Break – Shading Process 02

I'll talk about shading hair on Tuesday and backgrounds on next Friday.

Story pages will resume Tuesday, August 19th.

13 Comments

yay, GIMP

Please don’t hate me for this… but I like Jake’s face in panel 2 better in the second version you show here. In fact, I generally like your second sample here the best, of the three… but the first one is quite good, too. The final draft looks odd to me. Maybe “exaggerated” would be a good description.

I know you need to be able to feel that you’re getting just the look you want for these Reality pages, but honestly, I think you may be over-refining or rendering or whatever you want to call it. 🙂

I’m actually with you on this. I liked Jake’s face better in the second example, and find Reality pages to be a little over-refined, with lots of contrast between dark and light. Aneeka deserves applause for doing what she does, and I’d personally never have the patience or the courage to try and understand shading – I’m just saying that it costs her more work and I think it’s already pretty good.

I also would agree with the before said comments for myself as well.

And also thank you for both the comic which I have enjoyed for awhile now, and these “how it’s done” segments, they are interesting to see/read.

Huh. Never considered I was over-rendering.

It’s possible that the second one makes Jake and Walter look younger/handsomer and not as haggard (which I don’t want since this is post-apocalyptic). It’s also possible the shading references I’m using all have stark contrast (in order to help me see the shading) and might be over-influencing me. Also, this is the first time of having a well-lit Reality scene instead of a poorly-lit one (which would require stark contrast) so I’m probably way out of my league, too.

I shall do more experimenting to see how to fix this…

Have you seen my comment back at the first page of this wip preview? The methood I mentioned that a few comic authors have also adapted works well to get this sort of feedback as a page is made, by posting the wip’s of each page and just update it with progress.

Pretty much instead of posting the finished page, you instead post the WIP, each of these stages, we get to enjoy the story, and see the pages as there made, the page is just over written with the next stage as it comes, and you get the added bonus of feedback from your fans, that can give you advice such as we see here. It can help you improve in the long run.

I did. I’m still…debating on it.

I don’t think it’s just that the characters are less handsome or more haggard. It could be partially that you’re using gray instead of brown as your shading color. In any case, The faces look sort of grubby in the final versions. But besides that, you’ve got an environment with light coming from almost all sides. You should have some occlusion shadows, and some sheen on the skin (since they’re exerting themselves, and also nervous), but no heavy shadows.

I’ll try to do a quick video for you on how to use DAZ Studio to make a lighting reference.

Yeah, the green wall curving like that looks weird to me. Their architecture, but…that just looks weird.

So about the differences between the faces in panel 2 and panel 4: I’m a bit of an artist as well, and faces are HARD to get just right, and be consistent. But the main difference I notice is that Jake’s face isn’t as long in panel two, and it looks younger and more fleshed out. The set of the jaw is less angular too. I think part of this is due to the way you shade the cheeks, but not all. I have a really hard time doing faces in profile too. Keep experimenting and you’ll eventually get it right.

I’d like to add something to that. Don’t be a downer on yourself, Aneeka. Your art continues to get better and you keep to your word. The latter is perhaps even more impressive because all too many hit the wall of hard work and just give up. But you have hit that wall many a time already. You just climb over it and ready yourself for the next wall. So don’t fret. You will go where many who started with greater talent will never get near. To the place where you can point out you many completed projects with pride.

I love how you draw the real people as more beaten than their L.i.F.E avatars. It really shows the hardships of life outside the virtual world. Specially, I like Jake’s face on the third panel, he looks thin, presumably because of lack of food in real life. Also, these little explanations are good to read. Keep up the good work!

I’ll agree with Hrod Ruck here. Your reality is lifelike! 🙂 And, Thank You for giving us this glimpse behind the scenes. It’s obvious you really put a lot into your art!

Not A Villain Webcomic

Webcomic of a semi- reformed hacker trying to redeem herself in a post- apocalyptic world she may have created.

Break – Shading Process 02