How satisfied are you with your art/writing? How are you actively trying to improve?

Good question!

I go through stages with my art, sometimes I'm satisfied with it and others I'm not. If I am dissatisfied though I tend to look back at older work to see how far I've come and try to identify why at that moment I'm not happy with it.

I've noticed that I make a bit of progression over time with just the sheer volume of comic work I'm doing. But I tend to try and work on what I see are my weakest areas- for example at the moment it's environment work, I don't feel I put enough effort in so I've started focusing on that. I also think my basics are starting to slip a bit so I intend on doing a couple anatomy studies a day next week as warmups just as refresher. Just little things like that every now and again seem to help me and if I'm really stuck I tend to resort to watching other artists work- youtube is a godsend sometimes XD.

As for writing I don't focus on it probably as much as I should and as such feel a bit more shaky about it it. Though I did a ton of research when I was actively writing my scripts. I am currently trying to work on my dialogue as I think it's a bit flat sometimes. Reading comics and novels always helps improve but I find TV, games and films to be an good source of inspiration and help too. I tend to pick apart any of these things and think about what they did right and what I liked and then what I thought didn't work and what could've been done to fix it.

Ah that is most definitely helpful!

I would agree, though I can look back on older scripts and pick up on things that I think were bad, who's to say someone else wouldn't have liked the scene? It feels almost like writing is more subjective than the art style to me, though in true both are probably equal in that respect.

It's another good question and would be an interesting topic :). Ironically I'm more willing to overlook the artwork if I think the story is good which is almost the opposite of where my focus is. Though perhaps it's because my script is pretty much set in stone now so I have more time to dedicate to my artwork.

Writing is... I don't know. I can write papers on Japanese economy or politics, no problem (well, relatively), but when it comes to writing stories I don't have much experience tbh. My script is reworked every other week when I get a new idea on how to improve it, and only recently have I begun to feel that I'm getting closer to the "heart" of the story. My approach might be a bit too stilted and close to writing papers though haha xD

As for art, I sometimes have a thing I'm okay with, but it's pretty rare that I feel that something's good. I always see tons of stuff that could be better, and when I actually am satisfied with something, I have that little voice telling me "it's no different from everything else you make... you just can't see the mistakes right now. But everyone else can."

I wish that voice would shut up.

As for improvement, I'm enrolled in Schoolism online classes, which I definitely can recommend.

To improve on my art I largely analyse the artists I love and try to understand the patterns in their work. Like sometimes my faces seem a bit off, or my colours seem flat, or my levels aren't so great, but by seriously analysing photographs/people/artistic renderings I learn to recognise where I'm coming up short and make an effort to change. I also keep a pile of inspirational material by my laptop and flick through it every now and then when my panels seem mundane or repetitive. It'seasy to fall into the habit of using the same headshots or angles in a long form comic but simply being aware of that is half the problem already dealt with. I know I have a lot of weaknesses and limitations but I'm so thrilled with how far I've come since I began this whole thing that I know those problems are small potatoes. One day they won't be limitations any more, just got to keep practising.

For writing I try to read, though not to too much because I know I'm very suseptible to embodying the latest thing I've played/read/watched and injecting it into the comic by accident. I've avoided playing the Witcher and watching certain films for this reason. I know I'd be waaay too into them.

I do improv writing where I can, roleplaying where I can, and generally do a lot of research day to day. I use dice to mix things up as well. It can be fun to throw a Hail Mary plot changer and see how things play out from there.

Dialogue is improved by playing it in loops in my head for days on end-- not sure I'm actively doing that though! It's quite passive. I just edit things as need be. Active listening is a huge thing for me too. Like actually playing close attention to the way people talk to each other. You can learn a lot about personalities and attitudes just by observing them in action. Work is a great place to do this. Try looking at your colleagues like characters and defining their quirks.

That's all I got, though. I know there's a lot more I can do but there just isn't enough time!

Schoolism is great! I've learned so much there, right now I'm in composition class. I only miss getting feedback, but don't feel like paying for those classes... They're a tad expensive xD

I'm not satisfied with mine. I want it to look better just not sure what direction to take. There are so many things and no time to really hard core work on them for me.

I have always been pretty confident in my writing. I also have a friend who I call my "concept teammate" because she asks tons of questions about my story that I never would have thought of and has added a depth to my story just by having conversations about it.
My art is alright. I stopped drawing a ton since my freshman year of college so my skills have dwindled. I don't have a specific style so from panel to panel my style changes - my characters don't have consistent proportions either. I am working on it though. I figured that it would be best to get my webcomic posted story wise and maybe one day I'll go back and re-draw panels or whole pages if I'm not happy with them. I use a lot of pinterest pages for pose references and my concept teammate friend is always sending me video tutorials about animation, and concept art.

Well, my comic strip is patterned after the ones in newspapers, so what I do most of all is read the funny pages every day. I've picked up many different ideas by studying line art, and hope to be that good one day. Secondly, I draw comic strips nonstop. As I once read, it's hard to get worse at something you do everyday!

I'm personally ok with it, but it doesn't mean I think my work is perfect. I'm always trying to improve how my work looks. I mean I look back on my older strips all the time and compare it to my new work all the time to remind myself I am slowly improving. I want to improve my comics look for the sake of my readers and future readers, and until I feel especially confident I can't get to work on my other project ideas. This month ironically is a month of me making remakes of my first comics which I include my new ones compared to my old ones.

I'm never fully satisfied with my art or writing. But I always try to stay positive with my improvements through each piece of art or script I complete. I'm always trying to improve and I spend time everyday practicing, especially with the art side. Even if its just for 5 minutes I make sure to sketch something little everyday. I find it good practice to observe surrondings on a daily basis too. Focus on the lighting where ever I am and how its effecting objects and people within the room, different architecture and textures too.
I don't believe there is a way to become 'perfect' with art, but that helps me stay on the positive note that even if I'm not fully satisfied with my art, I am getting better and will continue to approve with time

How satisfied are you with your art/writing?

But seriously, I think I've improved more at writing than at art. (Except when it comes to literal writing, like a novel. I found out I'm apparently very n00b at that. XD) Though even when it comes to writing I vary on how well I do.

Looking back at my early chapters of Daniel, I suppose my art's gotten better, little by little, but I do wish I had more time to really buckle down and improve on certain things, like anatomy, perspective, coloring/shading and just overall design for random pictures. I just do my best to experiment and improve on things I'm bad at as I go along.

Writing I have a ton of confidence in. I've done a lot of writing in my life (more scientific than creative), however, that's only because I have never decided to actually put my creative writing to good use. I only wish that my artistic skill could even be half as good as my writing is (though obviously that's not perfect either).

Having never drawn before at the age of 34, I've really struggled to start. I have purchased a couple of books by Christopher Hart. Those have helped to try and grasp some of the fundamentals. I also subscribed to a course on Udemy to help learn the fundamentals. YouTube has been helpful to a certain degree. Having gone through this thread however I've found quite a few new things to help me on my quest to improve my artwork. Thank you all for sharing, and if there are any other beginners out there I'd recommend the Christopher Hart books.

I tend to procrastinate because I'm lazy and depressed. When I finally drag myself into a drawing or writing session I always feel fulfilled by the writing and disappointed with the drawing. I think it's because drawing is visual so it's a lot easier to see the flaws in a drawing than a piece of writing. I also set my expectations too high.

I find my comic bland colouring wise. Facial expression I also make too mild and when I try to make them more exaggerated it'll look like uncanny valley. I also find my character designs quite eh. They all have almost exactly the same shape. I think I'm though okay with my lineart and lettering at the moment. But having to write my comic in English makes me quite sad because Finnish is the original language of my comic. Nobody would read it if I made it in Finnish though so it is what it is.

I'm okay with my stuff in most zones...I guess I would like my lines to be a little more steady, ink wise. I want my colors to be better; I guess that's why sometimes I go nutso about trying to get better at coloring.

Writing wise, I think I do okay. I try to keep all the bases covered on my plots, so that way I can tell a more complete story.

The only way I get better at [digital] inking is to keep putting in the work...as for coloring, I'm gonna have to find some sort of color/theory & digital painting/coloring class to take to help execute better and get the color scenes that I want.

Well now with a full time job that is art, that's where all my time goes and some of my learning. I took cartooning classes in highschool and took art in college along with storytelling classes which counts. Sometimes I draw from life or practice or experiment. Mostly I don't have time or not in the mood. My practice comes from my work alone mostly. The only time I would really be willing to practice my art is on the train ride home but I know everyone's gonna be gawking at me.

I am fairly competent in my writing skills, my art skills are fairly professional though I have to be in the right mood and mindest to draw or it's just garbage doodles. When I'm given a motivation to do something then I want to do it, especially something like having a job or project from an outside source, it makes me pressured to put out good work and concentrate. Personal work is just a mess in quality.

I have yet to reach the skill of being able to draw a masterpiece despite having a high fever, mad and vomiting. That is when true skill has been reached.

I'm happy with my art and writing! Like every other artist in the universe I hit points where I feel like "THIS IS IT!!!!! I'm getting worse now, I've used up all my talent and now its all gone!!! I'm becoming imperceptibly more mediocre with every page!!!!" but I'm still really proud of the comic overall!

I think I prefer "proud of" to "satisfied with." Like, even the very beginning of my comic, I look back and think "wow heavens I could've done that So Much Better if I knew then the things I know now" but I still feel like, at the time, I did a real good job, and I'm proud of what I did. I think, it's not like I look at my work and go "yup, this is good, I'm content, this is where I wanna be," it's more of a continual process of "I think I'm doing pretty well so far!"

Right now I'm trying to improve by spending more time on planning -- both in the sense of art and writing. Taking more time to think through a scene and plan out a chapter and design a space before I get there. Planning ahead more with my writing is helping me to see just how many different threads I'm juggling at once, and to try not to forget important ideas and have to cram them in right before they're needed. I'm also trying to pay more attention to colour, and think about making pages aesthetically striking and distinct, rather than just "convincingly in the place/time of day that they're meant to be."

Writing, I think? It's tough, because if art wasn't extremely important to me I sure wouldn't spend 15 hours on a page, but at the same time, I'd rather readers tell me I've messed up some anatomy than have readers admit that an emotional moment didn't land for them.
Though slotting "story" as a part of writing makes this tough to answer too, because story is 100% the most important thing to me, but so many art elements matter to me because they're part of story-telling -- expressions that read well, a sense of space that doesn't become confusing as characters move through the environment, the design of an area that makes the world less generic, the pacing that comes from the composition of a page, the mood that comes from the colouring of a scene. So I'm not sure. I can say "story matters most" with certainty, but that could mean all kinds of things.

This is definitely the phase where I'm at with my colors. I want my colors to define that I can convincingly set the mood, as opposed to "he's trying to do something, but hasnt quite got it yet".

Writing-wise I'm quite happy with where I am. I know I'm not releasing lighting bolts of clarity, or shaking the ground with deep truths about the nature of life, but I can turn out a pretty affecting passage and I think my dialogue is pretty natural (I read it out loud to myself, I can't recommend this enough as a way to quickly bug-fix a wonky script).

Art-wise I am only improving when I motivate myself not to be lazy. I can go back to things I did years ago and feel they're better than what I can put out now, but then it was always a simple "effort = result" equation. These days it's hard to muster the time that I used to have in order to make the art as good as it can be. I'm getting better as a whole though, especially in pose and expression.

I am slowly improving my art by making new panels/art for my comic. And as i find myself getting more comfortable with drawing my characters i also find my writing has improved a little bit maybe.

I'm the type who usually likes to burn through a bunch of styles and try new things to try and improve my art, but this can backfire leaving me frustrated trying to push my time and limits to create better art in an art style im not used to. The slow/gradual improvement is much better i think as it hasn't caused me to quit or give up due to frustration.

While i will probably never be satisfied with my art skill or writing. Improvement is the goal. I'm not trying to actively improve as much as i used to.

I love my art. Regardless of if it's perfect every time I enjoy doing it and I am proud of the things I get right. I learned to focus on the growth aspect of being an artist and it basically means I don't compare myself to others anymore.
Then again, a lot of change has happened in my life that's forced me to stop focusing so hard on others and learn to appreciate myself. It ain't an easy thing to do but if you don't care about being perfect "NOW NOW NOW" then you'll realise that nobody has achieved perfect art and never will because that's the entire point of art. It's supposed to be imperfect. People can make their art more appealing, more detailed and more accurate but it takes years and years of intensive learning, studying and practice.
Expecting your art to just "be better" isn't realistic. I think there's a lot I can improve but I also think there's a lot I HAVE improved.

My writing is pretty impeccable. I have always been good at it and probably always will be. My english teacher in high school legit thanked me for picking creative writing as a college course. I'm extremely good at writing prose and script, because I've worked hard on it. I used to not know where to start but now I'm genuinely really good at it. I don't have a lot of time to get all my work written and therefore it's a slow crawl but my stuff is well-received and I'm proud of it. I know my strengths are dialogue and fight scenes, and I'm also getting really good at characterisation and generally realistic characters. I need to work a bit on setting and lore but that's a skill I can build on. Obviously I'll never be satisfied though - I want to be better than I am and crawl closer to being truly great at it.

TL;DR I have a big ego but it's probably a good thing.

i'm proud that i actually got started, how im improving is just pressing on, bugs get ironed out in time

In terms of narrative skills, I’m overconfident but in terms of art, I’m insecure on whether or not my style is recognizable/unique enough. That’s really my goal- if someone can point at my art and say “THAT’S dawg’s work” I’ll be happy

Thank you for making the forum topic. I am satisfied with my art and writing, because I keep getting better. If I stop improving, I will be dissatisfied. Part of improving to me is not only making better work, but to just recognize little things that need to be worked on to get better and going through a process to advance my skills.

your art style is so good. I like the colors you use.
it looks very good

I'm satisfied with the writing and some parts of the art. But I feel lost when I have to do backgrounds and different angles, so I'm slowly working on that with my comic, and other projects hm

Satisfied in that it's comprehendable and serviceable for being a webcomic.

A fun way to improve is to copy things that you enjoy, like Asano Inio's godly backgrounds. You end up learning the benefits/detriments of various techniques while also having a good time.

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Oof, well I think I'm pretty good at characters and expressions (my anatomy's NOT the best but you know, improvements!). I think what I REALLY wanna get better at is actually committing to backgrounds that are a lot more complex?

My only tool for actually improving would be the little background studies I do, or small little trace overs of very complex buildings. Nothing that will see the light of day, of course, but hopefully one day it'll show in my art uwu