Morgan's Art and Critique Thread

[MorganManga]

Tripping over your own feet is part of the learning curve, I promise. Believe me, I trip just about every step of the way.

The process can be super slow, but it might help if you don't draw out every muscle. I find that a lot of people in the early stages fall into the trap of adding too much detail too early on. It's possible you might be having that frustration. Selective detailing can not only add dynamicism, but also can make the process go so much quicker.

For example, when I first started trying to draw comics, I found it most rewarding to only draw skeletal frames that were pretty much just lines and exaggerated sketchy expressions and my handwriting in scrwal for sound effects and dialogue, usually just on index cards. This helped me figure out angles and stuff on the small scale so that I could size up later. I still never wound up finishing the comics as a whole, but I found it a heck of a lot easier to sketch out five pages and then go back and ink them as opposed to doing them one at a time, which felt gruelling and super slow to me.

But, hey, everyone has their own method. I'm not saying that only drawing the major muscle groups instead of all the small details and just sketching everything will "fix" anything at all. I just know that I used to almost want to tear my hair out because finalizing takes so long (for me), and that it might help.

I'll try out your idea of drawing skeleton frames. I'm only drawing the muscles on a separate layer for the sake of practice. For example, I will even draw the anatomy hidden under clothes, but they will not be visible to the reader. They will not be in the final product. That definitely makes things take longer but I think it will be worth it. After I feel more comfortable I'll stop drawing muscles on characters when they are covered.

I totally agree with this. Planning out the whole thing super rough is time saving for when you want to re-panel pages and whatnot. No point adding details to something that you might/will change.

I'll try to make things rougher in the future. I am concerned with not being able to work off of a rough drawing if its too messy but I need to balance it.

good to see you annotating over the panels and analyzing what's wrong. shows you're working hard to fix those minor mistakes.
it is an awkward angle on that last panel but I can't say it looks wrong to me, but if you know what to improve then that's great.
keep it up, I hope the manga comes out good :)

I think I missed this comment earlier. In your opinion, what would you do to make it less awkward? Someone else I know said the same thing so I'd like to hear your opinion.

[legomaestro]

Man that do don ray one looks dynamic. Love the clarity of your lines. You seem to have the human body down to a pat. I like how you drew that alarm clock too btw in the manga panel. I haven't broken down forms in 3d in a while.

[MorganManga]

Hey guys, I'm back after a little more practice. I'm making my first manga again. It's a short action-comedy.

I'd like to focus on visual storytelling and have minimal / no dialogue.
I'm a bit disappointed with the results so far and I feel like something is missing from each page, and needs to be added visually, but I don't know what.   

I am having a pretty hard time with cel-shading, sound effects, special effects like impacts/motion blur, and backgrounds. For cel-shading, I never know how detailed things should be, or how and where to place shadow shapes.

It reads left to right. All pages are WIP and I plan to go over each page before finishing and releasing it for free. For example, page 2 is incomplete.

12 and 13 are storyboards right now.

Read here: https://imgur.com/a/Kwy0NDz

Any advice/criticism is greatly appreciated.

[MK]

You said you had a hard time with cel shading, I think if you include the ambient light more often then it might help.  Also establishing your lights base on the background and keeping track of which way the character moves also helps with choosing shadow placement.

For sound effects there are definitely a lot missing like crumpled paper, door swings (slow is a creaking sound and fast is whoosh into a thud if it hits something like a back check, doorstop or something else).  You could even make a sound effect for something being shiny like when you show off the security guard.

For backgrounds i got the idea that it was an office then he went through a hallway to the break room then the warehouse.  If that was your intention then I think you did fine.

I think there might be another problem which is style consistency as you draw the boss with and without highlights in several panels.  If you do use highlights for the hair then be sure it matches the lighting of the rest of the panel.

[MorganManga]

You said you had a hard time with cel shading, I think if you include the ambient light more often then it might help.  Also establishing your lights base on the background and keeping track of which way the character moves also helps with choosing shadow placement.

For sound effects there are definitely a lot missing like crumpled paper, door swings (slow is a creaking sound and fast is whoosh into a thud if it hits something like a back check, doorstop or something else).  You could even make a sound effect for something being shiny like when you show off the security guard.

For backgrounds i got the idea that it was an office then he went through a hallway to the break room then the warehouse.  If that was your intention then I think you did fine.

I think there might be another problem which is style consistency as you draw the boss with and without highlights in several panels.  If you do use highlights for the hair then be sure it matches the lighting of the rest of the panel.

For ambient light, I'm not sure how to do that. I know what ambient light is but I'm not quite sure how to represent it. I've looked a bit but haven't found any tutorials that click for me, but I'll keep looking.

You are right about the sounds. Good suggestions

For the backgrounds, that's the sequence I was hoping for.

For style consistency, you are right again. Did you notice any other issues besides the hair highlights? Thanks for your help!

[KatDeMilo]

I mean I think those are pretty great.

Cell shading and lighting.... So many different ways to do both. Guess it depends on what you like and enjoying drawing. Not very helpful but so true xD

Sfx are so hard. I am also confused by these.

Construction of panels, sometimes just adjusting basic shapes, sizes and positions can really improve a panel/page if you feel it's off. Not hard to play with too with layers. :>

Not good at help, but these are nice just wanted to say.

[MorganManga]

I mean I think those are pretty great.

Cell shading and lighting.... So many different ways to do both. Guess it depends on what you like and enjoying drawing. Not very helpful but so true xD

Sfx are so hard. I am also confused by these.

Construction of panels, sometimes just adjusting basic shapes, sizes and positions can really improve a panel/page if you feel it's off. Not hard to play with too with layers. :>

Not good at help, but these are nice just wanted to say.

Any comments are appreciated. Thanks for your kind words. Should have a new page done soon.

[KeanFox]

Cool looking pages. It's like the Turks at their office.

[MorganManga]

Thank you.

Here's the next page. Does anyone have any advice on drawing figures from imagination faster? My maximum speed right now is one page every two days, and often take longer on an average day. I always find myself having to correct mistakes, stop to look at references, or just not really knowing what I'm trying to draw.

https://i.imgur.com/4r8kBDU.jpg

I plan to redraw the two security guards because it looks like they are flying. The last panel seems off. I added a texture filter, what do you guys think about it?

[KeanFox]

Try to not get over obsess over speed. Pages take time to draw and two days are around the average time. How many hours a day?
Correcting mistakes, stopping to look at references, etc all part of the creative process. Most of the super artists we look up to and strive to be do all of that. 

I remember there is a making-of movie where Hayao Miyazaki was trying to draw an airplane. He had an airplane toy model in his hand for reference and a pen in the other hand and still, he was having a hard time drawing it. He had to get up and take a walk. It happens to the best.

Drawing takes time, it's not a speedrun. But yea when you trying to do this for a living speed is a factor. 
Speed comes with practice/time and streamlining your work possess and your workspace.
The general advice on drawing figures from imagination. Hope this doesn't sound frustrating but the Fundamentals man. Most people you ask they going to say it. The Fundamentals, no way around it

TLDR
To draw figures from imagination. Do the fundamentals of anatomy and perspective. Try body construction and when stuck lookup reference. Remember that this is your passion and try to have fun. 

[MorganManga]

Try to not get over obsess over speed. Pages take time to draw and two days are around the average time. How many hours a day?
Correcting mistakes, stopping to look at references, etc all part of the creative process. Most of the super artists we look up to and strive to be do all of that. 

I remember there is a making-of movie where Hayao Miyazaki was trying to draw an airplane. He had an airplane toy model in his hand for reference and a pen in the other hand and still, he was having a hard time drawing it. He had to get up and take a walk. It happens to the best.

Drawing takes time, it's not a speedrun. But yea when you trying to do this for a living speed is a factor. 
Speed comes with practice/time and streamlining your work possess and your workspace.
The general advice on drawing figures from imagination. Hope this doesn't sound frustrating but the Fundamentals man. Most people you ask they going to say it. The Fundamentals, no way around it

TLDR
To draw figures from imagination. Do the fundamentals of anatomy and perspective. Try body construction and when stuck lookup reference. Remember that this is your passion and try to have fun.

Thank you for the detailed advice. Is there any fundamental that you think I am lacking in based on what you have seen? Aside from anatomy and perspective, which I will work on.

[KeanFox]

Your pages are good, not saying you lacking fundamentals. You asked how to draw faster and from imagination. Nothing comes to mind but to memorize the body parts and know a bit of perspective to draw them in different angles from imagination/memory. 
You are at a point where your art is clean and convey what you trying to say. From here everything else is a plus. I was going to say line weight but looking at the other pages the line weight is good there.

So yea, I can't think of anything but anatomy fundamentals. Your story is action-based so doing gesture drawings to get force and fluidity into your gestures can help.

[MorganManga]

Your pages are good, not saying you lacking fundamentals. You asked how to draw faster and from imagination. Nothing comes to mind but to memorize the body parts and know a bit of perspective to draw them in different angles from imagination/memory. 
You are at a point where your art is clean and convey what you trying to say. From here everything else is a plus. I was going to say line weight but looking at the other pages the line weight is good there.

So yea, I can't think of anything but anatomy fundamentals. Your story is action-based so doing gesture drawings to get force and fluidity into your gestures can help.

Oh alright. Thank you very much!

[MorganManga]

Hope everyone is having a good Holiday season. If not, I hope things get better for you!

Heres the next page: https://i.imgur.com/8Rayj30.jpg

Embed doesn't seem to be working, but a link still works.  Is there a maximum embed resolution?

Any comment/critique is very appreciated!

[Suuper-san]

Does anyone have any advice on drawing figures from imagination faster? My maximum speed right now is one page every two days, and often take longer on an average day.

What do you mean by one every 2 days? like how many hours a day is that?

When it comes to regularly producing work, speed is certainly important, but I agree with KeanFox don't focus too much on speed at the moment, it's better to focus on getting your quality and accuracy good, and speed will naturally come.

Specifically on figure drawing just practice LOTS, both copying from figure drawing websites etc, but also practising drawing from your mind, like a page of random poses. I do quite a lot of this and it's helped my speed definitely. It's good as a warmup too.

That's a nice last page, very dynamic actions and I like your line quality.