A page of sequential art...

[Plowking]

Hi all,

I recently finished a short comic strip and, well being my first ever strip, and my first attempt at using a computer (photoshop) for the entire piece, I know there's a lot to learn.

http://www.freewebs.com/plowking/page07_small.jpg

I present it here for your critiques - any suggestions welcome.

Regards
Plowking

[Jason Rainville]

Your use of dramatic lighting is pretty effective. There are problems with the consistency in your character's faces, and I'm not too sure if you should cram that many panels on one page. They could also stand to be a little more interestingly applied.

[Adia*Mierde]

Awesome that you decided to make the foray both into digital art and sequential art.

I agree with the panel spacing. Give yourself as much room in the frame as you need. The first frame is technically the establishing shot. Make it explosive. I want to see the entire movement of him crashing in on the man. Give it a bigger panel.

Sequential art is all about dynamic silohettes and force. Look up Matessi's Force book to learn more. Studying a little animation will help you to understand force/motion within a single drawing. Good luck.

[Plowking]

Great advice, thanks you guys.
My panel layout I see does need to push the action along when it's quick, its far too uniform at the moment.

And also the character faces - I need to design them better to retain consistency between them, and generally just take more care with the facial details.

[Rogzilla]

I can only add one thing but I can't remember the term. You need to think of this as directing a play or sitcom. You can put the camera anywhere you want within a 180 degree horizontal space. You do a fine job up until the last panel where you just flip. It will confuse the audience. Did the walk around each other? What happened?

Other than that, keep up the good work!

[Plowking]

Thanks again,

I was thinking when I did the last panel it was ok to switch the viewpoint because in the previous panel it was established where each character was, and where the lamp was on the table - so to make it seem more interesting I switched views. I felt with no character movement involved, simply continuing the converstion from same side of the room was not interesting enough.

I see what you're saying about the horizontal space - if a character entered from left to right for example, then never show an exit from the opposite side because to the reader it looks like movement in the wrong direction.