TWCL

[Casual Notice]

I'd bite, but I know what JD thinks of my comic, and his critiques for me run largely along the lines of "Do you draw with your feet?"
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What I lack in sincerity, I make up for in sarcasm.
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[munkymu]

Casual Notice wrote:

I'd bite, but I know what JD thinks of my comic, and his critiques for me run largely along the lines of "Do you draw with your feet?"

You might want to stop doing that. Carpal heel is an ailment not to be trifled with!
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[Lifes a Witch]

JD re Life's a Witch:

Don't worry about the earliest stuff. If you would please evaluate from Jan2007 onward as that is how I am intending to go on. It would take about 30-45 minutes to read through from there unless you have a really slow connex.
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[chasecorbeau]

Re: facial expressions

I don't look in the mirror for this, but I tend to feel what the characters are feeling and make the appropriate facial expression while I'm drawing -- i.e. I feel the muscle tension in my face, and it makes it easy to draw... subconsciously... am I making sense?

Having something to look at can help, but if you can feel something as well, it gives you a deeper level of understanding and helps your work come alive more.
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[jdalton]

Dpat57: Thanks! Every time I think about taking that old,old comic down someone comes along and tells me not to. So I guess it stays a little longer.

Mirz: No worries. In my day job I'm an elementary school teacher, I think I'm capable of recognizing the importance of target audiences.

CN- Feet? nooo. I'd never say that. At worst you're drawing with your mouth.

Chase: I'm sure I make lots of weird faces when I'm drawing expressions. But when I get stuck, the mirror seems to work best for me.

I'll get to the next comic, but not today- busy, busy, busy.
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Jonathon Dalton

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[wendyw]

This is an experiment.

Edit: Looks like it worked. The thread no longer seems to be hiding.
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Blog

[Lord Pandar]

I'm pretty sure the guest account posted in this thread, & ever since that Russian Pumbaa spammer incident guest account posts seem to make threads disappear.
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[thestripedone]

I could see it the whole time, so maybe I'm immune?

[wendyw]

Odd and odd.

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Blog

[jdalton]

Lord Pandar wrote:

I'm pretty sure the guest account posted in this thread, & ever since that Russian Pumbaa spammer incident guest account posts seem to make threads disappear.

Oops, yeah. That's what I forgot to do- I forgot to sign in. Thank goodness for back buttons and ctrl-C. Anyways, here's Samantha's review as promised.

Lifes a Witch wrote:

...Don't worry about the earliest stuff. If you would please evaluate from Jan2007 onward as that is how I am intending to go...

Here goes review number two, at level two.

I might not have as much to say this time because most of the potential issues I've been able to spot have obviously been gradually improving. Your drawing has gotten better, there are more panel boundaries (the earlier strips without clear panel divisions were bugging me), more backgrounds, and less Photoshoppiness. All of these things still could be improved, I think, but I can see that you're already working on them. I do want to encourage you to draw more backgrounds though. Your comic is set in a very familiar, domestic setting so you can in fact get away with leaving out a lot of background details, but if you were to (say) double the amount of time you spend drawing backgrounds, either by including more details or having fewer panels without them, I think it would both ground your characters more in reality and make the magical elements you include stand out.

The other art-related thing I'd like to suggest is to work more on polishing up your drawing. The "inking" as it were. I must admit a certain amount of bias against digital drawing. There are plenty of people out there who can prove me wrong, but I do prefer the appearance of hand-drawing, even when things are not hand-drawn. However you make your comics, though, an extra layer of attention on the final arrangement of lines could serve you well. But as I say, your drawing is something that is already showing noticeable improvement over time, so maybe that's as much as I can ask.

Life's a Witch is another comic that only made me smile rather than laugh out loud. I dunno, maybe I'm just a tough one to please when it comes to comedy. Again, I don't really have any helpful advice for you. I do like the characters. They are personable, believable, and non-stereotypical. All good things. I find I care what happens to them. The world they inhabit is an interesting one too, without being too unfamiliar or dominating the story over the characters. I would be in favour of more mini story arcs, like the trip to Mallwart or the magic shoes. Those things seem to work well.

Erm, yeah. As I say, not very helpful this time. My best advice is... keep heading in the direction you're going, I guess. This comic might not yet be "star material" in webcomicland, but if/when it gets to that point, you will have a large and respectable archive that will serve the future development of your characters.
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Jonathon Dalton

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[Lifes a Witch]

Thank you for taking the time to do that, jdalton. I value your opinion very much. I am pleased to see that my efforts to improve are noticeable. And yes, I am working on more storylines and backgrounds! Hooray! I appreciate the validation that I am moving in the right direction.
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[GregC]

Okay, you've got me curious. I've gotten lots of love and hate recently - I want to see where you stand on Abandon. Definitely a Level 3. It will be much appreciated.
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nothing to see here. move along.

[RentAThug]

This is a really cool idea for a thread. I'd love to hear what you think of Rent-A-Thug. Probably somewhere between Webcomicland and Printcomicland, since there's a little of both in it.
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Crime Pays, updating Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

[tbowl]

You need a 4th level. Your comic is bad and you should feel bad.

Those're the only kind of reviews I ever get. :/ Unsolicited of course.

OH yea, and I love the idea! I'm glad I read this thread now.
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tbowl

[Siabur]

Ah, what the hell, throw my hat in as well. I suppose Level 2ish.
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