You don't use it you lose it, gonna try to get it back.

[JakehC]

one of the difficult parts of drawing is getting those forms to turn, especially when you are dealing with soft surfaces and rounded forms. But a good thing to remember is to draw through and "construct" your designs. dont think of drawing as a series of lines on a paper, but rather a collection of forms in space.

[Black Spot]

The first picture of that last panel has a bit of an overlap problem with the zombie arm and narrator's head.

Moving could be fun. Hope it all goes well.

[JFierce]

@Aryeh: Very true and it's funny how a piece of advice you read a lot around here you can neglect yourself. Hopefully can start applying it more. Think I got caught up in the whole proper use of black and the graphic design aspect I neglected other aspects =/

@Black Spot: Thanks for pointing out something I wasn't sure on actually. I was sitting there thinking the whole time drawing it. "Hmmm I want to make it look like the zombies in front of him but I remember reading many times tangents are bad" lol. So I moved it out of the way feels a bit better. Good observation.

---------------------------------

Well since I apparently hit a new page and I was working on some minor things for the previous pages guess I'll just release them all in a sequence here at the top.


This 3rd page was a doozy. Because I'm not used to panels showing motion. Even worse trying to figure out the right way to show swinging an axe. Which I redrew at least 11 times and am still not 'happy' with it. I think the issue I had more than anything was I had a vague idea. But when I picked out the panel layout it felt cramped and was hard to position what I had in mind once I started.

The most important thing I'm learning is do not neglect the planning process. It makes things harder down the line.....

This also applies to adding text bubbles a bit more ahead of time. especially how big they probably will be with text. The 3rd page I added the top 2 because it felt barren once I finished and because things weren't communicating how I wanted them to. But yeah..... once again lesson learned hopefully.

[iven]

Amazing stuff I was following you ZOMBIE sketches, hey was your moving going, would love to
see some more amazing panels. Thanks 4 feedback, appreciate it !

[JFierce]

Haven't been drawing more than light doodles recently. Some seriously stressing stuff. It's official house being sold no doubt. Bad news? Only one month to find a place and move a RIDIIIIICULOUS amount of junk. My family I swear they just go to auctions and pick up stupid shit and furniture for no fucking reason. "Oh a giant cabinet for 25 dollars? We don't need one but sure why not". I think some of them have a hoarding problem. We have 5 couches...... ... yeah.
------------------------------------------------------


But anyways. I think I'm deciding that every time I finish an actual page. I'm going to just link it to my first post at the top of the page. Then any little scribbles or WIP's progress shots etc. I'll just post below. That way don't have to break the pages with random pictures. Still working on 4 when I can though.


Random doodles right now just because I feel like posting this minor stuff I scribbled on my computer while I play to get it off my desktop.

Self portrait day scribble


10 min scribble from my head I made one night which I liked despite being quick and issues galore. Had no idea what I was making just scurrying along filling in whatever.



Then trying a new way of getting through pages quicker. So my experimenting today. Still working on the general lines and such but it was interesting to play with very rough scribbles and include speech bubbles early. Still not sure about that final panel. Everything else I tried didn't work. Couldn't fit any text in if I do something like say aim the gun at the zombie in the same panel. So figured I'd add in the standard 'aiming' panel, then do the next page focusing on what comes next.

Though pretty sure I need to 'zoom out' and show the actual barrel and a bit more of the face. Probably do since we haven't been introduced to the other characters faces and such besides the 'hat' guy as I'll call him until his names mentioned. Some things you forget you need to think about from a viewer stance since they don't know all the info the creator does.





Still a big Wip though.

[Black Spot]

Tangent gone. Interesting SP - you're not quite as I imagined you, but that's fine. I like the 10 minute scribble. More zombie killing panels - yeah!

[JFierce]

Yeah that's the funny thing about online forums. I've seen a few people here on facebook or their websites and every time I'm a bit shocked because it's giving a face to that persona. My self portraits ok, though my friends say it looks closer to Nicholas Cage than me apparently lol.

-----------------------

For this post I just put Page#4 with the others on the top of this page ^. Easier to keep track of the flow of the comic.

It was difficult. The last panel I'm not sure if it fits or not and it probably will depend completely on my next page. Since I notice I often can't tell if a page without a distinct purpose that stands out or action flows with the rest of them until I'm done the next one. This is going to bug the hell out of me when I do big filler pages to get dialogue out. But since the next page should be action'ish and this page ending with the aiming of a rifle I think it will blend together.

Often when your drawing comics you forget the perspective that these pages are read in a few seconds in most cases. I'm a speed reader for comics I blaze through them just taking in the information and moving on unless a page has some amazing art that makes me stop and stare for awhile.





Also I've also learned I'm writing a script next time the scene transitions. Because I've been making up the dialogue based on vague ideas in my head and it's not going as well as I thought. Planning is key.....

[JFierce]

Thought about it and I need to study and work on one of my biggest weakpoints. Drapery and cloth.

I've been faking it, and you can't fake it. So I'm going to try to understand what's going on behind it all. So far already starting to get it a bit more. Right now I'm just going over the very basic types of folds and such and doing vague quick sketches to drill the point home a little. Then actual application and observation studies come after. Still learning the 7 basic types though. But it's getting late. Have to pack stuff early tomorrow.

[JFierce]

Moves been weighing on me. Know the general idea of where we have to move. Going to be a great location. Might cheer up a bit just from that. Loads of people can go down to a big tourist spot in walking distance with the dogs great place to draw people. Then there's going to be our mall close along with other stuff.

But I've been clearing out our basement and my family is full of hoarders. So much shit I can't even wrap my head around how it all got there. Ugh.....

Then the election stuff been out of the swing of things.

--------------------------------------

Still plan on working on drapery it's a very interesting topic and absolutely essential to get down. Since as someone put it it's easier to draw people with clothes on if you understand drapery. Since I'm doing comics where everyone will likely have their clothes on most of the time along with needing to simplify by describing form and the best drapery describes the form underneath it's vital to learn.


But recently I've just been dicking around with photos of friends on facebook. Pure sketchery for fun sake.


One was just dicking around in alchemy and my friend has these dreadlocks with bright tips so I was just playing around with it. But it looked more like a lion mane thing going on so I just went with whatever.




Then a friend posted a picture holding his baby niece but it was such a weird picture, his eyes were zoned out and looked completely dead. Had to doodle it and caption it.




EDIT: Lets throw in a ultra quick scribble I just did. I haven't done anything truly cartoony in ages. So I wanted to see how fast I could scribble something out. Cartoons..... are quite a bit easier than back in the day when I used to do them.

[JFierce]

Late, cold, sketchin around loosely wondering if I might wanna continue or not later.

[Care]

o man that zombie comic is awesome! i would love to read that comic.... sooo good. Ur drapery looks fine, but i found burne hogarths book was really helpful for understanding the tension points on the body :. keep up the awesome work.

[iven]

I reeeeeeeeeeeeally love #280 the guy flying, amazing. And the drapery
stuies are very well done too, will try that too.

[Raymond Luk]

The zombie apocalypse is nigh!

[MrFrenik]

I also second continuing the zombie comic! Haven't been on here in a while, so I haven't had a chance to keep up with yours and others works, JFierce, but it's all coming along great. And great work on the construction studies, I'd say definitely keep those up, especially with drapery (drapery's a bitch, id'n'it?).

[JFierce]

@Care - Thanks!
@iven - Also thanks! Yeah drapery I'm realizing is essential although it's hard to fully grasp
@Raymond Luk - Get ready lol
@MrFrenik - Haha long time no see. Yeah drapery is difficult to grasp. Because every little move changes it. So you have to learn the 'why's behind why the folds exist in the first place which is hard to learn then apply.


-----------------------

Long time no update and nothing big this time. Busy move and prep.
Have some other doodles but I'm only sharing this one because the others involve inside jokes with friends that I don't really feel like sharing with the rest of the internet lol.



Working on this some more. Realized this other program I have fun doodling with actually does have a way to multiply layers since I wanted to keep the general lines to work under. Then I'd export and work more back in photoshop which is the step I have to do now. Also have to fix it in general since things got resized and I have to guestimate whether the figures underneath stuff is right then fix what's wrong.

Need to straighten out a cityscape and make it feel more city. Somehow make sure it looks like a city by the water. Then might need to change the skull things to something else.. .... or something I don't know but they don't quite fit the composition it feels to me now that the cityscape is this way which is like steps leading up to the figure.

Mainly turned it to water instead of more city because the city when I was dicking around with it felt busy and interfering with the character. So need to think more on it.






Kinda want to do this in color since grayscale wouldn't have the same feel as what I'm thinking but I've never done grayscale ---> Color. But might be something fun to try and learn about.



Edit: Got into a trance stayed up way too late. Still trying to figure out this whole grayscale to color thing. A lot of it involves redrawing things basically since overlays and such look like shit frankly. Need to recolor the figure and maybe shift the lighting a bit more to his back also.


Think I'm going to add a sort of chaos happening in the city. Maybe the skulls shooting laser or something again. Trying to figure a way to add the dark clouds in the background with it making sense. But at the same time using it for aesthetics and setting/separating the mood too which is hard. Want to give a feeling of a sort of superhero feel to the viewer even without the cape and the normal clothing.

[Raymond Luk]

Hmm actually, have you tried using the "color" layer in photoshop? You can get some pretty bright colors, then paint over that a bit :0
And I'm actually really liking that dark cloud, it makes a c-curve with the buildings
I'd suggest getting rid of some of the lines on that one building though, where the light hits really hard :0
Looking pretty interesting so far

[JFierce]

@Raymond Luk - Thanks! I tried a color layer in fact I with a very very low opacity started this with it. Though the buildings felt weird with a color besides a bit of blue for slight atmospheric perspective hints and the water obviously. Also, yeah I didn't get rid of all the lines yet. The only lines I'm not sure if I want to keep yet are the ones for the character since it's really in the foreground. But I have to shift the lighting and general shading to fit everything else first then I'll see.


--------------------------------------------


Little bit more on it but still a decent WIP.



Right now conceptualizing what I want to happen to the city. Ended up drawing random lines with varying thickness which started to feel like lightning of sorts. Then I thought what if it's a person or something of the sort casting it (which the silhouette I have yet to draw in the sphere). So I started to play with the way it will hit and curve. Difficult. This is just the hit not even the colors or lighting since if it's lightning it gives off a decent bit of light at least.


Then I fucked up and not sure if I like the waters reflection. First I was going to make it more sideways because it was too angled it felt. Then I wanted it to still curve. Then I thought 'hey maybe a bit wind is causing ripples or waves of sorts and was dicking around with that. Might still go for that but ditch the sideways lines and look into how waves appear at a distance and play a bit and have them sort of ripple out from the city leading back to the clouds through the figure.





Funny thing is there's two ways to go about this. To make it a faceoff and add a distant silhouette. Or bring the sphere a bit closer over the city. Maybe hint more at the foreground person causing/controlling it. Probably going to try the first one. Since the mood right now is separated. Dark clouds on the horizon where the chaos is coming from and the foreground light, which will have light shining from behind a bit more.

[Raymond Luk]

Hmm, liking the concept, it's adding a lot more interest to the piece Anything going down on that heli pad? :s

[JFierce]

Normally don't reply without a picture because it feels like shameless bumping lol, but I was dinking around and was going to add the last bit of the night to my last post anyways.

But naw, I'm ditching the helipad mainly because it fucks up the composition. Draws the eye off the page if I put more focus on the corner by drawing something there.





Now I'm dinking with the general strong color and thinking about how I want to do lightning and balance things. I could shift the colors around and focus the general lighting more on the lightning which may work better for the mood, darken other parts or I can try to deal with lightning and the normal light from behind.

I think we had a thread on here talking about the luminance of lightning though and it generally not being that strong. Don't know until I dink more with it.

[Raymond Luk]

Ha ha, I know what you mean And yea, you're also right, it could divert attention but it could also provide some framing :0
Play around with it some more, if you balance things, it'll quickly create that contrast you want on the focal points, then you can add secondary lighting after

Mm I found after looking at some pictures of lightning, the bands further away are still affected by atmospheric diffusion so fall slightly in value but lightning in the center is actually almost pure white and it does seem to have a soft bit of illumination around the brighter bands (thicker ones) Good luck with it!

[JFierce]

@Ray - Yeah I'm going to play with it. Already changed some things a lot to emphasize the lightning which was already pure white but not 'bright' enough' to me.

------------------------------

Wanted to work on it more but have a big bit of moving tomorrow.
So I'm just going to grab a quick snippet and jot down my thoughts so when I come back to this I can hopefully remember my thought process


Forgot to change the bottom right roof and a lot of things before moving on first.

Lets see.....I changed things from day to nightish. This was for 2 reasons. One the lighting from the back conflicted with the shadows the lightning were directly illuminating so it was hard to give form with 2 intense light sources. I'm not that skilled to figure that out. So I darkened things and it started with just playing with reflections lightning would cast on buildings in a distance then that got me thinking about for the next step adding actual city lights to the add a bit to things. Maybe a street sign. Some different dashes of color. Ya know kind of like in Tokyo or something where there's street signs and dashes of color here and there to add interest

http://www.danciprari.com/images/wor...-night-600.jpg



Then I was obviously going to figure out the figure. But honestly I don't know whether I should just redraw the figure. Fix the legs shrink him or what. The focal point now is clearly the lightning leading up to the orb but the figure is almost the exact same size and drags a lot of attention once I add some lighting and shade to the figure I think it may conflict with each other. I think the issue I'm seeing is the head of the figure is slightly above the sphere. So if I shrunk the body slightly I could then just slower it slightly below. Then the eye might go off the head then direct up the lightning to the focal point some more.


Not sure. I looked at it again and I'm not sure how my eye travels it at this point. The orb would see where the eye goes but at the same time. the actual impact of the lightning draws the eye too. Hmm...

[Black Spot]

I like the picture of your friend with his niece.

Make the water horizontal please. Otherwise it's developing well.

[JFierce]

@Black Spot - Haha. Thank you for pointing out something that I was flip flopping between. Made it horizontal, But in the middle of deciding how much emphasis to put on it.


--------------------------

Reworking the figure, trying to get his head pointing a bit towards the focus of everything but it's hard. Figuring how much emphasis to put on the water. Might need to darken the water some depending on how I rework the city and such since I'm going to work on all the buildings pretty much.

Not sure how much longer I want to work on this though. I think my brain is starting to see some underlying issues I didn't think about. Think it depends on how well the next set of changes go.



But have a very short time to move this week so don't have a lot of time to work on it at the moment.

[JFierce]

I haven't done anything from life in awhile. So I wanted to do a little study to test and make sure I'm not too too rusty. I almost never do anything that's outside but there was this one tree outside my window, all the others are dead. It was a bright orange and red.

Also added the 5th page of the zombie comic. But I might have to put a page between 4-5 because it feels a bit shoddy. Maybe showing the other zombie going through the doorway in a single page as well as showing the aiming and positioning.



But anyways the steps of the brief study.











Edit: Same day so guess I'll throw in what I'm rough drafting.

[iven]

I really like #293 since its there. One small suggestion You could put him in a silouette and see if it is comunicating
the tension you want. Personaly I think you could put the arms more away from his body because of the silouette.
Anyway its good,..........KEEP ON Cranking him out

I've seen a few people here on facebook or their websites and every time I'm a bit shocked because it's giving a face to that persona.

I am reeeeally curiouse about your impression about my website.
Thanks 4 your feedback, I am Cranking around and VILPPU and I are best friends already

[Grey_Rift]

nice comic

[JFierce]

Haven't drawn in awhile been at least a month. Feel like I'm losing the ability to draw in general. Beyond the feeling of rusty. Rusty means you can still get back in the swing of things. This feels different. Like starting over without previous knowledge. I can't remember my process at all or what went through my head doing something. Just feels odd.


So trying to just doodle and get it back.
This is about the only thing I've been able to get out so far. Still need to work on it plenty but at least I have some inspiration to do and continue it rather than staring at an empty screen or piece of paper.

Hopefully can work on it more extremely rough haven't even worked out the figure yet need to get the sense of spacing and depth right so might need to shrink the figure a bit.

[JFierce]

Been bobbin in and out of drawing. Moved to this great location to actually draw. Great architecture everywhere, lots of people, but it's a bit of a long-ish walk and it's the middle of a cold winter sadly.


Here's a couple of my digital doodle WIPS I've been playing with. I always like clouds yet they're so complex. Then one thing I notice is I never draw large scenes of people and objects. So I'm taking this party of friends and then instead of just copying everything I'm going to take the ref, and edit them all just do whatever comes to mind. Pretty fun.






Like usual hope I can at least keep the spark alive with drawing.

Edit: Guy in Toga's leg was very fucked up. Already fixed it. But not going to bother reuploading and all that junk. Too much of a pain.

[MrFrenik]

These last two WIPs are great. The first has great color and sense of movement to it and the second's line work is great, not to mention the composition you've chosen really frames all the characters well. Good to see you back on and drawing again, man.

[JFierce]

Hey thanks man. Yeah, hope I can keep drawing a bit more regularly.

-----------------------------

I was going to do CHOW for the first time. But I missed the line where it said "nothing dark or evil". Since the topics guardian of the stairway to heaven. The first thing that came to mind was a wall one has to pass by with a guardian embedded right next to the door. Since there's a guardian it's being guarded so it would have to have intruders no? So hence a wall of souls for those that attempted to intrude. But then I read the line about nothing dark and I said "Aw shit......".

This was my WIP.



Then I was working a bit more on my group picture with friends. I'm just doodling whatever comes to mind. There was this guy I didn't know so I thought hmmmm.... I'm gonna make him Ironman. Why not. Though forgot to draw the feet past the footrest.