New Comic Progress...advice and critiques appreciated!

[Ben Bender]

Testing out some coloring for the book I'm working on. Thought I'd get some help from the comics community. The lettering on this page was a bit of a placeholder and I still need to patch over this to get it current with how I've lettered the rest of the book.

HH1.4 color test small for sending3.jpg

[Ben Bender]

Here's another color test. Hadn't edited out the language on this page yet. Sorry about that

Any advice or comments on potential changes is helpful and appreciated. Thanks!

HH1.5 color test small for sending2.jpg

[Ben Bender]

Another page.

HH1.6 color test small for sending.jpg

[Ben Bender]

Another color test for the book I'm working on. Thanks for any advice you might have.

HH 1.7 color small for sending.jpg

[Ben Bender]

Last one. Little bit different setting. Tried out some different things in some of the backgrounds.

HH1.14 small for sending.jpg

[Ben Bender]

Here's another colored page. Spent time playing with textures and whatnot to make the backgrounds more enjoyable to look at. Specifically left this page with talking heads so I could play around with that.

I like what I landed on, but definitely am open to hearing critiques. Thanks!



HH1.15 small.jpg

[Ben Bender]

Here's an inked page I scanned in for coloring. There are a few things in this I would like to redo/touchup, but I'm interested to hear other folks' opinions about it, first


HH1.8bw.jpg

[Ben Bender]

Still trying out coloring techniques. I'm not overly happy with the lines from this page. I had initially thought I'd do the book black and white, so I really didn't leave a whole lot of space to let the colors have an impact.

I liked some of what I found today, but there are things I'd like to change about this page's linework to open up some space and make the page a little easier on the eyes.




HH1.8 small.jpg

[Ben Bender]

Couple of tweaks on the last page...just trying to get a better sense of what I'm going for here.

HH1.8 small.jpg

[blackflypress]

wild! looks like a cartoon!

[Ben Bender]

Thanks! That's been the tough part. I've always seen it as an animated show in my head...very lively. And I want that to carry to the page. So your comment means I'm heading the right direction

[Ben Bender]

Went on vacation for a week, but I'm back at it! Trying to solidify techniques for this book. Tried out some more simplified coloring. I also think I should take a step back on the inking, and keep it a little more controlled. I had initially thought the book would be black and white, so I let the ink take up the "empty" space to keep the page interesting....and let me have some fun throwing ink around. But, with the way I've been coloring, some of the panels end up being just too darn busy. Hopefully this helps out!

I'd love to hear what anyone has to say! Always looking for ways to improve


HH1.9 small.jpg

[Ben Bender]

Playing around with inking digitally. I'm digging it way more than I thought I would. Found good brush setups to get me the look I've wanted....basically since I started thinking up the book, really. It's a nice cartoony look, but doesn't take me nearly as long as when I actually use a brush (or nib). Plus, I can fix big mistakes easily enough. So, this might be the way I go.


HH1.1 v2 small.jpg

[Ben Bender]

Little more progress. Super busy these past few days, and this weekend, with work stuff, but I'm trying to keep picking away at this bad boy. I'm really liking the look. Still a bit of a learning curve, but I think it's worth it. I always had this book in mind as an animated cartoon feel. I think this is as close as I've gotten that so far, so I'm pretty happy with it.

Hopefully I'll have it all finished up today. Doubt I'll get around to coloring it this weekend, but things should be back to normal next week and I'm really looking forward to seeing this colored!

HH1.1 v2 small.jpg

[Ben Bender]

Basically finished now. I will probably re-do the writing on the workplace accident board and "Moist and Meaty" food cart. But other than that...I'm okay with what I've got here. The digital inking has been an experience, and I'm definitely going to lean this way going forward. I'm excited to see what the next pages will come out like.

HH1.1 v2 small.jpg