So I'm cranking out a few pages of a comic and a cover (brush inked & comp. colored), as well as giving thumbnails and character designs to present with it, for my final study in Ill 4. Yes, I am dumb, I am well aware of this. Inked pages will be somewhere around 11x15, so it sizes down nicely to standard comic format.
Thankfully I thumbnail extremely neatly, so it sizes up to a decent pencil rough stage:
And here, have some rough designs for the characters (colors are totally up to change, and if anyone wants to give suggestions on that, please, please, please do so?):
I don't know much about setting comics up but I like the way you set the boxes up so far. How many pages will you be inking? Is it 4 a week or are going to make these 4 highly rendered?
ReplyDeleteI want to know more on the story, I can't tell if by the sketches it takes place in Feudalistic Japan or something. What were you going for when it came to the clothing design? The characters look more modernized than wearing epic clothing. Try making the clothes look less modern, just give more power to that ancient look.
i agree with ben, i dont know what the story is and so i cant really determine what is going on in the thumbs. maybe a helpful synopsis in your little blurb?
ReplyDeleteyour pacing and composition in the frames is really nice. joe would be proud.
your characters and colors are consistant which is nice, i have no problems with them.
i guess my main crit is i dont know how the setting and the characters relate so a little description would be awesome.
You have a lot of work ahead of you girl! As stated above i think you did a really good job breaking up each page (i really enjoy the bottom one with the long horizontal boxes). I do wish that i knew what the story behind this is though so that I could understand these character a little more and critique it better. Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteI always knew you were a great blogger at heart!
ReplyDeleteyour page layouts are really captivating - I love the variety of your panels. I think the different compositions of the page layouts themselves are almost as interesting as the images themselves.
so, on to the images...at this point it's kind of tough to give a full crit, as a lot of the images are as you say, thumbnails. But I am able to get a sense of the action and movement and interaction of the characters. I am glad we have a setting setup in the first page, as otherwise I would have a bit of trouble telling if we were inside or outside.
As for the camera angle, I would urge you to push the boundaries a little more than I am seeing here. I think a lot of good comics could be even better if they look at scenes from totally creative and original angles. I am thinking back to my first days of collecting spider-man comics, and how every issue had at least one completely unique perspective, which just grabbed me as a reader. And I am thinking of your last piece for the secret lives of Mr Puddles The low angle/fish-eye view was brilliant! So maybe get a little more of that into this series. Also, while I am thinking of it a few "extreme" close-ups would be nice too. It seems like the layouts you have so far have the characters all at the same size (more or less) throughout. Maybe throw in a few close expression images to mix it all up.
I'm gonna agree with everyone and say that the layout is excellent. And...just like everyone else...I have no idea what's going on. What's the setting? Who are these characters? And what is going on with that girl's feet (is she floating? is that part of her character?)? I'm pleased and intrigued.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't kill me for saying this, but: the characters are juuuust on the edge of being anime-ish. Just make sure they are a distinctive Chelsie Sutherland style. I know you can do fabulous anatomy...I want to see the characters become a little more believable. Not that they can't be cartoony, and I know these are just sketches, but I think you can give them a little more life. Get people to pose for you so that you're really sure of the proportions and the forms.
This is a really ambitious project, and it's going to be awesome to watch it all come together!!