Learn computer coloring like this:

Describe your drawing procedure…

Edgar Tadeo
Edgar Tadeo – How to Draw Comics
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Response:
I first read what’s on the script. If the writer has so much detail on a page then I have to focus on what was written. Then I directly layout a sketch [based on the script, wich I don't recommend to everybody] on the actual page [11"x17"] then fill out the muscles of every characters, then use a blue pencil over the original drawing and erase and leaves the blue pencil on the paper. then finish all things up using HB pencil.

Rafael Kayanan
Response:
I do small thumbnails with a marker pen. I then take a broad marker and distinguish the light source or make notes about the story alongside the panels. I blow the sketch up and lightbox on to the art board but sometimes I change alot of stuff around, like tilt a panel or add/remove something which may help tell the story clearer. I use a 3H pencil lead to rough out the outline on the board then go over it with a H lead. I use the turquoise lead holders you can pick up at the art supply store and I have had the same one for a while now.

Mike Wieringo
Response:
I work in this manner: I do my layouts on a template that fits 4 to an 8 1/2″x 11″ page– roughly twice the size of a trading card. When I get the layout how I want it, I blow it up on the copy machine at the studio and trace it up on my light table– that’s how I’m able to keep my art as clean as possible. [It�s damn clean!]

Brandon Peterson
The Official Brandon Peterson Homepage
Response:
I lay out an entire page loosely (usually doing a rough thumbnail first to determine how many panels, what size each panel should be, what elements per panel, etc.). I then do the individual panels after the whole page has been sketched in.

Any tips on composition drawing?

Edgar Tadeo
Edgar Tadeo – How to Draw Comics
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Response:
If you watch too much movies, then you have the answer. You don’t need fancy layout on a page, the important thing is you tell the story very well using your drawings. I’m not saying fancy layouting is evil, but it is a plus for every artist if you know the flow of every panel.

John Byrne
Response:
Clarity, clarity, clarity. Pick your camera angles and your shots to convey the maximum amount of information in each picture (which is not the same as lots and lots of detail, by the way). Remember, as an artist, your main job is to make the writer unnecessary!

Walter Simonson
Response:
I try to keep rhythm and page composition in mind all the time. Remember that although you are drawing individual panels, they should all add up to a well designed page in the end. And at the same time, the story should be clearly told.

Dave Gibbons
Response:
Good composition is “unity within variety” and “variety within unity”. Use contrasts of size, color, shape etc for emphasis and always be aware of gradation.

Andy Smith
Response:
Try and lead the eye from panel to panel and always have a clear focus in the individual panels.

Brandon Peterson
The Official Brandon Peterson Homepage
Response:
Just practice and break the elements down into their simple shapes for ease of use, in both perspective and composition. I still break stuff down every page.

Could you tell me about pacing and any basic rules?

Edgar Tadeo
Edgar Tadeo – How to Draw Comics
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Response:
Read the story well, put details if it is in the story, don’t change anything on what the writer say, and make sure your drawing is good enough for publishing.

Joe Quesada
Response:
I rely on instinct, but I feel it like music, every scene has a certain beat and rhythm.

Andy Smith
Response:
I think you need to tailor the pacing to the individual story. Each story can have it’s own pacing.

Brandon Peterson
The Official Brandon Peterson Homepage
Response:
Basically, you have 22 pages to tell a story in, hopefully one with a beginning, middle, and end. You have a certain amount of plot you need to put in these pages, and you need to break those pages into panels. Pacing is how you figure out how your story will flow through the entire issue, right down to each panel. For example, a big action scene could require lots of pages of multiple panels to show exactly what’s going on, or maybe just a big pin-up with captions explaining. I can show a man walking through a door in one panel, or show many panels with him walking up to the door, then grabbing the handle, then opening the door, then walking through, etc. Things can move quickly or slowly, depending on what you want, thus the different ‘paces’.

Give me some examples of bad storytelling…

Scott McDaniel
The Official Scott McDaniel Homepage
How-To, Tutorials, Art Collections
Response:
Mostly, it’s not defining the action line in the scene, and keeping the “camera” on the right side of the line. Figures that are interrelating often switch sides, face opposite directions, and the like. The action line prevents all that. [For more info on 'action-line', see Scott Mcdaniel's homepage http://members.aol.com/ScottAMcD/]. Also, nondescript backgrounds are rampant with novices. I consider the environment the characters to be in to be a character in and of itself. When preparing to draw a scene, try to fill in all the detail on all sides. This really helps to ground the action, to make it much more believable. Also, characters tend to look alike, some almost identical! I prepare “turn-arounds” for each character in the story – designing new ones using a reference photo to start with – so that each character is consistently portrayed as having a unique likeness. Also, the penciller should be able to communicate the main story idea without any words. A lot of times that means sacrificing cool pinup style pages for more purposeful ones. Novices sometimes aren’t willing to do that. But, the story is the first priority.

Richard Pace
Response:
This is something much easier discussed on an example by example basis. Good storytelling should establish the characters, their environment, their place within the environment and clearly show what is happening from one panel to the next.

John Byrne
Response:
Cropping is always a problem — lopping off bits and pieces of figures. Going for a “cool shot” instead of an informative shot. A big figure instead of a big background. Leaving out the establishing shots, the informational shots.

Walter Simonson
Response:
There are a lot of comics out there that aren’t especially well done. If you read one and wonder what the heck’s going on, it probably isn’t you. It’s the storytelling.

Dave Gibbons
Response:
Just think where you can go wrong telling someone a story in words. Not enough information, information at the wrong time, boring repetition, giving away the ending etc.

Joe Quesada
Response:
Just think of examples where artist break panels for no reason, or use splash pages for no other reason than it’s easier to draw. Good storytelling involves pacing, rhythm, and like comedy…timing.

Andy Smith
Response:
Drawing a page with say four characters in the same room but never drawing all four of them in the same panel on the page. This is bad because it never establishes where the characters are in relation to each other. That’s one example.

Erik Larsen
Response:
Confusing pages! Make your pages easy to follow! It should be clear which panel should be read in which order. Arrows look idiotic–don’t use them. Sideways pages! Enough with the SIDEWAYS PAGES! I know that some big name talents have used them but as a reader, having to physically turn the books around takes away from the reading experience. It’s also annoying. Please stop.

What’s the correct way to break borders?

Edgar Tadeo
Edgar Tadeo – How to Draw Comics
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Response:
You don’t need fancy boarders that has lots of thing going on around it. You need is to align everything to create a sequence. Something like storyboard, but in a comic format. And make it square or rectangle.

Erik Larsen
Response:
When you break the borders–you’re establishing the border as a plane. Think of it as a window–the border should only be broken by the object that is the closest to the viewer. If a background element is breaking the border, you’re essentially saying that it is in front of the other things in the panel. If a person in the background is breaking the border but somebody closer to the reader ISN’T, you’re throwing off the illusion of depth and making the background character look like the Wasp buzzing around. DON’T have characters from one panel overlapping on to a figure from another panel–the characters shouldn’t interfere in a separate reality. DON’T have a character have a character bleed off into a panel which isn’t directly before or after that panel– a reader may follow that extended limb to the wrong panel and read the page out of its proper sequence.

How do you keep your art clean?

Edgar Tadeo
Edgar Tadeo – How to Draw Comics
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Response:
We sometimes mess our artworks. But it can’t be seen with the use of technology. In pencils, we avoid smudging any shaded area, that’s why sometimes we use “X” to tell inkers it is black or needed to be shaded.

Brandon Peterson
The Official Brandon Peterson Homepage
Response:
I pencil very light with harder leads (2H). As I work, I dab darker areas with a kneaded rubber eraser to keep the underdrawing as light as possible. It’s all relative, so that when I final pencils, my page is so clean that the underdrawing is very visible even if it’s light. Also, as I do the final pencils, I tape over areas that my hand may rub against, or that I’ve completed or am not working on.

Mike Wieringo
Response:
I work in this manner: I do my layouts on a template that fits 4 to an 8 1/2″x 11″ page– roughly twice the size of a trading card. When I get the layout how I want it, I blow it up on the copy machine at the studio and trace it up on my light table– that’s how I’m able to keep my art as clean as possible. [It�s damn clean!]

Joe Quesada
Response:
I use a 4H lead.

Andy Smith
Response:
I use a 2H pencil lead and don’t really worry about smudges.

What’s the deal with pencil hardness/softness, anyway?

Edgar Tadeo
Edgar Tadeo – How to Draw Comics
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Response:
OK, other artist use both. Pencilers sketch with H pencil and finish everything with B or 2B pencils. As long as you can make your art readable to any inkers.

Jason Pearson
Response:
You don’t want a soft pencil cuz it will smudge and you don’t want too hard of a pencil cuz it will be too light on the paper to see.

Here: http://ace.smfforfree2.com/index.php/topic,8.0.html

Check it out!

http://animeandcomics.wordpress.com/comic-tutorials/

Many more (writing/drawing/coloring)tutorials coming soon!

Fahad 

Panel 1 to 3 of a Batman vs Wolverine page I drew. The page was bigger than the scanner so I had to scan it in parts. I will upload the remaining panels soon, god-willing.

Its a year old and its rough, but I am also coloring the panel, maybe it’ll look better then. (MAYBE, cuz its first time I am using Photoshop for colorings)

Click on the pics to enlarge.

Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License.

Maybe your artwork can also appear here on the main-website? Start displaying your artwork on the Artwork section of the forum to see if you’ve got it.

Why is it that after decades, the female gamers are still marginalised, heck that’s being very forgiving, ignored is a better choice. It’s a vicious cycle, the more you plan for/target males, the more males you will get, it’s not as if the other sex will come sprinting in magically. What do they think the female gamers want? Bloody Sims? No. They are just as attracted to the possibilities for blowing up stuff, rending it apart and gutting hapless morons who get in their way, as long as they can frackin’ well do it in a skirt (customisable of course, like kilt armour of some kind XD). And if the males are getting a love interest, there had better damn well be one for the women, how difficult is that? Wouldn’t men like to play as women? Lara Croft anyone? Just as long as lesbian action is controlled and an alternate present, what is the harm in putting that in for the females? It’s not much at all and prior examples of games catering to both are present.

One would simultaneously increase sales, try to break into a previously largely ignored market and who knows, the sky could be the limit. But until brave and innovative companies like Bioware and Obsidian are some of the only ones giving female gamers the opportunity to fantasise while kicking butt, the rest still cater to the mewling cries of adolescent males (or males trying to be adolescents, or maybe just males) and I hope they rot in that state of static along with Lucas and Jar Jar Binks. Unless Lucas gives the green light for KOTOR 3 before he dies, then can he only be exempt.

Allegro: Haunting. Listening to pure violin tunes like these brings to mind reading regency romance novels. Heh but seriously, this is an awesome piece, really touches you in good ways.

Lords of Kobol: Beautiful vocals, great piece. She is singing in some African dialect and it's quite good.

Pegasus: Mellow and spacey. Don't quite know how to classify this but whatever it is, it made it on my faves list.

Something Dark is Coming: In my playlist this makes the logical continuation of Pegasus. Perfect follow up to it. Maybe it should be before…eh, works either way.

Scar: For the percussion and a play on my fave bsg staple tune.

Epiphanies: 'Cause I love ze violin and the way it sounds. Really good one.

Roslin and Adama: It's romantic, what can I say and I love violins as I've mentioned.

Prelude to war: My personal favourite. It doesn't get better than this one and it's the second longest running track in the album, the first being SDiC. Epic and the percussion/violin combo, dear god in heaven. It's the coolest thing I've heard since…well, since I saw the damn episodes.

Playing as a pure mage was one of the reasons why it was as tough as it was but then again one needs more strategy that way so I can't really fault the game for that, it's more fun with more strategy but once that's done, any other run through will seem like child's play. To me this version seemed like a hybrid of Baldur's gate and some fallout inspired things like the backgrounds which is not a bad thing of course, I was surprised at the depth that most people are lamenting the lack of. To me, it had plenty and has replay value as well, what with all the mods coming out.

The annoying negatives I noticed were the inventory icons. There was a reason I didn't like them in BG, why bring it back? One has to squint for around 5 min before identifying what's what. Maybe I shall adjust in time. The other thing I disliked was that there was no 'lil bar on top of the enemy characters to let us know how close to doom they are. One has to manually right click on them before it shows up and that's not good enough, especially with hordes of them.

The music is AWESOME. I really mean it, I have it in my head now and it just doesn't get out. It's that good. Very well done here, I hope they put the score out, I would buy it in a sec. The fight and the intro/splash screen score is particularly memorable. I think they did the scores for a couple other games but I can't remember the name of the house now, they have quite a nice website too, the introductions were hilarious. The Keep thing was quite a lot of fun. I enjoyed building my own place but I want it back in the sequel dammit. There's a lot of blood, sweat and tears there. I liked the cut scene convo's. Makes it look epic and well, kotory2 for lack of a better term. Influence is also kotory2 but makes it more interesting.

The characters were quite cool though one would wish they could've had romances with two in particular, Sand and Bishop (not at the same time of course though that might not have been so bad!). Casavir was a typical Paladin but not as bad as I expected, as I said the others would have been more to my taste. Bishop had an awesome story arc ending/dialogue if one romanced Casavir…it could've been better no doubt if there were multiple endings with that particular dude. I think unrequited love is cool at times but I would've hoped one could have changed that in RP heaven. Ah well this was unrequited from both our sides if that is at all possible and not completely contradictory as well.

Lot's of people complaining that their game doesn't run/crashes/glitches/bad camera control etc. I found it was easy to get used to the cam controls, though it took a day, if one doesn't expect it to be like NWN. This definitely had improved graphics, the mountains with the Fire Giants and that hill where one meets the Shaman is amazing. Good atmosphere. I had no performance/frame rate issues etc on my PC which is 2 and a half years old with the settings turned down low, I never used the higher ones so don't know if it would make a difference. To put things in perspective though, my PC does have the 6800 ultra, which is a really good card and is a 3.4. It has a gig of ram, so maybe that balances out the good card I wanted to play with 2 but couldn't wait to buy more.

Story was great and one can tell the quality writing and the attention to detail/subtle references that can be easily overlooked by the teenage player and/or it does seem like something the mature players would get a different reaction out of. An example would be the motivations that aren't mentioned but can be easily imagined based on dialogue clues. This is an inherent experience based feat that can't be unlocked by the younglings so all is how it should be. Additionally, to make it accessible universally some things have to be left vague/toned down which is a double edged sword I suppose; or I could just be imagining it and it's all in my head, heh. Either way it worked to get me immersed. The ending was like Witch Hunter Robin somewhat, quite awesome I thought. Well done Obsidian; now we're all set for a planar sequel. Can't wait.

(snip)

However, this makes it harder for me to entertain myself. I sure as hell am not trying any frickin servers again. I mean, in one, I even had to write an 'application' with my character description etc before they approved it and me for playing online. Wtf. If I'm going to be working so hard and expending so much energy, they better fracking well pay me. Speaking of which, I never did go play on that server. Just as well I think. Probably ask me to roleplay a marriage to an orc next.

What happened on the server? A trip down memory lane…

Yes, for the first time, I fired up a multiplayer game thinking I should try out the PW’s. Check out that side of the ‘verse etc. What happened you ask? I choked. I froze. I panicked. The DM’s are prolly laughing at my logs right about now. Well first, I started looking at the player list. There was one other player. Okay, so far so good. Then I clicked on said player and wonder of wonders, he got invited to my ‘party’ of one. I started panicking…and pressing buttons…who knows what these buttons are for anyway? Then he got kicked out of the party and responded with a message of ‘Greetings’. Now, I had no idea how to respond, I mean should I go OOC or IC with hail and well met good sir, er, ranger?…so I went ‘Greetings’ too. I don’t know if it was OOC or not dammit and sadly, the message never got to him, I just spoke it out loud to no one but AI NPC’s. I worked out later what happened and how to respond as in the technical aspects and felt quite ashamed of myself for…panicking.

The guy is prolly thinking what an arrogant mage I am, little does he know I’m a moron too. Oh well, guess I’m never going to that particular server again if I can help it. Sadly, the solo servers are more or less 4 or 5 in number and I even chose those solo ones especially just so I could avoid such situations and it happened anyway. Woe is me! I’ve decided. I’m going to go to another server just to get over my jitters. A solo server that is, and I’ll never click on the player list. If someone tries to talk to me, I’ll go into a narrative of something like *The human ranger tried to make contact with the wild mage. He didn’t realise she was mute and quite wild. Finally after repeated gestures from her side, that might be construed as rude ones, he figured it out and left her to peace and tranquility* Yes, that’ll work.

An update. Okay, I went to another server. This time I was accosted by the DM to change my last name by giving a description beneath it. Okay. I HATE doing this shit but I did it anyway and gave a description of my PC. The he goes, well you didn’t change the last name, I want you to give a last name that you would give to your kids. I’m like what? Hello? Like that other dude on the player list whose last name is IronFist? Then he goes, hmm tbh, I don’t know what a good last name would be. Yes, exactly you shithead. Then why are you bothering me when IronFist can go fisting his irons. Anyway, I told him I’ll be back without a last name. Hah. Nothing like an friendly altercation to make me get over my shyness.

(snip) and (two entry combo)