Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Advice to the Semi-Pro

 A while ago a fellow artist who's just getting started on his comics career sent me a drawing that showed Superman hovering and asked me to critique it.  The anatomy seemed fine, very workmanlike, and he drew a better Superman face than I do.  There was some background as well, which was nicely ruled.  Superman didn't quite look like he was hovering, tho.  His foot was overlapping a building in the b.g.  This made it look a bit like he was standing on it.  I suggested that he simply remove it and he did.  It now looked more like Supes was standing in midair.  Something was still off about it, something I couldn't quite put my finger on.  Then I found the image above.  Superman's feet were flat, as if he were standing on the ground.  You'll note that in the John Buscema art above, we can see the soles of the High Evolutioary's feet.  There is, in this case, no doubt that he's hovering.  That's storytelling!

1 comment:

Daniel Best said...

It's a difficult thing to draw people standing in mid-air. One of the best examples I've seen is this commission that Paul Ryan did for me: http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=50321&GSub=43506

Beautiful placement of the feet and makes it obvious that he's just hovering there. Oh, and it's a lovely piece of art to boot!