SPELUNKYING 1-15: GOLD DIGGER

Ever since I discovered what "Artists at the Ready" was, I've been anonymously following quite a lot of your comics.

Despite the drawings being pretty terrible (you ARE getting a bit better, though), you tend to account for it with good storytelling, so at least I find them really engaging!

On the subject of the artwork, though, I do have some critique:

- You've got some perspective issues. It's particularly noticeable in the second panel from the top left (where the guy is talking to his dad). That bed almost looks like it's raised up a bit in relation to the wall. xD

- Some panels could make better use of depth, though it kind of ties in with the whole perspective thing. A general problem is that the objects in your compositions tend to get lost, and it gets confusing as to what exactly is in front of what.

I did this really rough correction panel to better illustrate my point. A general rule is that objects that cross over the horizon line appear to be operating in depth, rather than floating about. Also, the larger the object, the "closer" it looks.

Don't just use this knowledge mechanically, though. Your shot choices should always be used to illustrate the story, and which each panel, you are constantly telling a story from a visual standpoint. Going back to my example, in your original panel, you have this straight-on shot of the cave entrance, positioned on a horizon line that is placed almost exactly half of the length of the panel, and a little head of your character facing in almost a completely different direction from where the cave is. It's not very interesting, and it doesn't describe exactly what your character is focusing on very well. I'm not saying my panel is even remotely a masterpiece, but all I did was lower the horizon line so that it isn't over the character's head, slightly resized and moved the position of the character so that it looks like he's operating in a semi-3-dimensional world, and moved the cave respectively so that it actually looks like we are looking at the cave from his perspective. It makes a HUGE difference.

- Another thing about depth, even if you are not a master with perspective, you can at least make it look convincing by varying the size of the objects on your panels... Which you do, to an extent. In panels like the one with the bats, though, if you were to make some of the bats smaller, and cluster the smaller ones closer together and keep the large ones more spread out in your composition, you would adequately create some depth.

- Be more mindful of your character models. I wonder why most of them go from having a unibrow to two eyebrows suddenly, and be aware of size relation. For instance, in one panel, the spelunker guy shows that he's significantly smaller than the camel he is riding on, yet in another, he turns out to be closer to the same size as the camel.

- Lastly... Lol are those meant to be palm trees? If you aren't sure of how something looks, just do some research on it. Doing a google image search will suffice. Professional artists actually do it all the time, and the stuff that they DO draw correctly on the fly is a result of constant practice and repetition, so don't feel like you should avoid it.

The palm trees actually look kind of cute.

That's awesome. I've played Spelunky before and I like how this is going. I hope there's going to be some characterization of the relationship between the two instead of her just dying like she usually does. Or a kiss in a tunnel and then you go off to find an exact replica of her somewhere else.

This is so cool. ^_^