At 1/5/10 11:44 AM, ashman112 wrote: those two look better than the comic pages, your better at freestyle photoshop work, also what do you mean less money

The cost of the pro paper and the cost of the scan to fit for my own scanner.

I agree the freestyle would be all around better for my work.

At 1/5/10 03:53 PM, wesmeadow wrote:

At 1/5/10 11:44 AM, ashman112 wrote: those two look better than the comic pages, your better at freestyle photoshop work, also what do you mean less money

The cost of the pro paper and the cost of the scan to fit for my own scanner.

I agree the freestyle would be all around better for my work.

just do multiple freestyle works in photoshop you can still cut em up move em around and all the other stuff you normally do including the comic boxes, and it looks a whole lot better

At 1/5/10 11:44 AM, havegum wrote:

At 1/5/10 11:33 AM, wesmeadow wrote: Villians of my comic book.

What's up with the background?

I take it you are talking about the large thing in the back, that would be "Hilda" a very large Swedish woman that is fat and butt ugly, she is so fat that she has a minotaur stuck under the fold of her flab that picks off people to stay alive, that get near her.

At 1/5/10 03:59 PM, wesmeadow wrote: I take it you are talking about the large thing in the back, that would be "Hilda"

No, I'm talking about the large gradient going diagonally in the background.
What's up with that?
A simple one-colored background would have done just fine instead of that big-ass cyan color dragging all the attention ...

At 1/5/10 04:02 PM, havegum wrote:

At 1/5/10 03:59 PM, wesmeadow wrote: I take it you are talking about the large thing in the back, that would be "Hilda"

No, I'm talking about the large gradient going diagonally in the background.
What's up with that?
A simple one-colored background would have done just fine instead of that big-ass cyan color dragging all the attention ...

im guessing he thought that this would look more interesting, which it is but a bit too much, simple is better sometimes

This is the most entertaining thread from the BBS I've been linked to in a long time.

How exactly are you making the latest ones you've done? Because it looks like you're using the smudge tool... A lot.

At 1/5/10 04:02 PM, havegum wrote:

At 1/5/10 03:59 PM, wesmeadow wrote: I take it you are talking about the large thing in the back, that would be "Hilda"

No, I'm talking about the large gradient going diagonally in the background.
What's up with that?

I will see what I can do about it. What would work for the picture?

At 1/6/10 04:50 AM, Kuoke wrote: How exactly are you making the latest ones you've done? Because it looks like you're using the smudge tool... A lot.

True a lot of the work is done with the smudge tool, I add in burn and layer techniques to it as well. Burn for shadow and layering to make sure I am not making a sloppy mess with smudging one subject with a background or other subject. There is no pencil or beginning sketch I work from, so I have to manipulate each smudge to get the right look.

To be honest, I find the burn tool to be completely overused. It's not a good idea to use the burn tool unless you absolutely know what you're doing because it provides rather flat tones that you wouldn't see in things like skin (which consist of several different hues and tones, all of which are nearly impossible to do with just the burn tool alone.) The burn tool is just a cheap way of shading your images, and the result isn't particularly impressive.

And the smudge tool is only good if there are gradients required--sharp shadows are still required. You just have to find out where (reference images are a good start).

Sorry if I sound this way, but it's because the majority of artwork on the Internet no longer impresses me.

IMO there are 4 things that should ever be used to draw in Photoshop, and I tell this to everyone.
Brush/pencil
Selection tools
paint bucket
eraser
Nothing else for drawing.

Photoshop was not made intending to be one of the best digital art creation programs, it started out as a photo editor, as the name implies. Burn, smudge (okay smudge can be used too, but sparingly) sharpen, sponge, even filters, those are all meant for photos, and used on drawings make s them look cheap and messy.
Side note, It seems like your colors overlap your lines sometimes, are you doing this all on one layer? Or not separating the lines for the background?

What about the eyedropper tool? I use that a lot for blending.

Hey man, I am also trying to get a comic published, check it out on my thread called "my Drawings", i don't know how to make links so just type it in the topics, only one of the comics from it is up, it is entitled "Shock Therapy" tell me what you think.

I absolutely love your enthusiasm, i can tell your really passionate about this project and im sure the more you continue to work on it the more you will gain, whether it be success or improvement of your drawing skills.

On the critique side of things, i would have to mention how much i noticed the smudge tool, even the barcode box has a feathered edge to it! I would advise that you sharpen up your lines, maybe try to get away from smudge tools, or if your comfortable with this way of working then maybe just tighten up your character sillhouettes? i guarantee that the narrative in your comics will become ten times more easy to read for the viewer.

Proportion is important, but for you cartoon style, i wouldnt say its the be all and end of all. I dont know which genre your comic falls into, judging by the tone set out by your colours and title i would have to say that its a comedy? I dont know if im right, if not then you might have to put more consideration into value and colour to adjust the tone of voice.

If it is a comedy, i doubt readers are going to want a heavy backstory. In my opinion, if i was reading it for comedic value... i wouldnt really care about vampire mythology, if it was truly entertaining im sure most viewers wouldnt even wonder why he was walking around in daylight.

I hope this helps, if this hasnt then its a weakness on my part as critiques are something im still learning!

All the best.

At 1/6/10 09:11 PM, Angelus-Mortis wrote: What about the eyedropper tool? I use that a lot for blending.

Ahh, eyedropper, I use that so little, even though I probably should, I forgot about it.

At 1/6/10 07:47 PM, Angelus-Mortis wrote:

:The burn tool is just a cheap way of shading your images, and the result isn't particularly impressive.

What shaowing methods do you use for your work?

At 1/8/10 11:17 AM, wesmeadow wrote: What shaowing methods do you use for your work?

Well, I don't know about Angelus-Mortis, but personally, I take one color, paint the whole area I want with that color, open the color-panel, lower saturation, and depending on if I want shadow or highlight, I lower/rise the brightness of the color.

At 1/8/10 11:17 AM, wesmeadow wrote:

At 1/6/10 07:47 PM, Angelus-Mortis wrote: The burn tool is just a cheap way of shading your images, and the result isn't particularly impressive.

What shaowing methods do you use for your work?

Use the brush with varying tones. It's not exactly easy, and it may be time consuming, but the result is worth it. Here is also another suggestion, but once again, even using different tones is still recommended: http://yuni.deviantart.com/art/Coloring-
technique-61468467

Of course, this means not much if you don't know where the shadows should go.

Or get hold of a copy of Corel Painter, it has the 'just add water tool' which is a godsend for saving time.

I prefer using masks for shading, but unless someone is right there telling you how to do it, it's near impossible to explain them.

At 1/5/10 04:02 PM, havegum wrote:

At 1/5/10 03:59 PM, wesmeadow wrote: I take it you are talking about the large thing in the back, that would be "Hilda"

No, I'm talking about the large gradient going diagonally in the background.
What's up with that?
A simple one-colored background would have done just fine instead of that big-ass cyan color dragging all the attention ...

Any better? I made moutntain range with breaking of dawn and clouds to get rid of the cyan color.

the background looks much better but my attention keeps getting drawn to the guy in the middle, his face just looks mangled, faces are hard to get right anatomically so study up

How about you do what most comic artists do and do it by hand with the right materials.

Your lines are still so smudged, personally i would rather see an uncoloured comic with a tighter style.

once again, if you want to make comics...DO IT BY HAND!!!! It is just that the quality of detail is very high and it looks like you actually cared about your work.

At 1/19/10 08:04 PM, gmanthesandwhichking wrote: once again, if you want to make comics...DO IT BY HAND!!!!

By "by hand" do you mean with pencil and pen, or with a tablet.
Cause my work is digital and I do my work "by hand"

It is just that the quality of detail is very high and it looks like you actually cared about your work.

you lost me, this sentence confuses the shit outta me
However I do think over the progress of this thread you ARE improving, which makes me happy to see

At 1/18/10 05:36 PM, Ne7ers wrote: Your lines are still so smudged, personally i would rather see an uncoloured comic with a tighter style.

My freestyle is taking a single blob of color dot followed by focused manipulation of it. There is not a single line whatsoever in my photoshop work. The comic pics has solid lines as it was created by a harder and more costly managing of doing it all "by hand" followed up by copying it twice from the larger sheet format down and then scan in on my computer.

At 1/19/10 08:23 PM, M-Vero wrote:

At 1/19/10 08:04 PM, gmanthesandwhichking wrote:

However I do think over the progress of this thread you ARE improving, which makes me happy to see

Glad to see my efforts is being noticed.

I mean pencil, pen, brush, etc. with paper. Your work has seriously gotten better though.

At 1/22/10 04:45 PM, gmanthesandwhichking wrote: I mean pencil, pen, brush, etc. with paper. Your work has seriously gotten better though.

Most (professional) comic artists either color digitally, or go full digital.
There are only a handful of them that still use ink and paper.