Now for something serious...

[secondlina]

Another day, another page. Namesake updated this morning. Recently, me and dqbunny  noticed that we got two reviews for Namesake on the internet, here and here. Generally good/encouraging reviews. One of the main recurring elements in reviews such as these and in many, many, many comments by friends is the fact that the art is gorgeous, but the sporadic coloring is annoying and distracting. Basically, for those of you who don't know, the comic goes from color to black and white more-or-less randomly because I don't have the free time needed to color. Also, i'm not much of a colorist to start off with. Though I myself like this type of coloring, it seems most people don't.

With chapter 4 coming in, we need to take a decision on what to do next. Among our options, we can :

• Make the webcomic full color. This will however require us to either purchase a time machine, make the update schedule more sporadic or outsource the coloring. The problem with this idea is that i'm not Doctor Who, I don't want to make the updates more spaced out (3 times a week already doesn't seem like enough!) and hired help usually likes getting paid.
• Make the webcomic fully in black and white. The problem with this issue is the fact that color is often important to the story.

So what then?

The best compromise I found was not to eliminate the color, but to regularize it. I mean, what's annoying for Namesake readers is not the color itself, but rather how random it is. So from now on (aka, starting chapter 4), I was thinking doing things like this :

• The chapter page and the first 2 to 3 pages of each chapter are in color.
• The rest of the chapter is in black and white, with small details or isolated characters in color, as seen on these two page :

I think it's the best idea to keep the comic regularly updated, have me survive the process and keep things pretty. What do you guys think? Any and all suggestions are appreciated!

- Isa

p.s. Have some sketches of Emma. I love drawing her so much it's crazy. Mostly it's her nose and hair. I can't wait to get to put her hair up.

Comments

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

(Suki in the icon is perfect, I feel like i'm hearing her voice sharing wisdom)

The black and white can work. I was thinking of using the random colored panels just for important stuff (like in these two cases, underlinging the characters powers) but there would not be colored panels everywhere. That's for sure...

If it's jsut to underline important stuff, is the random panel efficient?

[yukinoomoni.livejournal.com]

Yesyesyes. I totally think that's an excellent idea. That way, you can play with colour, while not having to commit to it and break your hand. I firmly support non-breaking of hands =3.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this hand makes comics! :D

Well, the whole black and white with important panels or objects colored does have an advantage. You can really play with things. Heck, I wanted to draw a panel where Emma puts on the green goggles to enter the emerald city. Just the goggles would be green, and then, once they are on, the grayscale would go to greenscale, like in the Ozma flashback... You can basically have a ton of fun.

Gah, I wish I figured out how to regularize this BEFORE starting.

[yukinoomoni.livejournal.com]

Don't take it too hard, hon. This is your first major webcomic - the best you can do is keep moving and keep working. The thing about the current criticism is that above all, it's still positive - the only thing you can do with it is continue to grow from it.

The comic is so young - newborn, almost. It continues to grow on and one from here.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Come to think of it, having important colored details is what i'm doing with Psychopompes and i'm much more confortable with it. :D

[yukinoomoni.livejournal.com]

There we go! So then, you already know how to do it.

What is Psychopompes?

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

It's the printed comic i'm working on. You cans ee the first 2 pages here (warning for gore) :

http://secondlina.livejournal.com/175775.html