AME-COMI Girls 4

    When I first looked at the cover for this comic, it just caught my attention right away. It might have been because of all the colors, but mainly the look of the characters. They had this really cartoon feel to it and I wasn't sure why at first. When I opened it up and looked through it, I noticed that the characters' outlines were thick and figured that is why I got that cartoon feel to it.

     There is a variation of thin and thick lines, but I notice more solid lines and especially the outline around the characters. I'm sure that it's not just in this comic. I figure I am just noticing the lines more since we have been working on inking our own comics.

    Like in the image above, the lines are thicker when the characters are closer/larger. This is probably one of my favorite pages from this comic. I really liked the noticeably thick and thin lines. The lines seem to be more bolder than what I have seen before. That or I am just noticing it in this one and just never payed much attention to the inking in the other comics.

    There are occasions where the lines are more solid around the characters and have to transition of thin to thick lines, but I actually like that as well just as much. After I went through the comics I went back to the first page and notice the names of the Writers (Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray) as well as the Artists (Eduardo Francisco and Derec Donovan). What I didn't know was that the first half of the comic was done by Francisco and the second half by Donovan. I didn't notice any difference in the art at first nor even after going back to see if I can spot anything. There might be something different, but I wouldn't probably notice it until someone pointed it out. The difference I did easily see was the look of the characters in the cover compared to the pages inside. (Cover done by Jonboy Meyers). Though the character look slightly different, I really like the style and probably would have enjoyed the comic more if were to have been drawn the same as the cover.

      The color (done by Wes Hartman and Randy Mayor) and shading was also done well. I notice some comics just have to much dark areas even when it's not a dark scene, and I just don't care for that since I like seeing the details of the whole character. It just hides a lot of parts when there is a lot of black, but I sure it must be necessary.   

Comic Strips

Betty

Luann

Luann

Pickles

Michael Turner's Fathom: Kiani

     I have been wondering what kind of drawing style I want to be doing and it's been hard to decide. I know I don't have to chose only one, but I prefer to stick to one style for now so that I can practice and hopefully get better. Then maybe I can draw other styles a bit more easily. I was looking at one of the comics I have and I really like the realist style. But the problem with that for me would be the attention needed on detail and I need to refrain from doing that just until I get better.

    I have really been into the more realist look all of a sudden. It might be because I am taking Life Drawing class and have been focusing on anatomy.  Though I still prefer cartoons, it would still be nice to draw some realism. So I have been also looking into Marvel and DC more than usual.

    I really like the attention to detail in this comic. I notice the hair is always well done in these types of comics and always looks appealing to me. When it comes to hair I like adding detail like this, but I almost always mess it up in some way. Either I add too many strands of hair and/or don't position some parts of the hair correctly. Also, the armor is nicely done. I've always liked how armor is done, especially with the details on it, but I actually have not attempted to draw armor yet. Not sure why. (maybe since I already know how difficult it may be for me). I will practice it eventually.

    I also want to work on drawing different angles like the bird and worms eye view. There is still a lot for me to learn and need to take it one step at a time. I tend to work on multiple things and it just messes me up and stresses me out. I'll get the hang of it eventually.

DC Superman Action Comics

    When I started reading comics again, I was getting more into the idea of maybe doing my own comics later on. But now after working on the comics in class, I have been getting discourage little by little. Mainly because I just feel like I'm doing horrible on the ones we are working on. Of course I shouldn't have expected to be great at it since I don't have any experience doing them; that and I still need a lot more work on my drawings. The inking process isn't going well for me. I'm still unsteady and sloppy with the brush pen for one. Though I know I still need practice with inking, I just know that inking is something that I am not interested in doing. As great as the artwork looks after it has been inked, I still prefer my drawings to be in pencil. For now anyway.

    

     As I was looking through one of the comics I have, I was paying more attention to the lines on the characters and objects. I never really ever payed close attention to it before, but I noticed the variations of thin and thick lines. Though they are not as noticeable, I really like how subtle the lines are drawn in certain areas, especially on the face to bring out the details a bit more. When I draw, I tend to have a bad habit of scribbling certain areas just because I just don't know how to do details and how they should look. 

     

     Another thing I also need to work on is shading. Even though I know which way the light is coming from, I still do horrible with shading certain areas, especially around the face. For example, the face in the second panel from the page above looks very well done to me. Though it may not be 100% correct (which I wouldn't know anyway), it looks great and I can read were the the two different light directions. Though of course color also is big help on that part, I can still imagine how it would be in black and white and would still be able to read it. 

    I realize now much more I need to learn, but not just because of Storyboard class. It also has to do with my other classes like Life Drawing and Computer Art. I see what others can do and I feel like I don't belong. But looking at these comics and seeing good animation shows make me want to better myself in drawing so that I can draw characters with ease. At this point all I want to do is better my drawing skills. I'm trying to just working with basics and also realize I may need to learn some anatomy. I use to hate looking at "How to draw" books and it showing to start off with lines and circles or whatever other shapes. I wish I hate started that way long time ago instead of jumping straight to the finished picture.

    

Daniel Clowes Exhibition

     I finally got to go to The Museum of Contemporary Art to see the exhibition of Daniel Clowes. As I was walking around looking and reading his comics that were on the wall, I wasn't sure if most comics there were just short stories or only a page of a story. Most of what I was reading just did not make sense to me. Either that or I just didn't get the joke (if there was one). After reading a few and seeing that I was just clueless on what was going on in the comic, I just began to focus more on the art work. But it was difficult not to read them since many of the comics of his has a lot of text in them and then I also want to know what's going on. I couldn't follow what was going on with the images alone. From what I saw, most of his comics probably rely on telling the story more through text than images. Don't get me wrong, the images do help also. I just felt like some had a bit too much text. But I'm sure it must have been necessary in order to know the whole story.

     Now I hate to say this, but I just didn't really like most of these comics mainly because of the character style. I'm not sure how to explain it, but I found most of the characters a bit disturbing to look at. It might have been that some characters had a bit too much detail on their faces, like too many lines for wrinkles or the body proportions were just awkward. It just made the character look way much older than he/she probably is. I thought I took a picture of one at least, but I must have just lost interest in the comic right away and moved to the next. Now, I didn't say all were weird looking. There were still quite a few that I still enjoyed to look at. The inking in all of them was very well done as well. I payed more attention to that than I normally would since we are going to work on inking our comics soon. When I was practicing with the pens, I felt like I would over think of what I am about to ink. I felt i had to be super careful. I see it as if one mistake is done, it all has to be redone. Though hopefully that is not the case. Perhaps there is a more simple way to fix it rather than to do the whole page again. Anyway, I found two short comics of Daniel's that I really liked. (mainly because I thought they were really funny)

The first one is Wilson, "Cute Dog". I really like how simple this one is. There isn't a lot going on in the background but just enough to know that they are not in the exact same spot. The second one is Wilson, "Ocean". Just like the first one, the background is simple. Though it isn't detailed either, there is still enough to see where the character is at. I'm not sure why I get more into looking at the simple comics, but it might be that I would rather do simple drawings like these. Yet, I still don't think I can put something like this without references. I still have a lot to work on.