Critique my art

[Zem]

So I have just started updating my comic regurlarly, have 11 strips, and I feel my art could improve, but I don't know how. Any suggestions would be welcome, but please don't just tear it to shreds. The earlier comics were made along time ago, and so the quality hops around. I'm using Photoshop Elements 2, so some things I just can't do, but I try to manage. Link is in the sig.

And yes it is a zombie comic. If you dont like zombies, don't complain about it, I want art critiques.

[The Mortician]

Is there a method to how to make your comics? Or is it directly on the computer? Use a tablet? Scan pictures into the computer?

[LibertyCabbage]

Hey =DD

It's tough to critique because there aren't enough comics to grasp your overall style and issues yet =p The main problem I'm seeing though is that your legs seem to be too short in proportion to the rest of the body. I'm not sure how to describe the right length 'cuz for me it's more of an either it looks right or doesn't thing, but if you look at photographs and pay attention to the anatomy you'll be fine =p

[The Mortician]

As you said in IM last night. You draw - scan - and then ink on the comp.

I think my only critique is perspective with the use of backgrounds and the characters standing in them.

[FLittle]

Well, the two things I would suggest are to work on volume shading (everything looks kind of flat even though you do work on your shading - so just grab some tutorials on shading 3-D objects if you can - your local library might have some drawing books if you can't afford to buy any) and you don't use line width variance much. It'd be nice to see some thicker lines and then thinner lines for details. Also, if you ink the bulk of the person a little thicker it may hide the wobbliness of the lines (and losing the wobbliness is just a matter of practice with your hand, but it's very hard - I have to ink very slowly since my hands shake sometimes).

I think the art is better than a lot of just-starting comics I've seen, and just drawing a lot will make it even better over time, so the volume and line width are the two major things you should work on right now.

[Zem]

Well, the two things I would suggest are to work on volume shading (everything looks kind of flat even though you do work on your shading

Thanks, I can see that now, I'l try to work on it.

and you don't use line width variance much.

This one is harder for me because the way photoshop does brush strokes, It has a small perimeter of grey around a black line. When I use the paint bucket, it doesnt dye the grey area, and I am left with a small light border around everything as you can see in the first panel around his legs here. To combat this, I tried copying and pasting all the lines to eliminate the white spaces, but it leaves rather big lines that I can't make skinnier. Any thoughts on that?

[Johndar]

what you can do is make a line layer, and then underneath that have your colour layer. When you want to fill something, use the magicwand to select the area on the line layer, then go to select/modify/expand on the menu and expand it by 1-3 pixels. Fill the selection on the colour layer and it should be good.

[FLittle]

Other than Johndar's excellent advice, you can try using the pencil tool instead of the brush tool, but it doesn't have as smooth of an edge.

When I ink in Photoshop I do what Johndar said and I color on the layer underneath the lineart. The expanding pixel option for fills is probably the easiest, and then if you want to shade on top you can use the smart fill again to grab all of the base color you already put down using the pixel expand trick.

[Snackbot]

Layers are my best friend.

I like to keep my line art, foreground color, background color, borders, word bubbles, and text all on separate layers. It's just so much easier.

[Johndar]

For shading I like to turn contiguous off, then select say for example all the red in the base colours. Then on a new layer I shade all the red, and do the same for all the other colours.

[Zem]

Thanks for the great feedback, I'll try to implement it, but I do not think Elements 2 has smartfill. If it does and I just missed it, which is possible, tell me how it works! Thanks again

[Biev]

The characters often look paper flat, but that's not something you can solve with shading. Drawing anatomically correct people is hard, so hang in there. My advice is to practice drawing people with references, and do as many live observation drawings as you can, and you'll pick it up. Also, if you need visual references to make your zombies more zombie-like and you have the stomach for it, google holds plenty of pictures of people with all sorts of burns and injuries.

[DancingChaos]

Haha! I use the same exact program!

Yes, like some people said, you're people look flat. I think you should study anatomy to make your characters look a little more realistic. Also, if you want to go deep into it, you should add tons of shading. That would look awesome. But the key is to never stop drawing. I've seen some comics where the start is pretty rough, and it gradually gets better and better. That's my advice for you ^_^

[Biev]

Sorry but I need to insist - If the sketch is awkward, adding shading to it isn't gonna make it work. It's like when you shape an eye wrong. It doesn't matter how much detail you add to it, even if the coloring is gorgeous and the lighting is just right, it will still be awkward. Better to get the body structure right before you start spending a lot of time on heavy shading.

[Zem]

So I combat the flatness with shading and better anatomy?
Thats what I'm hearing, but will that do the trick? Thanks guys, maybe I'll take anatomy class next year...

[KODAMA]

For a comic that has little detail, the image sizes are huge.
Please make your pages smaller. About 600 pixels wide seems more than appropriate and also 800x600 friendly ;)