Holy crap, Knomer, that comic was intense! I absolutely loved the way the narration and the visuals worked together, and each reveal added to the suspense and left so much to the imagination. Wonderful! If I was to add anything to this, I'd suggest working on perspective- some of the scenes indoors looked a little wonky (the top panel on page 2, for example). That stuff's hard, but I know you can do it!

Qyzex, you had a cool entry too. My major piece is that the bubbles were way too big for the dialogue.  If they had been a bit smaller, the text would still be readable and you'd have more room to work in the illustrations. I really like what you did with the different tones and shades. I hope to see more from you both soon!

this is really god damn creative kudos guys. knome, love your stuff. the things you laid down have a lot of character. qyz, nice one.. nature is a bit hard to pinpoint but you did a decent job.

GREAT ENTRIES GUYS

Oops, nvm. That sort of thing is already covered in Artist Match. Don't mind me. It's been a long ass time since I've read the rules here. -_-;;

Knomer - I think in some areas you could have played around with your line weights more, e.g. on pg 2 you could have used line weight to emphasize perspective. Also when you lay down a frame respect it. Don't be careless with having stray work go outside your boundaries and if it happens clean it up in PS.

Unlike Thomas I don't believe grammar is a small nit pick. Professional publications are expected to have clarity and be error free. Not that there were many instances of this in your submission, but I wouldn't want you casually dismiss it just because another critic did so. Remember your writing skill is just as important in sequential illustration as your artistic skill.

Qyz - You also need to be mindful of the frames you lay down on paper. Watch your work isn't falling outside your boundaries unintentionally. In addition, while I find it perfectly okay to do your frames freehand if it's style appropriate you should still try to make sure your gutters are relatively even. Furthermore I wasn't liking the way you rendered the clouds on pg 3. Try using a colourless blender marker to soften up the edges and help make subtle gradations in values or colours. I think you'll enjoy experimenting with this tool. Or alternately you could try blending with high quality coloured pencils. Water colour pencils can also be used with a blender marker. Just remember to clean your blender marker before you cap it.

Sorry I didn't focus on what I liked about these submissions, but I think others already covered the good points. And yes, this kind of battle sans characters is very good medicine for artists as I see a lot of cop outs for object and background drawing. It might be a good idea to make it a challenge option for the future.

They both are really beautiful

oh wow... I love when sequential art is used for more than simply passage of time for a character and you both pulled off very well the background story-telling.
What I like about knomer's entry is that despite being static scenes, you can really feel the action had been going on there.
For Qyzex, I liked the way you used the bluish grey tones, they make a great atmosphere, cold and sad, almost windy.

awesome concept, guys, very enjoyable.

knome, i love the atmosphere you can create with just black and white ink. the idea of following the character based on the trail is brilliant. still, i'd wish you get someone to edit your text. there were a few spots that seemed awkwardly worded or grammatically incorrect. Not a huge deal, but it was a little distracting. Really nice job with the watchmen-style zoom out and slow panels, it really fit the pacing well.

qyz, neat idea, but i didn't get much of what you were trying to do with the story. the mood seemed really wistful up until page 4, when it's suddenly revealed that the narrator actually resents the bed? maybe because it's so short it seems like it's missing something, but i'm not sure what you were going for in the first place. the last page seems a little inconsistent too, both thematically and aesthetically. i think a nice landscape like the first panel would have fit well (as well as providing a nice bookend) and you could have used the same lettering as the rest of the piece. Speaking of the lettering, it seems like your hand was getting more confident as you moved forward, i really would have liked to see the first paged lettered the way the last ones were. art-wise it looks pretty stellar. enough detail to give a nice texture, but simplistic enough to fit the lettering. it actually reminds me a lot of hiemie's work, not sure how intentional this is.

really wicked stuff from both of you, hope to see more from you soon.

So knomer this was pretty awesome and all I really have are baby crates like the floor on page two seems a little uneven to me and I don't like how different the plops are on the last page but those are such baby things that I can totally ignore.  This was awesome and you really went all out on those backgrounds.  The only thing I cam say is that I believe you can go darker but this was pretty dark and daring as it was.        

For quiz there is a marked improvement in backgrounds for you and I realty liked your natural scenes.  You had issues though with some angles but this is a matter of practice.  Really though it looks good.  The only thing that really bothered me was the last page because reading it a few timed I don't think it fits.  The font is very horror story and I believe it could have been a little more subtle.  This seems more like a story about the inevitability and futility of fighting one's fate or rather roots and while that may scream horror to those involved I don't think it called for it here.

But sweet background battle you guys.  This gets high creative points just based on the theme.

Awesome battle, Knomer. Thanks for accepting! Your inks are daaaamn wonderful, and your angles are very nice. Nice story, too!

And yeah, this battle really was a big help. I personally love drawing characters. Like... probably too much. Taking them out and doing backgrounds alone really made me appreciate drawing backgrounds a lot more.

Thanks for such a good idea and a good battle Qyz. This exercise really put in perspective on the things i need to work on when it comes to backgrounds. Your story almost breaks my heart. Great tones and great angles.

Uploaded. Yup yup, what it do.

This is probably going to be really cool. Can't wait to see it you guys!

Ooh I always enjoy Artist Battles - best of luck you two!

It's all about atmosphere!

yaaay, artist battle