Do you have an example of characters in a background, or characters in motion?

If you're going for webcomic art, I think the most important thing isn't anatomy or fine-tuning, but EXPRESSIVENESS. Make sure every character is uniquely identifiable, and make their faces EXPRESSIVE. This is where CtrlAltDel and XKCD fail, while Penny Arcade and Order of the Stick thrive.

After that, if the comic is going to be motion-driven (where movement and actions are pivotal to the comic, rather than just dialogue), then you need to worry about properly conveying a sense of movement in a still image.

>>31938

I don't think XKCD is really that great an example, since the focus is more on the in-jokes. But CAD and OotS are spot on.

Personally, I like the look of the character. It's unlike anything I've seen before in a webcomic [or a print comic, for that matter], and has a LOT of potential for expressiveness. About the only thing I would recommend is MAYBE tightening up the linework, since it's a little "fuzzy," but you wouldn't have to do much. If nothing else, you've got an interesting knack for appealing design in a character.

Post more stuff; I'd really like to see what else you have.

>>31932

Somewhere, but I just wanted to get a suitable picture first. It's not scanned in

>>31938

Please... anyone can create something more interesting than "B^U". I wanted a fantasy world comic which doesn't play into traditional rules of how it should go...

Also, I try

>>31955

Yeah I know... this was amazingly drawn in "biro"-ink pen. I use something a big neater now... but its also one of the problems I've had for a long time; since I liked crude work... it's just not up to a level I prefer so far.

Picture related is something a bit older, concept for a game. Hit and miss

>>31955
XKCD suffers a LOT from the lack of expressiveness quite often. This one right here is a perfect example. What are the characters feeling here? Does the first guy get that he was joking? Which one is laughing in the middle panel? How is he reacting in the final panel? Frightened? Annoyed? Shocked? Is the second guy playing all of this straight, or is he smiling, or is he sarcastic? Are either of these guys pre-established characters from the comic, or are they just two random new guys? I CAN'T TELL BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO FACES!

>>31967
Alright. I asked because your character designs are fine, but that it shouldn't be necessarily the most important thing right now.

Taken at face value, Penny Arcade and Ctrl Alt Del are about equal in terms of visual style. What makes the former so much different and so much better than the latter is that PA spends a lot more work on backgrounds and posing the characters in interesting ways even if half the time the person is cropped from the waist.

I think THE most important thing in comics is paying attention to whatever is doing the visual storytelling - whether through appropriate character design, world creating environments, or real believable motions and emotions.

>>31972
>Taken at face value, Penny Arcade and Ctrl Alt Del are about equal in terms of visual style.

I disagree vehemently. I think there's a significant gap between the talents of Gabe and Buckley. Even when it comes to design. Both are highly stylized, yes, but only one seems to understand what humans are kind of supposed to look like, and how they move. That would be on the left. There is a sense of motion and proportion you don't see on the right side. The right side is rather stiff, and more than a little awkward looking. It doesn't really flow. It's also a little rough. not really in the "this is intentional way", but more in the "I'm not sure how to do this" sort of way.

But, to be fair, Gabe has been drawing pretty much every day for about 12 years now. Penny Arcade used to look fucking horrible. Again, being fair, Buckley has significantly improved as well.

But at face value, disregarding backgrounds, writing, etc, the characters that appear in Penny Arcade are more aesthetically pleasing/interesting.

I just want to second what others are saying about making the characters expressive. Comics are about telling a story and communicating visually.

Okay OP, here's an exercise - tell a stupid joke:
Character A: "My dog has no nose."
Character B: "How does he smell?"
Character A: "Terrible!"

You don't have to draw it well, or make it a masterpiece, it's just an exercise to see how you'd interpret it for STORYTELLING. What are the characters doing as they interact? How do they feel? Are they being honest or are they being sarcastic? Do their expressions convey these feelings? That kind of thing.

(If anyone else wants to try it too, they are by all means welcome. It'd be interesting to see how different people interpret it.)

Op here.

I know it's important. If you went on /v/ the last month or so, you would have seen those Sonic comic series going around; and it's just hilarious. I wish I saved them now, but thats a good example of expressive work.

Obviously my original picture is a character stance to show his evil side; through design and "smirking". But it could be better; and this is what I fear...

>>31975

The question is, when did buckley start to use another style let alone an entirely different type of colouring(or the colouring might be wrong since it may or may not have changed that dramaticly under a short period of time) but he did change the whole B>U thingy.

>>31978

I know it;'s recently that he actually started trying, and that was after EVERYONE on the internet had been making fun of the whole B^U thing for like years.

Still, he seems to be kind of sort of trying now?


Anyway, Penny Arcade is still better looking in every way shape and form, and example of stylization done correctly.

>>31975
I think you misunderstood my comment.
I mean both are Gamer A and Gamer B (And sometimes A and B's girlfriends) type webcomics done in a simple cartoony style - if you had never seen either by their description alone they should be identical.

>>31977
Those strips are from Boxer Hockey, which is made entirely of amazingly expressive art.

http://boxerhockey.fireball20xl.com/example.php?id=001.jpg

READ NAO.

>>31979

Would be interesting to see how both comics are done to compare. that is in real time, if buckley takes much more time, I guess he can be be lax on the backgrounds and just use everyones favorite tool, gaussian blur and smudge on an already existing background OR just make up some random objects to indicate forms,rooms and landscape.

Anyway back to topic. if you would use cleaner lines the characters would look very much above ok in my own opinion, this may differ of course. Painter 11 should be easier to get cleaner lines then in photoshop cs4. so you can use painter for lines and photoshop for colouring and other jobs and then go back to painter if you want some smooth blending.

I dont know much about Sai but its very easy to get a colouring job done, the characters themself are got potential and look somewhat interesting, however, this depends on what type of comic you are creating.






A cartoon comic with a serious(no not grimdark) look or more cartoony look? the dog's design look interesting, the rest of the looks comes mainly with practice.Are there any insperations or rerence you got for creating them or did you create them from your imagination?

>>31982

>>32013

Imagination... sometimes with music.
I don't like references unless its a direct tribute. It leads to more trouble than its worth...

Here is a new example of another character in progress and fake food products, "Cheese of the Gods".

The links were drawn with a different ink pen; which makes the work clearer... but this is some of the best lines I can do right now; so the final look would be near this.

>>32013
What infuriates me most about CAD is that the guy has a fucking awesome tablet PC, yet most of his artwork, when doing comics, is just copy/pasting from a vast storage of pre-drawn faces and poses. So yeah, I'd guess CAD takes a lot less time per comic.

>>32023

Op here.
Yeah I saw that "how he works" video, what a waste...

bump

>>32014
Quick note, though.
You don't need to be cartoony to be expressive.

if you want to draw comics you have to know how to make believable backgrounds and good panel layout, thats pretty much it