[ greyweed ] -- and the bored shall inherit the earth...

- Email I sent last week to the Alamat Mailing List


Message: 1
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 22:18:21 -0800 (PST)
From: Luis Anthony Oliveros
Subject: PLEASE...favor naman...


People of the Almighty Comics Field, here is a drawing I did of a teen spy character I created a week back. I did the line art and the colors.

Could you please give me suggestions, and advice on which area I should improve on? Any help would be much appreciated. Please be as merciless and give it to me straight (but also consider the fact that I have no Comics-related background).

Thanks!
greyweed



-And their replies:

From: "Wilson Tortosa"

Ey Luis!

I think it looks professional, considering you have no comics-related background. ;) Some points I notice is that the character's pose looks a little stiff, and his limbs look a bit thick, or is that he's supposed to be stocky in the first place? Also his feet look small in proportion to his legs. You can fix that by either slimming down his legs or making his shoes bigger.

The colors are great, although the green color of the gun doesn't look metallic, or is that a non-metallic pistol..he's a spy anyway. ;)

Hope that helped!

-Wilson


-Actually yes, IAN's a stocky Filipino kid (around 5'4 - 5'5 in height). But his legs aren't that huge, he's just wearing a pair of baggy pants. I am so in awe, this is an artist who is in charge of doing pencils for the Tomb Raider comics and he also handled the Battle of the Planets comic (starring the Gatchaman- or G-Force to us Filipinos).



From: antonio_abad@------------.com

I like it! He's got a gruffiness that makes him appealing and approachable as a character for readers to relate with. Yah I agree the gun doesn't look metallic. I liked how you approached the tattoos. The way the colors work made them really look like pigment on skin. I'm not sure what the green thing on the bag strap is.

Lastly, there's that part between the beard and the ears that i'm not sure what to make of it. Is it the jawbone? Or is it something else.

tobie


-Wow. He likes it. "Appealing and approachable." The gun is plastic so as not to tick off the metal detectors at the mall. The green thing on the strap is a button pin with a tiny microphone/camera in it. And yes, it's the jaw bone.



From: Marco Dimaano

I would advise honing your basic anatomy drawing skills (basics! Basics!) in order to make drawing poses and playing with proportions better. If your anatomy is solid, it would be no problem to make the character as stylized as possible- making hands and feet bigger, the character lankier, etc- yet still making it look 'correct'.
Also, think about the design of the character that will make him look appealing- this is more of your tastes. Giving him a sneaky expression, playing with color combinations or having him with one eye winking or in a cool pose would go a long way with making anyone seeing the pic for the first time get the impression that this is a cool character.

Keep it up, Luis! Planning to put out your own comic?

^_^


-Oh yeah, he found my greatest weakness, anatomy.


I am so humbled. Their's enough praises here to last me a lifetime, and of course the best are the constructive criticism I got.


WHOOOO!