[Drawings] JVL's sketch studio

[JVL]

Ja, natürlich kann ich Deutsch sprechen- ich studiere es bis fünf Jahren in meinen Schule- eben so mein Deutschkenntnisse nicht so gut ist...

I'm not sure if that's correct though, I hope it's understandable! I like speaking german more than writing it, I have been there couple times myself(Berlin, Soltau, Hannover, Salzgitter, Köln, Frankfurt just to name a few places). I actually name most of the scifi machinery and military stuff made for the comic with german names, like Morgenstern, or Feuerblüme(actually I'm not sure if this is correct!) - and it happens that one of the female characters has got a german name(Anna Maletz, the one that is shown in couple of the previous posts).

Hitting 30 pages! Actually making some headway out here!

29

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30

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Tell how the environment design for the new area work-

A random color pic- I don't know if it looks better with like it is or as a sepia version- it's the second pic.

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Some more traditional comic art like what you see in old war comics- a bad nazi!

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On to page 31!

[CloudDreamer7]

i like the flow of these 4 -5 last pages. i m still annoyed at how the drool is drawn; very definitive and it sticks out too much IMO. Also in pg29, the 3rd panel where hemera is pulled for the 1st time could have as well been an inversion of the next panel i.e. we see things from her point of view and as such aether is shown pulling her and we can only see her hand. Would have worked pretty good, i think.

i dont like the upper highlands that much (but i do like the feeling of the picture; sun is hitting them directly and the place looks really clean and serene). But you could have extended this in a 2 page spread to make it seems like this area is vast which is always cool. The towers themselves need more....solid structure. As they are, they look like a huge pile of books and documents (similar to what you see on some very messy desks). And that one on the left looks like its about to fall down. I like the road connections though.
Also, the "upper highlands" sign doesn't quite work. I dont know if its part of the actual environment, or if it was added for the readers and the characters can't view it. A sign is a good idea nonetheless; i would have used a voice from some invisible speakers to inform the readers of the setting (or you can do both).

the next one has top notch coloring, but i dont like the way she is portrayed. She is a soldier, too much hair will be in the way. And also, no offense, but she is ugly. Now, i know this aint necessarily bad cause not everyone in this world is a Ken & Barbie but i might be feeling a bit biased at it for that reason. A yellowish coloured visor would have fitted better with the colours of the uniform though.

I dont really like the last one either; the upper body is nifty but the face just doesn't match that level of detail. and the lower body is drawn in such way that it makes it look like he is wearing a dress.... oO

keep it up... :/

[AYAME]

This is much easier to understand grammatically

Ja, ich kann Englisch sprechen. Ich habe es für 5 Jahre in der Schule, aber ich spreche nicht es sehr gut.

I love the tattoo!!!!!!!!!!

The back of her head seems a tad flat, but I am really loving it. I like the color one.

[JVL]

Oh, this hasn't happened in some time, replies- that's good too!

@Cloud- Thanks! About drooling(weird to talk about this)- so you suggest that the drool should be more like a drop on the side of the mouth(like in most mangas)? That might work, but I'm just too logical on these things... it has to flow like that on cheek and look a bit bad. Can't argue on the fact that the scene could be made on two pages. And about the buildings too, but what do you expect from a corporate colony... The sign is a part of the environment of course, it is a computer screen. The characters are not looking at it because they have been there before, so they're not interested- Radio speech bubble could work too-

I disargee on the second pic, the colouring could be better still...I hadn't used my white highlights at all! But I don't exactly get what is the ugly part. She doesn't have eyelashes, and the eyes could be a tad bigger, maybe, but did you mean something else? I got to know that- But you got to agree, I'm just drawing comic styled, so the hair is just like that for no practical reason, it just looks cool(well, more so than a ponytail). And this is true with Hemera's redesign, the hair totally obstructs her right eye, so no practicality there either!

And let me enlighten you about the german WWII era military clothing... the uniform the man is wearing is a SS- tarnjacke(sort of camo jacket) over a trench coat model M/40(called mantel in german). The combination looks like he's wearing a dress, for real. You can check it from old war- time photos if you manage to find one. And the pic is drawn in pretty much in the same way as the old war comics, so I guess they got to suck then...

More of this, thanks!

@Ayame- Oh the tattoo- that's actually the similar to what I'd take, if I would ever take one- the flatness of the head might have to do with the hairstyle... just add more to the back and there you go-

Sketching 3 pages at the same time- 31, 32 and 6... the 6 is from the remake of the start. You'll see it once it's finished. I think you'll like it much better...

[CloudDreamer7]

about the drool - the design is ok, i just dont think its fitting to use solid black lines to portray it; gray lines would have worked better or a tone darker than her skin. It just stands out too much to be a drool as it is .....well for me at least.

Eyelashes always make a woman look prettier. The problem with your eye designs is that they are already too large and extra eyelashes will make them even larger. Basically try to make the eyeshape a bit smaller (just a tad) and make the area around the eyes darker (as in heavy eyelashes). see how that works out.
And if you made her lips more outstanding then it would work better. It doesnt necessarily mean she is wearing a lipstick if her lips are red or if they have a nice shape. The nose could handle to be somewhat smaller, too and the less lines you have around the nose the better it is.

have you tried looking at pros' female characters and the way they are drawn ? Adam Hughes, Jim Lee and Michael Turner are probably the best in that area.

and thanks for the info on WWII military fashion...

[JVL]

@Cloud- Ahh- so you meant that! I would think that a lighter tone would work better for a transparent liquid like drool, on the skin. Maybe light screentone or a white surface altogether. The eyes are too large? Haven't heard that in a while... but now that I think about it, maybe that is true on some characters. Hemera for example has pretty small and slanted eyes(most of the time), which isn't very usual for a heroine of a story...

And of course I've looked model from pros- I don't remeber their names though, I only look at the works- my most common reference is my own face, and that may be a reason for all those unwomanly features found on, well, Hemera for example(mainly the nose).

I have a similar reprodution WWII uniform, but it's the Wehrmacht version. Very warm at wintertime!

[JVL]

Two more pages, again:

31

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32

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Hemera's gettin lazy there...

In the random ones today we have a picture about the MI-24 "Hind" assault helicopter. It's abandoned though, and kids are just writing stuff on it's night vision camera. That's how the times change...

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On to page 33-