(via longshormanx)
(via criminallyincompetent)
[video]
Evan Dahm is a webcomic artist and creator of the titles Order of Tales, Rice Boy, and is currently working on a new webcomic titled Vattu. While his art style is very simplistic, he makes up for it with vibrant characters and surrealistic environments.
His most recently finished webcomic, Rice Boy, is a very creative and epic story of a boy that must follow a destiny that was preordained to him. While he does not seem the type to fulfill any sort of prophecy, his adventures are sometimes exciting, sometimes harrowing, or both at the same time. Will he be able to become the Fulfiller as everybody says he will?
Rice Boy is both available online and in print, along with Order of Tales.
His current work, Vattu is available to read online and is updated every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on his website.
This week’s feature is for comic creation; it’s the Celtx pre-production software!!!
https://www.celtx.com/about.html
It’s free, it’s easy, and accessible wherever you go, now that it’s available for smartphones and tablets as well as your own computer.
Celtx offers an easy-to-use interface for producing many types of media, but for our purposes we’ll stay focused on it’s comic production features.
You can go into detail what each shot in each panel looks like, keep notes, as well as an in-depth catalog of characters for you to reference whenever you need.
It’s a great way to stay organized and keep a nice work flow going.
It’s also great if you’re working on a production team, everyone knows what is going on and has all the information they need.
There is also plenty of support available from Celtx themselves, when you get the software you get a free account on their forums where you can get help and support from the staff and a whole community of producers and creators, and the software itself comes with links to tutorials and walkthroughs of the software in case you ever feel lost. There’s also plenty of add-ons and ways to customize the program yourself to make it more comfortable for you and your needs.
If you already have this program, great! Keep going with it and remember that there’s plenty of extras as well as a whole community for this program to help you out!
Whoooooo’s ready for the MOST THRILLING STUDIES EVER
But really: I realized while doing pencils that I was stuck yet again on what the top of a cylindrical canister would look like from the viewer’s angle, and that finally kicked me into working on grinding for exp all the way down at the most basic basics.
Notes taken from: ellipses. Further reading: circles in 1-point perspective and more ellipses. Also.
(via criminallyincompetent)
Hey folks!
Friday Features is where we here at CMC scour the vast reaches of the web to bring you some interesting finds related to the art of comics, whether it be a webcomic or some helpful websites or programs for comic creation, just whatever we happen to find that we would like to share.
This week’s Friday Feature is:
Roza is the story of a young girl under a magical curse, and her journey to discover a cure for it. She has many encounters along the way; ancient gods, mischievous mages, cursed knights, magical princes and sunken kingdoms.
Art wise, the comic has a wonderful art style, not overly complex nor too simple. The artist conveys the character’s expressions in a way that tells the story without needing a lot of other visual information, and the backgrounds convey a lot about the environment without defining every little detail. In a nutshell, this comic has a simplicity to it while still conveying all the story needs by using just the important visual information and not throwing in lots of fancy tidbits.
Roza’s creator is a concept artist named Kelly Hamilton, and her personal portfolio can be found here:
And you can begin reading Roza here:
http://www.junglestudio.com/roza/
Plot Summary:
This comic is based on an original character tournament (OCT) titled The Curatio Effloresco. On an island to find a flower with healing properties, entrants fight to the death to find the flora with the same name as the tournament. Set after both characters have lost their battles, Xavier and Skyler decide to band together to find the plant themselves. This comic is posted on deviantart by JynxedJoker.
Art Style:
The art has great lineart and shading, the characters and their dialogue are expressive, and and panel flow is fluid and easy on the eyes. If there was one thing I would seek improvement in her style is that some sound effects and speed lines are awkward. Remember that its easier to hear the sound effects when they are onomatopoeia in comparison to verbs.
Execution:
The comic is paced very well, but i found small issues in connecting some panels together in terms of the actions taking place from panel to panel. This only happened once on page 3, but the context clues were enough for me to figure out what happened. Please be careful when deciding the content for each panel.
Technical Areas (Aspects (grammar, text, speech bubbles, etc.):
The grammar so far is unflawed, as is the spelling. The only issue I found was a speech bubble on page 7. In the third panel, the third speech bubble is overlapping Xavier, but pointing towards Skyler. A simple fix would just be to replace the tail of the speech bubble to point towards Xavier, possibly upwards, towards his face.
Closing Statement:
Though easier when read in context of the tournament, it is coherent and a good read for anybody wanting to read a short and sweet one-shot.
The comic can be read here.
DO YOU THINK WE COVERED EVERYTHING? WANT TO ADD YOUR TWO CENTS ON THIS COMIC? REBLOG WITH YOUR OWN ADVICE FOR THE AUTHOR!
Different Male Bodies.
Edit: Can now also be found in “The-Sharpener” DA group.
(via criminallyincompetent)
I totally forgot this was here! It would have been useful before going into the OCT that this was made for:
http://jynxedjoker.deviantart.com/art/Silly-Untitled-Test-Page-1-274939065
A critique would be lovely! It’s only 10 pages, so I don’t expect too much on story or plot, but anything would be absolutely fantastic!
Thank you!
CMC’s note:
We deeply apologize for the wait. We will have the critique posted by tomorrow night or the day after.
Thank you for your patience~
Summary of the plot (inserted from summary on smackjeeves):
“Things are not always as they appear.” That saying has existed for ages and continues to be a powerful statement in this day and age. Bogdan Chilikov is the owner of a local laundromat and seems to be a very normal man with a few odd quirks. However, he and his newly adopted son, Milomir, have dark secrets that they keep hidden from the light of day.
Since the comic is only seven pages long so far, Cato and I cannot make any opinions on the plot so far. But considering the summary and the events taken place so far, the story has promise.
Art style:
The art style is realistic and shows good choices in value for a black and white comic. The character’s expressions were a bit bland in the beginning, but have improved in later pages.
The artist’s main problem is a need for a cleanup in her pages. We will often find shading escaping the panel borders or spilling past character outlines. Another aspect to work on is the scaling issues we saw in the backgrounds. When the panels show the rooms the characters live and interact in, the rooms are uncomfortably large and undecorated with few props. A room can say a lot about the character that lives in it. Photographs, decorations, and furniture can help the readers get to know the characters more without saying a word of dialogue.
With some clean up and more decorum in your backgrounds, we are sure your comic will look much better in no time.
Execution:
The author has done well to spring surprises unto the readers with a specific plot twist in the seven pages presented to us so far. Thing is, the author might have done this job too well. While the scenes are not fast paced, characters are introduced too quickly and leave out too many details. This leaves the readers in the dark, and make intended surprises confusing to the readers.
When Lola is walking to the w.c., she complains that she hasn’t had her period in months. Before we know it, she has given birth within the following pages. And the character to discover this is Berny, but who is Berny anyway? Is she a friend? a room mate? A relative? Readers can be distracted by this, and can turn away from a comic when they lose their patience.
Don’t be afraid of some exposition every now and then! Your readers will appreciate your characters more when they know more about them.
Technical aspects (grammar, text, panel flow, etc.):
The author’s dialogue seems all right and your speech bubbles never intrude on the characters. It is easy to see who is speaking, and there were no grammar or spelling issues that we noticed.
What we did notice, was your text and panel flow.
Mary’s take on speech bubbles:
The author’s text font seems appropriate for the art style, but the text is crowded into small speech bubbles, or placed off center, touching the sides of the bubble. Give your text some space, and keep it centered.
Cato’s corner on panel flow:
Above: a simplified version of the first page of In the Ground
For being the first page of the entire comic, there’s nothing to establish where we are. The first panel is small and doesn’t give us much information. And the way it’s arranged it sort of reads like columns instead of flowing left to right, thus messing with the way we are supposed to see it. It feels like a bit of a bumpy ride through the page.
Below: Suggested alternative for a panel layout
The first panel acts like an establishing shot, where we can see the character and the setting, and have a feel for what the rest of the panels will look like. We get a taste of the art style of the author and a chance to adjust. And then the panels flow a little easier while still retaining the importance of the shot you want, the smaller close up panels take up less space and the medium shots of the character take up the rest.
Its good to keep a variety in panel layouts for your pages, but keep the flow in mind when planning!
Closing statement:
While not a lot can be said about the story so far, the art style and events in the comic show promise. I would like to see how the story progresses in another 20 pages or so.
In the Ground is hosted on smackjeeves and updates on Sundays. Viewer discretion is advised for violence, gore, and harsh language.
The comic can be viewed here.
DO YOU THINK WE COVERED EVERYTHING? WANT TO ADD YOUR TWO CENTS ON THIS COMIC? REBLOG WITH YOUR OWN ADVICE FOR THE AUTHOR!
dinosoresaur asked: Hello! It's my first comic and I'm also in my first year of college in another state, so making a comic is a little difficult for me now. Anyway thank you! It's called In the Ground and it's on smackjeeves.
Thank you for your request!
We are currently working on your critique right now and will have a special post uploaded in a day or two.
Thank you for your patience!
(via kreedkafer)
I’ve been reading up on body language and stuff trying to make my comics less stiff. I put my notes into reference sheet form so other people can use them. I actually took a while making this, so I hope you guys find it interesting!
Also, this font didn’t have apostrophes or quotes so a lot of things seem awkward!? Sorry about that.
(via leppureblogs)