12-13-2014, 03:03 AM
Hi Inkdulcet, you're doing great so far, some people say comics are the hardest kind of art so good job making the frames match, its clear they are part of the same scene. I'm just a novice but I'll give you my thoughts.
1) It wasn't clear that the bear had eaten the page, when I first looked at it I didn't notice the paper in his mouth, so the 'spit that out' line didn't make sense at first. Needs a more obvious image of him putting it in his mouth.
2) I didn't realise it was outdoors with trees until you said at the bottom. Could use a wide shot at the start of a scene to show exactly where the action is taking place.
I think the key to a good comic (art wise) is just having things consistent, which you did! You just need to look at newspaper 'funnies' to see that the art doesn't appear to be too complex (like this one: http://www.hs.fi/fingerpori/ ). Also the intro to this comic: http://floraverse.com/comic/flora/page/2-visionary/ has a rough kind of look but looks nice because it's all consistent.
As for speech bubbles, a lot of comic artists start with the speech bubbles and dialogue (either doing it themselves or from the writer) and fit the drawing in between, this can make it look more cohesive - so I'd say try doing them by hand before you work on the drawing. It's a real time saver being able to do comic lettering by hand, it's well worth practising. If you do want to go the photoshop route though, I use vector shapes, I don't remember exactly where I got them but google 'comic book speech bubbles vector' or something and you'll find some good ones. You set them in photoshop as auto shapes and can squash / stretch / size / edit them all you want. It's also another way to keep things consistent if you're always using the same set of bases for your speech bubbles.
Above all though, I'd recommend this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Comics-St...060780940/
It's like the Loomis or Bridgman of comic book making, really worth it, it covers everything you need to get started and has practical exercises for you to do at the end of each chapter.
Also, read comics a lot and compare different scenes for study - don't just replicate the compositions but look for patterns that are used and then incorporate those into your work. For example, a comic panel often has something pointing towards the next panel in the sequence to lead the eye - a foot, a tree branch, a tilted horizon line etc., anything at all just to bring the page together as a whole and keep the reader immersed. The art isn't really meant to be appreciated for art's sake, at least not on the first read through, story is king here and keeping a good flow facilitates immersion into the story.
I probably went off track a bit and didn't answer all your questions but I hope that was useful all the same! Any questions let me know, anytime : )
1) It wasn't clear that the bear had eaten the page, when I first looked at it I didn't notice the paper in his mouth, so the 'spit that out' line didn't make sense at first. Needs a more obvious image of him putting it in his mouth.
2) I didn't realise it was outdoors with trees until you said at the bottom. Could use a wide shot at the start of a scene to show exactly where the action is taking place.
I think the key to a good comic (art wise) is just having things consistent, which you did! You just need to look at newspaper 'funnies' to see that the art doesn't appear to be too complex (like this one: http://www.hs.fi/fingerpori/ ). Also the intro to this comic: http://floraverse.com/comic/flora/page/2-visionary/ has a rough kind of look but looks nice because it's all consistent.
As for speech bubbles, a lot of comic artists start with the speech bubbles and dialogue (either doing it themselves or from the writer) and fit the drawing in between, this can make it look more cohesive - so I'd say try doing them by hand before you work on the drawing. It's a real time saver being able to do comic lettering by hand, it's well worth practising. If you do want to go the photoshop route though, I use vector shapes, I don't remember exactly where I got them but google 'comic book speech bubbles vector' or something and you'll find some good ones. You set them in photoshop as auto shapes and can squash / stretch / size / edit them all you want. It's also another way to keep things consistent if you're always using the same set of bases for your speech bubbles.
Above all though, I'd recommend this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Comics-St...060780940/
It's like the Loomis or Bridgman of comic book making, really worth it, it covers everything you need to get started and has practical exercises for you to do at the end of each chapter.
Also, read comics a lot and compare different scenes for study - don't just replicate the compositions but look for patterns that are used and then incorporate those into your work. For example, a comic panel often has something pointing towards the next panel in the sequence to lead the eye - a foot, a tree branch, a tilted horizon line etc., anything at all just to bring the page together as a whole and keep the reader immersed. The art isn't really meant to be appreciated for art's sake, at least not on the first read through, story is king here and keeping a good flow facilitates immersion into the story.
I probably went off track a bit and didn't answer all your questions but I hope that was useful all the same! Any questions let me know, anytime : )