Would you be able to draw your comic in another style?

[Mallory]

I recently got some rejections on one of my pitches based on my art style being "too young" (or as one person politely put it, "experimental"). It kinda made me stop and re-consider the art style, to push it more in a direction that didn't look as "young". My current "too young" style is a result of me pushing it for years, forever questing for most adorable art. I can theoretically just undo some of the stylistic choices and go back to something "less young".

But the thought of drawing 200+ pages in that "less young" style just makes me go

I don't think I can do it, on a psychological level. I need my bendy, noodly, big-gooey-eyed bobble-heads to warm my soul, while I stare at them every day for years.

So it got me thinking... how versatile are you in your projects? Are you able to transition easily between what the story demands, or are you very rigid about what your art looks like?

If you’ve done multiple art styles for different projects, show them off! Or if you're super particular, gush about why you love your style so much (or weep about projects you can't realize because you don't want to draw the art... I'm definitely in this boat).

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Honestly I'm not super versatile enough to vary my style between projects really. It would take a lot of practice to develop another style, and I don't think I'd want to. I like my style.

Now I can change the line width or do different coloring techniques. That makes a difference. Also changing the body proportions of characters isn't that much of a challenge to me.

[Mallory]

That's true, there are a lot of different components to "style", some of which are intrinsic to your world view (so probably kinda tough to change), while others (like proportions) are more of an artistic choice and thus more malleable.

To me the big difference is that when the proportions change, I intrinsically feel like I have to reduce the... noodliness. So characters who had fun bendy appendages suddenly grow joints and I just find them way less fun to draw, for some reason. Like, as a one-off, sure. I love drawing the little bony bit in the wrist, and the top of the hip bone. It's fun! But drawing that way over and over and over? No way. Me want bendy elastic curves. I know people have done varied proportions and level of realism and still kept more cartoony/bendy movement, but I just can't find a way to draw that in a way that is aesthetically pleasing to me.

Like, I love love LOVE the animation style from the late 90's/early 2000's. It has a lovely blend of realism (JOINTS) while still remaining expressive and fluid. I mimic it sometimes, when I'm just goofing around. But I can't draw that way for long, I just inevitably end up craving cartoonland.

Like, I think if I can even just push myself back to the art style for this early project from 2020, I'd be good as far as publishers were concerned (I had an editor from a fairly major publisher take my project to Acquisitions after finding it in a contest, but they nixed it for the art style ;-; I am allowed to resubmit if I change the art).

But GAH. I can't stay away from the noodle.

[Apsinthos]

Oh, that hit the nail. I was trying to change my style somehow for a long time. And it's useless, whatever i try to imitate, there's always something in the style that makes me look at it and say - well this thing is of my doing.... And it's so frustrating because I hated it. Now i just ignore tha feeling because I can't do anything with it...

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Like, I love love LOVE the animation style from the late 90's/early 2000's. It has a lovely blend of realism (JOINTS) while still remaining expressive and fluid. I mimic it sometimes, when I'm just goofing around. But I can't draw that way for long, I just inevitably end up craving cartoonland.

In that case, I think simply changing the color work on your 'noodly' style might save it. Y'know, try something a little more grounded, like Craig McCracken or Genndy Tartakovsky's work from that era (and this era too, tbh). Ease up on the highlights and detailed shading, go for a flatter look with less analogous colors and darker outlines to 'weigh down' the color scheme.

Or if you want a more subtle change, just vary the line weights (i.e. bring in some thinner ones). I think that alone could make the art look more crisp and 'mature'; when all the lines are super thick like that it gives the impression of finger painting, which is probably what led to the "too young" comment.

To actually answer the title question: I work in a lot of different art styles, so in 90% of cases it probably wouldn't be a big deal. The only issue would be someone saying they want me to change to something really gritty and realistic, like classic DC/Marvel comics. I know how to do it, but it makes me lose interest in drawing VERY quickly. Plus it takes me like 10x as long as my more stylized stuff, which is something I'm sure no publisher wants to hear. ^^;

[thepenmonster]

I spent many years developing an art style that, hopefully, will be recognized as being uniquely mine. If someone demands I change it they can lick my anus clean first.

[Katzalcoatl]

Be it an artist, a writer, a designer, an engineer, or something else there are times when you have to adapt to the style your client wants. Even if it is not something you enjoy or even if you know that their choices are wrong (pretty common to have clients believing they know more).

Working is what brings food to the table. Unless you have a product you created which brings you money you pretty much have to adapt to what others tell you to do since they are the ones who will pay you.

Not compromising is pretty much something you do when you have a successful product or if you are doing art/writing as a side hobby instead of your main job. That being said you have every right to reject proposed changes to any pitch you make since it was your idea.
In those cases you will have to work on your project alone without expecting any pay since you are basically starting from scratch.
Any form of money will probably appear in the far future if any does appear.

[Mallory]

Or if you want a more subtle change, just vary the line weights (i.e. bring in some thinner ones). I think that alone could make the art look more crisp and 'mature'; when all the lines are super thick like that it gives the impression of finger painting, which is probably what led to the "too young" comment.

Yeah, I also figured out that it's likely what it was. Of course, I have a ton of books on my shelf published for that age range, that have super thick lines and crude art. And to be honest, my lines only got thick once I gained a chronic injury and became kinda disabled, because thicker lines are easier to control. I used to draw with super thin lines before the injury. I think I just happened to hit the perfect storm of stylistic elements that all add up together into something that maybe doesn't work.

In any case, I didn't actually want to make this thread about me. ^^ I was genuinely curious about other people and the projects they've done, and the question was more meant to be "If you yourself decided to draw differently, would you be able to do it."

[river121693]

My comic is in color with tight line art right now, and I've always wanted to do some black and white stuff similar to Sin City. But I'm sure a lot of my typical artist traits will come through.

Personally I really like your 2020 project's art style, but I don't think there's anything wrong with the noodle style either. Comic take years to make, and you wouldnt wanna spend that time drawing in a style that makes you feel miserable lol.

That said, I dont think your noodle style art work is overly experimental at all. I wonder if they're talking about the roughness of your work (your lines specifically), rather than the art style itself? If you're more intentional with the linework, it will look more "developed"

[Mallory]

My comic is in color with tight line art right now, and I've always wanted to do some black and white stuff similar to Sin City. But I'm sure a lot of my typical artist traits will come through.

Oh man, whenever I see a well-executed black and white comic, I'm always like "I want to do this next". It's so bold and clear, and just pops the author's intent right off the page.

That said, I dont think your noodle style art work is overly experimental at all. I wonder if they're talking about the roughness of your work (your lines specifically), rather than the art style itself? If you're more intentional with the linework, it will look more "developed"

Ah, the noodly example is from my webcomic, which I know full-well is not a big seller, haha! The art I submitted with my pitch was for a different project, with much more polished linework (though the general idea was the same... just with a bit more shoulders and slightly smaller heads). And, to be fair, I've also had a few rejections that were like "We love the art style, but the story is not for us". But to me the story I'm pitching is much more important than the art, so I started to wonder if maybe changing the art style would improve my reach, which is how I arrived to my current conundrum.

If I'm being honest, I would love to somehow incorporate some touches of J.C. Leyendecker into the project I'm pitching, because it's set in his hey-day. But that's an artist whose stylistic approach is so diametrically-opposed to mine, I don't think I can do it AND make it work time-wise, haha.

[thepenmonster]

It is a fact that capitalism makes prostitutes of us all. And if you want to be a cog in someone's machine you do need to shape yourself to fit.

But that same capitalism is why I think creatives should skip it and do as they want.

The odds are slim to begin with. There are a lot of cogs out there. Many of those cogs come from the global south and the shittiest of salaries will be life changing for them. Corporations will always take the shitty salary route. DC has exploited artists from the Philippines for decades for exactly that reason.

While a lot if creatives are sticking their fingers in their ears and yelling, "Lalalalalala!", the simple fact is AI will get to the point of being able to deliver what a company wants without needing to steal from artists. And, more importantly, without a salary.

In the end even the cheap labour will get passed by because AI art will be normalized. There's no point in shaping yourself into a cog for a machine that won't be there in 10 to 20 years.

Some people will rise. And they will tell themselves it's because they worked hard, said their prayers and ate a good breakfast instead of accepting they won the art lottery. Those people will be an even smaller minority than they are now yet it won't stop them from acting like they're the norm and that everyone can follow them.

Most everyone will fail at their childhood dreams because it has always been so and will continue to get worse because that's the society we built. If you're going to fail, you should fail on your own terms.

[GothickangelStudios]

I think I could. Been drawing since the 80s on paper and used cartoons in the newspaper (Hagen the Horrible, Ziggy, etc) and tv to practice as references. Like Hanna Barbara cartoons (aka She-Ra, Scooby Do, etc) and styles from those time periods.
I think the 2, I cant pull off are Disney (could never get into their cartoons). American comic book style. Too complex for me, kinda reminds me of semi realism.
I follow stories online of different art styles. From super simple to more complex. I love to get pulled in by the stories, uniqueness and characters.

[IndigoShirtProd]

But I can't draw that way for long, I just inevitably end up craving cartoonland.

Don't we all.

I've worked hard to have versatility when it comes to art style and drawing. I, like many beginner artists, wanted one style to call my own. But I'm easily distracted and had a tendency to move from one way of drawing to the next.

Now I use different styles for different projects, and will put aside the time to develop a new style if previous ones don't work for whatever projects. Right now I have, I guess three main ones: A more manga/anime inspired more realistically proportioned style, a more cartoonish angular style (which is the one I use for my ongoing comic), and a full on are cartoonish curved style (which is the newest one I've developed). I know, very descriptive. I would say the one connecting thread in all of my styles is cleanliness (and some anatomical decisions), especially in the linework. Messier, sketchier lines can be cool, but they irritate me.

So it got me thinking... how versatile are you in your projects? Are you able to transition easily between what the story demands, or are you very rigid about what your art looks like?

When it comes to individual projects, I can be pretty rigid and would prefer to keep the same style all the way through with little to know change. But changing style completely mid way through a project, nah... I couldn't do that. Remembering that I have done that. I won't do that going forward.

Examples:
1:

2:

3:

[lizardlullabye]

"Technically" Yes . . .? I don't really draw comics but there are other art projects like animation & illustration. It depends if whatever you are drawing helps to tell the story/idea.

I have done mini fan-art (crossovers) projects, so it's a study of how animators draw their characters and other stuff.

For illustration stuff that's drawn once & done, I typically just mess around with how it's finished -- line-less, colored lines, watercolor, nothing more, etc. for whatever I feel works. I drew these for a character design challenge.

[Lazy-Gamer]

There are a lot of people who think "cute" is for a "young audience". As an anime artist, I found out pretty quickly that, that is absolutely not true.
Speaking of which, depending on the type of story you're doing, it can work with the style.

Look at Lucky Star, It's just a relaxing, cute, slice of life series with an adorable art style. They tackle adult topics but, still keep the cute factor in it's art style. I mean Madoka Magica even has a cute style and it's dark as hell.

I'm saying this cause you shouldn't be discouraged based on what 1 or 2 people say about your style.
You'll find your audience. Especially when pitching a story / comic, it can be hard. Not everyone will accept it, but you just gotta keep pushing.

Don't give up. (owo)b

[darthmongoose]

I actually do switch up my style based on the comic I'm making, and always have. I just think it's fun, but also it helps me get work. It's harder to change the proportions of how you draw, but changing the style of your inking by using different tools or altering the thickness or pen pressure settings, swapping between blackfills, hatching or screentones for shadow rendering, or just changing how you color has a pretty strong impact on the appearance overall. If you can then just tweak the proportions even a little, you're all set.

Errant is drawn in something close to my "default style" or "personal style. It's quite manga-esque in proportions, and very brightly coloured, with bold inks that have the pen pressure set pretty high...

But here are some other things I've done over the years...

Marvel pencil sampler:

Horror short I did with a writer.

Comic concept working on a kids series with established characters:

It doesn't take a lot to change the overall vibe of your work. Change the pen, make it a little grungier... bingo! Honestly one of the most impactful things on what audience people think something is for is the apparent age of the characters. If it's about kids, or the characters are drawn in this wide-eyed, innocent way (like teenage disney characters), people will go "this is for kids".

All that said.... making an entire graphic novel in a style you actually don't like drawing isn't fun. Whether or not you do it should depend on how badly you want to have a big graphic novel drawing gig. When it's just for a while, drawing in a different style can be a lot of fun, but never getting to just draw what you want or in your own style can get fatiguing. It's a big part of why I stopped working full-time as an illustrator and started drawing Errant; the realisation that I hadn't been able to just cut loose and make a weeby comic with bright colours and action about adult characters in years and it was getting me down. I think a big factor in being able to stick out drawing in a different voice for a long time is having the opportunity to also draw in your own outside of that, so you don't feel creatively stifled.

[moontokkym]

I don't know if someone's said this in the thread yet but "too young" doesn't mean you have to inherently change your style, especially if it's "the style itself is too young" not "the style seems top young for the story you're trying to tell" (the second one means that you would have to change your style because they're saying that the style inherently clashes with the tone of the story, like a really colourful chibi style for a grimdark gory noire thriller and the contrast isn't purposeful).

Usually when you get the critique that a style is "too young" "immature" "experimental" etc... It means that you lack consistency, coherence and the innate sense of the artist having lived in an crafted the style over many years. It means that your style is still "too young" to have solidified it's identity yet, usually because every bit of style inspiration you've taken over the years isn't fully integrated into one look that is your own.

Basically what I'm saying is that the answer for that problem is not to try and completely change your current style but to practice raffineing it and making it all look like it goes together. Tweak rather than scrap. For an example of what I mean look at Alessandro Barbucci drawing the W.I.T.C.H. series vs Alessandro Barbucci drawing Skydoll. Still his style, but just more mature and lived-in.

This is the natural progress of honing your craft over 20 years. Witch was already well-drawn but lacked finesse in some elements, you can see now he was having trouble letting go of some realistic elements to make them his own.

I personnally wouldn't be surprised if this critique comes up way more when you show people only the first few chapters of your story, but lessens towards the end as you've spent 200+ pages in that style. Noodley googly styles can work, Adventure Time is an example that comes to mind.

[UrMom]

It hasn't been done for comics, but I used to play around a lot with styles, and I plan to at least change up coloring and inking styles for future projects to fit the mood of the story. Most of my experimentation was around 2009 when I was poorly attempting to start a comic, my style overall was more loose since I was transitioning to a more realistic look.

Large post

Not gonna lie I was really fond of my "chibi style", it was so simple, and had a nice look. I also really liked the style of the second drawing, it was a secondary one I was working on while developing my main style so I could go between the two, and was a nice mix of the detail I liked with a cute, simple look. Although over the years I just kinda... forgot about it, life happens and all that jazz.
I also dabbled here and there throughout the years, like attempting a Junji Ito style Waluigi, but haven't really gone all out for a while. It would take a bit of brain rewiring, and drawing exercises, but I could probably do something different from "my style" if I really set my mind to it and had a clear idea of what I'll be going for.

Additionally for my current comic I've changed up coloring and ink to fit a scene.

Usual style:

B&W:

Watercolor:

Whatever this ink job is:

Although I wouldn't consider these actual style changes since I'm still drawing in the same style, just using different techniques and media for certain vibes.

[NickRowler]

I can draw in different styles, some of my comics are not drawn in the same style.

For my current series, I feel like I could draw it in another style but it might take away some of the charm. I also think forcing yourself to draw in a style you dislike or hate will just make you miserable in the long run.

I wish you the best with your pitches.

[TheLemmaLlama]

Aren't you the footballer artist? I wouldn't have pegged you as being addicted to your noodle style XD

how versatile are you in your projects? Are you able to transition easily between what the story demands, or are you very rigid about what your art looks like?

I can draw in a few different styles (e.g. proportions don't matter too much for me), but I definitely have some hills I gravitate towards (in order of my willingness to die on them):

• Lazy: I absolutely refuse to do a long-term project in a style where the effort/impact ratio crosses beyond a certain threshold in my head XD My styles tend to be simple and loose with a lot of 'fudging' to give the illusion of detail over actually accurate detail
• Naturalistic lighting: Bold shadows on sunny days, dull shadows inside even though it's 'shading in black' and thus not very artistically appealing, freaking reflections on windows and stuff instead of the white stripes which are increasingly failing at deceiving my brain into thinking something's a reflective surface XD I like to be able to stare at my art and feel like I'm actually there ... c:
• Constant linewidth inking: Thin lines are hella difficult to control, like you mentioned :'D But thick lines don't work for the whole 'immersiveness' thing I've got going, so Imma just ditch lineweight variation altogether! Who needs control when the darn thing can't vary in the first place?

If you’ve done multiple art styles for different projects, show them off!

from bitwam

from God's World

Not really the same style but clearly have a lot in common XD