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kissatr
Feb '19
1

Hi, I'm new here and I've just started doing my first webcomic. I started doing it very cartoonish, because it's easy and faster, but I was wondering if it is the most appropiate style for my comic. I'm drawing a romance/fantasy story and here are some examples of my style options.

sketches.jpg1984x1408 298 KB

(That was like the concept art, it turned to be different at the end)
01.jpg576x640 68.3 KB
03.jpg576x640 47.1 KB
04.jpg576x640 42.1 KB

I'm currently using the last one, but I'm not sure which style is more appealing.

I was reading Scott McCloud books and he says that the simplier is your style, is more easy to the reader to indentificate themselves as the character, but I've only seen cartoonish style in comedy comics while the romance ones tend to be more... anime like, or even realistic (Like "True Beauty" and "Siren's lament" from webtoons).

What do you think?
is there an ideal style for each genre?

I know that it would be nice to say "no", but, looking at the facts, it seems that there is one.

EDIT: This is my webcomic:

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    Feb '19

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    Feb '19
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Mr_estella
Feb '19

you must go with the style you are more comfortable with.
if your comic is gonna be too long, then maybe you should go for a simplier style so you won't have to oversaturate drawing each episode

joannekwan(ง ˙o˙)ว here to help~
Feb '19

I would say it depends on how serious your series gets. If it's super serious like Game of Thrones, definitely more realistic proportions will suit it. If it's full of lighter moments and jokes, a more cartoony style can fit better so as to allow for more facial and body exaggerations to carry out jokes etc.
Unless you intend on a whole subversion thing as with Magi Madoka or Happy Tree Friends.

Also are you doing it in full color? I mostly compromise with my series. Series in color are more cartoony/stylized. My more 'realistic' series is just in grayscale with 4 tones of gray with black and white. Just for time efficiency.

revisionstudios
Feb '19

I agree with Joanne that it depends on the tone of your comic. Can you tell us a summary?

Personally, judging purely by your character designs and coloring style, the semi-realism looks better to me... like, that top style is super expressive and I like the line quality a lot. It feels more alive. The toony one (especially the bottom) looks almost too iconographic, like there's no character to it.

I know I'm a little biased towards the semi-realistic styles though, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I may change my mind after you give us a summary, too.

AVXP
Feb '19

I honestly shouldn't be commenting as the old man in the room, but you should do you BEST style..always.
What you don't know is that THIS IS IT. This is what you do and this (anything you do and release/share) is what you are. Claiming you can do better or saying you went light because it's a webcomic means nothing. YOU chose to do a webcomic and use that/this format. No one cares about the constraints of pacing/page-release-self-imposed schedule. Especially when you are not being paid for your work (rate).

A year from now, no one will care what pressures you hoisted upon yourself. A year from now, readers will be looking at your comic and won't care what excuses you made. I vote for quality over quantity - free or not. This isn't to say a cartoony style is lesser than a more realistic style. BOTH have their merits and challenges, but it looks like you have a serious zone where you put maximum effort and a non-serious, looser zone where you can be somewhat lazy to be quicker. That's what I see. Aside from gag-a-day I see no reason- your strongest effort isn't warranted.

And honestly, it's almost an insult to those that truly try to master a cartoon or exaggerated style as it takes real dedication and craft to be consistent. Anyone can drop details, but it takes a real eye to capture that nuances of a comic with less strokes/detail. It should really be called- saying more with less. That's a comic style.

I say take your time and stick to those first examples.
Shortcuts are always a bad idea.
If you increase your skill with that heavily-detailed style, you'll naturally get faster at it.
And won't look back thinking you could have done better.
Future-you will be disappointed if you don't use you true abilities today.
My 10 cents//

DruidPeter
Feb '19

I mean, there are cultural norms and influences that cause people to associate different styles with different genres. But this is by no means a hard-coded thing. Over time, certain genres tend to be codified with their own "genre styles", but the actual formation of these genre styles has more to do with inbred inspiration than anything else. You can have a cartoony style for a complex and sophisticated story, and if it becomes a hit, a successful and influential story in its own right, you will likely have people emulating your style for their own complex and sophisticated stories.

And probably a decade or more down the line, you'll become known as the godfather of the "Cartgestalt" Genre (Portmanteau of Cartoon Gestalt, of course. :3) , and all because you decided to stick with something that was different! Yeah!

lol. As a matter of fact, I think I'm going to check out your webcomic right now. I am most definitely a fan of complex and sophisticated stories, as well. :smiley:

:Edit: You don't seem to have a link to your comic on your profile. A link would be most appreciated, plz. :1234:

simplykit
Feb '19

cool artworks buddy :grinning:

both have their charms :slight_smile:

maybe you can apply it depending on your comic scene

if its serious then use the semi-realism

and if funny use the cartoonish style :slight_smile:

punkarsenic
Feb '19
joannekwan

i see the logic to this, but i dont fully agree

certainly something super serious like a GoT-style comic needs to reflect that tone in the style, but i dont think that necessarily means realistically proportioned - i think its a lot more about colour, values, and shape- and line language.

so certainly a games of thrones comic probably shouldnt look like calvin and hobbes (although i think the soft and floaty style of cah could work for a serious personal drama) - but it could still be very simplistic and/or stylised

fluffybonezz
Feb '19

Here's my two cents...everyone knows what a real human being is supposed to look like, so any anatomical mistakes and slip ups will be a lot more glaring on a "realistic" style of character.

People will be more forgiving of anatomy/proportions mistakes on a "cartoony" character.

(Lovely art BTW!)

DokiDokiTsuna
Feb '19

I really think you should go with the style that you enjoy using the most (IMO, all three of them look great~). Fatigue is a huge obstacle to keeping a comic going, and you really don't want to start with a style that'll tire you out or bore you in a couple of weeks. Make it one that you can fall in love with over and over again~.

Also, this may be the unpopular opinion, but I don't think the style really matters that much when it comes to genre? I've seen realistic slice-of-life, and I've seen cartoon noir. if you want it to work, you can make it work.

Really, color is far more important than drawing style for setting the tone of a comic. That, and composition (how you place characters and set up scenes). A cartoon-styled comic with a dramatic color palette and artful establishing shots will definitely look more serious than a semi-realistic comic in neon flats with all the characters facing the same way in every panel.

xabelmind
Feb '19

I faced this situation for this past years :thinking:

The answer: There's a style that is naturally yours. It will be the style that'll come out when you happen to pass some time drawing in others, cause no matter how much you try to draw in other styles, at the end, the one that's really yours will overcome the others.

Note this: There's a difference between drawing or not in your style, and improve your style. You can improve your style practicing drawing from the natural, with models (to get corporeity, postures, shapes...) and photos of the human body (as a handy reference when you're drawing your work) :smiley:

At the end, as @AVXP said, the only thing that will matter it's if you enjoyed the path of making the comic with the elements and the style that naturally emerge of you. The style is already there, you don't need to clasify or decide it, it's naturally yours :heart:

kissatr
Feb '19
revisionstudios

It's a sotory about a girl who is looking for her chilhood friend back in her home town, after years of not seeing each other. But he doesn't want to be found because he was cursed with killer moths and now he's basically turned into a serial killer, against his will.
It may sound dramatic, but I tend to use a little of comedy. As this is my first comic, I'm still trying to figure out how to balance both genres. It's not comedy by itself, but is not as serious as Game of thrones. I want to keep it in romance.
Thank you for your reply!

kissatr
Feb '19
1
AVXP

OMG, that was really honest and motivating, thanks! When I searched for similar posts, everyone said "do what is easier for you". And I started the easy way, because I wanted to have something DONE. But you're right, I also started learning doin' cartoonish style. As you can see on my instagram7 , my artstyle changed since I started this webcomic... But I come from realism, I learned to draw by portraiture, not anime or something simplier. So... I think I'll take your advice, I'l try to change my style bit by bit to something more... like me, I guess.

baasinsimple
Feb '19

I think there is an ideal type of style that is signified with each genre and definitely popular variants on Tapas. Honestly, I don't think there is an end all, be all to either. You are expected perfect with realism but honestly I like your first style variation to be great in emotional moments so you might be able to express emotions more effectively but not because of the anatomy, the best part is the detail. The same thing with comedy, I think comedy is most effective when there's extremely good or extremely bad art. ONE's Webcomics like the original One Punch Man have terrible anatomical art and it adds to the comedy, but in inverse the Manga with Yusuke Murata's art works in a completely different level of good compared to everyone on the site and that also adds to the comedy. I think rather than actual direct semi-realistic or Cartoon styles, detail or a visible lack of detail can help strengthen an emotion.

Psychicpebbles has art that is cartoon but extremely detailed. He wants to make the viewer feel a palpable sense of absolute disgust and Jeff Delgado, the colorist can enhance these feelings:

image.png1024x576 631 KB

ONE has terrible anatomical style but the detail when Mob is upset is so detailed the drawing looks amazing

image.png940x545 211 KB

Rhonder
Feb '19

I think a combination of @AVXP and @DokiDokiTsuna 's posts can be a good way to think about it/go about it.

Like AVXP said, it's important to put effort in to produce a product you're proud of, because at the end of the day it's that product you'll have to stand beside. Carelessly shedding details to speed up the process can be dangerous, if not done skillfully. Simple art styles can definitely look good, but even they require conscious thought and design to be effective.

But Doki's absolutely right too, that picking one that's both fun to work with, and efficient is ultra important, because you'll be needing to draw it a loooooooot and if you choose a style that's either too time intensive or that you don't enjoy as much, it'll become a drag as you progress. This is why many webcomic artists do indeed use a style that's somewhat less intensive than their illustration style: the time it takes to apply many more layers of shading or detail has to be weighed against the like 5-10 seconds on average a reader will spend looking at each panel. (of course there are comics that go above and beyond on the art. There's nothing wrong with that, but the trade off is slower production time).

Of the three stacked styles in the OP, I'm kind of a fan of the middle one tbh. It's definitely simpler than the top one, but the bottom one, while still looking good, looks considerably more rushed than the middle. The few extra lines of detail in the middle style go a long ways imo.

Milhamah
Feb '19
AVXP

That's what keeps me doing my cel-shaded vector style, even though it's often more time-consuming than a freer, hand-drawn style. It's fairly unique, expressive and what I originally envisioned.