Page 50 of Circle Arcadia: KotG

Christwriter · Post by **Christwriter** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 9:57 pm

I played around with using vector shapes in Photoshop to do art with for a while. This was before I got my tablet. The vectors were easier and faster to use. They made everything look kinda cut-out-ish, but they were fast, and they got a cleaner line than I was capable of getting with a mouse.

prettysenshi, it's worth investing the time to learn how to use your tools. Worth quite a lot, actually. You DO need to study anatomy more, you DO need to learn perspective, because neven a less-than-perfect knowlege will help the realism of your pages. And you DO need to invest time in learning all the tricks your particular set of tools have to offer. Gradients, Paths/Vector Shapes...

I'm sure if you did a tutorial search for your particular pair of programs--Inkscape and Gimp, according to what I've read--you'd find something that would tell you, in detail, exactly how to do what you want to do. Google "(insert program here) Tutorial" and there will be at least ten entries with basic "how to" lessons.

CW

Prettysenshi · Post by **Prettysenshi** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 12:55 pm

Okay. This is a preview of pg 51 of my comic, scanned and shadowed. I'm guessing this is what people called smoother lines, but I'm not sure. I don't to come off as the insecure chick who doesn't know how to take critisism and whines about her art all the time--yes, that was random. I just want people to give me as much critique as possible. In the last year, I learned alot thru this forum and others similar. So, sorry if I seem kinda---I dunno--annoying. I really don't mean to be.

This was done by pen, scanned, and colored in GIMP.

Christwriter · Post by **Christwriter** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 8:05 pm

That is better. Lines are cleaner and they don't dominate the picture nearly as much as the mouse-drawn lines did. Some of them are a bit wavery--I'd suggest you use a ruler to get them straight. I use a rular for perspective and straight lines when I do art off the computer (digital art comes with Photoshop's "line" tool and the shift key) so it's a standard art tool. Standard wood school ruler would work, though I'd suggest a quilting ruler. Quilting rulers are easy to get and come with lots and lots of odd guidelines you could use to get whatever angle it is you want.

CW

Prettysenshi · Post by **Prettysenshi** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 5:38 pm

Okay, this isn't page 50, but page 53. I'm trying to see how it would look if done entirely by pencil. I think it came out okay. It only looks...odd, b/c my comics have been in color for a while.

Blackaby · Post by **Blackaby** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 7:12 pm

Go with the pencil. And hey try colouring it too when you're comfortable with it.

Seriously your comic is looking sooo much better from the start of this thread to the end of it, it's awesome. Seriously seriously awesome.

-+

Prettysenshi · Post by **Prettysenshi** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 7:16 pm

blackaby wrote:Go with the pencil. And hey try colouring it too when you're comfortable with it.

Seriously your comic is looking sooo much better from the start of this thread to the end of it, it's awesome. Seriously seriously awesome.
-+

Thank you. You don't think the pencilling looks kinda sketchy? That's my main worry with using pencils. This is how my comic looks when I use pens and CG color. Pencils are quicker and sometimes easier to make details with, but pens are cleaner.

Sortelli · Post by **Sortelli** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 7:20 pm

It looks like you're cleaning up the stray pencil sketches just fine, and the hand drawn work looks a lot better, good work!

If you have the time, finishing in pen and then coloring would be good, but I enjoyed the all pencil page just fine on its own.

Kris X · Post by **Kris X** » Sun Aug 28, 2005 12:18 am

Avoid texture patterns in my opinion. It looks a bit cut and paste and slightly cheesy.

Bwerith · Post by **Bwerith** » Sun Aug 28, 2005 10:13 pm

In the last panels of both pages 52 and 53, I keep wanting to read the topmost speech bubble before the leftmost one, and then I get confused because that's not the way they're meant to be read. Would it be possible to move the leftmost speech bubbles up higher, so that it's obvious they're meant to be read first?