Stephen Henderson-Grady wrote:
I think you are using too many lines in peoples' hair. A few lines with some interesting thins and thicks will make the hair stand our better; look at Chiho Saito's work in the Utena comics for a good example. Hell, use her as a good example on almost everything. She is a master at line weight, that is making lines thinner or thicker based on light and the importance of the elements. Try to notice how the lines get thinner and thicker and why. Actually, any good manga artist is good to look at for this, though Saito is my fave.
Speaking of which, what are you using to ink? I think your strip could really improve by using some nice line weight variation and that requires something pressure sensitive, such as a brush or crow quill. If are inking digitally, it might not be worth the trouble, though.
Spot some blacks. Your images move from a dark gray to white but we never see much black. Some bold black gives a nice way to lead the readers eyes around. Don't be afraid to lose some detail every once in awhile to give some dynamic lighting. Also, you don't have to make every panel taking place in the same area have the same spread of dark and light. You can vary the amount of dark and light to make some panels have more impact. Just because someone's hair was represented by black in one panel doesn't mean you can't use gray in another.
I've been using just my .20 tip Pigma Micron, and I've tried India ink once with a few different sizes of calligraphy pen, but found the line to be too thick. I don't really know how to make the Micron give a line of varying thickness, besides going in and drawing another line next to the first, which I have been trying to do recently. I like the idea about the varying thicknesses in the hair, by the way. I've been using Miho Obana's
Kodocha for reference up until now, which uses many lines in the hair and gives it a great sense of flow. I'll look for the Utena comics next time I can get to a bookstore.
Yeah, I'm pretty hesitant about putting black in manually. I'm just beginning to learn about shadows/light sources and all that good stuff and greatly fear messing up a whole page by going in and putting in too much black by pen, or in the wrong places, especially since it doesn't allow mistakes. But I've noticed that too, and am trying to get more of the black in there. I still have a lot to learn about lighting before I think I'll be ready to put in the dramatic blacks with a pen. Thanks for the advice. I'll be sure to try, though.
, so I would like to know if there's any way to do it online.
Sometimes I had trouble figuring out the panel order as well, right to left doens't bother me at all, but it's still confusing.
