Ohk here we go.
Let us start first with a redline I did of the body in question.
Do you see what I'm seeing.
This is such a difficult pose to do correctly so I sympathize. The female body works similar to the male body in terms of poses. Before you try difficult poses like this, I suggest going back to simpler shapes and just practice drawing the female form. Do life drawings of nude female models, understand how the muscles work together with breasts and hips as those are the most defining characteristics of a woman.
So I attempted to do the pose myself
AUGH MY BACK OUCH I nearly sprained it for you BE APPRECIATIVE.
I had only three seconds to get back into position before the camera went so forgive me it's not as exact. But it gives a good enough idea. It's a very uncomfortable pose, coming from someone with the flexibility to put both her legs behind her neck.
IF YOU ARE GOING FOR A NEUTRAL POSE THAT ISN'T IMPLYING EXERTION OF THE BODY OR MUSCLES, MAKE SURE TO MAKE IT LOOK SO. This pose does not look relaxed. It looks like she is straining to do that pose.
Number one Number one lesson: Life drawings. Do a lot of life drawings to learn the female body and how to manipulate it into different perspectives/poses.
Speaking of female form I gots tiddies I drew
PART 2: ZANG'S COMIC
Zang wrote:yea, i noticed that too. Worked up a bit of an edit to try and fix it
any better?
THIS ONE IS GONNA BE A DOOZY MAYBE HOLD ON TO YOUR BUTT
Ohkay Zang comic making is not as easy as putting panels and expecting people to figure it out because I think you're assuming people will faithfully follow from left to right.
This is how my eye is drawn throughout your comic.
With each comic page, you MUST consider how it FLOWS. People will not just follow dead on left to right. They will follow what DRAWS THEIR EYE FIRST. This is very important to remember because you want people to focus ONLY on what is vital for the story and what they should take in. For instance, you don't have to draw a background for every panel if you have already established that you are in a particular place.
Let me give a more clear example by my good mentor SCOTT MCCLOUD
I highly recommend his books btw. He's amazing and highly intelligent. It's a how-to draw graphic novels in graphic novel form so he perfectly illustrates his points. Great books!
ANYWAY Lets think about this for a moment.
Panel one: Establish the scene protagonist will enter into.
Panel two: Show same scene but protagonist entering, setting a course for the rest of the page from jumping out a window to escape.
Panel three: Show how protagonist safely enters into the next scene on the streets.
Panel four: Show Protagonist's face saying "Nailed it!"
Panel 5: Arrow.
Panel 6: Arrow barely misses protagonists head, as he dodges.
Panel 7: Protagonist runs away from onslaught of arrows saying "Okay they're a bit peeved."
Panel 8: Holding Key as he says "But that's okay...."
Consider this the script. Everything here is the basic gist of each panel. How do you best convey each one WHILE each panel flows into each other logically and hassle-free?
See, after the first three panels, which I think are fine, the protagonist's face is the first thing I will read and notice. Humans are most attracted to faces they recognize as similar to their own. Thus, readers will typically look to the face first rather than the arrow. The panels are waaaaay too close together and I honestly think there are too many. It makes things look jumbled without a clear direction!
I went back and edited it to just ONE example of how to accomplish this. There are INFINITE possibilities but it just needs to be CLEAR AND EASY TO READ/UNDERSTAND.
The first panels are fine and they are clear while flowing well into each other. But the way the other panels are set up are not only kept confined into stuffy panel boxes, lacking any room to breathe, but they're not giving a clear idea of what the reader should read next!
In my edit, the first and formost thing is "The protagonist is safe after such a dramatic leap of faith." Don't just show the head. That breaks the emotional impact of the scene. Showing a triumphant, full body scene WITH a newly established background behind him will keep the tone intact. The arrow does not need its own panel. Try to convey what you're trying to say in AS LITTLE AMOUNT OF PANELS AS POSSIBLE. Too many and it gets disorganized. The last panel had waaaaay too much room for itself when all we're focusing on is the Key, which is important. But giving too much room in the panel dilutes the impact way too much. It's easier for the readers to focus on the Key if its in a smaller panel.
Also remember that it's very important how you organize the WORDS. Make sure the words aren't intruding into the space and don't distract the reader from seeing important visual information in the artwork.
Just remember HIERARCHY. What is most important for the tone, emotion and story? It's a lot of work and as such, it's best to sketch out each page and ask people how they read them.
