First post... lets see if it floats.

[creedguytrent]

I have not published any new books in a while, as I've been painting 8 bit stuff for the GBA with most of my time. When I get a chance I work on my new book, an official sequel to the old CreeD series that I used to draw. The new stuff is all painted by me, and its coming along slowly, but with a great deal of passion for the work.

I thought it might be nice to post a preview on some boards and get some feedback... but when I started seeing whats going on around here I started to get a little nervous. There is some serious talent on these forums... go easy on me guys.

http://www.trentkaniuga.com/pgs2and3.gif


-trent

[blackhand]

There's a lot of good things going on in this drawing, but I think some aspects of the coloring detract from the piece overall.

The color palette could use a bit more range because as is, everything is very similar in color and value. I understand it's a night time scene, but some of the foreground elements like the pipe on the right and the bridge up top get lost in the background.

[edit]

I did a double take after I saw your name. You did the new 'Ghost Rider'! No wonder your style looked familiar.

[Tedsuo]

Welcome to the board!


You have some great stuff on your website. I've never read Creed, but now I'm interested.

I like the drawing on this one, but I have to agree about the coloring. To me it's a bit too much a standard comic coloring treatment (with the exception of the clouds, which are cool). But I'm biased, so if that style of rendering is what you're after then please ignore. But regardless of that, I do think breaking up your values and colors to better create a sense of depth could help this one.


Thanks for posting! Hope to see more in the future. :chug:

[egerie]

Welcome to the board ! A friend introduced me to creed YEARS ago :) I'm glad to hear there'll be a sequel to it. Kudos ! :chug:

[bennykapelli]

very good work!!!
i love backgrounds. They are very personal... with style.

[Wolvie]

That's really cool! Welcome :chug:

[rpace]

Pretty good. You could use the colour to enhance the feeling of depth -- there's no atmospheric perspective.

Hey, has van Sciver seen any of this work? I know he's been dodging the internet for a while. . . .

~Richard

[creedguytrent]

Very helpful crit guys. I wanted to go for a very "animated" feel. I realize that I probably should have knocked out the lines in the background areas a bit more and given it a bit more "painterly" feel rather than that "comic book" feeling it has now. I most likely will give it another pass before print.

When you say "use the colors to give it more depth"... do you mean that elements in the background should use a different color scheme altogether than the elements in the foreground? Or are you suggesting that some of the lanterns should glow different colors? Or just an overall use of more colors in general?

-tk

[skrubbles]

Trent, first off I just wanna say that I've been a big fan of your work for years. I fell in love with CreeD back in 98 when it was published by Avatar. Your style was really fresh (compared to the mainstream comics I used to read) and influenced my style at the time and introduced me to the world of independent comics. Oh, and I thought your style was even better when combined with the inking skills of Jeff Lawter for the Drywall & Oswald Show and Mechanical Evolution... wasn't a huge fan of Utopiate though... nice to see the addition of watercolor, but I don't think enough time was spent on that actual drawings.

Anyway, back to this piece... I think you did a great job. I believe what people are trying to get at with using colors to give it more depth, is the idea that when something recedes in space it appears to have cooler color values (like blue) and colors in the foreground are more warm (like orange)... that doesn't mean make the coloring blue and orange... just means you might wanna try hinting with some cool and warm colors, because the only warm colors you seem to have are mainly just the lanterns... and if people are suggesting to just use a wider range of colors to seperate objects... maybe think about changing the sky color to more of a purplish tint which would seperate it from the blue-grey color of the floating city.... though I must say you rendered the clouds quite nicely.

Hope this helps and I'm sorry if it was worded poorly or sounded like I was rambling... I just woke up, and haven't had my coffee yet.

[Tedsuo]

Hey Trent,

I did a quick paint over to show what I was thinking. If you don't like paint overs, please let me know and I will take it down immediately:

http://tazmanianhamster.tripod.com/pics/Creed_PO_web.jpg


Playing around with color and saturation. Please let me know if it helps or just looks different.

[creedguytrent]

Excellent advice! I see exactly what you mean here. Elements in the distance seem to be more affected by the clouds and fog thus they appear cooler. Elements in the foreground are separated by the warmer colors. I will have to get into the file tonight after work and adjust the original. I will post the results later. Thanks!

-trent

[Tekura]

....lovely, Trent absolutely lovely, a joy to look at. I like the fact that there are little people there, you just have to look real hard and you find them...

Tx

[creedguytrent]

As you can see with the image at the top of the page... your lighting suggestions turned out awsome. THANKS guys!

I didnt realize that if i save over the old one, it would just change the original post. So, heres the old one for comparison.

http://www.trentkaniuga.com/old2and3.gif

-trent

[creedguytrent]

a quick painter bust...

http://www.trentkaniuga.com/4-25face.gif

I dont get to play around in painter much so i had to fall back on some photoshop layer stuff for the bruised eye and the paper texture.

-trent

[Tedsuo]

Congrats dude, that new version looks totally cool. :chug:



And I totally dig that painter sketch. I don't think you're alone in finding photoshop's layers system to be... friendlier than painter's. :)


When's the new book coming out, btw?