[TheSwordFactory]

So, this'll be my incubator. I'm new here, and the community looks phenomenal. Anyway, I'm working on a character submission. I'm mostly troubled because my comic pacing skills are mediocre at best. I feel like I tend to rush the reader. Anyway, enough of that. Here's my character's refsheet, and here's the 3 pages I'm working on.





Any suggestions or ideas?

[Cracking Skulls]

You got a pretty neat looking character here. Your panel layouts on your sketch pages work well enough to follow the pacing and order to know whats going on, so I think you're on the right track. I personally like what you got going on your design sheet, but I would also suggest polishing it up a bit more, the grey thin writing makes it hard for me to read the details and important notes of your character and their weapon of choice.


Just get those pages finished up, and I think you'll be golden! Welcome to VOID!

[Radji]

it's not that you rush the reader per say, in my opinion you just have a very dynamic narrative style, it's just that you draw a lot of close-ups, don't forget to add panoramic and everything's merry !

[Chimaeric]

if you feel like you have trouble with speed, void is the perfect place to work on that!
Also, Welcome!

[TheSwordFactory]

WELP ALREADY LOVIN' IT HERE

[Sean]

Really interested in seeing some more from you. I enjoy the characters design and feel like this is a great place for you to learn better pacing!

[E.W. Schneider]

Echoing the sentiment of your character looking interesting and bonus applause for you having intros at the ready for showing off to receive critique. I like the weapon and I like her. I'm

Speaking of critique, I have a couple. If your design sheet is going to be that size (which is fine), I would maybe make the text you have written on it a little larger, since it's pretty small and also pretty lightly written, making it hard to read. This all seems like a work in progress, but make sure that you don't go too soft on it if you're going to hand-write your pages.

The other thing I noticed is on your third comic page, you have arrows pointing the direction viewers should go. Generally speaking, that's something that isn't really good for pacing. You want your reader to understand how things are progressing and moving without needing an arrow to point us in the direction. I don't think you're going to necessarily have issues understanding on that page, but if you're concerned that people would have issues, then you should probably rearrange your panel layout so that it is more understandable to the reader.

I'm excited to see how you do all of this, especially because it looks like you've got a decent handle to begin with!

[TheSwordFactory]

Unnecessary update. I've submitted my character and the comic pages after lining them and shading. I also decided to scrap the third page (I didn't like it anyway) and I made the design sheet easier to read.

Thanks a ton for the support and the excellent advice.

Wish me luck.

[TheSwordFactory]

Alrighty. Clem was declined, but I'm kind of glad she was. I really need some practice when it comes to positioning and backgrounds. Only problem is that I have crippling motivational issues that are potent enough to kill an elephant.

So. I dunno if I should put this in the incubator or not, but whatever. Anyone have any suggestions or thoughts/methods on improving my backgrounds? It kinda makes me upset that my lack of effort is why Clem was declined, but I guess that means that here is the place to be, eh?

[Red]

I hope you're not too upset, that wasn't our intention. Honestly, after reviewing tons of applicants, lack of effort and lack of backgrounds are two of the biggest reasons why people are declined. Even if someone is clearly an amazingly talented artist, they will get declined if they get lazy on the comics. And on the flip side, if someone is lacking in certain areas but puts 200% in, they will probably get in.
There are people on this site who got declined at first and are literally professionals working in the comic industry, so use it as motivation

I made a thread about backgrounds a long time ago http://entervoid.com/index.php?topic=12151.0
because it's a pretty common problem. Best thing to do is get a good understanding of perspective as well http://entervoid.com/index.php?topic=10652.0

I hope you post more progress here, we can help you if you have any more specific questions. That's what this thread is here for

[TheSwordFactory]

Oh, I'm not too upset. I'm actually glad that she was declined, because it kind of brought the issue of backgrounds to my attention. The one thing that I'm upset about is that I know I'm gonna have trouble with learning it. If you say my name slowly, it sounds like a slurred and cut-off "Laziness", heh heh.

But hey, thanks for the links. I'll be sure to post a new intro draft soon. I just got Manga Studio, and I think that'll make my life a bit easier (I have some organizational problems with layers and straight lines), so I'm gonna do my best to work on better BG's.

I'm also trying to do more dynamic poses using perspective, but so far I've been able to figure it out. That'll probably change soon, though.

Here's an extremely rough screenshot at what I'm doodling at the moment. She's tossing someone into a tree.

[Red]

Oh man, I love Manga Studio. Check out their perspective tool as well, if you haven't already.

One suggestion right off the bat is to pay attention to the flow/direction between panels. The pose on the second panel looks great, but she's throwing to the left. That is bringing our eyes to the left with that movement. Then the next panel is to the right. If you flip the second panel so that the action draws you to the next panel, it will work a lot better.

[TheSwordFactory]

Woah. Never thought about that.

I wanna keep working on this, but my tablet just shut down (new Surface) and I lost the work. Myeh. I'll have something up tomorrow.

[Pocketmouse]

Eyyooo glad to see you're still powering through on this.

I think Clem is v cool!!

Got some tips for you on backgrounds, cause I used to not be able to stomach them either! The best thing you can do is get your teeth into treating your background like a character in itself.  You can use it to tell part of your story,  and hide things in them to reward the most diligent readers. It's really great fun when you find the joy in it. If you feel stuck,  go on an adventure on Google street view,  or read up on some symbolism in film and things like that,  you'll be surprised what you can find when you look deeper

A couple of things to consider overall art wise though:
Your line work is a little soft and in places indecisive. Have faith in your ability to draw and maybe try using a harder-edged brush?  You seem confident when you've used colour,  which is great,  but the vivid tones unfortunately clash with the slightly less confident line work.

When using grey tones,  don't be afraid to push them harder. It might be interesting to try shading in only solid blacks.  That will force you to know your drawing really well,  and will help the erm 'laziness' (although maybe disengagement is a better word? ).

Like I say,  I'm pumped to see you're throwing yourself into this and cannot wait to see what you do next!

[TheSwordFactory]

Could you elaborate a bit for me on that subject? I'm certain my linework needs some refinement, I'm just not sure if you mean that the width varies too much or it could be sharper.

[Pocketmouse]

Sure
If anything you need to vary your line widths more. But i think that's got more to do with the tool you're using than anything else.



Like I said before: You should try a brush with harder edges. Try one with width variation built-in, and make each line with just 1 brush stroke. I don't have Manga Studio to recommend a specific one, but i know loads of people on this site use it, so I'm sure one of them can make some recommendations

Honestly though, your linework issues are just a little niggle that can be ironed out easily, so don't worry too much about it. Try to focus on the basics like backgrounds, perspective and layout etc for now

[TheSwordFactory]

I'll be sure to work on that. I never really bothered to practice with confident strokes, so I just automatically overlap them now.

So, since I lost the other sketch, here's a rough doodle of basically the same thing. I enjoyed the fisheye in the 2nd panel, so I kept that. I attempted to recreate the pose, but it didn't work out. Now it looks like she's making a huge swing arc while she's walking towards the tree.

Anyway, the jist of the new intro will be that this cheeky Eldritch monster runt thing is being hunted by Clem, and he sends her to somewhere else (Void City) with some portal power or some shit.

[TheSwordFactory]

ALRIGHTY. More progress, if only a little bit. The Eastern Blizzard kinda fucked over my schedule (gotta frolic in the snow), but I'm doing my best to get back to work.

[Pocketmouse]

Yeeeeesssss that's looking much better already!  Keep up the good work! 

[Kozispoon]

Getting some nice dynamic paneling going on, on this page. I am excite!

[TheSwordFactory]

Update.

Almost no progress! Yay!

I've gotten most of the linework done, but I've cut out the second panel. I couldn't figure out the details (angle of her foot, face/chin positioning) and I didn't like the way the background was looking. Probably should have kept it around as an example, but the thought hadn't come to me, so it's gone in this picture.

I'm having a bit of a motivational art block, which is sucky, and I haven't had a lot of time to use my tablet to even work on it. So, I'm probably just going to start over, which I'm not too happy about, but I can't see this page heading anywhere.

So, if y'all have some plot ideas I could build off of to get Clem into V City, I'd really love some help. You guys have already given me a ton, and I appreciate it so much. I just wish I could put your advice into good use sooner.

*Edit* Holy fuck that picture is huge. No idea how to downsize it from here, so enjoy the details, I suppose. :U

[TheSwordFactory]

Another thing- anyone got any tips on getting back into drawing? I really want to, but I can't seem to find the motivation to work hard on something. I usually have times like these every once in a while, but this one has lasted around a month. It's upsetting, because I'd really like to get back into working on refining my comic skills.

[PyrasTerran]

for me it was just a matter of forcing it with bull-headed stubbornness, though everyone takes it differently. I forced myself to draw something every day even when I wasn't feeling it, and it's gotten to the point where i practically feel ill if i make it through the day without drawing at least once.

I think like physical exercise the hardest part is getting into the groove to make it a lifelong practice you can't live without

oh I also stopped sleeping :| I've got a 50 hour work week on average besides other commitments and priorities, so pretty much the majority of my drawing happens late late at night when the rest of the house is asleep. 

[TheSwordFactory]

Yeah, the daily drawing is something that I really need to do. I probably do it regardless without noticing, but i never really get in to most of it, you know?

I think I just haven't come up with any new ideas yet (which contribute to my motivation), so might just design a whole new character, which could be fun.

[TheSwordFactory]

PROGRESS

I decided to attempt to sketch out a new intro. I absolutely dumbed down the BG on purpose. I couldn't think of any reason to have a complicated background either way, so Clem in a plain next to void city.

Advice is mandatory appreciated.