[Art] Pimpin' mah arts, yo. (9 Apr 2009)

[Faerie Alex]

But first, a not-comic. Instead, a picture of Miranda, done for (of all things) my health class.

Anyway, you may or may not remember that I've made periodic mumblings about starting a webcomic. Well, it's not much yet, but I've got a bit of graphite on paper. Check it out here. For the record, what I'm planning for the first panel is to do a separate drawing of Alex & Miranda's parents to fit the scene, then on my computer superimpose it on the actual panel at something like 25%-50% opacity. Hopefully, it'll work out looking like that's what Alex is remembering/imagining in his mind.

Anyway, I'm also wondering if anyone has any webcomic-related advice. (Art related advice is good too, but I was particularly wondering about the former.) I'm thinking I will try to build a buffer, as I hear it's recommended. I plan on using my own server (i.e. no Comic Genesis/Keenspace/whatever, Drunk Duck, etc). But that would also mean I have to decide on which piece of software to use (or code manually, but I'm all for having to do less work ). If anyone has any recommendations, I'd be happy for them. And yeah, anything else advice-wise would be appreciated.


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[GabrielsThoughts]

Cant say I like the flat color, but the pencils are nice, you have a unique style and since I can peice together some of he story from the imagery "Good Job!" You have a big thumbs up from me.

[Brunhidden]

hmmmmm........ *wants to imput and will endeavor to  contribute onces there is more to comment on*

[Kipiru]

I'm with Brunhidden on this one, we need to see more to give a meaningfull comment, but I do wish to congratulate you for making the first step- it's always the hardest! Plus the art looks OK by now, keep it up 

[Faerie Alex]

Unfortunately, I've kinda picked a bad  time to start. I've got 2 projects and SAT's coming up in the next couple of weeks. I'll work this when I can, but that stuff's going to have to come first. Thanks though.

[GabrielsThoughts]

word of advise, update on weekends.then it really doesn't matter how many pages you have.

[Faerie Alex]

(Yes forum, I'm sure I want to post. )

Good news, SAT's welt well. Bad news, they ate comic-doing time. But I do have two things to show tonight.

Alex, all dressed up wintry, which is explained by this being done months ago. It also happens to be the first thing I drew after joining my school's art club.

Faerie Alex, the fae Tanuki. Yes, he is a guy. For those not in the loop, Faerie_Alex is the name I use occasionally on the IRC. I asked which species should go with the fae bit there, and the only suggestion was Tanuki. I figured, why not? As for as the boatlight/heterochromatic antennae, Amber...gave a less than lucid answer as to whether it was possible. But I went with it anyway. Not the worst result, IMHO.

[WhiteFox]

I can share a few things that I learned from my comic project. As a warning, though, this is a HUGE slab of text, and a bit technical in places. Mea culpa, but it's advice as solid as I can give you.

Anyway, you may or may not remember that I've made periodic mumblings about starting a webcomic. Well, it's not much yet, but I've got a bit of graphite on paper. Check it out here.

I like it. The last two panels look kind of empty, though that might change once the dialog is put in.

For the record, what I'm planning for the first panel is to do a separate drawing of Alex & Miranda's parents to fit the scene, then on my computer superimpose it on the actual panel at something like 25%-50% opacity. Hopefully, it'll work out looking like that's what Alex is remembering/imagining in his mind.

Experimentation good. Always. Always always always. If something doesn't work, all you've lost is time.

Anyway, I'm also wondering if anyone has any webcomic-related advice.

A few things I've learned reading comics:
-Write up background and refrence material, but never show it to any of your readers. Seriously. You don't need to. Don't talk about anything that doesn't have a direct impact on what is going on. You don't need to explain why your characters are furries, or the technology behind their antigravity cars, or the political systems in the comic. Anything that's actually important to the comic should be explained in the comic. Even better, it should be shown in the comic in a way that the reader understands it and doesn't take up too much time. Reading exposition is sheer drudgery (This is kind of subjective, and entirely an opinion of my own. However, it's one I firmly believe in and it's never failed me. Not to mention, nothing I've read about storytelling disproves it).
-Never, never, NEVER make a comic that consists entirely of backstory. Queen of Wands is pretty much all flashback, and at one point a flashback in a flashback (I hammered my head on the desk when I got to that point). Demonology 101 is another one. If the backstory is really that interesting, it should actually be the main plot. Reading exposition is drudgery (This is kind of subjective, and entirely an opinion of my own. However, it's one I firmly believe in and it's never failed me. Not to mention, nothing I've read about storytelling disproves it).
-If you absolutely must do either of the above, make sure that's what the comic itself is about. and make it interesting.
-The less text, the better. Do what you need to do with as little as possible.
-Never have a character talk about how awesome they are, or how awesome another character is. Just make the character be awesome. Also,

What I've learned doing my own comics:
-Read comics. Lots of them. Good ones, bad ones, well written ones and well drawn ones, amateur and professional.
-Write scripts. I never took the time to write good dialogue till I started making scripts ahead of time. It also helps with the pacing on a page. Writing a script before you draw lets you take a vague impression of what you want to do and iron it out clearly.
-Draw character refrence sheets. If you can't draw your characters from eight directions, you don't know everything there is to know about drawing them. Height comparison charts are handy too. If you're coloing the pages, color sheets make things go so much faster.
-If you want a real readership regular updates, networking with other comics, and advertising, are more important then better art or story. Sad, but true. Not that we have to be worried about a readership, but if you want to, that's my advice. Clean art goes a long way too.
-Take as much time as it takes to do the best you can. Perfectionists will try to take more time to make it better, and the lazy will take less time to post something half finished. Neither work ethic makes good results. Do the best you can, in as much time as it takes to do it.
-[EDIT] Get a real comic font. I use Anime Ace 2.0 from Blambot

The ultimate piece of advice is to forget everything you've ever been told about comics, and start writing and drawing. One second of working is worth more then a day of reading. Go to the guides when you hit a problem you can't figure out. Also, you don't need to post a synopsis of your comic for feedback. If you do, it should be no longer then a single page. Any more then that, and you're probably getting into technical details you don't need to go on about.

I'm thinking I will try to build a buffer, as I hear it's recommended. I plan on using my own server (i.e. no Comic Genesis/Keenspace/whatever, Drunk Duck, etc). But that would also mean I have to decide on which piece of software to use (or code manually, but I'm all for having to do less work ).

I'm lucky... my brother knows .php and I know graphic design, and enough HTML, to build my own site. If you want, I'd be willing to help you put a basic site design together.

If you are going to design your own site, there's a few graphic design Rules of Thumb I can offer:

-Make it simple. The less work for the reader, the better.
-Make sure that the comic, in the archive pages as well as the main page, is visible without having to scroll down (In print, this is referred to as "above the fold" The Whiteboard breaks this rule).
-Make the navigation as clear as possible. Buttons on top of the comic, if people are browsing through the archive; and below the comic, since people are going to read the comic starting at the top of the page and finish at the bottom the buttons should be right there for them. I'm not a big fan of navigation buttons to the left and right. Strips can get away with that, though full page comics really can't.
- Make sure your main navigation, the links between the major pages like Main, Archives, Characters, About the Artist, Gallery, are best placed in a block all together, or as a bar across the page.
-Dont use more then three fonts for the entire page, and any large blocks of text should be sans serif. Make the fonts as readable as possible. A good test for this is how far away you can be from the monitor and still read the text.
-If you have a logo, and you should have a logo, put it on every page on the site and make it link to the main page. It's a handy convention in web design. The font of your logo doesn't count towards the 3-font-limit for the site.
-Try not to clutter the page too much. This is why I hate Drunk Duck. Schlock Mercenary, linked above, really pushes this rule.
-Panels and a header (IE: NameOfYourComic, by YourNameHere at the top of the page) really make the page look pro.

Anyway... I hope that isn't too much all at once.

As for hosting, well, I don't know much about actual sites. What I do know is that if you want traffic, being a part of a network is one of the best ways to do that. That's the real merit to Keenspace, Blanklabel comics, Xepher, Belfrey etc. Oh, and, you could take a glance at this.

If anyone has any recommendations, I'd be happy for them. And yeah, anything else advice-wise would be appreciated.

Good luck, have fun. 



As for the artwork, there's a lot you do well. Proportions, expression, all good in my book. The poses are dynamic, and the inking and coloring looks clean.

If you want advice on where/how to improve, I'd suggest start looking at anatomy, developing the look of the facial features, and try drawing characters from different angles.