Black Superman's Return

[blksuperman2]

Hey Mee. Just trying out different page layouts. It's a all one big work in progress.

 

[blksuperman2]

I feel my greatest shortcoming is coloring so I'm going to try a whole new approach. Most of the tutorials on youtube suggest using chanels instead of layers so what the heck.

Here's flats w/ using only one layer and focusing on chanels.

.....and also I added gutters just for Mee.

 

[ComicChick]

i too, suck at coloring. but great job so far.

i thought about resurrecting the lineart coloring book in fan art to help us all improve on our coloring skills. thought it might be fun

 

[blksuperman2]

Thanks CC. That's a great idea!

 

[blksuperman2]

Finally got the layout down for the 1st Page. I've redrawn this at least 5 times. It ain't easy drawing animals and it's even harder trying to place a tiny man on it.

Still playing around w/ different fonts too.

 

[Syncos]

Oh man. The artwork is stellar. The graphic design portion though, your typesetting, is weaker. Luckily that's something I can actually help with.

Designy Tips:

I don't personally love the idea of a "box" for the details. When I'm designing I usually like to add an element that fits with the setting that has enough blank space on it to fit the important details. For this example, i'd generally go with foliage or something like a big leaf. It goes a long way to put it into the environment and make it feel less tacked on. Alternately, you can design the shape of the box to be something fitting to the story, a scroll, or He-man's emblem or something.

This is obviously personal preference. Some people prefer to go with a box. That's totally acceptable. Not sure it has to be that big, though. Feels like there's a lot of wasted space in there. I know a lot of people will be like "OMG WHITESPACE" as an excuse, but this is creating areas of what we in the field refer to as "dead-space".

Other tips:

- Ideally, it's a good idea to avoid background colours or gradients that force use of a black stroke around text to make it stand out.

- fonts. I like where you're going. I think if you're going to use contrasting fonts for the title and the name, you have to go even farther to contrast them. If you're going to do a script for the title, go with a really straight san-serif for the name, like helvetica or something.

I don't mean this post to sound preachy or condescending. Just tryin to help out.
I would love to show you how I would approach the typography on this page, if you'd be cool with that.

 

[blksuperman2]

Wow, thanks for the input. I like the leaf idea. The reason I went box because like I said this was like the 5th time I tried to draw it and I totally messed up the rear of the Tiger. It's all out of perspective.

And please, if you can assist I more than welcome it.

 

[Syncos]

Wow, thanks for the input. I like the leaf idea. The reason I went box because like I said this was like the 5th time I tried to draw it and I totally messed up the rear of the Tiger. It's all out of perspective.

And please, if you can assist I more than welcome it.

Sure! Can you post the page (or the last panel) without the box and or copy?

 

[Syncos]

Excuse the super quick hackjob. But this is along the lines of what I would do, assuming you wanted to go with a box. I'm guessing if you're colouring the rest, you would be doing the jungle in a bunch of greens and HeMan's hair colour would be sparse on the page. So it would really jump out in this box.

Type, We've got two contrasting fonts for the headline. Also with the visual punch of the word "twin" literally having the letterforms contained twice within them.

The secondary more scripty font is carried over into your names
with a more plain san serif for the labels.

 

[blksuperman2]

Thanks man, that's awesome. I hadn't noticed until now it appears I didn't convert the picture to RGB before uploading. The colors actually don't look that bad on my home computer but you can really tell the difference.

Hey, if you're willing to continue to help me out you can add your name as a the Letterer. I really appreciate the help and it would give credit where it's due.

 

[Syncos]

Thanks man, that's awesome. I hadn't noticed until now it appears I didn't convert the picture to RGB before uploading. The colors actually don't look that bad on my home computer but you can really tell the difference.

Hey, if you're willing to continue to help me out you can add your name as a the Letterer. I really appreciate the help and it would give credit where it's due.

No problem.

I don't have a ton of experience laying out speech bubbles and stuff for interiors. Mostly design and typesetting for page layouts and ads and such.

However, I'm happy to help out when and where I can.

 

[blksuperman2]

1st attempt @ coloring. You may not notice a difference but I feel it's getting better.

 

[Syncos]

1st attempt @ coloring. You may not notice a difference but I feel it's getting better.

There's a huge difference. And It's awesome.

 

[blksuperman2]

Thanks man.

 

[blksuperman2]

I'm going to take a break on trying to color better. It's just not coming out the way I want so I'm going to focus on something else.

Most of the MOTU characters in my comic will be the Filmation version but I do like design elements from the old comics, film & 200x so I was thinking of how to combine them all. Here's the layout of a hallway inside Castle Grayskull featuring statues of the previous Sorceresses.

 

[blksuperman2]

Update:

 

[ComicChick]

are you inking that by hand?

 

[blksuperman2]

Yeah CC I ink by hand and then scan the image. I've tried to ink in PS but can never get the hang of it.

 

[blksuperman2]

 

[blksuperman2]

Uploading WIP often helps me see things in a new perspective. I was going to have Zodak walking behind Space Ghost but after looking at my previous post I think it'll be more effective if Zodak was leading the way.

 

[blksuperman2]

Last Update before I scan it in.......

Man, I have a lot to clean up in PS.

 

[ComicChick]

digging the WIP pics

 

[blksuperman2]

Gracias.

 

[blksuperman2]

Finally got around to scanning the picture in.

Working on the cover to Issue 2. ( I know, I'm not even done w/ Issue 01) I'm scattered brain like that.

 

[blksuperman2]

My intentions when I was drawing this was to have Zodak's staff be the only thing illuminating the corridor but now I'm seeing that that's something only an experienced colorist can really pull off. I'm kinda at a lost right now.

Update on the Sorceress.