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View Full Version : Good drawing style for Webcomic?



ufo
2007-01-12, 03:15 PM
Hello. Well, the short version is that i have the perfect plot for a webcomic laid out.

HOWEVER!

I am not a very good drawer, especially not on computer.

I'm not good with OotS style figures, really (see my sig for reference, my best yet is Dollar's avatar, look it up if you want). Thus, i would like to use that as a last resort, but, then, does anybody have another "style" of drawing on computer (don't own a scanner, god damned)? Preferably not too complicated (complicated as in 2 hours to make one figure).

For reference, i use Adobe Illustrator CS2.

Thanks :smallbiggrin:

(And, please, no "omghax u are so lzy u dnt wnt 2 mak ur own style!!!!111oneone")

oriong
2007-01-12, 06:13 PM
Well, honestly there really is no style that is 'good' because you still have to learn to do it, no style is going to just allow you to pop out things without practice, you start out weak and you eventually learn what you're doing that's pretty much it.

The absolute simplest styles that work purely with the computer are:

Sprite style Comics: you copy sprites or other images from some existing source and use them (perhaps with various poses) to make your characters. Some of the obvious examples of this are 8-bit theatre, and bob and george.

Abstract Style: In this case the 'characters' are just simple geometric shapes, blobs, balls of light, etc, possibly with very simple features (a circle with two dots and a line is a face). Probably the best example of this is http://www.reasonedcognition.com/


Even if there is minimal actual art involved in both these styles they won't be instantly mastered either. Things like composition, background, fitting dialogue, and basic coloring are all an issue. You also have to deal with the fact that many people won't take these styles seriously especially in a plot based webcomic, sprite comics especially have a lot of detractors.

If you're better at drawing off the computer just start like that: draw your stuff, scan it, and maybe use photoshop to play with it a bit. Always add dialogue in photoshop, don't ever use hand drawn dialogue unless you're just awesome at it.

larnman2
2007-01-12, 06:56 PM
You are using illustrator right?

bongotezz
2007-01-12, 09:55 PM
i use illustrator for my superhero comic. even though it took me several hours to create the characters for the first time it's mostly copy and paste now. i set up a page of generic bodies to use to make new characters and then created a page of heroes and a page of villains. as i need new things like legs walking i just make them once and save them. they are infinitely reuseable.

ufo
2007-01-13, 05:25 AM
Thanks for the tips. To be honest, i had a drawing style at a point, though the webcomic was discontinued (that was before i got AI, PSP5 is horrible). But it's not "fitting" for the plot :smallbiggrin: .

I'll try to do something, thanks again.

(If you were interested, that discontinued webcomic can be found at: http://bubblecomic.smackjeeves.com/

Waf
2007-01-13, 02:22 PM
One thing you might not of considered but could be a decent idea especially when you are just getting your feet wet is to do nonhuman characters. In my original webcomic my characters were penguins because they are very easy to draw and very cute too. A couple months ago I did a project involving my old penguin designs and I put together this character sheet in a little more than an hour.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/wafzilla/bunchapenguins.png

Also for humans once you get it down make new more detailed characters don't take that long. Both these guys took me around an hour to put together.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/wafzilla/smalliday.png

Whatever you decide to do on your comic if you stick with it, it will get better and better.

The Extinguisher
2007-01-13, 06:59 PM
Whatever style works for your comic. If it's serious, don't have a silly style, and vice versa.

You also want one thats easy for you. Just expirment on Illustrator until you find on thats easy and good for you.