Round 2: Andrew Huerta

[AzIz]

click on images

http://brainiac.boilingpoint.com/~cbi3/andrewhuerta/WoLost1sm.jpg (http://brainiac.boilingpoint.com/~cbi3/andrewhuerta/WoLost1.jpg)

Page 2
http://brainiac.boilingpoint.com/~cbi3/andrewhuerta/Wlost2sm.jpg (http://brainiac.boilingpoint.com/~cbi3/andrewhuerta/Wlost2.jpg)

Page 3
http://brainiac.boilingpoint.com/~cbi3/andrewhuerta/Wlost3sm.jpg (http://brainiac.boilingpoint.com/~cbi3/andrewhuerta/Wlost3.jpg)

AH

[jameslucasoni]

While I think this is a significant step above your pages from Round 1, I'm still not sure how ready you are for prime time. I like the different posing and panel layouts you used for the first three panels, but I think there's a creepiness to your characters that really messes with the somewhat sweet and very nostalgic vibe the story is supposed to have. It all looks kind of sinister to me. I think the posing in panel 6 is pretty awkward and I'm not getting the almost dream like feeling I should be out of this kind of reminiscence.

I like the silhouette technique on page 2 but I think you overuse it and what could have been a nice, powerful tool instead feels like a cheat for someone who was running out of time. Also, in one of the panels you did do a full drawing for, you shot the couple from the back in a way that wasn't particularly communicative or emotional. Backs to the camera are a tricky thing and if you're going to use that kind of blocking you need to make sure you use it with purpose and effectiveness, neither of which are happening here.

The third page is probably your strongest for conveying the actual emotions called for in the script, but even then, I don't feel like the third panel captures the right moment of the action and I'm perplexed by the muscle definition of the arms in the rainy panel. Your focus for the final panel is solid, but the framing and blocking in the panel before it feels very staid and boring. It doesn't quite do the job.

Overall, Andrew, I think you are a talented guy, but you have a few hundred pages to draw before you're really ready to get over that hump.

[C.B. Cebulski]

I like a lot of what I see here, Andrew, but there's an inconsistency in some of your work that I think you need to get a better handle on.

On page one, in the first panel and last two panels, your female characters look almost evil. There's supposed to be an almost sweet innocence to this story and that does not come across on their faces. However, in panel three, I love what you did with the stoner chicks, especially the look, expression and gesture of the girl all the way on the left. Very natural. And while I like what you did with the look of my hat as it's placed on my head with the rounded brim in the inset, I think you failed to keep it's placement, size and look consistent in the later panels.

On page two, the girl in panel one is nicely handled, with a genuine and real feel to her. But panel two is my least favorite as I think you got my anatomy a bit wrong, making my back seem bigger and my head much smaller. Also, your use of silhouettes and shading in most of the panels on this page is something I did not like. I think you overdid it and it ended up really detracting from the overall feel of the page.

Interesting choice of placement and pose of the characters in panel one of page three, but you misread the script for panel two as it is supposed to be the girl driving. And here in panel three, the evil look on the face of the girl is called for, but that same creepiness you had on the girl in page one carries over here in the final scene, again making her feel more Glenn Close than Molly Ringwald. The perspective of the hall in that next to last panel is also very skewed and confining. And you also chose to go wide for the final panel, which is a choice I have come to appreciate.

I see definite talent in your work, Andrew, I just think you still have a little ways to go in taking it to the next level.

Take care,
C.B.

[Ryall_IDW]

(I apologize for the wait on comments. The fire situation in San Diego threw my week into whack. All is fine, but I’m playing catch-up on everything.)

Page One
While I went to a high school with evil cheerleaders, too, I’m not sure the facial expression on this first panel works all that well. In fact, it’s strange—there’s a lot I like when I first glance at your pages, and then when I look panel by panel, I see inconsistencies that need to be tightened up a bit. The facial expression and the anatomy and posing in that first panel stand out in that regard, and same with the face and arm with the smoker in panel three. C.B.’s face seems to be a different design in each panel, too, and again in the final two panels, the girl comes off looking a bit witchy. I feel like the borders on those panels need to set them apart a bit from panel four as well.

Page Two
The panels where you use shadows really lost their structure—the figures don’t seem quite real or properly proportioned, and overall, the page lacks some refinement. Quite a bit of refinement, actually. I’m confused by panel five—it was left white but it’s also silhouetted figures—does that mean when inked, the figures will be black? If so, that’s way too much silhouetting on the page (Xing in your blacks is probably more effective than coloring in with pencil, too, but I see why you did it for a 3-page sample). A well-placed silhouette can add resonance to a page, but if used on every panel, it just feels like a cheat.

Page Three
I do see flashes in your art that show me that you’ll be on to better pages beyond this sample, but in regards to this sample, this page falls apart for me in every panel but four and six (I like those). I think just a bit more care to the construction of panels—namely how large or small the scene in a panel should be to best tell the story, and how to really make the panels flow properly down a page—is needed. Like I say, I do see solid flashes of talent, and would like to see those emphasized more in future samples.