How important is art quality to you?

[BlackMantaStudios]

This may be a dumb question, but I was wondering if a series's art quality or style is integral to your enjoyment of it? Or perhaps, are you willing to let less-than-stellar art slide if the writing justifies it? Why so? Is there such a thing as a level of badness (art-wise, of course) you can't stand?

---

I asked this partly because I've recently decided to overhaul my art style for my comic, which can be found here. For the record, here's the strip I posted last Monday:

aaaand, for comparison, a panel from the comic I've scheduled for July 18:

Still needs a good bit of polishing, but I think it's more presentable. I worried that the old style might tire the old readers out and drive away news ones.

[pwh13]

I think this is a valid and good question, but personally I think it varies. In some cases it's a welcome addition to add more detail, whether it be colors or extra backgrounds. But I've seen backgrounds that are just a series of a few parallel lines and scribbles.

For kind of one-off smaller plot line comics, I think you don't need a lot of background information. But if you're pushing a kind of narrative that goes beyond just a few panels, backgrounds can be a great help in setting the mood.

[zetina]

Clarity is more important. Why? Because the story/writing quality is more important than beautiful art. That's my objective opinion. A reader has to be able to understand what you're trying to convey in each panel. A badly drawn foot is better than no discernible foot at all haha

Subjectively, yeah, I want an art style that appeals to me cuz I wanna fall for a cool protag and love everything s/he does.

[Kayke]

For me, art is part of why I read a comic. If the art isn't good it can be hard for me to concentrate on what's going on in the story. Plus, I only have a limited amount of free time, so a comic kind of has to be the total package for me to invest time into it.

That being said though, more complex art does not always mean better art. I personally like your simpler style. I think it's cute and works well for a 4 panel gag comic.

[gone]

Okay i ask myself this question alot cause im not a ver good artist but when i update my comic past the bits of bloby color and 4 year old styled backrounds they don care what so ever. Its more the conent of the mood and not just style. I even got fleshed out got a new pen and it looks better on pages 50 then 20 but they still only comment on that porely drawn page 20 sayin hom much them like the color! I hope that helps a bit. So its not very important no.

[BlackMantaStudios]

Personally, I too like gorgeous art in the comics I read, and I rarely sub to those whose art style doesn't appeal to me. Theoretically, excellent writing can make me change my mind, though admittedly I've yet to see a comic here with bad (in my book, at least) art that's offset by stellar writing. Most writers I meet here who aren't that well-versed in drawing get partners to take care of the art.

@Kaykedrawsthings My idea at first was to match the art with that of my long-form, which has a decidedly more complex style. I guess I'll just have to find a middle ground between my lazy-looking and superfluous drawing methods.

[J.Z.Castillo]

I think style matters a little, but then again, everyone is different and everyone likes different things, I think a better question would be "am I satisfied with my style?" If the answer is yes, then keep doing you, find your audience, and they'll love it! If the answer is not yes, well, you have some work to do. From personal experience, my comic has changed SO much from the first update to the latest update, so your style will change as you pick up new tricks and improve your skills. Get a style you are comfortable with and work on an amazing story, eventually your style will change and adapt as your skills increase!

[phen]

A lot of what @mrjonzap I agree with! Consistency is still important but your style (ie, "art quality") should reflect your intention. Confidence is key -- if you're confident in your process, even subjects you've no experience with will be comfortable to approach and engaging enough to get you working to fine tune it.

Quality is important, of course, but... still subjective (as annoying as that is). For comics, quality in both writing and art are ideal. I want to read a comic that's got heavy care placed on both of these elements. Still, it's safe to say that as long as the creator invests effort and places significance to their work, ANY aspect of it, that's great. I'll tune in!

[kkitty]

Well, after about three months of jumping around switching styles, I decided that I'm sticking with my very first one.

Life is like that sometimes.

Readers REALLY don't care as long as you update. Trust me. There has not been more than 2 chapters out of 12 that are the same style in my comic and it has almost 5k followers (webtoons, however).

[alaingrey]

A comic is not a book. If I'm reading a book, I dont neccessarily expect it should have a beautiful designed cover, but I do expect the writing to be clear and to be good. In a comic, the art is a part of the writing. They're not separate entities where one being weak can be justified by one being really good.
If I'm going to invest my time in a comic, I expect it should be visually appealing and have a good story all in one. The art should be clear and shouldn't cause confusion. Unfortunately, poor art is often very confusing. It takes a long time to make the art look nice, but it should be expected for a comic genre that the art is at a certain level.
I will not read comics where I don't think the art is working out. That said, it doesn't mean that I'm only going to read the most technically proficient, perfectly painted glossy team-made pages. In fact, those hardly interest me at all, even if they're eye candy. I tend to like messy artsy pages a lot more. So, what I do like is unique and well designed art that adds instead of detracts from a story. But that's the thing. The art shouldn't be a detriment, and I would expect that for a visual medium like comics, there would be a lot of care taken in the presentation.

[R.n.P]

Art quality is not that important to me, I read comics based on the storyline and character development.
Except when it is an action genre where I then consider how interesting the fights are
THE LAST SAMURAI

[niinasalmelin]

For me art is important factor, so I want it to be good. That doesn't mean it has to go all Jim Lee, but I like it when the art fits to the story and I love to see creators put lot of effort into their art. It's 50% of a comic while other half is the story. So I need to like them both.

[miseryhunting]

To me, it does matter to an extend – the style you’re using, even if it simplistic, must look like you’re comfortable with it. It must be evident to the reader that, no matter your artistic level, you’ve put work into it. Someone mentioned the “perceived effort” factor before, which is the most accurate.

[indagold]

I immediately drop a comic based on it's art quality. Rarely do I tolerate it, maybe with comedic works but honestly If I could be reading something better I would rather.

[joannekwan]

Art quality doesn't irk me as long as I can tell what's going on.

Type/lettering on the other hand...

[sarrowsmith10]

I'm pretty forgiving of art quality. As long as it isn't distracting, I don't mind too much if it has a good story. There are plenty of issues of professional comics that the art is rather subpar (New 52 Nightwing went through some less than awesome artists, and I still read it), but doesn't distract from readership. Ideally the art and writing should match and work together in harmony to where you don't really notice one or the other and you just get submerged in the story.

For gag comics, usually you just don't need super detailed, crazy backgrounds, etc, but you can still have high quality images that look good, are simplistic and work to enhance the joke, rather than distract from it.

[gateofselidor]

I don't need the art to be stunning, but it should at least be clear and competent. It's important to be able to tell the difference between the characters, understand what's going on and so on. There are, however, certain styles that just hold zero appeal for me, and I'm unlikely to stick with them long enough to work out whether or not I like the writing.

[shazzbaa]

I care a LOT about effective art.

But I consider, say, Hyperbole and a Half to have incredibly effective art.

For a comic to be polished and shiny isn't as important as the drawings conveying what they want to convey well -- which requires skill and work no matter the style! The Hyperbole and a Half author has talked before about how the amount of time she spends getting her goofy illustrations juuuuuuust right would surprise people.
"Bad art" will definitely keep me from reading a comic -- if the characters feel stiff and posed, for instance; or if the expressions on their faces feel out of place, don't quite match what they're saying, or feel like stock expressions rather than a genuine reaction. Comics can have beautiful illustrations and still be ineffective; comics can lack any fancy polish and still be very effective.

[scythe]

To me, the art is probably about 90% of why I read comics. But when I say that, I'm not saying I don't care about story, rather, I mean, I want the art to tell the majority of the story. If I wanted to read, I'd read a novel. When I read a comic, I want the story to be told visually.

I mean, if you think about it, how much of a novel is dialogue? Not much. Otherwise it'd just look like a screenplay. That's how I think about it. The art in a comic is all the words surrounding the dialogue in novel. Or in other words, the dominant storytelling mechanism.

[Rabbit]

I feel kinda mean saying this because my art isn't really amazing, but when a comic has bad art I just tend to click away.. I think it matters a bit less with gag-a-day strips, but it still matters.
Also, whenever I find myself thinking 'should I really go through all of this trouble just to make it look a little bit better', I ALWAYS then force myself to do it, because if I avoid the stuff that's hard to draw and keep drawing simple things, I'll never improve!
Like, the other day, I found myself thinking 'wow, I wish I could draw light reflecting off of hair as well as so-and-so here', and then I realized I'll NEVER be able to do that if I don't start forcing myself to try! So I changed how I draw hair a bit so it has more light reflections.
I think the longer you try to draw the comic in the 'more detailed' way, the easier it'll become, and you'll get better at it ^^