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k, so one day i decided to go back and see how Penny Arcade started, since the particular comic i read said something about Mike's (Gabe's) art improving...and i sat there and read the whole 10 years of it. After that...i was inspired to start drawing my own based on the generally humorous shit that happens when myself and my friend hang out and play games. i started out drawing the whole thing in Illustrator with a mouse, then got a tablet and used that to draw it in Illustrator, and now what i'm doing is doing all the outlining in Illustrator and then coloring (i've even started doing some shading!) in Photoshop. However these all represent my first attempt at doing any of these things (or even using Photoshop and Illustrator) and some general help and critiquing would be useful.
here's the mouse-drawn:  and the early tablet:  and the final style i'm planning to stick with:  k, the first two i had to copy from my blog where i post them as a corrupted hard drive cause me to lose the originals, but the last one is the original file, which is why it's bigger. the character are, as i said, based on myself and my friend, including their look. Even the clothes are based on an actual t-shirt and hoodie we wear often (hey...i like my skull and crossed swords shirt, yes i left the swords out on the Dane character) Also, before you level criticism keep these things in mind: 1) these are single panels taken out of context so no, they're not funny and 2) i know there isn't a real background in the 3rd one, it's intentional. That was a kind of "breaking the 4th wall" one so i didn't want it to have a real-world setting, just kind of a blank space. edit: Oh! my comic is called Higher Technology, hence the title of the thread and i just noticed i happened to pick three panels that have "dude..." in them hahaha, subconscious maybe? |
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The entire thing gives me the impression that you're not even trying.
I'm not even going to go past the first panel. You take a look at it and tell me what's wrong with it. I'm going to be bold enough to wager that you don't know what's wrong with it, and that's why I'm just going to tell you now that you need a ton of art classes. |
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Hey dude! I hope you don't mind, I drew some fanart for your comic:
 Your character in the holla hoodie looks like my idiot friend in Vancouver who is stupid. |
Holy cap, I just saw it. |
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holy shit dude that's...pretty awesome! makes me wish my comic were better lol. now i feel obligated to show it to you but i'm worried about "site-whoring" ooo! i'll put the link in my sig.
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k, so i decided to try another style again. i just can't make up my mind, damnit. haha, anyway, here's an unfinished look at where i'm headed. i still gotta finished the outline for dane and then draw lewis, and color and shade the whole thing. but i'm guessing you can tell just by looking at it.
anyway:  |
Haha, that is so spot on! |
My girlfriend and I (who merely lurk here) spent an unreasonable amount of time trying to figure out why you got an infraction for this. It was kind of beautiful when the pieces all came together. |
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i also can't figure out why trip was infracted?
anyways, are there really hoodies that say "holla" on them?  |
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..some one tell me. I dont get it.
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Sounds like a mystery for the mystery solving gang! "ruh roh"
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Maybe I'm just good with faces but as soon as he posted it, I cracked up.
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Basically, bombs got pissed off because michael reavealed to the world what a fatass he is.
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bombs is either skinny or metal is an asshole.
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well does someone wanna let me in on it or am i the butt of the joke?
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is referring to bombardier, who is the mod that subsequently gave Tripwire the infraction |
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i was actually thinking exactly that because of some of the comments, but i dunno what the hell he looks like soooo...yeah.
anyway, finished that panel (more or less) i was working on in yet another style.  i'll smooth out the shading later, right now i just don't feel like it. |
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bottom one is much better, in therms of tone, and colour.
Are you drawing your pics with vectors? I wouldnt draw with vectors, unless i am accurately tracing a sketch i did with pencil. It looks really odd. Also, go back and refine things if they look wrong. The blonde hair dudes eye-brow is bleeding into his eye. That kinda screws up the entire face. So try and refine the little details if they aren't looking quite right. |
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Elbows are too far up. Unless they're both very tense, they should be slouched a little, allowing the forearms to rest on the thighs.
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The ears are really far back and up on the heads. You should look at pictures of real people and try to stylize that into a cartoon.
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hey...where the hell did my pic go? and thanks for the help, i'll def do some work on it taking those into account.
edit: k, i think i fixed whatever made the pic disappear. about the elbows i was trying to make it so they're resting the one arm on the arm of the couch, but Lewis (green sweatshirt guy) in particular looks pretty fucked up and i'm not quite sure how to make em look right. any chance someone has - or can draw quick - a sketch of something like how they SHOULD look? yep, ears are def outta line. prob because i skip that whole "drawing the skeleton and crossed lines on the face to make sure everything's proportional and lined up" step. i just draw this for fun in my spare time (i haven't taken an art class since high school) for my handful of friends that think my cartoons are funny, but i want them to look better, which is why i came here, so maybe i'll start doing that. last thing, i was trying to make Lewis look like he's doing that one raised eyebrow look but i def screwed it up, so i'll try and fix that too. THANKS GUYS! edit...again: Lewis's hands don't look quite right, but i suck at hands in general. ideas? |
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here's what i've fixed so far. goin snowboarding so that's all i have time for at the moment.
 as you can prob see i decided (or maybe realized is a better word) there should be a shadow in the shape of Lewis's head on his left shoulder. |
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there, i think i managed to hit up all the crits you guys mentioned. so whaddya think?
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The face of the guy on the right is more round and less distorted.
Also, there appears to be more highlights. |
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okay say you build a house
but don't build a foundation instead you're just throwing up drywall randomly, chuck some wallpaper up, put a few paintings on the wall then someone comes and says "dude... that drywall looks hella crooked" so you kinda adjust it a bit. you still have a house without a foundation, you can play around with that drywall till you're blue in the face, your house is still unstable. here's your foundation: http://www.amazon.ca/New-Drawing-Right-Side-Brain/dp/0874774241 |
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1st image to 2nd image: lowered left guy's ear to line up properly, added proper shadowing to right guy's shoulder, blended shadows on couch, right guy's sweatshirt and left guy's beard better.
still needed: lower/fix elbows. take care of "blonde guy's eyebrow bleeding into his eye" from things mentioned by other posters 2nd image to 3rd image: adjusted right guy's elbow so it looks like it's resting beside him and reaching forward instead of being held in front of him like he's flexing (urgh! Hulk smash!) and fixed all the shadows and highlights on arm and front of torso in accordance. rounded out right guy's head and moved eyebrow up to stop if from bleeding into eye. the changes are def there if you look, especially if you look at them next to each other. and thanks for the book recommendation beavotron but, like i said, i just do this for the 3 or 4 of my friend's who think my cartoon is funny. i don't really have to time or, more importantly, money to start investing into making this think look like a real artist drew it. I did bookmark that page though in case there comes a time were i have...the time...yeah that'll work. anyway, now that i've gone through everything you guys mentioned looked wrong after the first post of it i don't look at it and immediately go "something doesn't look right," which is good enough for my purposes. SO thanks! and i'm sure i'll be back going "ok...so this is what i fucked up this time..." |
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o, damnit forgot: i'm getting HELLA better at using photoshop (which is probably my biggest hurdle, haha) by going back and looking at things per your recommendations so thanks for that too!
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photoshop is like a giant puzzle
you just gotta play around with it a lot to get it, if you have specific photoshop questions, just ask, there are lots of people around here who can help you with that. |
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If you are not really looking to become a better and skilled artist, then why are you posting here?
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You're stupid. Aluminum siding will make that house look just fine. Fake it till you make it! |
just so i can get some tips on some of the more obvious things (to a more trained artist's eye anyway) that make my toons look off so i don't make those same mistakes EVERY time i draw them and have to sit there going "fuck...what IS it!?". Also so i can try and decide on the style i want to draw them in. And lastly so i can get a better handle on Photoshop in case the day comes where i do have the time and motivation to do some REAL artwork. ...although mostly because it was Penny Arcade that inspired me to draw a comic about me and my idiot friend playing videogames in the first place. |
Hey, genius, why don't you go back and look at the post right under the one that started this whole fucking travesty. Or was that not what you wanted to hear? You're a lazy fuck who just isn't going to get better. I've seen a million different webcomics come through here and I've heard every single excuse ever given for sucking so bad. Everything from "being shitty is my style" to "It doesn't matter because its just for my two loser-ass freinds to get a giggle out of." So what the fuck makes you special enough to tell anything other than, "go take a fucking art class?" |
hey so...since you offered... i still can't seem to get the same results off drawing with a tablet in Photshop that i do when i draw with just pencil and paper. is it just because i'm using a fairly cheap tablet, or did anyone else go through the same adjustment? anything special you did to close that gap, or does it just take time to adjust? as far as finding the tools i need in photoshop, i'm sure that i will get the hang of given enough time.
maybe the fact that just because i'm not planning to make a career out of drawing shouldn't exclude me from getting some help on the art that i DO draw, nor should the fact that i don't have the time or money to be spending on art classes and digesting art books, you elitist douchetool. although this doesn't make me special, just like any average person who decided to get back to doing some doodling because i saw something that inspired me to do so. (but CLEARLY being too busy with my life outside of drawing makes me a lazy fuck.) considering that i did manage to get some tips there are obviously other people here that feel the same way. no one's forcing you to come in here and post, if you're so terribly offended by my cartoons then just stay the fuck off the thread, it's not like it's sneaking up on you; "o hey, a new thread let's check that ou-Damnit! it's that Higher Technology thread again, sneaky bastard!" so tell me, is it that you are completely incapable of saying anything constructive, or just that you're incapable of NOT being a total fuckwad? |
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douchetool?
 I've never heard that one. |
Yeah, I did say something constructive in my first post, you bitchburglar. Now go back and read it and fucking do what I told you to. Otherwise, pack up your shit and get the fuck out of my office. |
