Comic art/ first time in eons

[Storn]

Here are 4 panels for Ultimate Martial Artist. The other 3 on the page and the next page will have to wait til publication for show -n-tell. Got have sumthin' to get people to want to crack the book open!

Anyway, I haven't done comics in years. So this was a lot of fun. Especially since it seemed to come up just recently on this board. It was time consuming, but gratifying, to combine my grayscale technique with storytelling, panels and stuff...

Hope y'all like.

Permission to post from steve long, doj, and all those Ultimate Martial Artists.

[Jon H]

Awesome. Light; framing; delicate washes. Especially the figures spilling out of the frame bottom right. Beautiful work Storn. It looks effortless.

[GB Steve]

I'm jealous of the effortlessness of your style.

I do wonder perhaps, and this is my only slight criticism, if you could not convey more movement in the frames. Perhaps this will come through with lettering.

Cheers,

[Storn]

Originally posted by GB Steve
I'm jealous of the effortlessness of your style.

I do wonder perhaps, and this is my only slight criticism, if you could not convey more movement in the frames. Perhaps this will come through with lettering.

Cheers,

Movement in the frames...like the frames themselves give direction? I thought there was quite a bit of movement within the frames, I make the eye go to each frame in the order I want...the last panel that you see leads to a row of 3 panels below, the kick forces your eye in that direction.

But thanks, Steve, Jon, this was not effortless by any stretch. I had to rework the pencil sketches many, many times to get everything to lay out the way I want.

[Noel Murphy]

Cool and the gang, but I think see what Steve means, there aren't the movement lines that denote swift kicks n' stuff. I used to read Oriental Heroes years ago and half the artwork was movement lines. You should just try a few hairline marks in the wake of the sword/hand etc. to see if it works. If you know what I mean. :confused: Other than that, it's top banana. I hope my try at a comic turns out half as good.:mad:
more, more!

[Steve T. Laws]

Very nice, Storn!

It's got a grand . . . elogance, and finesse are the first words to pop into my mind.

As to the matter of speedlines, motion blur, what have you? While I can see openings where you can place them I don't think I can see whether or not they'll add or take away from your pictures.

Sorry I can't help.

[Storn]

...I've always felt that they were kinda of a crutch. Don't know why I feel that way... its a feeling, not knowledge that I base this really weak argument upon.

I guess I feel if I can't convey the movement with placement of body, than speedlines aren't going to help.

I think there is a lightness about these panels that I'm very happy with. I think speed lines would have got in the way of that...of course, we are talking about degrees, perhaps the right amount of speedlines, with the right values of gray, would have really made it punchy.

I dunno. Not truly convinced either way.

but thanks for all the kind comments folks. I appreciate it.

[Eric Lofgren]

Originally posted by Storn
...I've always felt that they were kinda of a crutch. Don't know why I feel that way... its a feeling, not knowledge that I base this really weak argument upon.

I guess I feel if I can't convey the movement with placement of body, than speedlines aren't going to help.

I think there is a lightness about these panels that I'm very happy with. I think speed lines would have got in the way of that...of course, we are talking about degrees, perhaps the right amount of speedlines, with the right values of gray, would have really made it punchy.

I dunno. Not truly convinced either way.

but thanks for all the kind comments folks. I appreciate it.

Storn, I agree wholeheartedly with you, sure, speed lines do lend themselves to implying motion, but it is a device that is being used less and less these days, at least in the comics I read. Without all that extra clutter we're left here with graceful, fluid art work that jumps off the page all by itself with out the gimmicky aids (plus, your anatomy rules!). You're very good at this and I would like to see more.

Thanks for sharing,
Eric
www.ericlofgren.com

[Storn]

>>>graceful, fluid art work that jumps off the page all by itself with out the gimmicky aids (plus, your anatomy rules!). You're very good at this and I would like to see more.

<<<

wow. Thanks Eric. I really appreciate that. I know that I won't be able to post anymore of the Ultimate Martial Artist assignment for awhile...I could post some of my card art that just got published. Maybe I'll do that.

But again, thanks for the kind words. They mean a lot to me.

[Eric Lofgren]

Storn, is this actual comic work or is it RPG related?

[Storn]

>>Storn, is this actual comic work or is it RPG related?<<

This is for the Ultimate Martial Artist supplement for Hero 5th Ed rules by DOJ. Its a role-playing product...although its not the whole system in itself.

In the old days, only 2 Ultimate books made it to press. Ultimate Martial Artist and Ultimate Mentalist. Both are really support products for Champions (super hero role-playing in Hero System).

But the plan, now sorta ressurected by DOJ is to come up with more Ultimate books. Sorta super hero splat books for each genre archtype
Ultimate Speedster
Ultimate Power Armor
Ultimate Brick
...so on and so forth. I think there are a few more, but I can't remember.

I did artwork in the original UMA...now I get to revisit and work on the facelift. So I came up with the comic idea, which can either be split across a few pages... or printed on one page as needed by the layout folk. I'm also working on the cover right now. But that will take a few days.

Hope that helps.