Pyrophobic

The most important thing is not to obscure the action, so don't place the text over the bayonet. If you do, people will wonder why they're saying what they're saying. Before you lay down the foundations of each frame, always ensure you have sufficient room for the dialogue without squashing, over-complicating or losing anything. I personally dislike text without speech bubbles. It always risks being illegible if you place it over areas of changing colours. My advice for using speech bubbles in the particular frame you've sampled is to connect the purple guy's bubbles. By that I mean do away with the second bubble's sprit telling you who the speaker is and connect the two bubbles using a single white line next to the blue guy's speech. I would try to illustrate that, but I don't have a convenient scanner. So yeah, I'd say speech bubbles, but be careful about where you put them, how you sequence them and how big they are.

Having realised that I've posted very little artwork here recently, I've just finished an early conceptual for a new graphic novel idea and I wonder if people could comment on it. Posted below are two versions of an image - one I've mucked about with considerably and another which will enable you to see the actual parameters of the creature featured as they were before I messed about with the highlights and so forth. I'm not really a dab hand at colouring hand-drawn images on the computer, and I would have ideally embellished the feet a bit more, but I like the calves and the chest. The actual drawings within the strip should look a little more 'whole'. Regardless, what do you think? Thank-you in advance for any comments made. ^_^

*nods* It looks like brilliant red to me. I think if it were orange-red it would work less successfully. It reminds me a lot of the Japanese flag or natural warning colours - very bold and eye-catching. The silhouettes are also excellently defined, and I agree that the internal details like the scar and the jawbone of the silhouette on the right are very effective (the latter certainly gives much needed definition between the face and neck - good move there). Certainly keep it as it is - the space between the figures is perfect, and I'd be afraid that any additions might clutter or convolute it. You're right - the text fits in perfectly. Great stuff. ^___^

Aww, that's so cute! I like the text you've used for his name and the banner in general is nice and smooth. My one qualm is with the text down the bottom - to me it seems a bit long-winded for an otherwise snappy, big and bold banner. Overall, though, it's got real punch and crispness.

Wow, I love the colouring - it adds to the whole ragged feel very well. You're right in that her torso is a little elongated, and her legs are a bit odd too in that one's far skinnier than the other and the exposed knee feel a bit uncomfortable in terms of linework. I love the clothes and wings, though - they give it a nice gothic sense indeed.

Sweet font - it has a nice 3D feel that elevates it well from the black background and is very specific to the "Pyre" thing. I would say that it's rather too big to be a banner, though - at least here on the OBs, so resize it to fit the limit for wherever you're using it - I think it might do it good to be smaller in general - you might want to lop off some of the empty black that surrounds the figures on either side (and possibly, though I wouldn't normally advise it, take off some of the sword so that the text is still central). The images contrast nicely with the smooth texture because of the almost pixelated sense you've given them with the blinds, though I am still curious as to what they'd look like if you left them without the blinds effect. Generally very cool and sinister, though. Did you draw the images?

Woo, certainly a very nice use of Photoshop. They're plenty colourful and bright - certainly very eye-catching. ^_^ Bloody Roar banner: The stars are great and very twee. They fit the character extremely well, and the colour scheme is nice and harmonious. I also love the font you've typed "Alice" in - it's elegant, but unlike most elegant sweeping fonts of that type, you can actually read it *laughs* So great job on that. The one thing I would say, although I love the way you've layered the text and stars over the white rabbit in the middle of the banner, is that I don't like the way the human Alices are transparent. They might be better solid as opposed to have the stars running through them - they seem to interrupt with the images tonally and make them appear blotchy. Generally, though, an excellent banner. Grove banner: Again, awesome use of the little stamps here, and they don't dominate. I think the layering is excellent here and gives the banner a very nice mellow aquatic feel. The warping of the background with the large white body to the right certainly works well to this effect - nothing is harsh. If I could say one thing it would be to wonder whether you stretched the text a bit vertically, but that doesn't really matter - it's an excellent font, particularly with the little sprits about it and the marbling of green and black is great. Beyond banner: Great warped font - you can't go wrong with stars. I like the way the image is heavily distorted yet the girl remains a pretty solid image throughout. Texture-wise very interesting and certainly merits a close look - great stuff! Hmm, I can't decide my favourite. I think they're all fantastic and extremely interesting. ^____^

Wow - they're very cute! I do indeed believe you are quite the trend-setter as regards banners, Baron. ^_^ They work particularly well where you've got slivers of flag, but I think my favourite has to be the third one you posted (the grey, rough-textured banner). It makes a really nice change from the silky smooth look most people give their banners without looking too rugged. I love it. ...I hope that wasn't one of the ones you thought less of... :blush: Yeah, I'd agree that the text on the "Glamour" one does seem a bit strange within the proportions of the banner. The others are great, though - very well done!

Well, I'm inclined to think it's a little bit to do with 'talent', but far more a matter of practice. I don't believe people are necessarily "bad artists" just because their work isn't perfectly accurate or presentable. Everyone has their own style - they may just focus more on it and become more familiar with it through practice. Some people I know don't even doodle frequently and when they do do a drawing it's perfectly respectable. I have found myself that practice has greatly benefited me. It's enabled me to find what styles I don't like and those which I'm most comfortable with. We all diverge in our art through practice and individual experiences - it would be unimaginable that everyone should have the exact same style. Yeah, I'd say "individual experience" is actually king. You need something to drive a drawing, some outlook on the world, some life-changing, life-moulding presence which causes you to get things down on paper. In my art I make sense of what I think and feel, and I do not believe it to be a matter of talent - just a desire for self-expression. If you exercise that self-expression enough, you get more familiar with your style and yourself, and that's basically the practice. My personal opinion is this - you can make a pretty picture because you're talented, but if there's nothing underlying it, no deep thought you've been exercising and sketching out for a long time, where is the true beauty of it in the context of life? That's just how I feel about art.

This is astounding. The precision of the rendering and the forms is superb and truly give the impression of a spacecraft or device. I think the complex structure towards the top right corner is probably the most successful part on account of the gradient detail on the dish and the interrelation of all those rods. Hrm, I actually think the colour scheme works fine - orange stands out well enough from grey and black without looking incongruous with the rest of the piece. I wouldn't say the two-dimensional details are too bad - they make it look like a professional annotated graphic design sheet. I particularly like the bar down the bottom - it's like a company signature. I think it's very successful as a whole, personally.

Wow! You're extremely capable with oil *envies you* I love the white foam cresting the waves in particular - they don't seem detached from the blue like they do in many other attempts to capture waves that I have seen. The depth is also extremely beautiful - how long did you spend on it? I'm very surprised you don't like it very much. I think it's an extremely accomplished piece of work, and having seen some of your sketches it certainly demonstrates your flexibility. Wonderful work.

I really like them - particularly the longer avatars you've just posted. [Incidentally, I didn't realise there was a phoenix in Bloody Roar - cool!] The chibi ones are very adorable and the colourisation works very well. I would say that in some cases where you've chosen very narrow fonts (the Alice and Jenny ones are those that come to mind) the names are a little hard to read, so it might be beneficial to twiddle a bit with the colour and type of the font - many of them work extremely well in that respect. The size of the Stun one makes it stick out a fair bit, but I wouldn't know your intentions as regards format. As for the longer avatars - they're all awesome - I love them. The use of colour is really nice and the arrangement of the character beside their beast symbol makes for a comfortable composition. Regardless, Busuzima the chameleon still really scares me... ^_^ I don't think there are any glaring problems with those in my eyes.

Wow - this is all excellent work, and the first piece certainly merits public display! (heh, I should think the second one does as well!) As regards that first piece, the cracks work very nicely and give it a sort of quilt-esque look. Hrm ... the symbol looks as if it might allude to some sort of divine power - it just has that kind of radiance. As for the second piece - how can you not like charcoal when you work so successfully in it? It certainly carries an interesting quality that is always present with something that's covered up - what's lurking underneath? It reminds me of this production of Macbeth I once went to see where the ghosts were represented by figures pawing through fabric drapes at the back of the stage. Very slick idea to continue the creases into the backdrop like that - it has a real gothic quality to it. Very well done!

^_^ D'aww, big cutesy eyes - those are done very convincingly for the style. Well, it's extremely precise and there's a real confidence in the line-work. I think the anime-style shading is great on the skin and teeth - still, the black hair would look better with one flat shade, maybe if you edited it on the computer. Very successful for your first work - how have you progressed from this, I wonder?

Wow - that's a fantastic use of monochrome! This picture certainly makes a wonderful contrast between tones - it could be a stairway to heaven (except for the fact that there are people going in the other direction!), some sort of entry into the world, a frame from a science-fiction film - it's dingy and urbane but pretty - so the contrast between the modern (heh, "modern") and the archaic or mystical ("gates) certainly works to good effect as the title. Great perspective too, and the angle it's taken at really gives a sense of involvement and disorientation - as if an escalator is really something horizontal. That's generally a brilliantly atmospheric piece, and I hope to see some of your other photos when you find your memory stick. ^_^ Well done!

*waves* I've just returned to my favoured combination of charcoal and chalk and thought I'd post my first and latest experiment here. It's called, quite simply, "Horse" and is supposed to be a study of a patchwork horse head of sorts - a mixture of bone, plate armour and mange. I may do a full body along with a background at some point (it being a simply study, there's not much going on in terms of composition just yet), but in the mean time, what do people think? Thank-you in advance for whatever comments you may make. ^_^

I love the softness of the cloudy blue and the effect you've used to suggest the curvature of the planet - very atmospheric, and it forms an interesting contrast with the orange of the mass on the left without the two colours looking entirely detached from one another. The texture you've applied is also a brilliant canvas-esque touch that certainly works nicely with the random cloud billows. However, I do have to agree with Dagger that the comets look somewhat out of place. I think it's because whereas the rest of the piece is very ethereal whereas the dark tails give the sense of being solid. I'm also thinking that they might look better if the tails were extended further and thin to suggest a great distance covered in a short time and hence a better sense of motion. I appreciate the nice flame effect you've given them, though - it really convinces you of their heat. Generally I think it's an excellent piece, and your grasp of CG is extremely impressive - a real feast for the eye. I'd love to see a foreground - maybe some figures - transplanted onto your backgrounds.

First banner - Hehe, when I started making banners I couldn't do anything like that. I think that the left side with the background and the hair working harmoniously would suffice by itself - the stripes run nicely into the locks of hair - if you don't want the banner to become too crowded. I agree that sometimes minimal detail can deliver the best impact, and certainly your second banner achieves that. The monochromatic image does seem to cut the banner up, and the edges aren't clean enough by far, but I know it would be difficult to blend the image on the far left with that on the right. They have completely different colour schemes. Hot to cold colours seldom ever works. As I say, though, the layering is very effective on the left and certainly better than most of the stuff I can do in that respect. Second banner - Yeah, good use of complementary colours in the purple and yellow - it really elevates the figure from the background. Of course, it does look extremely pixelated, so you do need to try to get the sharpness of the images that you did in the first banner. The text suffers in the same way - nice font, but loses a bit of its appeal through the graininess. The addition of a border is certainly a good idea. I appreciate that the blur-sharpen balance is tricky to achieve, so keep trying and I'm sure your improved grasp of composition will be extremely effective. I'd love to see how you continue with your banner-making - and don't degrade yourself in the thread title! You needn't, since they're good efforts for first banners. ^_^

The quote's fine. It just reminded me of the film 'Dumbo' - you know, flying elephant - there's a train in that which as it's going up a hill puffs "I think I can" all the way up. Sorry if it sounded like I was calling it dumb (heh, the film has a rather unfortunate name now that I think about it...) Ah, teh Photoshop-ness. Cool.

Wow, those are all excellent! I think I like the fourth one best - it's nice and gothic and the font on it matches the atmosphere completely. Plus the sepia colourisation is cool. The Ophelia one has the same sort of charm. I guess it'd be a bit stupid if I asked whether the surprise on the Matrix banner goes along the lines of "Argh! Look out - there's a big squidie behind you, Mr. Moustachio!" So I'll assume it's something else my darkened monitor won't pick up on. :p Nice and atmospheric, though, and it certainly contrasts your other banners in terms of colour scheme. The "I think I can" train one just says "Dumbo" to me, if that film came to mind whilst you were doing the text. The graphic for that banner is brilliant, and the blurs really give it a sense of motion and steam being puffed out. Very industrial. I love the amethyst crystalline effect for the last banner - a successful messing around with shapes indeed. ^_^ As for the overlayed images, it may just be me but the only point I'd make would be that to my eyes the curvature and grasp of the fingers and the horizontal line seem to jar when layered like that. I still think the crystals are beautiful though. How do you make such brilliant, clear banners? [Has a feeling the answer will involve "Photoshop"]

Hrm, background ... well, excuse the rushed entry. This image is of a building's lobby featured in a sci-book story I'm writing, though annoyingly it looks more like some sort of witch's lair. Never mind.

I've never seen Inuyasha but I love the softness of that image. I agree it's not so good as the first two in that the left shoulder seems perhaps a little too raised, but meh, that is being anatomically picky, and you can rarely do that with chibi-esque drawings. I'd say the little guy's cuter than he is scary ^_^, though he does look at if he's cracking his knuckles ready for a scrap. As for the second image - well, they always say you can judge a good artist by their hands. I'd say those are all great experiments, save for the bottom right one of a hand holding a pencil - the finger looks like it needs more "creases" so that it doesn't look too rubbery as it wraps about the pencil. I like them, though. They're certainly far better than I could do, and now I see how you manage to do hands so well. ^_^ Please post more soon!

Waah! *rushes in with artwork* I did mean to colour one of these images, but my computer mucked up so I had to settle for the images I'd rendered by hand with watercolour pencil (or rather watercolour pencil "lead" applied dead slowly with a little brush -_-')... Anyways, this character has quite a bit of background, so I won't write too much about him here. His name's Benedict (as the image suggests) and he's a French griffin. Or be that a griffin with a poor French accent. Either way, it has been said of griffins that they have the cunning of eagles and the courage of lions as their physical make-up suggests, but Benedict has neither, despite believing himself to be the most wondrous creature in the universe. He is an army general in the story I'm drafting that includes him, but as soon as the situation gets tough, he starts plotting ways of getting out of that position and emigrating to some peaceful corner of Hawaii without losing any face in the process. That's about all I'll say about him, I think. As I said, I've done a sheet of four images of the same character - sorry they overlap a bit, but I was trying to concentrate them into a small space so as to save on file size. EDIT: Ach! My computer has cruddied up the resolution! It wasn't supposed to look that squished and fibrous!

*cowers* Well, I kinda' like the first Legolas one. Only his right eye looks a little bit off, but I think other than that it's great. I also love the self-portrait and best of all that brilliant ink piece of the elf girl - fantastic wash effect on her boot in particular. These drawings show an excellent range. Actually, I'd say that the weaker ones (although they're all great, don't think I'm putting them down or anything!) are the Jack Sparrow pics. It's annoying that the camera makes them look so smudgy. Scanners are a gift from heaven. Please post more - this is excellent stuff!

Wow - the anatomy of these doodles is excellent! I particularly like the cat guy's hands in that respect ^_^. Very neat for doodles, I must say - they're very robust-looking forms, very solid. I love the poses too. Double thumbs up on both, and I hope you post more of your excellent drawings soon!