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How To Exaggerate
Published: 2006-10-18 06:53:49 +0000 UTC; Views: 140656; Favourites: 5879; Downloads: 1510
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UPDATE: I've realized that this'll help more people if I place it under Tutorials, so there.
Thanks to all the deviants who suggested it ^___^ I also moved "WHA-PAK" and Sam: Threefolds to the tutorials section as well.**********************************************
A lot of aspiring comic artists seem to focus only on style, and not much on storytelling and characterization. Being a comic book artist not only requires the ablilty to draw, but also, the ability to tell a story. And to be able to tell a story visually, you have to be able to give life to the characters- make them look more animated and energized on the page.
One way to do it is through exaggeration. You can give life and energy to the most simplest and boringest situations, and you can apply this to any style. See above and compare the actions on the left with those on the right. I think you'll agree that it's really not that difficult. And I'm not exaggerating!
This was actually part of my lecture during last week's seminar, but I don't think the audience was able to see these clearly so I'm posting it here for your convenience. ^__^ Hope this helps folks!
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Comments: 660
how do you exaggerate contained anger? If you can exaggerate OUTBURSTS of emotion, can you exaggerate characters who try to bottle their emotion?
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Of course you can do that too
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A lot of aspiring comic artists seem to focus only on style
EXACTLY, even with professionals in online manga reading sites, the drawing's nice, but all the faces are soo... dead.
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Good tutorial and good advice. (The little labels you put on it had me laughing pretty hard too.)
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This is something I have a really hard time with and don't think enough about. Very nice.
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First one: Two Gay guys arguing > Two gay guys about to have angry sex.
Second: Girl running > Cliche' girl running with something in her mouth.
Third: Balalaika
There can be such thing as too much.
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Black Lagoon.
Sexy Russian mobster lady with delicious scars.
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Looks more like Integra from hellsing to me.
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Also depends on perspective
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An analogy.
You can eat a lot of food, thats the fun thing.
and I say "There is such thing as TOO MUCH"
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I would agree that in comics you need to exaggerate motions and expresion that you normally don't see in real-life. However this is more like -anime-exaggerate-how anime characters seem to super exaxterage even the simplest and mundane actions and emotions( Ex. placing a playing card becomes some kind of yoga work-out, tossing a small ball becomes a major-league pitch x10, being angry means literally growing fangs and breathing fire, and being sad means have literal rivers flowig from your eyes. A lot of times this can become impersoanl, distracting, and cliched, though i think the examples you showed are a good way to use exaggeration. Less can sometimes be more in other cases ( why is he gasping like a fish everytime something mildy intereseting happens?) But i think used showed out it can be used appropriately here- nice dev!
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Yep, that was the point.
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This really is awesome! It has some great pointers and tips for the details that will make a picture that much more alive!
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Thanks!
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This is totally fantastic, love the before and afters, really gets the point across visually!
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this is a great tutorial ^_^ thanks for creating it! it's no wonder it got a DD
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thanks, glad you liked it
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used this and another as areference for one of mine. Great advice, thanks!
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After looking at this at the umpteenth time, I now realize that CLoud is arguing with Sephiroth.
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This might be the most instructional thing I have ever seen. Awesome.
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Ohh I love.
The two compared drawings even seem like it's the escalating emotion! 8D
Two guys arguing... they're getting pisse- OMG THEY ARE ABOUT TO TEAR EACHOTHER'S FACE!
Puff puff I'm late for school people! Please let me pass! D8 What time is it? OH SHI- GET THE F*CK OUT OF MY WAY, OLD GEEZER! Mann im so dead!
What do you mean, theres no more purple pens? WHAT!!!? YOU INCOMPETENT LITTLE...! I WANT A FULL PACK OF THEM, ON MY DESK, BY TOMORROW!!! D8<
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Why..does the chick in the bottom...remind me of scary Lady Une? XDD
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She reminds people of a lot of people
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Wow. I love how all the little details make such a difference!
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Even though this looks helpful in getting artist to think of ways to make the actions and emotions of characters more intense, I kind of think it should come with a word of warning somewhere about not using it too often in a comic, least it make the comic look like a world where people are incabable of experiencing emotion in anything but there most intense levels; where no-one is capable of arguing without grabbing the other person by the collar, where no-one who's running late can ever seem to tie ther tie or avoid bumping into atleast one person, where no-one can argue on the phone without shouting and gesturing wildly with their hands. In summation, a comic book where every single thing is exagerrated runs the risk of looking XTREME!1!1!
Plus, if everything is exagerated, it becomes the norm. And making what's intense normal defeats the whole purpose of exagerating; to make things stand out.
And sorry for the mini rant, I meant to just make the suggestion of mentioning not to overuse exageration, but I felt like adding a decent example of why to it.
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It's alright. As I've mentioned in my comment, exaggeration is just one way to do it. There are lots of ways to go about it. I just think that exaggeration is one of the more easier methods for most artists to give life to their characters. ^^
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haha mahusay magya nga yung ganitong tut 
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This is amazing........why did I never see this T__T I'm glad I saw now!
Your skills are so faboulous............and I laughed quite a bit while reading it! Great
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Ahaha, thanks! Glad it made you giggle
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I love how it's so dynamic on the right side, since the left side seems more... pedestrian, more like what you might see in normal life.
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