Arden Belfry's work

Hey Everyone, here is some of my work. Feel like I am starting to plateau a bit and could use some critiques.

Thank you

@ardenbelfry:

First ones inking fits the picture.

The penciled ones don`t need ink at all (then go trough Levels on photoshop) or need to be inked with a fine line.

The penciled work. Elements aren`t discernable. My suggestion is, you put emphasis on certain stuff.

For example the characters in that ocean image. Or the water, and leave the characters untouched. I tend to do this with colors.

On the Dr. Fate-image, characters are definitely the ones who need limelighting.

Third one looks placid. The inking style you used for it, fits the first picture, but not that fourth one.

@kfhrfdu_89_76k: Thank you, I will definitely work on making certain elements pop. If you have any suggestions on how or know of a tutorial that would help, I would appreciate it. I work mostly in pencil, inking is just something I have started to do recently. Thank you again.

@ardenbelfry:

I tend to use colors and inking, on the elements I feel need to stand out.

You`ll find your own way.

But no, I have no tutorials in mind. = /

@kfhrfdu_89_76k: appreciate it, thank you

I really like these pal both pencils and inks, maybe you could be bolder and add more solid darker areas to draw you deeper into the picture, Keep at it

@gazofthedead: Thank you, that's actually where I think I need to head too. I have been looking at the pencils and inks of Jim Lee, David Finch and Jason Fabok, a lot of Batman in there, and you see a recurring theme of a dark background and light character or a light background and a dark character (dark and light being amount of ink on page). I have noticed that for Jim Lee especially around the face or head will have a light background, a lot of breaks in the clouds, allowing him to put a lot more ink and detail on the face. Am trying to figure out how to do this for my own style. Thank you for your comment, I believe you are right and hope to have something better soon.

@ardenbelfry

Please dont think i was being over critical like i said i really like your style, take a look at Barry Windsor Smith and maybe Moebius as well.

Would like to see any Sci Fi stuff if you have any.:

Fantastic!!

@gazofthedead: Please be critical, a person can't get better if no one critiques their work. I haven't looked much at WSB but Moebius I have, and I love is work. His layout is amazing, he can do with one line what everyone else tries and fails to do with 100. Luis Royo is also amazing, you should check out his work.

this is as close as I have to sci-fi at the moment. I love sci-fi and will be doing a short comic in the near future, finishing up another short for Cemetery Plots, that will be sci-fi.

@galactic_1000: Thank you

Your skill really shines with the creatures you create, they look amazing. I know I have this problem with my scanner and you might want to fiddle with the settings too when trying to scan, sometimes images scan too bright. I hate doing this though, a real pain when having to adjust it when the drawing is with the same tool. All that said, I guess it depends on if you're scanning or taking a picture of it to upload.

@egod: Thank you, and yes the scanner can be a pain in the ass. I find that I either get it to bright and end up loosing things or it comes in to dark and looks greyed out. Plus some of these are from my sketch book, so the shadow on the bird lady for example is to caused by the fold of the book, my sketchbook is a hard cover.

@ardenbelfry: lol I didn't notice the shadow on the bird lady. I get that a lot too with pencil sketches, I try using the gutter correction, which helps sometimes. I do find anything pencil is very hard to try and edit in a scanner, like you said it turns grey and if you try to edit that out, it makes some of the image vanish. At one point I did have my scanner working right for pencil sketches and rescanned a lot of images, but alas, I completely forgot what settings I had. My scanner has the settings for documents, photo, magazine, black and white, etc, but that doesn't always work either. Curse you modern technology!!!!

@egod: Lol, ya I hear you. The only thing I found that worked was when I started to use an H lead instead of 2H for my finished pieces. I still have to put paper down or it smudges but it works better. HB I find just goes to dark.

@ardenbelfry

These are great, let us know when your Short stories are out and how to get them. :

@gazofthedead: Will do, thank you

Love your work, man. Especially the soldier, he looks awesome.

@ardenbelfry:

The latest pictures are solid work.

@kfhrfdu_89_76k: thank you

@ardenbelfry:

You have some really solid stuff here but there are a few things that might help.

• You have a decent grasp on your anatomy, but you need to keep it consistent. For example on the very top third picture on the right, the woman's feet are WAY too small.
• On your inking, remember to vary your line weight. Things that are closer to the camera will have slightly heavier lines (this can be tricky to not over do). Also lines that are closer to the ground should be slightly heavier to give the figure a sense of weight. The caped soldier is a good example of this, the outer edge of the cape should be a bit thicker than it is, and the bottom edge of his arm and the weapon as well. If it was me, I'd make the Dr. Fate helmet lines fairly thick as well (remember to be careful with going TOO far.) it'll make it stand out MUCH better and help bring it into the foreground.
• I really like the values of blacks you did on the (Is that Herne?) picture very top on the left hand side. Only doing outlines on the background elements and things moving from lighter to darker values (shades) as they come closer to the camera.
• Really like the hooded bird woman, very dynamic pose. IMO the only thing missing is the varying line weights.

That's all I've got. Hope I helped a little at least.

@heroup2112: Thank you, I great appreciate all your insight. I didn't even notice you the feet till you mentioned it. I will work on my line weight, I have been trying to do a bit of that, but obviously not enough. I had never heard of putting lines thicker to the ground, thank you for suggesting that.

It is Herne, though I will admit I know him as Cernunnos, he's haunted my imagination since I first saw him as a kid on an old Robin Hood tv show.

I hope to have more work to show soon, I have been busy doing a few shorts for Cemetery Plots comics 3 and 4, and have just started on one for Empire Labs Actionology. I hope to have some stuff to show when they come out.

Thank you again Heroup2112

Slight addition, warning nipples.

My pleasue. That's AWESOME that you're getting work. Also, that Robin Hood show (the first series anyway) was one of the best shows I've ever seen, AND where I first heard of Herne.

Do me a favor if you would and give me an opinion on this, please. It's eight years old but I'm mainly wanting an opinion on the sequential story telling aspect. Sequential Art

I like it. There's some really good stuff here.

That's some good advice. Good point on the line weights. Once you get good with using varying line weights, it can really help your drawings look more 3-dimensional and it helps with shadowing and many other things.

I just wanted to add one thing, which is to be careful with the cross-hatching. I'm not saying that it should never be used, but cross-hatching is a hard technique to use well and usually it tends to flatten out and clutter things. I would suggest just trying to avoid it for now until you get a better feel for when it works and doesnt work for you.

Your rendering is generally pretty good, and what I think is needed (to avoid the desire to go to the cross-hatching) is to vary the line weights in the rendering. So, go from thicker in the darker/more shadowed areas to lighter weight in the brighter part. You're already following the contours of the shape well, so you just need that little extra variation in weights to make it look better.

@willpayton: Hey Will, thank you for your input. Sounds like Line Weight should be on the top of my list to work on. I appreciate your candor about my cross hatching. You are right Bad cross hatching can destroy a piece and good cross hatching can make one. I am not good at it yet, but I don't think I am that bad either, "somewhere in between I guess." I will just have to keep practising till I get good at it. Thank you

Trying some line weight,

@ardenbelfry said:

Trying some line weight,

Nice work.

@willpayton: Thank you Will

Probably entering dead post area, should do a zombie pic for that. but here are some recents

Real nice work here!

@armiv2: Thank you

@ardenbelfry: Welcome!