Chicken feet when posting

[monotone_ink]

I've been hustling for the past 3 or 4 months on a new webcomic, currently finishing up chapter 3, and after reading through everything again, I've realised that it's an absolutely disgusting pile of absolute horse shit. I'm left feeling that I've wasted all of my fucking time and want to drop everything, but I also know that I've already come this far and have no choice to but to continue.

How does one overcome this agony?

tl;dr - I'm dying

[heraclus]

Post it so we can see if it's shit or not.

[monotone_ink]

My biggest gripe right now is doing backgrounds and actually making look interesting - god damn it right now all of it looks really bland, and it's detrimental when it comes to establishing a clear sense of the setting.

If you've got pointers for improvement, feel free to share them.

Also, have you ever had this feeling? If so, how did you deal with it?

[yonseo]

Go to yonsseo.com and type 'Creating Manga Backgrounds' in the search bar.

Your work is not bad, you have a lot of cool shots and angles.
What needs improvement is your line work. Everything is a sketch, try a more controlled style.

I really like your perspective though, that's a good trait!

[monotone_ink]

I'll keep the controlled line work in mind with the future pages. Do you think there's still a way to make it look controlled while still maintaining that 'sketchy' aesthetic?

Stufff like the original Tokyo Ghoul manga is what interests me, and I like how its sketchiness supports its grim story. How would you approach achieving an aesthetic similar to the page shown below?

[yonseo]

Yes! that's exactly what I mean, great example.

If I can give you any advice: On the Tokyo Ghoul page pay attention to the line thickness on the outside of the characters, it's a lot thicker. That's what makes a character pop or stand out from the background.

You can use any style to draw but you have to be your own critic before anyone else is. If the hair on your character is in a sketch style and so is the shirt he is wearing then the reader cant tell the difference. I don't know if that's a dark background or his shirt, it looks the same as the hair.

Another thing that makes your characters stand out is using texture for the background. The backgrounds are a lot darker than the characters.

So in your case the Tokyo Ghoul page is a great resource for a quality check. That is all detail, line work and texture work that can be applied to any drawing. You still have to work on anatomy as well. This also depends on your style whether you want a cartoon or realistic look.

To sum it all up, my approach would be storyboard first, then focus on only clean line work anatomy. After that do all the detail work such as sketching , texture, screentone, and lastly word bubbles.

[TheThoughtfulBoxful]

Just do it. Seriously.

Even if you drop the project, posting what you have might motivate you to keep going, especially if people like it. But it's up to you.

Edit:

Post it so we can see if it's shit or not.

and even if we think its sh*t... so what? You have to be passionate enough about your work to be proud of it. Otherwise, what's the freaking point?

you worked hard... let's see whatcha got

[BraniAndNess]

Posting is like medicine for that. Not knowing is the worst, but when you post and you start getting feedback, you start getting people who love what you do and want more, it feeds you. Having a fixed schedule and being held accountable by your readers also makes it easier to maintain a steady pace of work. Just do it It'll help!

[Emevsa]

Not just that, people love to see art improve over time! How many limbs would you give to see the greats' early work where it was a bunch of messy lines and poorly done backgrounds if only to know that they too came from clay but became so much more?

Seeing an artist improve over time is actually really comforting to a lot of people. So even if you feel it's not great do it anyway.

Regarding backgrounds, I really struggle drawing them myself. Build up a reference folder or pinterest board to help guide you. Also spending a small amount of time learning Sketch Up can be really helpful. It has a free version, it's not too hard to learn and once the model is built you can get all kinds of great angles from it.

I hope you do release your work. I would love to check it out and give it a read.

[harulogue]

@Emevsa I completely second this

Sometimes I think you just need to let yourself go a bit rather than stay stuck in one place.

So post it!! GOGO!!

[heraclus]

I wounld love to read it , i think you are pretty good if this is the draft of your page,The key for the backrounds is to have patience , and don't be afraid to try draw what's on your mind.

[heraclus]

YOU need to use tones cause this is not just a sketch , for my webtoon i prefer one piece style , it's simple but at the same time awesome! plus it's a mystery how you go from this

to this

[monotone_ink]

Just to clarify, I wanted to only post a WIP page - the page I posted in this forum was only inked, and I had already planned to apply tones to it after scanning.

One thing I've noticed is that works that don't use many tones are usually much more fantastical and are seen quite often with shonen manga. The simplicity of this style is good in quickly conveying impactful moments, which many manga like One Piece focus on.

In terms of sketchiness, a work can have a sketchy aesthetic, but still be a final product. Though the page you posted was a sketch, I think that's more of the storyboard - the undersketch for the final inked page would probably be more detailed.

[heraclus]

Any way i want to read your manga , pls upload something!

[yonseo]

Here's a mangaka that shows his process on drawing pages from a sketch to ink.
Stuff like this is gold.