zouuu's sketchbook::Comics and scribbles

[Psychobuddy]

Gah! Such cool work...total badassery. ^_^

[BludHund]

You're really getting it done, man! Fine work.

The major suggestion I would have would be to take some stabs at broadening your style.
Don't be afraid to experiment with your inking technique, say, adding blocks of black to help
anchor the image, or try different line weights, or more expressive marks.

It would be great to see some paintings or fully rendered images without black 'comic book'
outlines. For example, that coloring you did of the girl wearing the blue greatcoat: That
would have made a great painting.

On the comics, great work, especially that last one.

As I think Dizon pointed out, though, you should keep working on your composition, and tech-
niques to separate the foreground from the background.

Aside from different line weights or levels of detail, try using value contrast. Break the comp-
osition into different blocks of light and dark. In fact, doing some value composition thumbnails
or some color study thumbnails, would be a really good idea.

Keep it up!

[kingkostas]

Wow i have missed so many stuff and a great improvement!!!! I am now doing a small quick sightseeing cause i will come back here with more stuff to say both critique and praise !!! Keep up comrade!!!

[zou]

BludHund: thanks for the good tips. you're totally right, i must integrate things i read in my work.

kingkostas: hey kingkostas ! i'm very glad you are back. thanks for your words, you're being too kind.

i'm trying to finish this comic work at any cost. and sometimes quality is very low.








also here's my first try at professional storyboarding (with 24 h of deadline to do 20 speed paint)

[zou]

some scribbles

and another panel of the last short comic

[Anthis]

Nice work Zou!
Keeping it short-
Loads of progression. I agree with you that quality varies though. That last update has a few dynamic panels with a lot of energy (like the three guys beating someone, and the pig getting hit), whereas the top one is really lacking energy. Not that the figures are bad, but the side view is not quite effective.

Also, the set of panels with the snake venom has many images that overlap and could probably be merged into more powerful images. For example, the images in the top right corner (taking snake from box) serve the same role. Also, you could have the teacher explain what's happening while he places the (coagulated blood?) on the plate. Then you can invest time in a single, more effective view.
But man, you're handling so many different topics and things at once. Wonderful work...

[kingkostas]

I love your storyboard work mate!!! Doing so much panels and stuff is not an easy thing and you do it very good!!!Anatomy became better, and also did the foldings of clothing etc.
That sitting character has great potential , its just a matter of rendering on that. The scenes also look nicely composed. The only thing i find a little distracting in all these, is just one panel with a "below the head view", so its just a small anatomy issue no worries on that.
You are doing great!!!

[zou]

Anthis: hi , thanks for the piece of advices.you're right about the storytelling and composition. that's what i lack, hope next panels will teach me more. i changed the panel.

kingkostas: many thanks for encouraging words (really !)
you're right about that head, i thaught i would redraw it later (hope this one is better)

[Eightball_]

nice boards and panels dude. man sequentials are hard, good to see you tackling this stuff, could never do it myself. my only critique would be to make the panel with the car a bit more dynamic. it looks like you had reference since the bmw is nicely specific but it looks like you followed it to closely because the composition is a bit stale and static. it's okay to use reference for surface details but you should also edit and compose the shot to fit the story. other than that, keep up the good work!

[zou]

Eightball_: hi , thanks for your critic. i, too , was unhappy about it and thaught with some background it would be less static (i doubt now) anyway i changed it



another panel with some shading. i don't know if i must go for more rendering or keep it light and it's harder ! xD

always (read from right to left)

[kevin_]

cool stuff, liking the comic strip work! keep at it!

[JFierce]

Dig the comics. I'm a fan of sequential drawings they're very fun and a new challenge when drawing. Nice making drawings with a logical sequence of events rather than a single image to interpret.


The only thing I can maybe say about it to crit is more so a 'might help' sort of thing. Since it's fine now. But might be something to play with. Sometimes you don't need to give every detail in the sequence of events. Unless maybe your playing with dialogue and trying to spit out some more text. For instance the guy being beaten up being punched you have the guy with his hand slightly open, then making a fist, then two fists flying through the air right after, then finally the guy getting hit. Probably could have just shown him clenching a fist then hitting the guy. The viewer usually fills in the details in between. Just have to make it full of energy when punching to really bring the point home. Your static drawings are great but you don't see many heavy movement shots

and example of what I mean when I say heavy movement. Where the lines are blurred and really brings home the force and feel of the punch.

http://www.comicgasm.com/wp-content/...orse-punch.JPG



Also if your curious about rendering looking into Notan is a good subject. Since one thing I've learned about comics it's not just about pictures, it's about storytelling and just plain design. That and Notan is just interesting.

[Kungfoowiz]

Dude what can I say, just.. damn.. awesome! =) Love those pigs btw =) Is that your personal comic? Would be nice to see some words/speech bubbles, your storytelling's just nice, but some speech would also be nice =)

[zou]

kevin_: thanks for the nice words

JFierce: thanks for your comment. I appreciate. A big THANK, for the Notan subject. i always try to make my storytelling and composition (design) better and did research on it: it seems a great way to improve.

Kungfoowiz: hey, thank you mate ! yes it's a short comic just to make train a bit. i'm going to add speech of course.

some poses

thaught i could do a business card of it


and a super classic action pose ( i must do commercial work !)

[Marian Rowling]

Hey Zou just wanted to say what great progress you are making, especially with your comics, which I know is what you want to do. No crits from me just a hearty well done and some more encouragement to keep going.

[zou]

Marian Rowling: thanks you a lot Marian ! it's really encouraging good luck with your work too



i toned my panels then, i thought i could add some black to give it more contrast. but the result is unsual,

wich one is better Right or Left ?

[Kungfoowiz]

Nice work man, I like the left set of panels if that helps, the extra value kind of helps =)

[Marian Rowling]

Yea Zou I agree with Kungfoowiz. The black in the right one adds a level of extra depth and makes focal points whic draws the eye.

[zou]

Kungfoowiz: took note and continued for the rest, thanks
Marian Rowling: hi there thanks for the advice, took note

i added some black and finished the 12 pages. this was a testing comic. time to do more

http://postimage.org/gallery/96f57weo/

OR this link (with full screen feature)

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1mb6wxu9g66ap4i/FaE3VrmBEF

[Anthis]

Woah! you make me feel bad about myself. Great work, I love the business card.

Yea, I'd say the panel you changed after the last comments has really improved.

I noticed you usually start with lineart sketches, and add values later. The play of dark and light areas really affects the composition though, so that's actually something you may want to do early on. I'm not sure how this works in comic work, to be honest. But I know illustrators often define a greyscale composition early on. Like, a lineart image may look completely different with values.

I'll get back to you when I actually read through those pages, loads of work! So much fun seeing these panels, we really got a big diversity in our SSG .

[zou]

Anthis: Hi mate, yes you're right. i tried it before and now i'm trying to integrate it to my process.

i'm beginning another comic more for Teenage

here some demons are waiting for some travelers to harm

READ FROM RIGHT TO LEFT

[zou]

a bit of kung fu

[zou]

some manga to exercice for a next comic

[Kungfoowiz]

Tasty =)

[zou]

sile character design for the earlier comic (in the desert)

[kevin_]

comic panels are coming in nice! cool updates!

[zou]

more character designs

[ja1307]

Wow impressive progress and improvements Been a real joy to go through your sketchbook, its great to see when hard work is paying off some one and getting them closer to where they want to be. You have obviously been putting in the work and it shows keep at it.

[owlies]

Wow, what beautiful work you have! So full of energy, and such lively expressions! * __ * Thank you for looking at my sketchbook- I look forward to following your work here in your sketchbook. I can't think of any critique, I am very much impressed by your effort.

[Kungfoowiz]

Thank you for the feedback on my last page =) Some very nice lines on heroine page =) As a suggestion push your poses a bit, atm they feel a bit samey (standard like poses you know). Try overlapping some limbs and strike interesting poses. Cool man Keep up =)