I like this as the start of a story, but I don't think that you are using the comic book media effectively as a story telling tool

I've sketched out a slightly different layout for what would be the first 2 pages, (covering 3 of your pages).

So the first panel in the first page is a bit more zoomed out than your panel, giving a bit more overview of the place. I would also having some text information to get the reader into the story.

i.e. (just making something up)

"In the students home at the college of Wretlock..."

the second panel (corresponding to your 2:nd and 3:d) the text could be completed with

"...Hazel is studying an old book."

Or whatever information would be correct.

I've also moved a bit of dialog from page 2 to page 1.

Hally saying that she don't get it.

With this we have put the reader into the story and given the reader something to make them want to turn to the next page.

In the second page (my version)

we learn that the pages in the book are blank

Hazel leaves the room to get a pencil

Pip enters

You tell the same thing on two pages. But I can not see that you add anything to the story telling by using two pages instead of one.

The outline of the missing pen can be confusing since it also could indicate an invisible pen.

---

I feel that you need to work on how to tell the story in a comic book format. I suspect that you are not very comfortable with drawing backgrounds/environments.

---

When making a story, comic book or other media, it generally helps to have a good ending clear when you start writing. It helps to have foundations that support the ending established early and if you don't have an intended goal when you start, you risk get lost on the road and get a weak ending or no ending at all.

So if you don't already have an ending in mind you should start thinking of one.

Sorry for the confusion, I guess when I say "Render" I mean more or less the render of the colors, texture and lighting, I'm not keen on removing the lines, unless I have to in order to make my art better.

I personally dont find the 2nd one that flat, but the 3rd one yeah I see where' you're coming from, kind of shot myself in the foot there trying my hand so early with a style, while the lighting is coming from behind.

Idk why I said: "Painted look" I actually should have said: "Water Color" look, which is what I was going for, more or less the shading style at least, I'm actually not entirely sure how to go about that, I have my references but it doesn't even look like I tried mimicking them.

But case in point these are the refs I've been using, people from what I hear say they're "water color" style despite not really looking like it, digital water color? ref1 ref2 ref3

To reiterate, I'm going for a "water color" shading style that some older game artwork like Yoshi's Island or MOON, have used. No clue why I said "Painted Look"

I appreciate the help nonetheless

[CRITIQUE THIS]

Some of my more recent pieces, lemme know stuff that could be changed/improved, always appreciate constructive criticism

May I suggest you learn basic human anatomy. Even if you're gonna stick to cartoons, if you want your characters to be relatable at all then they need at least basic proportions & vaguely human gestures/movements. Yes, you can hit up YT for vids...but the best ways to learn are 1] drawing from life, & 2] a good artist's manual. Anything by George Bridgman is good, as is Andrew Loomis' Figure Drawing for All It's Worth. I have one of Bridgman's books in PDF format...if you like, send me a note & I'll reply with a link to it. You can print it out (or print the sections you really need), read it, & use what you learn.

Trying to paint over one of your images to give it a more painted feeling.

I actually meant water color (I have no idea why I put down paint), but regardless this is an amazing edit, I especially love the shading!

I would say these are good examples of watercolor or water based markers done digitally:

1 2 3 4 5

Some are more complex than others but even if they were super simple and cute in their style, they should still evoke the idea of watercolor. You can even just take watercolor paintings and drawings and try to get that style digitally. If you can see it on your computer screen, it can be reproduced digitally, it's just a matter of finding out how. A quick tip for that is look at the painting squinting a little bit to remove the texture (this can also be done with filters) and paint your version clean. Then add the texture afterwards on top.

So, my mentality going into a piece that I want to have look like watercolor with defined lines would be as follows: get really nice looking lines that don't look super digital (the crisp look) but rather that look like either a thin marker, pen, or dark pencil, with a bit of a texture feel to it. Every software has these available online or even by default. After you get your lines to look the part, you move on to the painting stage.

In your second piece, your light source is a bit more defined, but not that much. It doesn't need to be super well defined or at all, but if you are going to imply volume and forms with shadows, it would be better if they were clearer. At points your shadows end before they touch the lines, giving your rendering a soft feel as if you where using a soft round brush with a texture. It ends up having these value shifts between brushstrokes that make the forms read improperly. Also if you have a hairy character, your shadows are going to show that.

Here is a quick paint over to show what I mean:

If you want your piece to have a texture to it so it doesn't look so digital, you can add noise, or a paper texture of some sort in a Soft Light or Overlay Layer. Make sure the variation of values in the texture isn't to high or it will mess up your values (anything higher than 50% gray will make things lighter, lower will make them darker).

Let me know if this helps, or if your have more questions.

Best, Lucyan

Those are indeed good examples of watercolor, but it's not what I am going for, they look too clean and... detailed?

Hard to explain, I'm going for a visible and wildly more exaggerated approach like the examples I provided, at least with the coloring/shading

I could try for more organic brushes for line art, all I really have been using is the basic "paint brush" brush in Krita, which is just an aliased circle.

Yeah, as you can tell I'm not that great at the basic principals of shading/lighting.

That looks amazing!

I actually had no clue where else too look for examples of rendering like that, besides maybe furry art, but I'm only now thinking of that.

I would still need to find other sources of stylized detailing for other things.

That would look quite nice wouldn't it, I never thought of that either tbh, I was more worried about actually getting my flow back for making art, and learning how to shade with a watercolor vibe.

It did help me see things in my art that could otherwise be improved upon.

And I would like to know if you have any sources for more water color art, or ones for detail on characters.

You too, thanks!

Apologies if this took awhile for me to respond, I like to thoroughly scan through criticism, which isn't easy when you're not good at getting the message, or reading large chunks of text.

I feel like this is a good opportunity to learn a thing or two, so i'll drop this here.

still working on it btw- just ignore that white streak.

[CRITICIZE]

I'm writing a script for a comic that's fully drawn from photos, with people acting out the characters. This was a first attempt. Some characters are to be unreferenced so they have a fairylike effect, if I can learn to fake the lighting on them. I think the style and theme can come together in a sort of message of 'becoming real'. As in the comic communicates growth, somehow. It wouldn't be worth the time if it didn't. One of the most important things to me is a consistent aesthetic so the viewer can dream along with the story. What is the gap between this and an aesthetic you'd be down with for 50 pages?

Edit: Template88 has said the backgrounds and characters are out of sync because the backgrounds are so overdetailed, which creates not just a pacing problem for the viewer but uncomfortability about the values being communicated. I haven't been able to come up with a solution. I like rich, cinematographic scenes and I want the drawings to hold emotion, which photos of real places can supply.

(It's my summary of his comment - he didn't say overdetailed, he said the backgrounds overwhelm and outpace the characters)

(CRITIQUE THIS) Mb for the spam. Forgot to throw that in there :^)

This tutorial applies to Clip Studio but you can reproduce it in Krita, since it has really god Watercolor brushes.

https://tips.clip-studio.com/en-us/articles/9405

One of the things that characterizes watercolor is that it isn't always super neat and crisp. In digital, other than with Rebelle and similar realistic painting programs, you have to bring about that imperfection yourself.

Chicory's title art I think is closer to what you are looking for: https://chicorygame.com/

https://www.artstation.com/langecker

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/95E2W

It would help to get what the aim for this is as in a general style or aesthetic goal.

Right now, there certain things that jump out, like some of the anatomy and the forms.

E.g. Hand seems backwards.

The legs seem of uneven length, given the pose, and even if the talons are both pointing straight towards the front, one leg is rotated and the other isn't, which makes the pose unnatural.

I would reduce the amount of details in some areas, so there is breathing room and an improvement in fast readability. Other than that, the head seems sloped and inconsistently proportioned.

Hope this helps a bit.

Lucyan

Heya, if it helps. I try and go for at the very least a "semi-realistic" interpretation with my art. Somewhat manga/comic book inspired. As for what I'm trying to do here, it's a reference sheet I'm putting together for one of my characters.

This doesn't come across as a ref sheet, what I see is just a few sketches next to each other. Character reference sheets are meant to clarify information first and foremost, meaning you can't do things like hide hands or pose in ways that block more information than they show. A ref sheet is like the definitive layout for a character, so if you put the hands on backwards, that's canon. Be careful.

Imagine you need to hand this off to someone that knows nothing about your character for them to make a 3D model of it or something like that. They'd have a pretty tough time, considering they don't know what she looks like from behind, the fact that she's holding her weapon means we never see the weapon on its own, and in fact we actually never see the character's full, unobstructed open hand, front or back.

Bare minimum for a reference sheet is a character turnaround, meaning drawings of at least a front, side and back view (two sides if they're significantly asymmetrical). You may need to make closeups of important features, or multiple versions of the standard angles if, for example, they have wings that would cover their back. In that case, you'd show a version with wings removed, to see what's underneath. Major props benefit from getting their own turnarounds as well. The more clarity, the better.

Posed drawings and facial expression references are just a little extra touch. They can sometimes serve to contextualize the more straightforward and necessary turnaround drawings of a ref sheet, but they don't do any heavy lifting on their own.

I'm not sure where you want to go.

One way can be to work more with the pose and creating a feeling of volume.

I prefer sheets that show character. You can have all the information AND character in simple poses, no need to go for the sterile "side view without arm", "back with/out wings", etc. in every occasion. There is use for those, but I would rather have an interesting pose from a couple of angles as if you were making a figurine and have all the accessories surrounding the character where it's relevant.

I get that if you are doing box modelling for a character it's useful to have orthographic views, but if it's just for your project, for 2D work or as a concept, might as well breath some life into it. I like keeping a front and back small version of the character and then posed big ones for the sheet.

That's uhhh, that's what sketches are for. Character sheets serve a specific purpose. If you just want to have fun poses, entertainment over information, great! That's not a character sheet.

Way to be condescending. Thank you.

What makes you think that showing the characterization of a character isn't providing information? What if the orthographic turnaround is not required in this project and it would be wiser to have a different approach to the character sheet? What if the turnaround isn't enough and the project requires you to add actions and expressions? Do these become not-character-sheets? Do they stop serving a specific purpose? No.

You can make character sheets that contain characterization, action, and design-specific information. If instead of a character posing in an A/T-Pose Front, Side and Back, I have a 3/4 front and back of a mildly more interesting pose the information is there and you can actually see some characterization. That would be enough for an illustrator or an sculptor to work from, probably not for a 3D modeller.

You can have both (which is what I SAID I prefer), with a turnaround plus other information that other artists might need if they want to to anything with your characters other than model them in an A/T-Pose. Different stages of the project will require different information from the designer.

The following are professionally made character sheets which contain both, design information and character information (action and personality):

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/9NJGXO

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/XgJYqa

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/o4isd2umvjvgxcwbtl9pe/BravelyDefault2024-09-12_09-46-33.jpg?rlkey=xi6vthnechc8enu7dss9f0iv2&st=4h0gaf8m&dl=0

You can also find ones that are just the turnaround with the accessories. It depends on the requirements/resources of the project, the preferences of the artists, and the stage in production the character sheet is done.

This kinda moves the goalposts to encompass concept art as a whole, but sure, if you're making the kind of promotional art that they pretend is concept art at Blizzard, you can obviously approach it as an illustrator, since that's the job at that point. That page of sketches you shared is what I meant when I said sketches; those do have a role to play in the early stages of character design. So do animation designs, so do VFX designs for those animations, etc., I just don't call everything that is related to a character a character sheet, and I don't know anyone in the industry that does either. When someone asks me for the character sheet, I hand them the orthos.

I will say though, I didn't mention that some good isometric or 2-point 3-quarter view shots count - internally, those are typically for showing directors and producers, and serve less as a how-to guide as they do a glimpse at what they'd look like after they're modeled and all that. I left it out since I'd rather start the person asking for crits off on something more doable for them.

I believed this was for a 2D personal project by someone who is definitely not working in the industry, so that's why I brought up that the character sheet didn't need to be like the one you would send to a 3D modeller. I used the Blizzard post hoc material because you could use that material to make a comic of those characters in that style with very little left to interpretation, meaning that they would indeed be suitable for that need. I know the 3D modeller at Blizzard very likely received a turnaround like the Caitlyn I sent.

I won't make definitive industry-wide claims though because I mostly work with indie authors and companies which tend to have different pipelines and I would end up repeating some AAA advice I heard from FZD or somewhere else. I just think that if it's for a personal project you can make choices in how you present the character to yourself and wanted to provide that view to the person who might not have that perspective.

Thank you for the insight, btw :)

I think I get very specific about the semantics because you never know what trajectory people are on; today it's a personal project for fun, but if someday they or someone else reading this builds a portfolio and looks for work with it, they're gonna want to know that those concept art terms are more rigid than the internet lets on. I blame Deviant art for calling literally everything concept art for the past 20 years - I wanted to be a concept artist 6 years before I learned what one actually does. Gotta spare the youth from my miserable fate.

Hahahah! I had the same issue. When I learned that concept artist do iterative work for everything ad nauseam I bailed into illustration. That's the main reason I have more illustration heavy approach even when designing, which sometimes brings problems but I just don't have the temperament to draw 20 versions of the same sword with slightly different silhouettes (only for 90% of the work to be trashed).

[CRITIQUE THIS]

Honestly i think i need this.

I think i need to fix a lot of things on me, like, not only in this drawing, but, in character design, how i color and stuff. I think i'm just mid or flatout bad in therms of drawing, idk, there's a ton of aspects i could really become better, so yeah, instead of just a drawing it's my entire artstyle to Mid 2024 to nowadays, i would put a ton more of drawings but idk, i feel like yeah, just check the account lol

Or at least what i think not sure if it's my mind just telling things this weeks lmao

What I tried doing here was applying what I learned from my more “realistic” anatomy practices to my art style hoping to improve it, mainly to get a better understanding of anatomy fundamentals but I added I also tried to make the shading and hair shine colors look more natural. But I can definitely see it being improved in some areas, the shading and hair shine colors especially. Tips on anatomy improvement would be appreciated too, wouldn’t mind doing more practice

[CRITIQUE THIS]

Some recent pieces, ik I have a lot to improve on in terms of fundamentals, anatomy, shading, etc, but I wanna know other people's thoughts :)

I just realized I forgot to put shines on her skin… damn it dude. Or what are they called? Doesn’t matter I get the idea

Maybe could use improving but I appreciate more detail

They are called highlights or tints.