Your First Pages

[Alamino]

I think the first pages are cringe worthy... and I am worried they may turn some new readers off haha Though I did those pages well over two years ago.... So it's nice to see improvement

I actually look forward to the day I look back at my current pages and feel the way I do about my first pages. ^_^ Gotta take satisfaction in the proof of improvement!

(As a reader if I don't like the first few pages of art I make a point to see the new art and if I like it. There have been a few comics I subscribed to that I wouldn't of normally because of this lol)

[AlkseeyaKC]

My old art is... uughhh I made it sooo long ago. lol
I just started revamping my comic last year so here are the first page comparison. even from the new first page I'm seeing that I'm getting better.

[AmysGames]

The first few pages of Aiiro No Kunoichi are super cringy for me, haha. Like @Alamino, I sometimes worry that new readers are turned off by said pages, and have been tempted to redraw them many times.

I do have a bit of a soft spot for them though, just because I can tell I've improved quite a bit since then. It's amazing how much your art can improve over the years!

[Michelle]

This sounds a lot like me as well. I think my early pages were rather simplistic and took a long to do. I'm a faster artist now and my pages are better put together. I love your style Michelle, it's really beautiful! All the way from the beginning!

Thank you!! That makes me so happy ( ´罒`*)

Yeah, I think a lot of change comes with practice! Eventually you get into such a groove of doing pages that you're able to do more with the same amount of time, or less time even.

[VibrantFox]

I have a bit of a love hate relationship with my earlier art but I can say over the span of time from when I started to now my art's grown a lot, from my own perspective and what I've heard from peers. I've considered changing and redoing older works but I like to keep it there as a reminder of where I started to where my art stands now. If there's any one thing I look at as far as older pages is that I probably wouldn't have grown at all had I not taken that first step and shared my work to begin with.

[Heck]

o dang, thanks everyone for answering! I have a hard time accepting old work and I've never done such a large project, so I'm glad I could get some feedback from vet creators. I guess it's pretty unrealistic to expect to be completely satisfied with 100% of your own comic forever :U

[colonel_ressentiment]

My first pages were almost exactly a year ago, and I actually don't dislike them as much as I thought I would. The backgrounds were amateurish, but characters and poses still aren't that bad, and there's no a significant difference in style between them and the latest ones, in the sense that you look at them and go "oh yeah, there's the art style improvement". (This actually makes me feel a little bad, that I've been drawing for a year and haven't seen dramatic changes lol)

However, I think the level of polish between 1st and last pages has drastically increased. Pages with similar subject matter below, with the first drawn ~11 months before the second; there's much more focus on directional lighting, backdrops, and dynamic panel layout in the second page.

If I actually get to the point of printing this comic as a standalone book, I might go back and retouch some of the panels on the first few pages I'm not entirely satisfied with, but before then I just accept that the oldest pages are a little shaky and move on.

[shazzbaa]

The first page of Runewriters was drawn 7 years ago!!

It's honestly very hard to not want to apologise for the first chapter of RW at this point when folks read the comic, for both art and storytelling reasons. I just do my best to remember that people liked it then, and it hasn't changed -- the things they liked are still in there in the early chapters. I've just gotten better!

So I kind of tend to have the "okay, I promise it gets better later....!" feeling about Chapter One, but I do have faith in my characters, and that's something I feel like I can lean on -- if you like them, and you like the tone and humour, then you can enjoy it through the colouring struggles and pacing stumbles to make it to the chapters where I'd figured things out a little more!

The wild part is how, in 7 more years, maybe I'll feel the same way about the pages I'm drawing now! Though I don't know if I want to think about how I'll feel about chapter 1 in 7 more years. xD

[kkitty]

My first pages were actually given lots and lots of care, so I don't mind them.

It's the couple of chapters after them that makes me want to die of embarrassment.

[phen]

Yo, it's so exciting to hear from the creators who notice huge leaps in technical skill from page 1. This alone is motivation to keep at it -- you guys are forging new territory, don't stop, don't stop!

I haven't actually placed my first page against my newest, I gotta see this now.

Page one on the left was completed in May 2015, and page 200 August 2017. Two years and some months time travel here. I don't feel like it's ghastly gasp horrible but yeeeaah, it could use a lot of work. It does make me really happy to see the progress, though. Really looking forward to the next two years!

[keii4ii]

I'm completely okay with my old art not looking as good as my current stuff. My current comic is only <3 years old at this time, but even older art from like... 10 years ago? I'm totally fine if people see them and notice my new stuff is better.

My old writing, on the other hand......!

[bilvyy]

I haaaate the first pages of my longform comic, Rechargeable D; I always tell people the art gets better as it goes along, but I'm pretty self conscious about the slow pacing of the whole story too. I would love to redraw those pages if I had the time or energy for it though, I think the more recent stuff is much better.

Issue 1, Page 2 // Issue 2, Page 11

[AnniFlamma]

The first pages I made, am I really proud of. I spend a long time do make it but after the 7 page it started to become bad. Maybe cuz I spend difrent pages with difrent care.
... thouh I think I have become better cux when I really try to make my best, it becomes better than before

Chapter 1

Chapter 3

[spadesart]

(im happy with my improvement though)

SPIRE | Tapas

[shaylafarley5]

I cringe and laugh at my first few pages. They were colored when I just got Photoshop but I've gotten a lot better after a while. I've always wanted to redo them but I just decide to leave them be, I just like looking back at them and be like "Man! I sure came a long way. I wonder from a year from now will my drawings be any better then right now?"
This is the first page

This is the latest page

[insomniascrawl]

I look back at my first pages and throw up in my mouth a little because I made a bad choice.
I did the first Chapters of (Semi) Super, then went back and added the prologue to the beginning, so it goes from decent art with the characters looking like I know what I'm doing to 'Umm wtf happened here' and then back to decent art, it's weird.
Here's an example
Prologue:

First Chapter (yikes):

Now:

So yeah.. It's weird to me, but I know if I go back and redraw I'm just going to be in redraw mode forever. Redrawing is a vicious cycle.

[Luminosophy]

I think it's a badge of honor to have your first page completely awfully suck and then have your latest work be a museum worthy polished masterpiece by comparison. xD

If you gag at the sight of your old stuff, it's a good sign of growth. There's nothing more encouraging than looking at someone's webcomic that's X years old and seeing a very amateur first page and polished professional last page. It makes me super proud of the creator for putting in all that effort and work, and can only mean that the future stuff I stick around for will get better and better. A significant difference between the two alone is what would drive me to pledge to their Patreon because it means I'm investing in their personal artistic/ story telling growth. :0

[Obsidian_Wine]

To give my opinion, it happens to every artist who is always drawing on a daily basis. Especially if it's somebody doing comics and is very passionate about it.
In the beginning, you start a story and you are happy with what you have, however as time progressed and you continue the story, a year later you look at how you format your pages, how your line work has developed and how well your color theory has advanced. Most people look at their old work and say "wow, I sucked! What am I going to do about this?" But to me, I see how much I have improved since then, like a milestone. You will always be improving and you will never stop improving as long as you continue drawing.
That it be a gift or a curse, whichever you prefer suits your taste.
An example of a before and after of my work.
Beffor 2016

After 2017

[yondoloki]

In some regard, the cringe is real whenI look at my old pages, simply because I used fucking multiply and Screen for highlight and shadow, and I KNEW BETTER!!

On the other hand I've developed an ability to somewhat look at my art and be able to see if it still hold up or not in a layman's eye. And they sorta do.

I really would like to recolour them at some point though, and I think I could have made some things more clear.

One of my first pages:

My latest page:

[pistolshrimp77]

I barely improved but the the first page was still so unbelievably lazy,

Old ---------------- New
I would sya the first pages were pretty bad, but Its not like i'm any better now.