Oct 2017
3 / 4
Oct 2017
Oct 2017
eworks01
Oct '17

So I've had a few different online comics, some made more progress than others. I've gotten to work with artists with varying styles and skill levels, and very different personalities.
What I noticed was when I wrote fanfiction and posted them on mailing lists I'd get a lot of good feedback and a few complements, but when artists posted their fanart, even if it was very good, it always got tons of complements. On Deviantart most of my writing was ignored. But when pages of the comic were posted people tended to comment on the art a lot more than the events of the story or characters. When someone did say they loved one of my characters it sent me to the moon! I was so happy about it. :slight_smile:

Just wondering if any other writers have experienced the same struggle and just wanted a little more love for their creations. Or have any artist ever felt like it was the other way around, like audiences didn't appreciate your designs and efforts to bring the story alive in a visual medium?

  • created

    Oct '17

  • last reply

    Oct '17
  • 3

    replies

  • 656

    views

  • 4

    users

  • 6

    likes

  • 1

    link

thekinginthesun
Oct '17

Yes and no. We're both writers and artists for our story, but Raven makes the backgrounds while I - Blue Jay - make the characters. Raven gets far more complimented on his art, I guess. But I blame the fact that it is a lot harder to find a good background artist than a good character artist - I myself suck at backgrounds. At first it was a little frustrating, but we're working together for more than a year now - and we were friends for like 7 years - so we already overcame that. :slight_smile:

emkay
Oct '17

As an artist and a writer, I think writers tend to get the short end of the stick a lot and it's mostly because of the medium. Between art and writing, it takes more time to read writing and less time to look at art -- that's part of why art usually gets more attention, and especially if it's fanart. But then you bring the element of comics into it. If comics take time to read as well, why are they still more popular than written work?

A comic still usually takes less time to read because the amount of exposition, description, and dialogue is dramatically cut down to fit the comic format. Plus, comic have the visual aspect, which is super important for many people. The human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text, and 90 percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual. So even though it sucks, it makes sense to me why writers get less attention.

That being said, I think it's fair to say that original artists and writers both get less attention than fanartists and fanfic writers. Unless your original work is really good and holds appeal for a wider audience, or if you have good networking. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: I've felt unappreciated before when I stopped drawing fanart, but now I just try to focus on my enjoyment and hope that there are some people who will enjoy it.

Eleven_MA
Oct '17

I wasn't ever a part of a creative team, but as a fiction writer I feel really inadequate compared to the artists. 'A picture is worth a thousand words' is painfully accurate when you measure your progress with a word count. The impression that a single artwork delivers much more than two pages of my writing is very tangible.

Then there's what @emkay mentioned. A picture is simply more powerful and easily digestible, and that translates into reception. I may just add that there's a great difference in effort, too. Text requires at least some conscious processing (not the individual words, though). Images are processed automatically, almost instantly and, in a huge part, below our sensory treshold. Reading takes work; digesting a picture happens almost without effort. Most people will pick a picture over text because it's simpler and more rewarding.

While I wouldn't say I'm jealous, it's still very disheartening. I feel artists work with a superior medium that makes their work much more effective. I don't begrudge them - I know it's infinitely tougher to learn art than writing - but when I compare the reception they get with my own, I feel kind of hopeless. It's so easy to ignore or dismiss my work that I have to struggle just to make readers give me a chance. To artists, it comes naturally. It's hard not to do at it and think 'I'm doing something wrong... Then realise that it's writing.

In fact, one of the most common pieces of advice writers get to make their stories noticed is 'you need a good cover art'. I don't think there's a better way to express that gap :joy: