Did your comic start with really crappy art?

[marygold]

I notice in a lot of professional and nonprofessional comic artists that their styles from the first chapter to the most recent drastically changes, but usually the change is good to great, not notverygood to great. I feel my style has also changed, but I noticed how terrible the first appearances of characters were. Is this kind of thing natural? Should I worry about it? I don't have time for redraws but I don't want my awkward beginnings to be a turn off for new readers.

[joannekwan]

I suppose it comes down to when in your art journey that you started your comic. Like if you haven't been drawing for long or drawing in a particular style for long, drastic improvements are bound to happen. Whereas if you've been doing it for a while, change is less noticeable. It's all very natural, so no need to worry. And I only thing it will turn off readers if it's absolutely horrid and they can't even tell what's going on.

[69Michi]

Probably have better luck to compare my current art with my art from a few years back. Since I started my comic around the start of May, the series' been only running for roughly more than a month, and that is certainly not enough for a style changing from meh to better. I believe my art has been quite consistent, what change are probably the way I panelling, typesetting, and also the angling and posing of the characters because I noticed my habit of drawing bust-up in a lot of panel ;;;

Is this kind of thing natural? Should I worry about it?

Yes, it is very natural, it comes as you develop your art style, nothing to freak out about.

I don't have time for redraws but I don't want my awkward beginnings to be a turn off for new readers.

IMO, never, ever, redraw. Like seriously LMFAO. If your plot is interesting, your reader will stick with you. They can skim over your art in the later chapter to spot the improvement. Maybe you can check out Noblesse, one of the most popular webcomic from Korea's Webtoon. The art's style took a drastic change for the better as the story progresses. You will know just by looking at the art from the first episode compared to the latest one. It's amusing for me to reread the episode to see how much the artist's style improved.

[marygold]

@joannekwan Haha, I hope mine isn't the horrid kind then. Thanks for the advice!
@69Erocento I LOVE NOBLESSE and SO many other webtoons. It's ridiculous. I even read the raws when translators get a little lazy (I read the pictures .-.)

[heterodont]

You have to be trying intentionally to not have your art improve at all. Improving is just natural when you're drawing on a consistent basis, sometimes you improve faster if you do studies as you update your comic, but gradually you're going to improve a lot.

I agree with not redrawing your first chapters. I hate the art in my initial chapters because it's all from 2012 and I've improved Heaps in these past 4 years - but I'm not going to take time out of continuing the story just because the old art miffs me. You can get easily trapped in a cycle of redrawing because as you redraw the first chapter, second, so on so forth, by the time you can go back to updating you're going to have to redraw the current chapter because who knows how much you would've improved by redrawing all the previous chapters. The only case in which I'd suggest redrawing is if you were going to print a book.

Not to mention I think it's a neat treat for readers to see how far you've come art wise!

[R.n.P]

Dude you just explained the gist of my comic beginning with your topic n I'm still not that good with the art so I'm coloring the episodes that i have uploaded by myself while a volunteer colorist is helping me with my most recent episodes
THE LAST SAMURAI

[Rabbit]

There's nothing abnormal about it, in fact it would be weird if you DIDN'T improve XD Scary, too.
I also worry sometimes that new readers might just click away after seeing my mediocre art at the beginning, but since most people catch a glimpse of your newest update first before clicking to the first chapter, then can normally see that you'll improve.
And I, personally, really like seeing an artist improve as the story goes along, so I agree with everyone else that really, re-drawing isn't the way to go.
For fun, I threw this picture together, of my 2 main characters, chapter 1 versus chapter 5, which I just started (I didn't have any decent new drawings of Gabe, though ;_; just crappy 'head-half-turned-away shots). And this is just how I improved in 2016! (I started drawing chapter 1 in January... so yeah :D)
I would love to see you guys do comparison pictures like this too

[El_Psy_Congroo]

I actually went in knowing full well that my first chapters would suck. This comic was partially a way for me to have a project where I'd improve aspects of my art I wouldn't have otherwise. I'm glad I did, I feel like my art literally improves within chapters haha.

Being on the forums helps too.

[marygold]

@heterodont thanks for the tip! Yeah, I've thought about that vicious cycle. Better to let some things go I guess.
@phenomenom9 I'm glad that you're improving!
@Rabbit so cute! Honestly your art was great from the beginning it only got better
@El_Psy_Congroo I'm glad to hear that! This is my first time doing a comic, so I know how you feel. Currently, my planning is all over the place. And yes, chatting with awesome people does help

[shaneoid77]

This was the first page of my cyber comic I did in 2005. I'd like to think I've improved but that's up to the audience to decide

[eleoza]

The more you draw the more you will improve, like said heterodont said, it's natural. The same goes for everything in life I guess. The more practice, the better it goes.
Looking back at your older art and noticing improvement is awesome, no? ^^ Instead of worrying about it try to feel happy about the ways you improved. And know there's always room for more, we keep learning ^_^
Personally I think I improved my art during the last months too.

[antibenz]

I started my first comic with very little artistic experience, and by the end it looked pretty decent. I told myself I wouldn't redo the first sections because to me, that transformation is part of the comic. It speaks to where I was at the time and how comics are transformative. So keep your old stuff, it's fun to look back on humble beginnings

[phen]

Yes, seeing your characters slowly change with your art style's totally natural and definitely nothing to worry negatively over! It's exciting to see improvement but yeah, at the same time, you worry it could turn off readers who decide to go back and read your comic from the beginning. I don't think that it does!

There's about a year of work in my comic and wow. The first page to the most recent page has virtually everything changed in it. I moved from 100% traditional to half and half (introducing digital inking) but the characters, the backgrounds, the panel layout, all so different! I'm still doing a bit of wrestling with my technical skills so I'm sure this time next year, it'll be another huge shift but that's COOL.

And it's always really fun to look at how an artist's hand advances -- the comic format is SUCH a rad way of presenting a body of work! You're building something awesome as a timeline, yo.

[Shanny8]

My material (at least in my eyes)sucked because I was forcing myself to get started, when I wasnt in the zone. The result was that some pages looked okay, but there were some pages I struggled with. Going from the last few pages(that I worked on which havent been published yet) to now, I like the work I'm doing and I'm in the zone.

[VermillionWorks]

Well, my art now is certainly better than it was in the early chapters....I hope. XD

[PurpleGround]

Yes indeed. Sometimes, they just changed to make the workflow smoother or simply "practice makes perfect" =)

I thought about redraw the old page but the work is too great. I would suggest going back to redraw only some of the art that's too crappy for first impression. So that people won't go "Erk, what's that?" and left disgusted.

[Aspie_Gamer]

My art is still crappy what are you talking about? lol

Seriously thought, my art has improved a good bit between the start of Chapter 1 and near the end of Chapter 2 of my comic Life of an Aspie though that could be because of the comic slipping in and out of hiatus several times throughout its first year.

[J.Z.Castillo]

OMG YES!!! I hate going over to the first installments of my comic BioHazard because it's SOO BAD! in the beginning. It makes me laugh though! When I first started I was a bit worried of my style changing drastically from update to update but that's natural, it happens to everyone. I want to eventually go back and redraw the first pages to my current style but if I did that I would never move forward with the story, so I just let them be, as a testament of how far I've come as an artist!

[maxzaguishi]

I accept that I made a remake of my comic, two years apart. But if would not have perfected my own style had never done

manga https://tapastic.com/series/WHITE-PALADIN-

[BraveHeartTatsumaki]

Psh, I didn't even know how to make a proper dialogue globe xD
But now I changed everything in Final Light after I got my own style, but took A LOT, now it just hurts my eyes seeing my old art xD.