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Zolens Comics



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Sat Feb 06, 2016 3:48 am
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Zolen says...



I have been making a few things, one of them being a series of short stories in various styles of mine. As I go, practicing, if anyone is willing to share their thoughts, that would be nice.

Story 1: The Tower with one window.
Spoiler! :
Image

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Full size: http://unendingdreamer.deviantart.com/a ... -588030511
(in author comments you will find links to each page)



Story 2: For that's the way it's meant to be.

Last edited by Zolen on Fri Feb 12, 2016 11:18 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Self quoting is the key to sounding wise and all knowing.
  





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Sat Feb 06, 2016 4:10 am
LordZeus says...



The tower sounds like the tower from the online game Lucky Tower to me :P !
Apart from that, this is a very intriguing story! I only wish you would've told us what her wish was...perhaps in a follow-up comic?
In any case, very well done!
  





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Sat Feb 06, 2016 4:13 am
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Wolfi says...



Enspoilered spoilers for other readers ~
Spoiler! :
THAT IS CRUEL. I had an inkling that this never-ending tower build up was some sort of cruel trick on your readers to make them hate you. Gah! How dare you?! (Seriously though, this is brilliant!)

Excellent illustrations and beautiful style. I'd love to read more of your comics! :)
John 14:27:
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.
I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled
and do not be afraid.
  





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Sat Feb 06, 2016 4:24 am
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Zolen says...



Spoiler! :
@LordZeus A mystery solved is quickly forgotten, a mystery left unanswered stays in your heart.

@Wolfie36 Glad you like it :D


@Wolfie36 More short stories will come, however it shall be in another one of my styles. If you want to guess which, look at my icon, (corner of each page) which shows the 4 I mostly use.

@LordZeus never heard of it before, googled it, fun little flash game was found. Thanks for the fun. :D
Last edited by Zolen on Sat Feb 06, 2016 5:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
Self quoting is the key to sounding wise and all knowing.
  





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39 Reviews



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Sat Feb 06, 2016 4:34 am
LordZeus says...



Your welcome @Zolen ! I rather like that game, I used to play it all the time. I'm glad you like it too!
  





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Sun Feb 07, 2016 5:38 am
Zolen says...



@LordZeus hm, in repayment, I suggest MotherLoad, a mining game that is surprisingly addicting. If you have not seen/heard of it.
Self quoting is the key to sounding wise and all knowing.
  





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Sun Feb 07, 2016 5:58 am
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Tecumseh says...



You do have an obvious aesthetic, which is good, since you can pick out that there's a specific, given style right off the bat, and that's something many artists struggle to do.

As a composition, however, the first page has several weak points that seem to stem from a lack of depth in terms of contrast and/or value. Compare them to the other pages, which have more black and contrast, and the subsequent pages pull the first page right out of the water.

It's a particular issue with the first page because this is where the narrative's mood should be made clear, and where we should be given a reason to turn the page (or scroll down), but its execution of both goals are weak. The mood is ambiguous because the there is little to no contrast directing the eye to what's important, little to no variation in the camera angle (always a far shot, always parallel to the ground with one exception), and little to no sense of depth.

By depth I mean there are little to no uses of any of these techniques: atmospheric perspective, contrast of line weight or value, or overlapping elements (like in panel 2, but the value of the foreground and middle ground are so close together they bleed into each other and the sense of depth is lost). You don't have to use all of these, but in order to give a sense of depth and thus atmosphere, you ought to use ONE of them, like you did in panel 2 page 2 showing the staircase. There is little reason to turn the page or scroll down because the lack of atmosphere combined with the content of the last panel is sort of a let down. The way the empty room is presented looks like it reveals everything, removes any sense of mystery, and the narrator says literally, 'there was nothing.' Because visually there is no sense of mood/atmosphere, it comes off as a very literal, 'there was nothing.' Dramatic lighting and a few more dynamic angles could really enhance these pages in general.

You're off to a good start! I think you will definitely benefit from deliberately thinking about composition and contrast in the future, and if you practice a little more with your sense of 3D form such as figure drawing and perspective, you will come up with different camera angles more naturally and start planning better compositions.
  





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Sun Feb 07, 2016 6:25 am
Zolen says...



@Tecumseh thank you for your thoughts, this is all very helpful.
Self quoting is the key to sounding wise and all knowing.
  





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Sun Feb 07, 2016 7:12 am
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Tecumseh says...



No problem. I am happy to go over these panels more in depth if you wish, or even draw over them and put forth some suggestions, if you are interested.

Who are your artistic influences? Please excuse me if I am telling you stuff you already know, since I do not know anything about you as an artist beyond this thread.

If you want to stick with this limited palette and block shading style, you could benefit from looking through black-and-white only comics that really push it, like Sin City by Frank Miller.
  





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Sun Feb 07, 2016 6:21 pm
Zolen says...



@Tecumseh All of this is in the name of practice, so the more I can learn for when I start doing my real comic in painting style the better. If your willing to go that far, please, and thank you.


As a frequent media consumer I can't really name where I got my styles at this point, too many possible sources, but I can name motives, this style being first devised when I wanted to make a 'legend' style story in the past. I enjoyed the minimalism of the idea I came up with and started slowly refining it to what you see now.

if you want to know what my styles look like
Spoiler! :
my most recent, just pay attention to coloring and line art, the character body was me simply mimicking toon link. That's not how I handle bodies in this style normally, but I can't find another recent quality image in this style to use as a example.
Image

The story book you already seen as used when not limiting myself on colors.
Image

What I call painting style, the one I mentioned above.
Image


hm, I'll see if I can pick up a copy if it's not too expensive then.
Self quoting is the key to sounding wise and all knowing.
  





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110 Reviews



Gender: Male
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Reviews: 110
Fri Feb 12, 2016 11:19 pm
Zolen says...



next comic starting, first page of second comic visable in first post.
Self quoting is the key to sounding wise and all knowing.
  





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110 Reviews



Gender: Male
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Reviews: 110
Thu Feb 25, 2016 6:09 pm
Zolen says...



Computer issues have slowed down comic making, but once that's fixed the second comic should be 3 a week
Self quoting is the key to sounding wise and all knowing.
  








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