Practice Comic Boards
2yr
Juan Sanchez
I wanted to show these boards because I got a kick out of David Finch's class. It motivated me into getting back into drawing comic boards once again. My passion and love for this industry has never left me. Thank you David for making this fun again.
Hey Juan,
I like your drawings, they have a lot of mood and are are well done.
I know you didn't ask for any critique, but I wanted to show you a few things that I think would make your pages a little more dynamic.
The first thing is that your characters are in the center of the panels for the most part. Some even line up throughout the whole page. This makes the pages look static and stiff, and diffuses the drama you are trying to convey.
The second thing is that all the characters are keeping the same poses throughout the story. They lack any sense of movement, and more importantly, emotion.
And third, the horizon line is basically in the same spot in all the panels.
Don't take this the wrong way, but I suspect that you are a TV board artist based on your composition. I say that because I have boarded for TV too, and that's the way they like it, everything in the center. Feature boards tend to use more dramatic compositions because they have the room and budget to do more. For comics, let it fly! really do some compositions and acting and camera angles that you wouldn't usually do.
I did a diagram of your pages and a few sketches to show you what I'm talking about, I hope they give you ideas and help with your pages. Can't wait to see more :)
I made a copy of your notes BTW. I didn't realize how much my mind makes subconscious patterns on my boards. It's like tangents for storytelling. Again, thanks for pointing these out Steve.
Thank you Steve for the critique. I really like your composition and info. I am playing with the rule of thirds and shape composition on the next 5 pages I am working on. Yes, I am an art director/storyboard artist (local 829) and there is a difference and sometimes huge discrepancy between storyboarding and comic art as you stated. Storyboarding is loose because the time restraints can be brutal especially if you are on location. Producers or directors want the work yesterday. So my initial difficulty was to tighten my lines and detail in comic boards.
There is some leeway with placement of principle characters in storyboarding (but they like usual straight on shots, like you said), you can play tricks with arrows, tilt angles and other angle descriptions. But you cannot do this obviously in comic books at all. Also there is the frame restrictions in storyboarding which is usually two size aspect ratios: one for TV and one for film (which if you are not careful, you can get very reliant on). You are unbound in comics. Any frame can go but as long as they help with the general flow of the story you are trying to describe (like the samples you showed). So I have certainly a LOT of respect for this medium of art and comic book artists in general.
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2yr
These are great! Really solid storytelling, and shot selections!
Thank you Patrick that means a lot. I work as a storyboard artist, so it helps. I found Proko by accident and decided to try it out. I got David Finch's course and I just bought the Marvel course. I will have another batch of boards done soon to show, hopefully, more progress.
