How important is art consistency for webcomics? (and later ebooks)

[ble]

I own several printed mangas and comics, and because they are made by professionals working for a publishing company (Shueisha, DC, Marvel, etc), the art doesn't change suddenly from one page to another.

I think for webcomics, is almost expected to have some art evolution or art style change, and it seems normal, but is still ok when is made into an ebook/book/printing?

I ask this because I stumbled on a thread about selling your comic as an ebook on Gumroad, and that seems like a good idea, but just asking how weird would be if the pages seems like they were made by different people, but it's all from me LOL. This is one of my heavy problem with comics, that the art needs to be somehow...consistent, compared to people who only do digital art pieces separated.

So, this is the art for page 04:

Then around page 34 i wasn't happy, so I change the painting style (i don't even remember how to paint like this anymore):

Then page 50:

And this is for page 71, a more recent page that i haven't upload yet (sshh spoilers):

If you ask me why so many art changes, is because i'm never happy with my art, and i consider myself an artist first, rather than a storyteller, for me is more important to get better at art, rather than keep the art consistent, and also I'm still trying to find my own art style. But i think it would look ...weird in a book (?) Like people will turn the page or scroll down and think WTF is this?

Do you think this constant art change is a big problem for an ebook/book? Like it will have negative reviews or whatever.

[revisionstudios]

I think it's more similar than you think. We're often blind to our own styles, so it's common to look at two things of ours and think it looks SO DIFFERENT when really, it doesn't.

Like yeah, I can see you trying out different techniques and stylization, but that's normal. I wouldn't worry about consistency. Your characters are recognizable and that's what's important.

Even published works improve over time. You can see it in manga really easily since it's the same person working on it for the whole series, and they're often quite long. If you compare the beginning of a manga to the last pages the difference is very obvious!

So yeah, don't sweat it. Just let yourself try things out and improve naturally!

[Puck]

It does not professional, not in webcomics and not in printed comics.
Professional comic books also change in quality but not from panel
to panel, they change from book to book.
The question is, do you want it to look professional?
I disagree with revisionstudios on one point, it does look different in a lot
of comics how the person draws over the time of the comic and readers
see that. I think one common thing is that the first panel/panels look more
detailed than the rest of the comic, the hair often changes to an easier to
draw style. I do that too and I don´t think it looks good

[Legendofgenii]

That’s a good question.

I don’t see a huge difference in the first three examples. I can see the improvements, but the style isn’t drastically different. The last example has different bubbles and font, and I think I preferred the painterly backgrounds on the first examples (but that’s just my taste).

I’m making my comic for fun and to learn (I think the story is the most important to me), so I’m not sure about the answer to this.

With each chapter I think my skills are improving and I’ve been a bit experimental with the style in some places - and some pages I haven’t even finished (coloured yet). My bad.

I’m hoping (fingers crossed) that readers will be interested in the story and fall in love with the characters enough that they don’t mind any little arty deviations. BUT I do all this for free, so I’m not looking to make money or please everybody.

If you are planning to sell anything though, yes - it should be produced to the best of your ability and consistent throughout (at least for each book/chapter).

[artemficta]

Your style changes are similar enough I don't see much of an issue. However, as a more general answer to the question, I think if there is a gradual evolution of the style throughout the comic it's not jarring, but if there's just suddenly a drastic change at one point then it is. In manga since the series often go on for so long you often do see the creator's style change throughout the work, much like with webcomics.

A lot of creators I've known have gone back over early pages to fix them before print, that is an option if it's something that bothers you personally.

[ble]

Ok, thank you for the feedback.

Some things, like the speech bubbles, i changed because it was easier for me doing the text in a rectangle with round corners than in a big ballon shape.

I think I will keep it as it is then.

@ratique please close this thread.

[Jenny-Toons]

[Jenny-Toons]

Thread closed at the request of OP