Still goofin' with this, trying to find the right fit style and porportions-wise.

I really like the second one. I think fan art generally looks better if it is not in a flat perspective.

I agree with Evans, second one is the way to go. It feels much more dynamic and interesting as compared to the fuller-bodied one, to me.

Alright, I'm gonna fudge with the shadows and move on to page two. I can't say I'm super happy with this, but I'm never gonna finish if this book if I don't let go.

Agree with everyone else, the upshot is a more dramatic angle. Given the mood you're trying to establish, my tip would be to embrace using more blacks. Bust out those old Sin City and Hellboy books to see what I mean. Wrightson is the master, but his rendering and linework is at such a high level that you can really go down a rabbit hole trying to emulate someone that most people just can't -- his hand control and patience is just off the charts.

I hope this is cool, but I put this bad boy into my iPad to give you an idea of what I mean --

Remember -- no one can see the rest of the room, so the shadows don't all have to make sense. Focus on building an appealing design that ramps up the drama.

That's awesome! Do you mind if I steal a lot of this for the page?

Thanks for the help - that is really cool of you.

Do whatever you want, I'm mostly following the light source you established in the drawing.

I did break that light source when I felt it would enhance the sense of depth, create more clarity, or contribute to a more appealing visual design.

Keep in mind, I did this off the seat of my pants without a lot of thought -- almost all improvisation -- so please push anything you like further and give it more thought than I did.

Remember, other artists have worked this stuff out -- break out Mignola, Sin City, Toth, etc.

Also, vary your line weights more.

Y'know, the Hanzo-fixed version kinda gives me a Paul Pope vibe.

A lot of my reaction is - that's brilliant. Why wasn't I already doing this??? LOL

I'll import it into Clip Studio and see what I can do.

This was already mostly done before your previous advice, so I couldn't show me adapting the process suggestions you gave. I'll do that for page two and see how it turns out.

My advice -- blacks first, then rendering lines. You'll come to find you don't need so many rendering lines.

I sure discovered that when I put that shadow in. I covered up a couple hours work.

Alright, quick and dirty black-spotting with a Micron brush-pen. I will clean and sharpen this up on the computer later.

Improvement, or did I fudge the whole thing up?

I think I fudged it up.

I need to be doing this on the Wacom.

I've been having a hard time getting motivated to draw lately and this is getting my juices going for some reason, so I went ahead and did a mini inking tutorial -- not that I'm an expert or my way is the best way, but just to show you how I do things as a potential process to consider.

This is all quick and dirty and I should have been more careful and deliberate about my line weights and some of the other choices I make, but since this is just a demo for fun, I'm not going to sweat it.

First, I do the outlines (I couldn't tell what that large black area is, so I just made it a standard neck tie --




Then, I spot the blacks. I do this by outlining where I think they should go and then filling them in (this turns out to be a very common method, whether on paper or digital) --






And then I do the rendering lines (too lazy to do whatever pattern is on the back wall, LOL) --

I actually like it better without the rendering lines -- I think I went a little overboard so it would look substantially different from the "spotting blacks" step for the purposes of the demo.

Wow, that's way above and beyond Hanzo. Super appreciated!

Actually, I like the more rendered version. Next step (in my dream style, anyway) would to get all Gerhard on the textures.

For posterity, this is the point I said, fuck it I'm going digital. No amount of white-out is gonna save this one.

OK, I hate to admit it, but this was way easier and much faster on the computer....

Trev learning to draw: