Industry Elites Added As Judges for Webcomic Contest

[gnarwhalstudio]

If you'd like to move forward with traditional media, consider investing in a good, larger-scale scanner. 11x14 just isn't enough most of the time There are some techniques and tricks to optimizing scans so they appear nearly 100% like the tangible counterpart you can find all over the interwub.

On the other hand, try your hand at digital coloring and get a Wacom Bamboo tablet. Make sure it's Wacom, too. I've had some friends go through countless other tablets, I'm glad I went with Wacom first (I've a tablet-screened laptop, it rocks my socks ).

 

[foolishcharacter]

OK, firstly I don't think 'foolishcharacter' was being dickish, but then he wasn't offering constructive criticism either. He pointed out faults but gave no advice on how to better them.

I think Satoshii makes a valid counterpoint, as such I shall try to offer some more specific advice to you Titankore

First off I agree with the general consent that you should try to give your characters more convincing features. Simply studying real life animals or the work of artists that have a similar style (I personally could recommend Jeffery (Jay) Axer http://www.axerindustries.com ) would help make your work that much stronger.

Still I have to argue that you don't really have a specific 'style' of your own quite yet. To me your pieces simply look like those generic anime anthro arch-types I see on DA. Now there's nothing particularly 'wrong' with that as long as you do it well (in which case if you just follow the earlier advice to improve your proportions/features you should ignore the following) but I think your work can stand out from the crowd if you were willing to just give it a slight spin that you don't see as commonly. Like what if you were to draw your characters like a Ren & Stimpy cartoon, or what if you gave them exaggerated features like you see with the Sonic universe?

 

[Phillip C]

Good or bad, constructive or not, ya gotta roll with the punches! Take what you can get! It's how the real pros act under such pressure. Thank everybody for comments on your work, even if it's them calling it the shitstain 5000, it'll get you lots of respect points! ;3

So roll with the punches folks, or get eaten alive!

 

[DomesticParasite]

lol.. I could have. Though.. the process I went through for this comic was as follows:

1. idea.

2. quickly draw idea.

3. laugh at my comic because for a brief moment I felt "clever".

4. immediately regret coloring of idea.

5. look into future where comic is judged harshly based on shitty flash coloring job.

6. laugh at future self.

7. decide to change comic based on future decisions.

8. pour glass of scotch and forget steps 4-7.

Dude, dead on.

 

[SairexQT]

What the hell happened here?

 

[engineermk2004]

Got my comic submitted. No illusions about getting the contract, though. My clever and concise writing and computer rendered, high contrast images will probably lose to loosely scribbled stick figures flinging poo. Guess it was a nice dream, though.

Whoa, whoa... It may not be the best to say such things about the judges tastes whilst they're judging your work...

And besides... I spent HOURS on my entry "Monkey stick figure poo flingers" (A comic where 2 monkey chums review games on the couch and give them ratings in Poo's out of 10) and you just come along and nay say my idea... Ouch... my pride. :'(

My monkey stick figures have feelings too.



...

...

(Just to reiterate, that WAS a joke...)

Aww...Man, now that sounds, just...briliant...

I wish I submitted that.

 

[titankore]

Thanks everyone for the advice. It's actually a good thing then that I didn't do my entry in color. I'm going to also going to draw bigger so I can do more detail right now I am using 4 by 6 inch papers so its hard to fit in much detail.
http://titankore.newgrounds.com/

 

[RetroRobot]

Let's not rip into each other here...

I'm seeing a lot of "Your work rips off this" and "This looks like Bubsy".

Let's not start tearing each other apart, or when the winner finally gets announced there will be a whole host of negative backlash in these forums.

Let's keep it friendly here folks.

Titankore, you're work is a good start, you need to keep drawing and work on it until it finally develops into your own unique style. You can't rush these things, but it WILL come, just keep drawing and drawing and eventually, small accidents will become mistakes you run with and make your own.

FoolishCharacter, You're work is very nice indeed. Anyone who says other wise is getting defensive and silly. It's a little busy for my tastes, but take that as a personal preferance than an piece of critisism. I think you manage to keep the image easy to see, despite only using a grey-scale tone and it works well. You certainly have a talent for your style and I like the fact you're running with it.

As for me. I'll post stuff up soon.
Maybe when we've all learned to get along again.

 

[folmerkelly]

Y'all crazy, Bubsy owns.

 

[narcolepsyinc]

This family's falling apart...

 

[LACKT]

This family's falling apart...

(J.Jonah Jameson voice):"We need pictures!Pictures of the submissions!"
I am getting withdrawals not getting the competitive feeling on not seeing everyone's submissions not being posted.And if we are to squabble at the forums about other's work and on what we are familiarized to deem worthy of a webcomic it should be on our official submissions,not brawl on mere scrawls.

 

[titankore]

I don't get upset about things like this very easy so I haven't been offended yet. What I really want though is more specific advice, and could you post the comments for them on Newgrounds so I don't have to scroll through alot of stuff to get to them.

 

[Clankenbeard]

Can open--worms everywhere.

Art is art. It is subjective and personal. Some folks take pride in details and quality, others in speed and quantitity. This debate here about artistic style will simply degenerate into fingerpointing and backbiting. In the end, the competition will be won on humor and writing--I hope.

I will say that the multiple posts here with sample art have convinced me that there are loads of young artists with shitloads more talent than I have. You guys have some really good stuff! I have tried to console myself that this is okay and that you guys are all artists by trade. It's true. That's your chosen craft! Say it!

Come on, humor and writing....

 

[Steagony]

I don't get upset about things like this very easy so I haven't been offended yet. What I really want though is more specific advice, and could you post the comments for them on Newgrounds so I don't have to scroll through alot of stuff to get to them.

My advice is, keep studying perspective, anatomy and color theory. And really, that's all that there is to it; practice practice practice.

 

[Casts a Shadow]

Let's not rip into each other here...

I'm seeing a lot of "Your work rips off this" and "This looks like Bubsy".

Let's not start tearing each other apart, or when the winner finally gets announced there will be a whole host of negative backlash in these forums.

Let's keep it friendly here folks.

Titankore, you're work is a good start, you need to keep drawing and work on it until it finally develops into your own unique style. You can't rush these things, but it WILL come, just keep drawing and drawing and eventually, small accidents will become mistakes you run with and make your own.

FoolishCharacter, You're work is very nice indeed. Anyone who says other wise is getting defensive and silly. It's a little busy for my tastes, but take that as a personal preferance than an piece of critisism. I think you manage to keep the image easy to see, despite only using a grey-scale tone and it works well. You certainly have a talent for your style and I like the fact you're running with it.

As for me. I'll post stuff up soon.
Maybe when we've all learned to get along again.

awww, no critiques for moi?
That's probably good, it saves me checking my profile obsessively for qoutes and replies.

 

[AniMerrill]

Hello All,

Due to the great response this contest has had, we are now going to announce the winners the week of March 8th, instead of this week. Please stay tuned.

Thanks!
Spin

~DIES~

My question for everyone is, if you don't win (which is a 99% chance for everyone I suppose), what do you plan to do with your comic? Or are you planning to do something else? It seems like this contest has gotten everyone motivated...

My plans are... well, actually, I have another comic currently in progress so I'd just continue working on that one. I'm a blog writer, the main point of my blogs usually coming from my latest art project... so my submissions here would probably get a little spotlight, maybe I'd continue it on a much less frequent basis than the Escapist wants me to. The main thing is that my characters would probably get used in a cool flash game idea I had... it wouldn't make sense to explain though, since you don't know who my characters are. If I don't win, my main characters from this comic will just probably be cameoed in future productions.

Obviously none of us NEED to win because it is a contest where we don't even know how much we will be paid for the contract should we win. It could be next to nothing. Personally I would be fine with that, it would be awesome just to say I was a published working artist.

Oh, sure, none of us need to win, but as someone who wants to make a career out of being a writer, this could be the best opportunity I'll have in a long time to get my foot in the door and my name out there.

Yeah, there's no "need" thing here... I mean, in reality. The pay might not be superb, but it might be chump change enough to kick start someone in the right direction... especially with the ability to put "published on the Escapist Magazine" for any future endeavors. To be completely honest, I had fun with the comics but I got a very serious face and treated my description to them more like a job application letter. Because, although this is a contest, its really no more than a store hiring a new employee. A bunch of people apply, one gets chosen for being proven the best potential employee. New employee gets to survive another day with a shiny new paycheck.

PS. Can anyone repost the list of judges? Totally missed that...

 

[Casts a Shadow]

Search the main contest pages and you can find the posting of the judges.

I too am planning on continuing no matter what happens...appearing at comic conventions, running a website for whatever comic I have going on, general shameless internet plugging.

And I certainly agree that the Escapist would look smashing on a resume.

 

[mynameissqrat]

Search the main contest pages and you can find the posting of the judges.

I too am planning on continuing no matter what happens...appearing at comic conventions, running a website for whatever comic I have going on, general shameless internet plugging.

And I certainly agree that the Escapist would look smashing on a resume.

I'm in the same boat with you pal. I got like nine arcs written up with two or three compleatly sketched out. I've already vowed to get my comic online. Sadly none of the drawn comics are my first arc, but hey I was just working on the comic back then to see how it would look. lol

 

[Daigerus]

Can open--worms everywhere.

Art is art. It is subjective and personal. Some folks take pride in details and quality, others in speed and quantitity. This debate here about artistic style will simply degenerate into fingerpointing and backbiting. In the end, the competition will be won on humor and writing--I hope.

I will say that the multiple posts here with sample art have convinced me that there are loads of young artists with shitloads more talent than I have. You guys have some really good stuff! I have tried to console myself that this is okay and that you guys are all artists by trade. It's true. That's your chosen craft! Say it!

Come on, humor and writing....

I'm kind of counting on the whole humor and writing too, given that the winner (or winners, if Spinwhiz's post is really typo-free) has to pump out two strips per week, and I'd rather focus more on the quality of writing than the art, in which I'm considerably drawing in a simpler style. Also, half the judges are masters when it comes to writing humor, so there's a chance they would lean towards the writing as well.

And you're not a bad artist yourself, because I checked out your website and I really enjoyed the animations, especially with Melton (I'm a dragon fan =P).

 

[Hat of Controversy]

Well, since others have posted their work here and are getting some cool criticisms and all, I think I'll put up a totally unrelated comic I did for my totally unrelated website.

Spoiler: Mario Mario Mario and then A-Weegee

Oodles and oodles of doodles galore.
Also, some harsh criticism would be preferred.