Contrasty art

[midknight523]

http://cataclysm-saga.com/p2.jpg

http://cataclysm-saga.com/p3.jpg

http://cataclysm-saga.com/p4.jpg

http://cataclysm-saga.com/p-5.jpg

thanks for taking the time to look

[Christian223]

yesssss, this images are not contrasty, they have VERY LITTLE contrast on them, thats why they are so hard to read, you see, we differentiate forms just by contrast, of colour, of value, saturation, texture, primary by value, so you may want to change that a little bit to make them easier to read. Good ucks.

[midknight523]

i think i get what you mean
thanx

[TheDirtSyndicate]

ugh....dude, you dont know what you're talking about christian223
these are HIGH CONTRAST images, low contrast images would have lots of grey/mid tones.

midknight, i think it works pretty well in some of the images. but alot of them are like he said, hard to read, but not because they're high contrast, its a combination of things, high contrast with very similar shapes.
you have to be careful with high contrast stuff like this, make sure that you dont have a bunch of similar shapes/line weights
if you do, everything will look flat, and things will get lost in the background, you have this problem in about half the drawings. (characters in smoke, cant make them out very well)
its also going to be difficult because of these character designs...there are shapes or "parts" that we as human beings cant immediately identify.
for example, if i see a high contrast grapic representation of a human hand, i'll pretty much instantly be able to tell you what it is. even if its at a crazy angle or forshortened.
now, if i see a high contrast graphic representation of a biomechanical hand with weird doo dads and lines, wires, tubes and stuff coming off of it....i'd be more like "ooohh....thats cooll. but what the fuck is it?"
if done correctly that can work to evoke certain emotions or build suspense, but in this case its just plain confusing. having to stop and figure out what something is interupts the flow of your story.
and thats what your focus should be, very clear storytelling.

[Marcatili]

out of curiosity, is there a reason why the very top panel isn't super high contrast/monotone like the rest?

[midknight523]

hmm well judging by what you said (the smoke, robot hand) the last page seems to be the one with the most problems. i reworked it a bit. is it somewhat easier to read now?

http://home.earthlink.net/~shadowstar523/data/p-5.jpg

expat- Outside everything's fine. the lighting inside the building is all warped.

many thanks again for the critiques and suggestions

[nathonicus]

That first page reads the best -- right in front of the windows that high contrast make sense. Maybe tone it down a bit further on, though, for variation.

Nice work overall.

[Christian223]

Complete2: Its relative, it depends on how you look at it, yes, black and white is high contrast, but look at the contrast in the shapes?, almost minimun, as i said, thats why its hard to read, because there isnt enough contrast between them. We differentiate shapes/objects because there is contrasts.

[robrov21]

I really had little problem understanding the situations in your story, then again I've read every Frank Miller yarn in existence. Buuut, they are a little harder to intepret than Frank's, although sometimes I'd come across a panel and be like..."huh?"

But the character design and compostion are superb, as well as well drawn, I think maybe you just need some thin line work to identify one shape from another...or something.