RE: The Colorful Tale of Three Sarahs
The first one with the tattoo and the last one with the sharp shadows. I think that there is all too often a collision between lines and soft shades that people are not aware of. It is like explaining a thing twice, but at the same time. And all too often it becomes the joke and the explanation of the joke at the same time.
The worst example I can think of is The Incal. The original colouring was beautiful and respected the line work of Moebius. The new version is a disaster turning art into bland images.
To put it on edge, you should, in my opinion, choose between this:
or this:
Of course there are people who mixed it up and got great results, but it is at least worth considering.
It is great to see your progress. I was planning a dark fantasy comic before I just jumped into the Phill from GCHQ project and I couldn't get started because I had some ideas about the colouring and I couldn't take a decision. Now I make the mistakes while making it.
Best advice ever. @kommienezuspadt frequently uses the mantra, "Finished, not perfect." While I intellectually understand the need to move forward, I still struggle to put it in action. It's starting to set in as this storyline and ideas continue to develop in my head and I find myself eager to bring certain scenes to life... only to realize they are dozens if not hundreds of pages in the future... I've gotta get there.
Great insights and thoughts on the colors too. I'm going to do my best to study and improve as I go. But I like the nudge toward committing to a clear style, as opposed to a muddy mishmash of techniques.
Having worked with a lot of different media, Painting, installation, video, 3d, writing, print making etc. I think that every kind of artwork is done within a set of rules that the artist defines, consciously or unconsciously, before and while they make the artwork. In the case of comics which is so complex it is a good idea to define these rules rather strictly before beginning.
My rules was:
Later new rules were added, like: Characters with white eyes are murderers.
This is my first long comic and I am learning all the time. The pages has become more slick with time, and even though slick never was my goal I still consider going back and redrawing little details that I dislike - at least before I will have it printed.
Great concepts. Reminds me of a book I read on writing fantasy fiction. The number one consideration was to be consistent with the rules governing your fantasy world. Magic may be totally fictional, but every author sets different boundaries on it that they adhere to.
The same goes for artistic choices and the visual iconography developed for comics!
Yes, art and magic is pretty much the same. It both take rules, inventiveness and imagination. When you have established the rules you can bend them like Trump bends the tax system, but you have to make the strict rules first :)