Oh God, They've Started Talking
Page 4. Click to enlarge. More blabbing below the image.
Faces are tough. It's amazing how sensitive we are to minor irregularities in proportion and symmetry. I remember when I was working on the Stareater comic (drawn in pencil on bristol), I'd end up erasing all the way through the board in places -- usually when a face wouldn't come together right. Doing it digitally is easier (because you can bump an eye up a pixel if it looks hinky) but also harder (because you can spend hours bumping an eye up and down by a pixel, trying to figure out which way works better).Dialogue is a whole other thing, and I freely admit that I'm bad at it. I'll be revising the text right up to the end, I'm sure. I had just read Riddley Walker (a post-apocalyptic novel written entirely in a massively-simplified pidgin English), and for a few days I had one of my characters talking like a chimney sweep. You have to be careful what you read while you're working on something like this. It all sticks.
The font I'm using is called Anime Ace 2,0. It's free, which makes me think it must be low-quality. But as far as I can see, it works fine. Tell me if I've missed some glaring defect. I'd hate to come across as a font noob.
As always, your input is appreciated. Thanks!
I'm digging the dragonmouth hookah in the BG there, and man the chick has some nice, natural tits <3 the dialogue runs well enough too -- it's got good punch at the end, with some good trailer into the next page (the dude calling out from below), and the look on the chick's face is great in that last panel. The BG detail is looking really nice and lush too, and those rocks are just crazy to look at, man. CRAZY!
ReplyDeleteWow. Thanks! I had to look up "horror vacui." I particularly enjoyed this part of the wikipedia entry: "Many examples of horror vacui in art come from, or are influenced by, the mentally unstable and inmates of psychiatric hospitals, and fall under the category of Outsider Art." Sounds about right!
ReplyDeleteAs for the rocks -- between you and me, I cheated a little on this page. If you compare the last panel with the rocks in the backgrounds of pages 2 and 3, you'll see some... similarities. I just couldn't take another hour of rock-drawing. I would've shot somebody.
Thanks for expanding my vocabulary!
You've piqued my interest with the talky talks. I wanna read the rest. The panels are gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteThanks Eka. I hope things are going well at Uber. I hear good things!
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ReplyDeleteWow~!! Fantastic~!
ReplyDeletehello nate
it's me~ jay.b.lee
how are you ?
long time no see
i miss you~friend
Wow~!! Fantastic~!..thanks for the link...nice pictures..
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Jack
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HOLY SHIT NATE! Um... yeah you just opened up a giant can of awesome! Damn dude! Why isn't every comic book house knocking down the door to to sign you? I saw the Warren Ellis plug over at his site. You are definitely on your way to something big!
ReplyDeleteI am somewhat dismayed to admit that I only just now found this blog, through an Eka Facebook post.
ReplyDeleteI love this page. Such great timing in the dialogue, and wonderful looks from the characters. I think you're on to something big here.
I'm really looking forward to seeing how it develops.
Yet another Warren Ellis redirectee here. Absolutely fucking amazing art. I just got around to reading the back catalog - looks like one hell of a journey so far. I hope it works out for you :).
ReplyDeleteComing from someone who knows nothing and has an opinion on everything (:P): the speech bubbles seem to waste a lot of space, and the font is too bold, it detracts from the delicate lines in the drawings. But perhaps after the awesome colouring job it won't be such a big deal.
Awesome work so far, and good luck!
grantastic - Thanks for the props, grandma! I look forward to partaking of your ossified hard candy the next time we visit for gin-rummy night.
ReplyDeleteFelix - You know, that's a good point. I'll definitely keep my eyes open once the color is in to see if the lettering looks too bold. If it doesn't work, I can swap the fonts with relative ease. Thanks for the heads-up!
http://blog.naver.com/zweihand
ReplyDeleteit's my personal blog
Jay - Wow, beautiful stuff! Your style has really progressed. I hope you're working for somebody who appreciates your talent! Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteWOoooW! Fantastic! How the hell r u drawing this all. Do u use reference or u just drawing-like to see a work-in-progress of the drawings if u are ok with that otherwise you are seriously talented! Looks stunning! Keep going!
ReplyDeleteWrist - Thanks! I sometimes use photo reference for little things - for example, I pull lots of pictures of plants off of Google to make sure I don't repeat the same leaf shape over and over. If I tried to copy anything directly, though, it would end up sticking out like a sore thumb. The big stuff comes mostly from redrawing the same thing again and again until it stops sucking.
ReplyDeleteREGARDING "Free" font. Don't know what this may mean for you later should you chose to self publish or go with a "notable" commercial group, but the free font has some licensing requirements that may apply later, no? http://www.blambot.com/license.shtml
ReplyDeleteYou know, that could have burnt me pretty bad. What a relief that you caught it. Man! Anyway, it looks like if I end up going with an established publisher, I'll just have to buy the font in advance -- which ends up being something like twenty bucks (I think -- the site is a bit vague on this). Although if I'm going to have to pay anyway, I might as well go ahead and buy a nicer font... hm. Thanks for the heads-up!
ReplyDeleteThe pieces are all falling into place...lovely illos man.
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