Comic Genesis Forums

I haven't been drawing very long, but heaposheep has just finished its third week (M-W-F updates), so it looks like something that I'm going to want to stick with.

I've gotten a lot better over the past three weeks... any ideas for further improvement? Style critiques? Writing critiques? Anything?

Thanks very much in advance.

I feel a little cliche opening with "not a lot to go off of yet," because that's how MOST first critiques start... so I won't (but it's lurking just off screen). Instead I'll hop into my opinions.

Visual:
1) Your style is very nicely simplistic. Certain days more than others use this technique magnificently. The 'mutton rouge' sheep was a nice example stylistically - and I assume you liked it, too, as it's made it onto your banner.
2) When your style fails, it's in line quality. You have some bold, thick strokes in some of the earlier comics that make me think any oddly shaped shark must be a style choice. In your most recent, however, the line quality gets very weak. Lines are thin, wobbly, and even dissappear. If your lines aren't confident, I'm not confident in you. Stay bold.

Writing:
1) You're quirky - which draws me in for a closer look - but you aren't a sidesplitter. More along the lines of New Yorker than the Sunday Funnies with your opening sheep jokes, the humor is subtle and reserved.
2) The Steve story could go anywhere. Not sure where it's headed or what it has to do with the sheep (I assume they'll connect). Hopefully you can maintain comedy and keep up a good storyline. With a simple style of art, the writing really has room to show off - but that means it's also in the spotlight. It has to be good.

Website:
1) White is no fun to stare at. Doesn't need to have fancy wallpaper or anything, but it's easier on the eyes if you go with some color for the background other than PURE white. Digital War, for example, uses light gray for a still-simple but more appealing look.
2)It is barebones. I actually prefer simple to over-the-top, and for your style too many bells & whistles would not fit the mood. However, the webcomic fanbase has come to expect at least a few basics: Archive page or calendar, maybe a few links, possibly some navigation buttons instead of the "First, previous" text links. Just something to give your site the personal touch and keep it from looking like it's just out of the factory box.
The CG Wiki has some good tutorials and tags you can use, and the help forum will most likely either already have answers or can quickly provide them as regards anything you might want to try.


The short version: Pretty good, keep it up, keep improving.

G'day.

The little blurb explaining why there's no comic is a good idea when people arrive expecting (or at least hoping) for the next current strip to be there for perusal...but once the next official strip is up, that sort of thing becomes obsolete.

I'd advise removing it. It only adds to the pages and gets to be annoying. Guest art and filler art and stuff, I can understand keeping them in there, especially if they come between story plots and so forth, but excuses why there isn't a strip shouldn't really be there when the comic resumes.

For example, each Saturday I upload pictures the kids at school draw of my characters as a little bonus for anyone who turns up (and a bonus for the kids too...nine year olds think it's sweet to see their work 'published') but after a few days I pull it down and store it elsewhere on the site. Like those apologies for no strips, they don't belong in the archive.

Good luck.

Cheers.

I agree, you should keep the same lines as the sheep from the beginning, they were very nice. I hope you bring the sheep back to the story soon. It looks like you have a harder time drawing Steve, and a lot of the time he is drawn at all, and it looks like that's only because he was giving you trouble. I think it would actually be cool if you would draw the story from Steve's point of view whenever he's involved, so that we wouldn't actually see him, (unless he's sticking out his hand or something) we would be him. Just an idea.

That's a fantastic idea! Brilliant, actually, and it solves my exact problem. I have a much easier time drawing the animals.


And don't worry everyone, this storyline will meet the sheep very soon. I know (roughly) how it'll happen, even. The sharks were sort of an accident at all... I drew a sheep with a pointy nose one day, and started laughing because it looked like a sheep pretending to be a shark. From there it was all downhill.

I'm still working on the lines. I'm perfecting the workflow between real paper, scanner, photoshop, and illustrator. Someday I'll get it right; I like those early lines too.

Thanks so much for the comments and ideas, I hope you all enjoy reading it. If there are any more ideas, let me know!

Yay! I helped ^_^

Oh and I thought the mouton rouge was very cool.

Thanks! He may end up being on a shirt someday.

All of these ideas were really helpful; thank you. Like I said, feel free to chip in with more.

I made some changes in workflow for tonight's drawing session, which helped a lot in quality as well as time management. Seperate PSD file for each panel, plus all the panels are the same size. And I remembered what I did to get those nice bold lines: after Illustrator's auto-trace, I increased the stroke size a couple of pts. The better workflow even gave me enough time to color for Wednesday's strip, something I'd been lacking lately. Of course, I only usually do spot color anyway...