Redrawing your comics

ZombieOwl 2019-01-12 05:12:24 UTC #1

How many of you convince yourself that this is a good idea? It can be quite a rabbit hole I hear.
I've only got 3 strips that really bug me, so that's all I'mm working on
It's mainly because I can tell how rushed they were, and the art suffered for it ^^;;

I've since gotten better at time management, so I haven't had as many rushed looking drawings as of late. I just find a few of the old ones a bit jarring. I feel like the consistency of the character tended to change within the strip to much 0_o

Anyways, just wanted to share

Hexigate 2019-01-12 05:34:40 UTC #2

I've thought a lot about redrawing at least the first book of my series, but I'm holding out against it because it is, like you said, a big rabbit hole I'm going to fall into.

I'm worried that my early style is actively turning potential readers away simply because of how terrible it is. A lot of my current readers are in favor of keeping the old pages because they can see me actively improving over the years. But I can't bug off the idea that new readers won't be sticking around long enough for them to see that; they'll be thinking that the early style is all I have to offer, and they close my series to look for one with a better first impression.

But currently I'm staying away from redrawing any pages because going on a big redraw streak will take time away from the story progression, and I put story progression above all else.

ben 2019-01-12 05:52:15 UTC #3

In my professional life I’ve been advised against redrawing and for good reason. You will find that in a few years or even MONTHS that your redraw isn’t as good as you are in that moment. It doesn’t matter. Comics are a timeline of improvement and people like seeing that and expect to see that.

When I was first starting out I remember having a comic that was supposed to only be 30 pages. Every five pages I kept finding that I was getting more comfortable with it and getting better so I would go back and redraw the previous five pages, then I had to redraw the next five to match since I improved a little between then too. And the cycle kept happening over and over until I ended up with 120+ pages of a comic that was only 30 pages long and most of it was redraws. And then a few years later now I’m MUCH better at drawing than I was then and I am still tempted to redraw it. But the comic is done and people enjoyed and it’s had its moment.

Moving forward is a much better use of your time.

rmdooley 2019-01-12 06:10:32 UTC #4

I REDREW THE FIRST CHAPTER AND HAVE NO REGRETS (as evidenced by the all caps)

I will also redraw the second and third chapter but I always have enough of a buffer that this will not delay the comic's continued release

You gotta start somewhere and I think it is fine to repave the rockier bits of the road that get you (and your readers) where you need to be

Rhonder 2019-01-12 18:10:58 UTC #5

I fell into "Redraw Hell" with my first big comic that I tried to make in Middle/High School. I was writing it out in Novel form but always with the intent to draw it as a comic (in fact the comic came first, I was mostly using the novel as a script). Anyways, I wound up writing like 8 or 9 chapters of the novel, but never made it past Chapter 2, page 2 or 3 as far as the drawings go. This was because every few months I'd look back and be tempted to restart because my art had improved so much. Soooo most of my attempts never made it farther than page 5 of chapter 1 or something xD I have like 8 or 10 different versions of those pages sitting in my old drawings drawer. It's kind of an interesting metric to track my early art improvement by though.

This process continued on for like all of high school, and then I kinda stopped drawing more or less during college. After graduation I was like "Ah I should get back into drawing... and also start my old comic idea over!" so I rewrote a new prologue and penciled out a bunch of pages for that. Then I got distracted by work and put it down again. A year later I was like "okay this time for sure!" and restarted it again. Made it like 7 or 8 pages in (this was intended to be my first tapas comic). At that point I had an ephiphony and realized the story was way too long and the idea was stale so I finally dropped the project haha. But I spent 10 cumulative years working on it (or like 6 if you subtract out the college dead time) )

(those pages from late 2017/early 2018 are on my tumblr if anyone's interested. I think the navigation buttons are borked though. Tumblr was way too confusing for me lol https://rhonderart.tumblr.com/post/168351163671/konguki-chapter-1-page-1)

Regarding my current one-shot, I don't intend to go back and do any touch up until the whole thing's finished. I'd like to print some physical copies after I'm done, so there's def some touch up that I'd like to do, but nothing too drastic. There are some black specs from the line art scanning that I missed when editing them for the tapas/webtoons uploads, for example, and some wonky faces and stuff I'll briefly touch up. But not planning on fully redrawing pages or anything.

I had to violate this policy a bit recently though. A few of my earliest pages I had to touch up this month for the video trailer thing I had made (I accidentally saved the master files at 940 pixels wide when I was saving the versions for tapas ) so I have a few before/after pics xD

Before (drawn April 2018):

After (January 2019):

I've decided to hold off on uploading them to my series for now just so the beginning has the same natural gradient of progression. (and these were kinda quick, so there are some touch ups I'd still like to do, particularly in relation to the monster's glow haha)

LT1986 2019-01-12 19:09:59 UTC #6

I don't like redrawing my web comic pages. I've been told that one reason why it is done by some creators is for the work to appear more professional. Now I don't like redrawing pages, because I like to see the progression of my art work as I continue making pictures. This is also why I like to see the original works of other creators.

imiogri 2019-01-12 19:29:38 UTC #7

I've long been planning on redrawing mine but yeah, time is a big issue.. But I've been starting to mix up new pages and old pages as I fill in with new scenes, so at least the reader can tell the art will get better. As other people are saying the redrawn pages are also going to get old at some point, so It's a tough decision what you want to put your time on.

deadaccountrip 2019-01-13 02:10:59 UTC #8

I redrew Hybrid Society but only because we made major changes to the plot.

ble 2019-01-13 03:44:10 UTC #9

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Milhamah 2019-01-13 03:52:33 UTC #10

I'm about at the point where I can turn my comic into 22 pages of content for a print edition. I plan to add a few extra frames and touch up a few more to make everything more unified.

But I won't devote more than two weeks to the task, partially due to a spring deadline.

ZombieOwl 2019-01-13 19:17:18 UTC #11

I imagine it'd be especially difficult with a narrative comic, since you can't just do one page and call it good

This is a big reason I'm redoing a few of mine... The characters heads look pretty warped, but... Yeah, seeing the gradual style changes/improvements is good for everyone, I think ^^

ZombieOwl 2019-01-13 19:19:41 UTC #12

That's kind of my mentality with this undertaking; I don't want to redo all of my work (dear lord no /shudders/), just the freaky looking bits ^^;

aqua03 2019-01-13 19:34:43 UTC #13

This was something I was thinking about when I did the art overhaul for the second half of Edible Green Tea, remastering the first 50 strips into the newer art style and format with improved dialogue and art. But again, it would be time consuming and I don't really have that time right now considering I already have a few other projects on my plate I'm working on at the moment. Might do it sometime down the line when I have more time and energy, but not right now.