Why don't artists improve their art quality?

[KoreanTacos]

Satirical, but I always throw this video to artists who dont understand the difference, not making fun of ya, but a lot of people have answered with lots of good reasoning (in a nicer way than I would have) so heres a funny hee hee video that really does a good job explaining how the web comics are made

[disqette]

While we're at it, might as well ask why artists don't just make more money if they're so starving. It can't be that hard. Besides, how much can a banana cost? $10? PULL YOURSELF UP BY YOUR BOOTSTRAPS!!! /s

Anyways, there's several reasons why an artist may not improve and most of them were already touched on here.

The artist could come from a disadvantaged background where studying as a skill just wasn't taught, so studying and learning may be more challenging (and if you come from a poor background you know exactly what I mean)

They could be disabled, whether that be a learning disability, or some sort of physical impairment that limits their artistic abilities or ability to improve as quickly as an abled person.

Perhaps not even disabled, they could even have some sort of disorder or be neurodivergent.

Some people just plain aren't good at studying and learning things. We can't all improve at the same pace. Some people may even be the type to regress before improving.

Or maybe they just don't want to improve. Or they don't have the time to improve. Becoming the best doesn't have to be every artist's goal.

You never know what kind of circumstances somebody has.

Edit: I was working on this post on-and-off, ended up being late to the discussion lol

[Iris-Grimoire]

The main discussion has been done to death already, so I'll answer one of Jenny-Toons' followup questions instead:

"Is it possible to improve while trying to constantly update webcomics/constantly put out artwork?"

Yes, because there's a big thing: if you make your comic in ways that challenge yourself a bunch, you'll improve in ways you didn't even know. This is why I started Splitting Image: I was out of uni, didn't have a job in the art industry yet, and needed to stay updated while also making something presentable!

I never shy away from what's in my mind. Things I never drew before? It's in the script, do it. Super complex locations? I spent 4 days making the library in Page 23, but my perspective skills skyrocketed (though I'm still learning how to place characters right). All within reason, of course, I'm not going to draw backgrounds every panel or go for ultrarealism, but that's the thing, everyone has their own pace and their body/wrists also have their very hard limits so sometimes you have to stop and stick to the comfort zone.
To improve as you work, shoot for the stars, so you can hit a mountain even if you miss. That's a weird analogy but I like to use it

[potatogirl]

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

[alexlcuri07]

I think everyone who was upset would appreciate that in the course of a few hours you took their comments to heart and reworded and reformulated your opinion. I'm personally sorry that people were so quick to take it as an attack instead of asking for clarification. I don't think anyone would have deliberately come to a creators site and asked "Why can't you all just be better?"

Having said that, I think you're on to something. No one wants to work with someone who has no semblance of self-doubt. It means that they think they've already gotten as good as they can be and don't strive to be better. However, there is a fine line between seeking to improve yourself and being overwhelmed with self doubt.

I think the best artists are artists who do know their limitations, but who also want to push them further for their own personal aspirations, and not because other people think that they should be better. Artists who don't compare themselves to other artists and give up because they don't feel good enough, but who look at things other artist do and use it as motivation to try harder.

Like when I see all the amazing things fellow artists and writers do here and I try harder because I know that they try so hard all the time.

I think that's what you meant to discuss. And I think that's the type of artist you'd want to collaborate with.

[grace]

Hi! I found your advice particularly helpful, that a commission is better to push myself than a collab. And the thing about time, it's an infinite % true.
Thanks for taking the time to help!

[Kelheor]

As a comic artist you will have to draw a lot. Most times the schedule is a deciding factor. Sure you can put all the time in the world finishing each panel, but if you are drawing a comic, this will continuously through you off your schedule. Yes, this is me, hi there, my writer is constantly smacking my hands because of this particular problem.
The feeling that you are not good enough may not go away too, like ever. The sky is the limit.
You will have to work through it with a thought that your next panel will be better.
Sometimes you get the "I drew such a great page and all the pages after it suck" feeling, sometimes you will redraw the panel again and again and it still sucks (for you), sometimes you feel like you stuck and don't progress (but you do), sometimes you don't know where to start patching the holes in some places you definitely should progress more but you hate drawing it, sometimes you are just tired of drawing the same thing over and over again.
So... Most of us are doing their best for our art to progress, I guess. It may be just a bit different with comics though.

[HGohwell]

Yes, because there's a big thing: if you make your comic in ways that challenge yourself a bunch, you'll improve in ways you didn't even know.

On top of this, you're improving simply by doing art. Even if it doesn't seem like it, just by doing your comic, you're doing art consistently and so improving by practicing. It's one of the reasons I started doing webcomics, to improve. You're drawing from different angles and poses and trying to keep your characters consistent. You just improve by doing something a lot.

And it's not just beginner artists either. Look up almost any manga and search with art progression and you'll get lost of comparisons of how much even professional artists improve over time. Black Butler is one of the most obvious given how much Sebastian in particular shifts over the 10+ years it's been going.

[nauko]

I know you edited and said you're not trying to be offensive but honestly the first thing I thought when I read this was...if I could downvote this thread like on reddit I would...

I think maybe English isn't your first language? Maybe that's why it comes off sounding rough...

[elyss]

I don't know if it's how you worded it, but this feels hella choosing beggar to me. Not all artists have the desire or time to improve.

[grace]

Hey, thank you so much! You possibly can't believe how much you lightened up my spirit.
I do agree that it was my fault, for not having clarified my topic properly. I didn't mean to attack anyone, just asked for their reasons and circumstances, if you know what I mean.
AND I know exactly what you mean, I do urge artists to 'look up' to greater artists without feeling down themselves, and have found out that very few people can actually do them simultaneously.
Thank you so much again and I'm very sorry for everything. You're so kind, your kindness is contagious!

[migxmeg]

It looks like you're wondering about staying motivated as the artist when you're not the writer too, right?

That's me for the last 3-4 months . I spend A LOT of time on our comic and it's important to me that I have complete trust in my writer that I'm going to love the story and the characters through the whole project. Make sure you can have total confidence in your writer and that you are absolutely fired up about their ideas - like you can't wait to start bringing them to life! You need to establish up front that they will respect your thoughts too because your art choices are going to affect the story and you may need to be the expert there. And finally make sure you're on the same page about schedule and commitment. It's a major team effort, so take your time making sure you're working on the right project with the right person.

At the end of the day motivation will come and go so stay disciplined - just like @nathanKmcwilliams mentioned sometimes you just need to keep pushing. But I think if you love your project you'll make it great!

@KoreanTacos Also this video was amazing . Now I'm all concerned about whether my avatar constitutes a brooding anime girl though oh jeeeeez.

[BrambleberrySquirrel]

Improving your art takes time and dedication. Like any skill the number of hours you put into it is directly reflected in the result. Comics seem simple but they are the combo of several different skills. Writing, visual pacing, framing etc. even just the art itself has many components that are each a skill unto themselves. Lineart, shading, coloring, perspective etc. If we go with the idea that it takes 10,000 hours to master something just think about how long it takes to level up all the skills necessary to make an amazing comic. Most webcomics are made by a single person or maybe 2 working together. On top of this life gets in the way. I make a weekly comic but I also have a full time job, another side job and other family/social obligations.

All artists who put in the work improve over time. It’s unavoidable. It just takes a really long time. You may not see any dramatic improvement across a few episodes of a comic. I guarantee you that if you look at the first episode and then say the 50th or the 100th that you will see a difference. It just might not be in the areas you expect.

[KiabIce]

I don't know what artist you're talking about but I know artists are usually always trying to improve thier art! There's always something to improve and hopefully as the comic keeps going the art gets better.

[SagaHolmgaard]

I admire your dedication to make quality work, and it sounds like you're serious about wanting to make projects that you can be proud of, that's great.

As a lot of people have pointed out, making comics takes a long time. And a realistic, painterly art style takes the longest time of them all xD More than any other art medium, I feel like comics is an art form where you sometimes simply have to cut corners somewhere, or you'll end up never finishing your projects. (You can watch Lars Martinsson's video to get an idea on why some people might not want to end up there https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BzCDVR-tr8)

Maybe cutting corners looks like slacking off, or losing motivation. But it can also be a way for the artist to STAY motivated! There's nothing more rewarding than finishing the update you're working on, and feeling that accomplishment can be what motivates you to keep on working on the next update! Then it's better to leave some parts a bit rough around the edges than to keep fiddling with trying to make every panel perfect, and then ending up with burnout and abandoning the comic completely. And you sound like you want to make a serious commitment once you start a comic collab, so this is important to remember.

These are two really important points I've seen people mention:

1. No one is obligated to improve their art. the vast majority of comics on this site are free to read. The creators can do whatever the heck they want with their art, just have fun and be part of the community if that's what they want. Wanting to improve is absolutely valid, and great, and a lot of people here do want that. But it's not compulsory.
2. Making a comic IS improving. If you have a weekly schedule, that means you have to draw pretty much every day!! And when you draw regularly, you do get better at drawing. You'll see this with comics that have been going for a long time. The first and latest update can have VASTLY different qualities, which is great! You're seeing people improve "live", almost. To me, that's at least as cool as reading comics with god-like quality from the get-go.

[Samuraiflame]

I haven't read through the whole thread but I think everyone else has already explained that making fully rendered art pieces for comics is often unfeasible and unrealistic.

Being a comic artist is an entirely different job and requires a different skillset than being an illustrator.

There are definitely comics that have beautiful art, but I guarantee you even those artists put more effort into their larger illustrations than they would on a single comic panel. This doesn't mean they're lazy or slacking, it just means they would rather spend their time on larger single illustrations (on things like the actual comic cover, posters, merch, etc) than on a single panel a reader might skim over in 2 seconds.

Simplifying your style is pretty much a necessity to avoid burnout and/or to meet deadlines. When I first started comics, I was already used to illustrating fully coloured and shaded pieces, but I still opted to go for a super easy style that I could manage weekly updates with. Most comic artists aren't doing ONLY comic panels. They're also doing covers, promotional art, merch and more where they tend to flex their full abilities. At the end of the day, any professional will probably tell you 'finished, not perfect' when it comes to long-running comics.

[Darth_Biomech]

the hardest part of making webcomics is to find free time to do something other than drawing webcomics.
You can't

if you are already barely able to keep up with the schedule as is.

[jensrichard77]

-Mod Hat On-

What? Have I been sleeping? when did you become a Mod? And congrats! What a good cast

[LCT_m_a_d]

I think the main point has been made so I will offer my insight as a former fine artist (not comic artist)

Trying "hard enough to improve their art" is not the same thing as doing what's needed to produce higher quality results. Figuring out where there is a gap is the journey for each artist.

More importantly, Be mindful that Tapas is largely a comic oriented platform(in terms of art). Most creators and their potential fanbases are going to be influenced by simpler styles that visualize a story (ex. Sarah's Scribbles
s or Steven Universe). Shorter attention-span and an appetite based on the 3 Vs. Because of this, there is a measure of "quality" that differs from finearts. ex where Fineart values process, comic-art values portrayal. So while basic design principals apply to both, the quality is judged based on different techniques.
Ghostblade is not THE standard of great comic art, just a really good example of how finearts and comic-art can work well. WLOP is only one of many so take some time to explore for others.

Either way it looks like you're showing potential at what you do so don't focus on changing other peoples mindset. Focus on your own. Learn what you can from those in your community and keep practicing!

[Rhonder]

Short answer: they do lol.

Longer answer, geared somewhat towards this:

what I really wanted to know was about the times when artists don't feel motivated enough to do better/kinda slack off and give up/etc etc instead of trying to do better because they think they're not being good enough at the time being

Generally speaking the situation that you're describing in something of a minority case- if you look at almost any comic that has been runing for a decently long time (say several months or more) and you look at one of the earliest episodes and then at one of the latest episodes you will almost certainly see some art improvement. I can't recall very many cases where that didn't happen, except perhaps if the artist was already starting at a very high skill level and thus improved in smaller or more subtle ways over a long period of time- there is always room for growth, but it's less dramatic of a change the better you get xD

THAT SAID I do think what you might be seeing are some artists that work for a very long time and just don't show that much improvement? This is something that I like to prattle on about a decent amount, but generally speaking I think that is often caused by an artist either staying in their comfort zone too much, or some of the other numerous reasons listed above about the comic-making process, such as time constraints forcing them to rush & etc. (although even then... unless they're on contract, the artist can always ease the schedule if it's making them rush too much )

Basically I think that an artist improves faster the more that they try things that are slightly above their skill level or outside their comfort zone rather than by just sitting in their creative bubble and trying to improve incrementally over time. It's like the classic "hide the hands behind the character" schtick- you see a lot of younger artists who haven't quite figured out hands either hiding them behind objects or just putting them out of the scene or etc. rather than risk drawing a bad hand and ruining the rest of the picture. However by doing that they're just stunting their growth by avoid the problem rather than facing it head on and trying to get better at it.

A common comic example could be something like backgrounds- they're hard and time consuming so a lot of people aren't fond of them. This can sometimes lead to a bunch of talking heads in space and then when the time comes that a background is necessary, it looks... not great, because they haven't been practicing how to do them as much as they could/should.

The same goes for using boring panel compositions, or camera angles, or perspective types, or anatomy, or anything really. I think if you see an artist that's just not improving that much over time, they're probably either just not doing much work over that span of time (for example, my art from 2012-2017 all looked more or less the same because I took a pseudo art break while in was in college between those years) or they are doing a lot of art but just not pushing their horizons enough. That's not a bad thing by default... as, again, a lot of other people have listed out above. There are a number of reasons why improvement isn't and shouldn't always be the primary concern while working on a comic. But yeah.