Do you ever think of redrawing your comic and improve it?

[myumyudapao]

I have this old comic I made few years ago, and when I re-read my work, the proportions are kinda off.
back then I thought my drawing was good, but now I realize it wasn't (lol) (like aren't we all like that? that we are proud of what we did and think of it as one of the best) and later on we realize it wasn't lol.

Now I am thinking of redrawing my work. but I haven't started yet,
how does this affect the readers?,
can you share me some of your thoughts and experiences?

thank you so much,
I stopped making comic few years ago, but now I try to pull back and improve my art style, sometimes
it's stressing me because I'm thinking maybe I'm really not fit to making comics,
sorry that was dramatic.

[IndigoShirtProd]

I'm in the middle of redrawing the first chapter of my comic. The majority of webcomic artists would recommend against redrawing old pages. . . and I would have to agree with them. If you are only redrawing pages panel for panel, then leave it. Art progresses with time and it's something every comic/manga creator goes through, even professionals. However in my case, the redraw of my first chapter is also a rewrite, meaning that certain plot elements have changed, not drastically, but enough so that it warrants a revisit. So I wouldn't redraw your older pages unless more than the art is being changed.

As an add on, I've been working on this redraw for over a year from scripting, and re-scripting to drawing actual pages. If that amount of time being sunk, depending on the genre of your comic, seems worth it to you, then knock yourself out.

[amortelito]

This is so true, it happened to me.
When I started my comic was black and white and it was not ugly but I needed to make it more appealing for webcomic, and scroll down format.

I "rebooted' the comic and redrew at least 3 chapters. And then I kept drawing with the new aesthetic. It was the best decision because on the long run makes the comic more cohesive.

Plus the first pages are most of the times what new readers find and they decide if they are interested in a few seconds.

[myumyudapao]

the redraw of my first chapter is also a rewrite, meaning that certain plot elements have changed, not drastically,

@IndigoShirtProd I was thinking about this too, like if ever I redraw I might change some script from the story to improve. but sometimes I ask my self, what if I redraw it, and change it, my readers might get confused.
I am currently making this 50 episode comic (ongoing and from the 1st-20th episode for me are drawn badly)
but redrawing those 20 episodes might really take a lot of time, and by the time I redraw them my art style might change again,

[myumyudapao]

Plus the first pages are most of the times what new readers find and they decide if they are interested in a few seconds.

@amortelito I seriously agree with this! because my current episodes are drawn well compare from the first episodes, and I am thinking that new readers might leave your comic the moment they check the first few episodes because the art isn't that great , and my comic is a long run too, .

[BreakingChalk]

Keep the original somewhere, but I'm of the idea that if you can redraw your own past work to make it better: DO IT!

[Kiweevil]

I'm actually in the process of redrawing my comic right now. I know some of my readers wanted me to ignore the old pages and continue releasing new ones, but I really felt they needed redone. You see, when I had originally made my Prologue pages and first few comic pages, the blue light filter on my glasses combined with the settings on my computer monitor really scewed my colors. So that means my Prologue is unfortunately really hard to see and read for many mobile app users. Some devices just don't display it well.

And I thought, if I have to go back and clean up the colors, I might as well redraw it to match my improved current day art. I love my readers, I really do. And I understand that established readers want me to put out new pages quickly. But doing this redraw is good for my mental health since the quality and legibility of my Prologue has long been a source of embarrassment. So I'm doing this for myself and my happiness as well making sure new readers are able to easily see my content.

[elpenor]

ssssort of
I plan to go harder on art when I put out my narrative comic. I may even get a better background artist than myself to help. redrawing my very casual semidaily comedy? probably not

[PaulDevers]

Oh yeah, I totally do! I'm in the process of coloring my prologue right now. And also fixing some art that is just a little too jank to not notice in some panels.
Course, the real thing I wanna do is do a rewrite my first chapter. It's pacing is all out of whack and is slow as heck. But that'll have to come a lot later, due to the comic still going right now.

[gempompadour]

I just finished re-drawing the first chapter of my comic. I know a lot people say you shouldn't do that but I couldn't stop myself. But I didn't just re-draw it, I re-wrote it and cut a lot if the fluff that didn't serve any purpose. It went from 29 pages to 19. I've also become better at this digital art-thing and those first pages were honestly shit! Lol, they bothered me so much that I had to erase them. If it really bothers you and you think you can do it in a reasonable time I'd say go for it.

[scribesunlimited]

If you mean improve it by covering up all the breasts, then yeah, definitely.

I think we went too adult for "The Depths".

[Iris-Grimoire]

It's a dangerous cycle to keep redrawing pages, it's time better spent on new ones. That said, if there are problems to read on mobile, frames that you REALLY want to do better, or extreme inconsistencies in the first chapter, it's better than to lose people because of a bad first impression. But don't redo your first 3 chapters over and over or people will feel like you have no direction for the work.

[rumpenstiltzkin]

I only just got started on posting my comic online, but the first 10 pages i did 2-3 years ago and i really really wanted to redraw them but at the same time, when i started to get back to it, i also just really wanted to move forward!

So i decided to keep drawing pages instead of redrawing, and, maybe in the future when i feel like i will have some extra time i can redraw the pages inbetween, but never so that i cant move forward in a good pace.

and i dunno, once you start to redraw, where is the limit to how much you gonna redraw xD my art style just keep changing so if i would redraw the first pages, the rest would probably look odd so i would have to redraw the whole first chapter...it just feels like an evil loop the more i think of it

[jcmraz]

I think about it constantly. Maybe one day. Probably only if I publish though unless I think that my first couple pages are actively turning people off from reading my comic

[BrambleberrySquirrel]

If it’s small tweaks for readability or mobile formatting then it’s worthwhile. I wouldn’t go back and redraw the whole thing though. I get the impulse, my early episodes look a bit rough because I was just starting as an artist. The thing is that in a year I will probably think the same thing about what I’m making right now. Your art will always be changing and improving. It’s better to let your older material be a testament to how far you have come than to be caught in a constant loop of trying to redraw the whole comic over and over again.

That being said, if you get featured as a paid creator on Tapas or Webtoon they may require you to redraw some episodes for quality control.

[Fuzzyman818]

I've been thinking about giving my series, The guild of the Maltese Falcon, a complete overhaul. For many reasons. But the main one is because I may have jumped the gun on it entirely and just started the series without a real solid plotline or a fleshed out environment. I also want to try and make it look more cleaner then what I've done with it so far. But I think that would take sometime to do. I just hope I don't really overwhelm myself with all of these little side projects I got cooked up for in the future.

[myumyudapao]

I might as well redraw it to match my improved current day art.

Yes I was thinking about this too

[myumyudapao]

@gempompadour yeah it bothers us thinking should we redraw or not? sometimes I can't sleep at night thinking about it *laughs

[myumyudapao]

@Iris-Grimoire Iyes bad impression makes people leave your comic right away sobs, thanks for the advice!

[myumyudapao]

my art style just keep changing so if i would redraw the first pages, the rest would probably look odd so i would have to redraw the whole first chapter.

@rumpenstiltzkin that's true! totally relate on this, because I'm thinking , what if I draw this particular chapter and the next one looks odd because my artstyle just change?. ugh and then thinking you have to change everything which is really take a lot of time