Art progress: should your old pages be made to match current style?

[Tthoroughman]

The main reason I thought this should be brought up is because I've made a lot of progress in the past year artwise and other than maybe making some minor fixes on my older pages from back when I started, I don't really plan on cleaning them up past that. But I've heard that there are people who will revamp the early part of their comics entirely. So my question is which is more interesting to the readers:

Seeing someone's art progress in motion through the comic, or seeing them clean up old pages to match the current style?

Here is the webtoons link since I don't have the tapas up to date yet with the current chapter, I'm going to work on that though so I can update them simultaneously. But I want some thoughts on this as to which readers prefer.

Phantom Eclipse

[keii4ii]

Speaking as a reader, I don't really care about seeing art improvement. But I care about seeing NEW pages. Revamping older pages will take up the time that could be spent on making new pages, so there's my vote.

That being said, if your old art is not just less polished, but visually confusing... it may be worth redoing that. People have to be able to see what's going on in a comic.

[skicoak]

Cleaning up old pages would become a constant loop... for as long as you evolve as an artist.

[Tthoroughman]

Ok. Yeah. I think that's why I'm considering going in and fixing certain mistakes at some point, maybe not an entire revamp, but just mistakes that as a beginner I made that are eyesores and need tending to. Thank you.

[jcmraz]

Only time I might suggest redoing old pages is if you're getting it printed for a physical release. Otherwise, updating is more valuable than redoing old stuff. Improve moving forward. That's just life

[Tthoroughman]

That's pretty much what I'm leaning towards. I don't want to have to spend time on it unless I'm prepping for hard copies. My main goal is just to build a following and get somewhere, but I was just really curious about others thoughts on this.

[Kiweevil]

I'd go back and fix anything that is visually confusing, such as panel layout. But it's more important imo to upload than update, if you catch my drift.

[IndigoShirtProd]

Only if you think it's absolutely necessary or if you feel the need to add story elements. I'm redoing my first chapter because I plan on printing in the future and didn't want the first chapter to not look like the others.

[spadedigsbutts]

From like a practical art and distribution angle, I understand that revamping art to be more consistent with newer art is probably better for preventing people from leaving initially because they don’t like the old art but...idk I kind of like it when people leave the old art because I always find is super inspirational. As a fledgling artist it gave me so much hope to see people who, even if their art wasn’t great, still kept making comics and improved so much. I always think of paranatural which started as stiff literal pencil drawings on printer paper and it evolved to become one of the most expressive comics I’ve read art wise and idk I guess it just gave me hope for myself in a way that seeing an artist that was consistently good never did?

[AirisKiahin]

I did this once with my old comics and really regretted that. I mean people were happy I improved so much and I felt proud they said so many kind words about my hard work.
But it took time. Much time. While redrawing prologue I could've done a whole new chapter and the story would've made a step forward. But it didn't because I wanted perfection.
When I finished prologue I realized I don't like the old pages. The comic turned into my headache because I wanted it look better and better and better. I didn't care of the story more.

That comics got dead soon after the redraw and I completely lost my interest to it.

My current comics is one year old now and I really want to redraw at least it's cover. But I won't, because now I care more about the story and strict publishing schedule.

All in all I think consistency is more important than perfection in terms of comics

[monotone_ink]

You can at least redraw the first chapter or so, and leave a memo that it's just to reflect the quality of your latest updates.

Don't do it indefinitely, you'll want to kill yourself.

[Freemints30]

I 100% agree, I had read and made comics that never finished because the artist decided to fall in to the reboot loop and never actually make new pages. I would not say re draw the entire first chapter but probably the first 5 pages for new readers to know what the art will eventually look like if the old style is that unappealing.

I'm thinking of doing that once I'm in the final chapter of my comic, generally web comic readers are used to shifts in art style and I don't think the old pages would deter that many.

[Iris-Grimoire]

Same as everyone in the thread - don't do it all or you'll be stuck in a loop, at the most the first chapter if it's REALLY clashing with your current style or it's entirely different (like being BW in a color comic or vice versa). It should only be used for printing or if your readers' first impression is very bad - it's much better to update banners, icons, promo art because no one will think you're misleading, they just go for the latest page to see if it matches.

[azzy-m]

I feel like you should only revamp pages when you're almost or entirely finished with your comic. How many episodes you want to revamp depends on you, but for me, I'd probably only revamp the first few episodes at least, or the entire chapter at most. It seems counterproductive to keep redoing pages you think is "old" when readers are more satisfied with getting new pages.

[Tthoroughman]

Same here.
Honestly, while I haven't really found that many artists where I've seen that, I do like seeing it. It's part of why I want to only change major mistakes vs just overhaul everything. Also, I think it is more inspiring to others who want to do comics/manga by seeing that those before them also had to work hard to get there. Plus I think it's too easy to edit things when everything is digital. My traditional art skills kinda weren't doing well, so I started trying to combine traditional and digital by story boarding on paper and cleaning things up on the computer. I'm fairly happy with my current art style, so my next goal is to perfect my story boarding skills as well as get tapas up to date with Webtoons.

[RCGates]

Unless there is something that might lead to some confusion on the reader's part, I would recommend just leaving the older pages alone. Everyone's art evolves over time. It is just a natural part of being an artist. Add to that the fact that you are making a webcomic which will tell a cohesive story over a long period of time and it becomes even more understandable that your style will change. Readers will expect this if they know anything about art and ideally, they will not hold it against you. It will also be much less time consuming if you just focus on continually producing beautiful and enticing artwork and comic pages. The past will be the past and it will show exactly how far you have come in your journey.

[JRHoch]

I have three principles for changing earlier pages:

1) The law of doubling. If your old art is a 4 and you're now an 8, go ahead and revamp.
2) If you see a narrative flaw where inserting a few panels will improve the storytelling.
3) You completely change your style.

The above said, only do it if you can still create new pages on time or your old pages are driving you to madness.

In your particular case, in terms of style, your old pages are similar to the newer ones. I'd keep on going and not stress about the early pages. You'll keep growing.

[PaulieBlade]

I never plan to revamp my old pages. I like seeing other artists' progress and I won't mind if people see mine (if there is any ).

[Dilly]

As soon as you start remaking pages to get the style up to date, your style will grow and grow anyway and you'll be stuck doing it over and over again. Its an endless loop. The energy is better spent on creating new pages!

If its really bothersome, think about a lot of cartoons and their first season. Spongebob for example. The art was entirely different because the animators were getting used to the designs and the feel for the show. Making comics is no different, especially in the beginning.