Brace Yourselves!
Welp, back to the grind now, unfortunately! But I’ve got some big plans for 2014 – More details on Friday when I’ve done a wee bit more preparation!
As for Elf Blood, what I want to do is improve the artwork; To this effect, there might be a few noticeable changes over the next few weeks, and there may be a fair bit of inconsistency. Please bear with this, as it’ll settle eventually and will hopefully make the comic better! Feedback will be much appreciated during this period, so let me know what you think! I’ll be sure to list the specific changes I’ve made each week, so it’ll be fairly obvious what it is I’d like comments and crits on.
In today’s page, I’ve done the following:
- Used a thinner brush to draw the lineart.
- Changed the way that I illustrate hair and fringes – Instead of clumps with lines at the tips, there are more, thinner clumps with no lines.
- Increased the amount of background detail so that there is always an object or feature there to give a sense of volume to the room.
- Changed the way that I illustrate creases – I only illustrate hard folds via lineart now, with smaller creases and ripples in fabric illustrated via shading.
I did try some blended shading after having successfully tested it on a piece of individual art:
Yes, it’s the return of Wolf Runner! See Pre-Elf Blood Work for details.
I quite like the look of it there, but it didn’t quite work for today’s page; if you’re interested, I can show you the soft-shading for today’s page of Elf Blood and let you be the judge!
I’m also definitely going to modify the color schemes – Everything will remain more or less the same, but I’m going to try and coordinate saturation and lightness more effectively. I’ve always felt that coloring is one of my weakest areas, so you’ll probably see a lot of experimentation there.
Anyway, toodlepip for now! And remember, my weight-loss blog will be back up and running this Saturday! It’s the first post-festive-season one. Tune in for the inevitable failure! 😛
Ciao!
M.
not sure about the creases; with out the line art the shading looks off. (I’m just comparing this to last weeks.). You get a much better sense of creased-ness with the line art too which I think adds to the atmosphere of the comic. You’re going for a harsh gritty setting here, but the shading on it’s own is quite soft and makes the feeling more flimsy.
The thinner brush works fine I think, especially in combo with the change in the hair.
The hair I think will work too, but might just need a little bit more development (or I might just take a while to get used to it). I really like the change it’s brought to Shanna’s hair, but not sure about JN’s yet.