Should i remake my art?

[DiegoPalacios]

Hi everyone!

So, in these last couple of years i`ve had an amazing experience making comics and i love telling fun stories......but lately i have been concerned that my current art skills may be limiting the potential of my comic.

Also,i plan on working on a chapter structure for my comic because can help with a better pacing. (plot would still be mostly the same)

I can see massive benefits in the longterm for working on my art, learning further anatomy, working on the fundamentals, perspective and things like that.....

I am aware my readers stay for the humor and story, and not for the art, but it may be relevant to attract a bigger audience.....

But...i am considering remaking my older pages too. (again). On one side, it can help attract new readers who may walk away from my current art level, but at the same time it scares me to reach "redraw hell".

Of course, i would make sure the improvement kept the original style in a way, only that better drawn.

Do you recommend me to go for it?
Anyone who had experience redrawing have any advice on how to approach this?

Here is my comic in case you want to see my current level to properly judge.

Rocky the rock :: Cover1 | Tapas

[Awesomeness_Studios]

Hmm well i guess it depends. It's normal for webcomic art to get better over time, so it's not really necessary to change it. Also, this is a comedy series, so not many people would really mind if the art starts off weird in the beginning.

However, if you feel confident enough in your abilities, redrawing might be good. I've never approached this however, so idk how to help with doing that (also you should take my advice with a grain of salt for the same reason )

[Rhonder]

For context, are you asking about upgrading the early pages to the level of the current newest pages? If that's the case... I'd probably hold off and just continue onward if I were you.

There's no doubt that a lot of subtle things have improved with your art, but at a glance your art style is actually very consistent. Things like your shading and even depictions of the characters have certainly improved, but I don't think that it's different enough to warrant the time and effort required for a redraw at this point.

For example, on the 2nd newest episode in mentions the body building goblins and what they're up to now. I pulled up the early episodes where those same goblins make their original appearance and... they look pretty much the same to me? And again, this isn't a bad thing- your style has a great consistency to it! But that's also why I think a redraw would likely be more detrimental than just pushing forward with more new content. A redraw at this point would slow new content for your current readers and... probably have minimal effect on drawing in new ones (at this point anyways, imho).

This goes doubly so since you've already done a redraw semi-recently, with the transition from traditional to digital. In fact that may very well be why the difference isn't as big as it might be- it's already been touched up once It's up to you, of course, but my advice would be to charge onwards and just keep improving as you go

[unknown_user]

Mmm... I would suggest a compromise, something like:
Draw a new page, then remaster one old one, then repeat.
At least, it's what I do for my own comics.

[jmhenry]

but at the same time it scares me to reach "redraw hell".

As someone who's reworked his own comic before, I can definitely assure you that "redraw hell" is a myth. As long as you have a plan going forward for your redrawn version and you know it'll be better for your comic overall, go for it.

Give yourself some time to think over the risks vs rewards, and see what you think about it later

[juniorguilherme340]

Yeah I have been subbed for a while and you have a gem of a comic, love the idea and adventures of Rocky and his friends. Noting that I also had to redo my prologue for the same sake of reaching more readers. So I would say got for it.

[rajillustration]

I think the biggest thing, if you redraw--is to put a value on your time to ask if it's worth it for the amount of followers you think the change will make, and to make sure that the changes are all about legibility more than details, if that makes sense. You can get lost in details, but if you have clear goals towards legibility (so making sure that panels and bubbles read correctly, that the font is right, and maybe changing art where things are unclear) it's a much simpler and quicker task than a total overhaul.

Because like...you're always going to improve, you don't need to completely redraw the original unless you were looking to publish in print or got picked up by premium or something. It's a webcomic, people are very forgiving.

[Cope]

Redrawing old pages has always felt like a Sisyphean task to me.

[magnavarra]

finished is better than perfect. I'd suggest you better start something new so that your story doesn't limit the potential of your story as well. You may even title it the same or lie 'Rocky rock 2: returm to whatever"- like franchize relaunch or seequel or prequel...

[sonten]

Imho looking back on old pages, we as artists will always see the mistakes and what we could improve. I think as long as the difference is not night and day, you can use your time instead to go forward with the story.

The thing is: can you continue? Yes, you're better now, but do you feel comfortable with your old art too? The is improvement, but not a huge difference in style, so I think redrawing them would be for yourself and not for your readers. Which is also totally fine, but ask yourself if it's necessary.

[DiegoPalacios]

Sorry for the late reply, thanks a lot for your imput. After reading your replies and some thught, i reached the conclusion that is better to keep the digital pages and continue redrawing the hand drawn ones.

[Bree_Mana]

I've kept most of my pages as they originally are, that way I can show my art progression. I've decided to keep certain things like my comic cover with a more recent drawing so that people can see the level the most recent stuff will reach.

I have one exception in my own series, the first 4 pages were done in a completely different medium and WAY before any later pages, making the first episode inconsistent in style and skill. so those pages I re-did so everything within the episode remained consistent.