The Magdalena: Origins vol. 2

    I bought The Magdalena a while ago and just forgot I had it. I got it mainly because I really like the artwork and style. Both the backgrounds and characters are detailed. This is the art style I still would like to do, but I also prefer to make things simple and not worry so much on the amount of detail that is added on every page. It seems very time consuming, but I'm sure it could be well worth it in the end. I still need a lot more practice and especially more with color if I plan to do some of my work in color later in the future. I will be sticking to black and white for a good while since it is still what I prefer at the moment.
    I really like the character designs and the proportions seem to be done right, even though they may be a bit exaggerated like most comics. Still works for me. The only thing I don't like as much is how the female lips are outlined. It just sticks out to me and bothers me for some reason. I looked at how the lips of the male was done and wish the same was done with the females. They seem more realistic (not sure if that's the right word to use) on the male characters than the females. Now I can't say I would do a better job since I avoid doing the lips when I draw female characters. I tend to do simple lines, but can make the character a bit less feminine. The lips on the female character on the second image below bothered me the most. They looked more exaggerated than any of the other, but I don't know exactly what could help to make it better. Maybe less or no outline around the lips would have worked best. The color and shading perhaps would have been enough.
    Other than that, everything else is amazing. The panel layout is a bit everywhere, having different sizes and positioned differently on every page, but it makes it exciting and keeps me interesting. Though I wonder if it may confuse some readers and make it harder to follow. I also really like the perspective like the fourth image below, which is another reason I got the book. Good for referencing. But my favorite part of the book was the last pages were there was some concept art. I really love seeing the different designs they thought of and considered using.