From our first one shot Master of Keys (2016)
And the lastest page of Hexameron 
Lineart. Still improving it, but it's definitely less wobbly now!
Should I say that I had a very little idea on how to colour anything in 2016? 
Backgrounds! Yeah, I didn't make one background before going into comics. Still struggling with them, but they are definitely better.
Anatomy and proportions. Now I know (mostly) how to put characters in poses and I (mostly) see when I am making some huge mistake 
Honestly this is super important tbh! Even if an artist is still working on a skill and pushing out work with errors, just being able to self-diagnose what went wrong to work on for next time is very handy 
It's hard when you can sense (or even just know) something is "off" but can't really put your finger on it or what to do about it lol... although every artist has been there!
I've really been trying to make my characters fit better into backgrounds and flesh out my environments. I've been working on spire for a little over 4 years now, here's an early 'evening palette' page from 2016 vs a recent one I ended up really loving.
On top of that though I think I evened out that harsh color contrast in the earlier pages and have better control of my lineart and character model believability
old version of comic:
Here's my old avatar compared to my new one.
Kind of reflects my increase in confidence, too. From visibly challenging people to simply curious, with the raised eyebrow.
I improved my coloring, everything contrasts way better now, and is just way more vibrant.
Outlines, I'm still cringing at those jeans to this day, definitely way better now.
Shading definitely improved, my jeans aren't overly shaded and my shirt isn't just a solid block of color.
And posing! Seriously, what was that posture?
Also, I got eyebrows, clearly the most important change.
Love seeing art progress.
Here's mine, from the same comic actually
Old (march 2018)
I'm still figuring things out especially with regards to backgrounds, and I definitely like drawing nature backgrounds over insides of buildings.
(Since I'm sure people are sick of seeing my art from pre-2010)
First comic ever posted on Tapas:
Presentation:
1. Switched fully to scroll format for ease of reading on tablets and phones.
2. Font is now an all-caps manga font
3. Speech balloons now use a shape tool instead of hand-drawn
Artwork:
1. Less line variation; thickness is generally more even regardless of curves or straight lines.
2. Anatomy generally improved
3. Shading uses more colour now. (Usually shade with only one darker colour). Started adding more mood lighting in scenes that have brighter light sources.
4. Higher contrast for better shapes and visibility between lights and darks.
Workflow:
1. Less hand-drawn backgrounds; more traced or 3D backgrounds to save time.
2. Character flats may be filled all on the same layer with a multiply layer for shading to streamline file layers (ease of finding layers)
3. Discovered vector layers and how to use them properly.
4. More willing to shamelessly trace pose dolls or stock photos to complete a panel with confidence.
I am here as a representative of people who do not make comic or regularly draw and too dumb to understand tutorials, thus improves at a slower pace. I think comic makers in general should improve faster because they are forced to finish a drawing more frequent even at a daily basis.
Garbage is still garbage, although with:
Oh sure, as far as comics go, the one that I go back to occasionally is something I started...eons ago, it's called Avu, and although I did actually...thumbnail out all 700-something pages, I have never posted them online because they looked like this:
It was this very confusing magic cat horror comic that I didn't have the skills to make yet. (nor the fonts lololol) So, as you can see--I uh...scanned in every frame in this. I used pencils, pens, sharpies, and some very hazardous photoshop shading up until about chapter 33 when I decided to save trees and trust in my photoshop brushes. I actually started taking digitally painting seriously solely because of this comic.
And then I was like, well every comic has to have concept art, so I stretched out my concept art muscles and painted this character. This is the villain, PS. Look how villainous she is.
And I was Extremely Proud of It. Although I had an actual Art Degree at this point--you just couldn't tell whenever I turned on Photoshop. I was better at msn paint honestly. I was an acrylic painter doing small jobs in children's illustration. I had never been trained to do digitally at school, and every time I had done Photoshop for an assignment it came out...well a lot like this. A huge wall for me. But, I was determined. I wanted to get the comic good enough to post online (spoiler, I still haven't and will never finish this comic).
So after about...I want to say several years later and 60 pages of posting and trying to improve (both in the comic outside of the comic since I still do art gigs), I got here:
And this is a page I never posted actually. I finished it, but didn't want to end at this spot. So, I put Avu on ice about 4-5 years ago, but I still draw it from time to time. So remember that super hot concept art?
This is the same character, done about...some time last year. So yeah, improvements were made. And, while no one ever read this comic, and I only have like...4 episodes of it posted nowadays because most of it is so cringe and so confusing, it's the story closest to my heart because it's the reason I paint the way I do and in the direction that my style took me.
@sartinjacqueline05 Ooh this is nice! I can already see how much more even the proportions are!
@Kelheor Oh nice! I can definitely see the improvement in lineart. I also like how the composition has improved as well!
@Freemints30 The linework is definitely a lot smoother in your newer uploads! I also like the way that your speech bubbles have improved to look more like they belong
@spadesart Oh wow! Your old work looks amazing already but I really like how your colours have improved over the years.
@elisabatla Wow that's a great improvement over just 6 months! I love how much smoother the lineart has gotten :0
@emvink The old one has a lovely messy style to it but I absolutely love the way your new art looks more intentional!
@Enigma_the_Slimy_Boi Oooh pixel art! I absolutely agree that the colours have improved a lot. I also think the expression looks so much more emotive. Nice work!
@Emma I think you should give yourself more credit! I can definitely see an improvement here, not only in terms of lineart but also in terms of proportion. And the shadows you've used in the newest one really makes the panels look more put together !
(continued from previous)
@CursedBeasts I love seeing the progress too! I love how your linework has become more expressive! Your speech bubbles also look a lot nicer too
@mimisimon09 I would love to see your non comic work too! That being said, just looking at the older comic you've shown, I can see improvements everywhere! I especially like how much more deliberate the shadows are in the newer page
@GesuGesu Oh wow that is a huge improvement!Thank you for sharing (along with the insight into how your workflow has changed, that was particularly interesting) It's nice to see how mucch more efficient you've gotten with your workflow
@uselessgoddess Haha I know the feel. I cannot follow tutorial for the life of me and have only started drawing my comic like a week ago lol. But wow thanks for sharing! I definitely agree that that's an improvement. I especially love how the colours have become a lot more pleasing to the eye o
@rajillustration Wow! I loved seeing your art journey. That new piece is absolutely stunning!
Oh boy, I'm about to dredge up some dark, dark art memories here hahaha.
My current comic is actually a reboot of an absolutely terrible one that I ran back in 2012-2014. Back then, I was putting out maybe... one or two pages a night? Or at a minimum, 3 pages a week. It was extremely lazy and low effort. Also, I was young, using a very bad art program, and an.... inexperienced artist lets say.
On average, most pages looked kind of like this, and I would type the dialogue below the page. (I was really into another very popular webcomic which did that at the time, and it was easier than trying to deal with text or messy hand-lettering. Again, super lazy.)
Later pages got a bit better, but were still kind of visually confusing:
I guess for a more direct comparison there's how I draw this dude now:
vs way back then:
Things I'm proud of:
-Better (though still not great) anatomy
-Cleaner (though still rather messy) lineart
-Less lazy in general?
-Sort of learning how to do BGs though that's still a weak point
-Actually putting text on the pages like a normal human being
(Also, making so much art consistently for that long actually taught me a lot. Despite being so ugly and cringey and difficult to read nowadays, I learned a lot and still hold that thing close to my heart. Enough that now ~8 years later I'm trying to finally do it justice and give those characters the ending they deserve.)
I'm glad to see that you're picking up an old work that you worked on in the past and are doing it justice now. I love how your comic panels have become more cohesive, rather than just being individual drawings of characters with no backgrounds! I'd love to see how you progress as you continue working on this
Literally the same two characters so that’s good.
2017
2020
Stuff I’m proud of:
Line work improving
Improved anatomy: (Still not perfect, but definitely improved)
Finding my style: (Took awhile, especially for how I wanted eyes to look. Style been hard to find due to it having a blend of western and eastern influences)
Depth improving: (Her weapon in specific looking more 3-Dimensional rather than a flat picture in 2017)
