Comic book sequentials (critques most welcome)

[CrazyFoxMachine]

Really like the panel in the middle down the bottom there - really well constructed. Agree with Radiator about the hatching though fella. It's dense and very interesting but it really emphasises the problems in there (head shapes being the primary thing)

[Nick Shepherd]

Yeah, I agree with the anatomical issues.  I drew this before I started art classes.  I have a question about the shading though.  I need to build up a range of tones to establish a tonal heirachy and the only way I know how to is through hatching.  Do you have any suggestions.  I have been told tetra paper is good. 

[Spaceghost]

Yeah, I agree with the anatomical issues.  I drew this before I started art classes.  I have a question about the shading though.  I need to build up a range of tones to establish a tonal heirachy and the only way I know how to is through hatching.  Do you have any suggestions.  I have been told tetra paper is good.  

The easiest way is to use different shades of grey marker pen  

Always works for me. That's how I achieved the shading effects in this -

(Not meaning to hijack your thread you understand, just sharing technique)

[Nick Shepherd]

Cheers mate.  I do actually have some of those markers so I will have to give that a try

[mygrimmbrother]

Alternatively, have a go at greyscaling in photoshop - I tend to tone mine this way, or for a masterclass in it, check out curretn thrill Absalom.

[Nick Shepherd]

[Nick Shepherd]

[Dave Hedmark]

Dude I think it looks great! everything looks really squirmy and awesome. like a bunch of little meats living in an MC Escher drawing. That last page is fantastic!

[Nick Shepherd]

Thanks mate!  Glad you like my work.

[Peter Wolf]

Dude I think it looks great! everything looks really squirmy and awesome. like a bunch of little meats living in an MC Escher drawing. That last page is fantastic!

It is and i couldnt think of what i was reminded of but Escher was what i was thinking of.That large panel i prefer a lot more than the smaller panels and its the most most inventive and odd artwork that i have seen on here for a long time.

My only criticism is that it looks slightly faded/washed out which is because the blacked out areas are not dark enough mostly because it looks like marker pen wheras black indian ink would give you a much better result so there is more contrast between the blacked out areas and the rest.Also the with the cross hatching you get contrast of crosshatching by varying the thickness of the lines with thicker lines in the darker areas and thinner lines in the lighter areas which is one way of not ending up with a sort of uniform look to the crosshatching.

I prefer B+W art as aversed to colored artwork anyway so i like seeing others work in B+W and shades of gray.

Also with indian ink you can dilute it with water which gives you shades of gray.

That large panel should be framed and hung on a wall.

[Neil McClements]

Hi Toblaki
I think the constructive criticism you have been given here has been bang on. Personally I think that under your (seemingly) labour intensive style there is a great deal of talent.
I'd like to offer you some advice if you'd let me, can you answer a few questions for me?

How old are you?
What size paper do you use?
What type of tools do you use? (Ink, pens etc.)
On average how long does it take you to do a typical page?
How confident are you handling anatomy? (and be honest)

There are people on this forum far more practiced than me to help you but any useful advice I can give you will, I hope, mix with all the rest and you'll get what you need from it.

If you'd rather not clutter up the forum feel free to PM me.  

[Nick Shepherd]

Hey Peter Wolf.  I have been learning tone at my art classes at the moment and my teachers have been showing how to deal with things like tonal patterning and setting up a tonal heirachy.  In the full page panel I have used hatching to acheive varying shades of grey to build up a sense of 3 dimensional form.  The tonal contrast between the shadowshapes and light areas at the top of the column is severe whereas at the bottom the tonal jump is far less.  You can find this kind of thing happening if you look at mountains.  The closer mountains have higher contrast between highlights and shadowshapes whereas the further mountains have less. 

As to the the issue about the washed out effect of the shadows, it does not matter how dark the shadowshapes are as long as they are identifiable as shadowshapes and are seen as that end of the tonal heirachy.  The pencils of professional comic book artists work as stand alone works because they have left shadowshapes blank and worked the detail into the highlights.  If you look at nature (and squint to set up your tonal contrasts) you will see that all of the detail is in the highlights and the shadows are relatively flat. It is the dynamic of flat shadows and interesting and varyed highlighted that make an artwork interesting.

[Dandontdare]

Alternatively, have a go at greyscaling in photoshop - I tend to tone mine this way, or for a masterclass in it, check out curretn thrill Absalom.

Absolutely - the depth and contrast that Tiernon Trevalion (crazy name, crazy guy!) achieves with grayscales is bloody amazing.

Despite all the (useful) criticisms Toblakai, I think you've got a good eye for sequential storytelling, which is vital however pretty the pictures are. (I'm looking at you Mr Langley!  )

[Nick Shepherd]

Thanks mate.  Storytelling is actually the part I found the hardest as my background is in fine art.  Sequential storyboarding is an artform with its own rules and a world unto itself.  And yeah, the criticism is definitely necessary and useful.  The reason I posted my work on this forum was so that I could see what I was doing wrong and fix those problems to get better. 
Anyway, thanks for the compliments!

[Nick Shepherd]