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View Full Version : THE COMIC STRIP! : Xavier Coelho-Kostolny 2005 : "Fruits, Nuts, Vegetables"

Swizzle
02-28-2005, 06:24 PM
This is the WIP thread for my comic entitled Fruits, Nuts, Vegetables. I'm going to try to do twelve pages per month, though I'm not sure if I can pull it off. Time will tell. It will be in comic book format and I'll probably do either two stories per month or two stories and a little "mini-story".

The comic is centered around Scott, a rather loose translation of myself, and his relationship and various (mis-)adventures with Daņelle, his friend (a combination of various people I've known). Other characters will play minor roles, and there may be another main character introduced down the road. I know who he is, but he doesn't exactly fit in right now. Let's just say that he's bright blue and stockily built.

The story will borrow heavily from the various weird and entertaining things I've had happen to me as well as things I know I would do. Breaking out into funny dances and pretending that he's a space man will not be odd occurances for Scott. :D Daņelle is often there to keep him in check, though.

It's kind of funny how much these two characters have developed over the past two years, or however long I've been working on them. Originally, Scott looked almost like Jon from Garfield and Daņelle had scary eyes and a round nose.

Here are some sketches of the main characters. I'll post some colored ones later.

Scott:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/xkostolny/sketch2forweb.jpg

Daņelle:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/xkostolnyhttp://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/xkostolny/sketchforweb.jpg

No, Scott does not have any irises or pupils. They only show up in closeups of his eyes. Yes, it's bizarre, and no, I'm not changing it. The outlines of the characters will be a bit broken up. That means that you won't see the back of Scott's head unless he's shaded or colored. Yes, weird, no, not changing. :)
Swizzle
02-28-2005, 07:30 PM
As promised, here are some colored sketches.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/xkostolny/inbedforweb2.jpg
This one is a bit old, but it still remains one of my favorite sketches of this guy.


http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/xkostolny/yellforweb.jpg
...And this is one I'm still in the process of coloring.
Shawry
03-01-2005, 06:26 AM
I really like your character designs, they show real promise.
The sketch of the guy in bed expresses iteself well, but the style just looks like somethng done quickly in Paint! If you re-did the art in the style of the last picture then it would be great. , i really like the last pic, looks nice and clean.
Swizzle
03-01-2005, 07:08 AM
Ha, feedback! I knew it couldn't be as awful as I thought it might be.

I'm a bit torn over the line work right now. On the one hand I have the last one that has very clean line work, but it also takes a lot of work since I've not been able to get my Wacom yet. And on the other I have the sketchy line work (that I actually prefer), but it looks terrible when colored or shaded in the computer.

By the way, the one of him in bed was acually done with a pen and then scanned in. I love working with pens, but I also can't get good line work right away. I end up having to do massive amounts of cleanup in Photoshop before it's anything passable, especially if I work in pen. So, the question is now "What do I do?" Which is easier to look at, which is more expressive, which shows my intent better? Should I do uncolored sketchy or colored smooth? What about uncolored smooth? What's easier on the eyes? What looks cooler?

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/xkostolny/yellsketchy.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/xkostolny/yellsmooth.jpg



PS: Sorry I have so many images up so soon, I realize I'm kind of flooding the thread. I need feedback, though.
coCoKNIght
03-01-2005, 09:47 AM
Hey, that looks promising! I like your characters a lot, the coloring is good and I'm looking forward to see the first finished page! :) good luck!
Loulu79
03-02-2005, 01:48 AM
Continue with the process...it looks promising!:thumbsup:
Swizzle
03-08-2005, 04:02 PM
Just letting everyone know that this is not dead, just kind of taking a brief nap. I've had a difficult time with the first story, but I think I've finally come to a point where I'm comfortable with it. The illustrations are taking a long time because I really didn't know what exactly I wanted for the first story until some time last night. Before then I'd had vague notions, but now it's done. My Wacom tablet is shipping to me and should be here before the end of the week, so that should speed up the line work considerably.

To show that I've not been completely slacking off, here's a little preview of one of the panels that I'm probably going to use. I've not Photoshopped the linework yet and I still need to crop it (left hand=icky), but you get the general idea. In the finished panel he'll probably be sitting in a chair with wheels like you'd use for a computer. He is witnessing something, um, interesting happening with a toaster. Stay tuned and you'll probably find out what happens soon.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/xkostolny/bleah.jpg
Ilikesoup
03-08-2005, 06:32 PM
No question, I prefer the solid pen line. I'm not sure what pens you've been using that you have to clean it up in photoshop. Experiment with different pens - I'd suggest something like a Flair pen with a felt tip wide enough that you can make just one pass over a line. Also, you can use trace paper for inking - put your pencil sketch underneath and trace every line that you want to be permanent with ink. Once you get your Wacom you can use the same idea by keeping your scanned sketch on one layer and tracing the image onto another layer. Simply delete the scan layer and you've got a clean line drawing with no need to clean up smudges!

As for color vs. black&white that's your choice. If you do a b&W or grayscale be sure to balance black with white areas in the panel - too much white can be hard to read and makes it harder to see where one object ends and the other begins.

Hope that helps! :thumbsup:
Loulu79
03-08-2005, 11:08 PM
Sorry about the time I had an attachment on your WIP. Didn't know better. Anyway...at least that makes me feel better that it's taking everyone a lot of time than expected. I'm working on mine too. And yours looks promising. I can't critique completely on what I think about your characters, story and the way it looks yet. All I can say is keep up the good work:thumbsup: Comic Strip: Character Concept (Ruff Draft) (http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=215579&highlight=comic+Strip)
Swizzle
03-22-2005, 04:32 PM
I've decided that I won't continue with this comic, and I want to stop before I get started, basically. There are a few reasons:

1: I'm unsatisfied with the whole deal. I don't like the title (a rush job, it's stupid), I don't like the fact that I have the characters but no setting for them, and I don't like the fact that I haven't fully fleshed them out. I thought I knew the characters pretty well and I thought they were fairly deep, but I was wrong.

2: I'm unsatisfied with the visual style. I don't like how I've not developed a style for objects as well as characters, I don't like that it's so time-consuming to draw just a simple sketch of one of the characters, I don't like that I can't color their faces and things without it looking terrible.

3: Problems at home. The past couple of years have been quite difficult for everyone at home. The word 'Divorce' has been slung back and forth between my parents, everyone is very stressed because of the situation, and I'm having trouble getting along with my mom. Word has it that my mom will be moving out by August, but she's already started packing up her stuff into boxes. With all of that going on, I just haven't felt any motivation to do anything at all; I'm having problems even wanting to finish something that I actually enjoy doing, like drawing. This is one of the major reasons I haven't done much comic stuff.

So, in conclusion, I cannot continue putting anything this thread. I'm not asking for pity-posts, I'm just stating the facts. I wish the best to all the other comic artists and I hope everything goes well with this little competition.
Loulu79
03-22-2005, 10:03 PM
I hope this doesn't turn out as a 'pity-post' :blush: like u said...but this is for supporting u:

I too have difficulty w/ my comic strip...in the sense that:
#1: It's very time consuming (reminds me of my 3D animation!:argh: :argh: :argh: )

Thus...I haven't updated my post...:banghead:

But I won't give up!

With u...u have things going on at home... and things like a divorce from ur parents do affect your artistic efforts! It interferes with your energy flow...

So maybe next month's comic strip you'll be on top of things...or at least when this storm passes...

Just for support... I honor and admire your honesty:thumbsup:
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