result I think.
Flytee your take on Void witch lore, how they converge and country witches vs city witches was such a neat take. I dig that subtle nods (though not to overtly) that Lu and Remy weren't exactly the peace a prosperity type with Lady Oaks forced smile, and Remy being the odd one out with unsettling magic tricks to show off after Wilma's pretty little lights. He definitely would be the type to hang out with the familiars rather than the big wig witches and just slum it up with as little pomp and circumstance as possible while Lu deals with the fine print of socializing. This has me itching to see this magical side of void explored more, as previous comments have stated.
This was such a fun match up and has be encouraged to try out more unlikely duos. I personally wouldn't mind these two revisiting again to see how their interaction may of changed after first meeting.
Also DUEL! I said this already, but I am snapping my fingers over being so brief with the reveal. I worry I might linger too long on moments that they drag, but I agree that it needed more time to add weight. I definitely wanna keep that in mind going forward. Great advice!
AAAH! Both comics are so good!!! I read it a little late but still gave me that holiday feeling warmth. <3
Kozi - I just LOVE how you showed Remy's past about his fear of drowning here and having Willy..err.. Wilma be the catalyst that made him relive/face this fear once more is very clever as if you planned this battle a long time ago. The way you portrayed his 'obsession' with Swan in both sweet and disturbing manner is very cleverly done. You always bring the most amazing stories in your comics and it just leaves me at the edge of my seat every time. It's nice to see Remy's softer side too but you made sure we don't forget the terrible things he's done. How would this affect Willow..err..Wilma in the future?? I can't wait to find out.
Flytee - I never thought that Remy (and Lu) of all characters will ever be featured in a comic so wholesome as yours. And you know what, of all people I should've expected that you can totally pull this off. A WitchCon is such a neat idea. Some times I wondered if Lu acted a bit too nice though but I think that's just it..an ACT! Remy and Wilma are really cute too and it's good to see a different side of him as well. I know things are just going to get really crazy from here on out if we're to consider Retribution/Elections. I wonder where the witches will stand in this brewing civil war.
@Kozi thanks so much for the battle! It's been a laugh & a pleasure going up against a heavy hitter on the site. Your comic was fantastic and very inspiring for me to look at. I love seeing this side of Remy ;_;
Generally, I'm really happy with how my comic came out, especially for a 2 weeker over Christmas, but I also totally see its faults. thank you to those who left constructive crits and comments, It's appreciated- I'll certainly take some of the pointers on board.
I'm just going to address some of the crits now, cus why not~ :D
Re- Crits on the plot- The stakes are always going to be low in Wilma comics. I very much made her with fluffy slice-of-life stories in mind, there will be character growth and world-building, but the conflict/ tension will typically be low because Wilma's outlook on things is quite unusual. (I get that these types of stories aren't for everyone- I plan on making high-stakes, story-heavy comics for Rae and Blue.)
Re- Crits on colouring/ cross-hatching - I'm very much in agreement here. I think my biggest regret with this comic was going for full colour knowing full well that I wouldn't have time to render it. I thought the flat colours would be passable if I made them vibrant enough but it didn't go according to plan.
Turns out full flat colours < tonal shading.
I absolutely went overboard with my usual cross-hatching to make up for the lack of depth- Lesson learnt!
cheers again!
I'm glad to see we got two surprisingly wholesome comics, especially when it comes to Remy. It looks like Wilma's got that wholesome effect on everyone!
Kozi you made this so heartwarming, like im MAD at Remy because he thought about STEALING Wilma but I'm also SAD for him because hes so alone he has to STEAL friends! Wilma is so much more forgiving than Cecil or Swan were lol shes so special. Shes afraid of him but she still wants to help, its bittersweet. I LOVE your colours for this comic, youre getting much better at palettes!
Flytee, your style is so cute and like... FLUFFY for lack of better word lol. i LOVE the worldbuilding iun this, all the witches here with their cute familiars, and Remy decides to chill with the familiars coz fuck it. The characters all have a great rapport, it looks like a super fun party!
I feel bad I got Wilma's name wrong in her debut battle... but I also kind of hope this trend of getting her name wrong continues LOL whoops sorry!
Kozi turn on your brush settings i just want to talk.
Honestly, for a minute Remy was getting stale with me. But here you're showing a (mostly) non psycho murder hobo Remy that is feeling the weight of his actions for once. I have noticed from your activity in a certain unofficial rp server that he tends to react to other people on the level they do to him. Like he's pretty chill if you're willing to just relate to him on a normal level, he still got that asshole stabby man energy to him but he's one of the few villians that wouldn't be a villian if just left to his own devices.
You mentioned you want to work on colors this year and so far you got your values , shading , and lighting down.
i'd say next would be to go for even more expressive colors and really play with how they effect tone and mood.
Flytee- All hail froge.
This look into the witches' world is a fun one. Pretty nice and chill comic. And Wilma is quickly becoming a delight to read.
Since You got a whole forum for this I'll focus on the things you want to improve on. Cause new year and all that.
For hands you might want to work on emphasizing knuckles and the shape of the fingers. like everything else just starting with simple triangles since they require you to commit help give structure to your figures.
The high angle shots look pretty good. Decent foreshortening there. But you do have a lot of just straight on angles with not alot of energy to them. I'd say to pick out the most emotionally important panels on a page and push their composition a little more each time into more dramatic angles and lighting to stand out more.
One thing that would help is changing up line width between character and environment. Some of the shots in the first scene seem flat cause of this. Color can also help block out people from their backgrounds.
I'd also work on giving some of your hatching in this more deliberate meaning. The lines on the surfaces here make things look more scratchy than anything. You can use hatching to shade but the lines should contour to the shape of the object and give it a more three dimensional feel to it.
Kozi, as always you do strong character work and no less here for everyone's favorite villain Remy (unless someone else wins Best Villain award this year). He continues to be a very good villain with complex motivations and the way you tantalizingly peel back the onion layers, letting us in a bit at a time is a tease. Your expressions are great, your backgrounds are awesome, and Wilma felt quite natural in your hands. Remy's motivation for this comic was also really neat. The page where they synch up bothers me a little though and it's hard to place a finger on it. I feel the scene of Remy's horrors could have used some room to breathe perhaps.
Flytee: This was very charming. And while it was a nice comic where we get to see more of Wilma and her slice of life kinda style, I would have liked it if the comic had some sort of motivation. Some sort of conflict even. I understand that the witches may not feel any sort trouble or have any alignment that puts them in conflict with Remy, but I feel like there could have been more of a reaction to who Remy was, knowing that he is a famed criminal at this point and perhaps better known to the magic users of void? I think there could be some interesting worldbuilding in the world of magic in Void and this could be the start of that. Something that does bug me about your art is that you define shadows with scratch marks and everything has a flat color palette. But as a result everything feels flat. So I'd like to see you commit one way or another. Either add more colors for shading or more crosshatching to define shapes. You're a little all over the place with it. Flat here and there, some light shading and some very light hatches. So I would definitely like to see you work on that. And the scene with the forest is a good idea as an establishing shot, but it could perhaps use some more detail to make it worthwhile as a scene.
Wilma is a very fun character and I'd love to see more comics from you with this character.
WHAT THE FUCK KOZI!? Makin me feel things. Why does Remy have to be so vulnerable sometimes?
Flytee, this was cute and wholesome, and I think it's really interesting that Wilma seems to have no problem with Remy being a criminal. I'm curious whether that's naïveté or whether she's just actually comfortable around criminals. I hope to find out more in the future!
Ugh, loved both of these comics so much! Slapping this right into my recommended reads. Voting’s gonna be tough. Also ftr, I didn’t think Wilma looked like a child in either of your comics, the situations didn’t read as weird or uncomfortable to me ;v;b
Kozi - Really glad you decided to colour this, because this palette is so tastyyy. Wilma was stylised really nicely - I love the gold glint in her eye, and the warty patches, and the fact that her cheeks blow up like a toad’s! The last shot was lovely too. And the reveal- man I didn’t expect that, it’s honestly pretty sad. I’m with Heathen, I absolutely love seeing deeper into Remy’s psyche and can’t wait for more!
Flytee - Ahh this was so wholesome :3 I love the cute little details you dotted throughout the comic, like the picture of a younger Lady Oak with Wilma, Rupert’s transforming back and forth in the background during the party, etc. I was wondering how you’d fit Remy into Wilma’s kinda scene, and I think you pulled it off really well! Everything was endearing, but realistically so.
Kozi, you continue to inspire me and set the bar for characterization and pathos in your explorations of Remy's psyche and creation. I admit though, I was a little unsure of the subtle sexualization of Wilma, as she initially read as a child. Not that you can't go there, I just don't know if that was intentional. Fantastic comic, though.
Flytee, this was cute, but Kozi's side was a very tough act to follow. The depiction of a child (I don't care if she's supposed to be an ageless magical creature, she's physically a human child) getting drunk with an adult man we know to be a serial killer feels tone deaf.
Edit: Ok, so I see on her character sheet Wilma is actually supposed to be a 20 year old shortie. So that's fine. I'll amend my critique to instead say you both might want to practice drawing children and diminutive adults, because they have very different body and facial proportions. And both of you have her acting extremely child-like, her expressions, her mannerisms, her way of speaking. She reads entirely like a 10 year old. Even her reference sheet has her looking like a child, with one sexy drawing of an adult in her underwear. You could say it's a style choice on Flytee's part, but Lu is also in her 20s and she looks her age. So it isn't just a Scott Pilgrim style thing, you have two adult characters in the same comic causing some dissonance.
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