One of the things that is interesting about webcomics is the very public nature of an artist's development. Case in point: Jeph Jacques and Questionable Content. Compare the very first one with a very recent comic.
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That's the neat thing about
That's the neat thing about webcomics - you can see the artist's progression over time. QC has come a long way!
Krishna M. Sadasivam
Cartoonist, "The PC Weenies"
http://www.pcweenies.org
Krishna M. Sadasivam Cartoonist, "The PC Weenies" http://www.pcweenies.net
But is it wrong to not want
But is it wrong to not want to show any kind of progression? One of the main reasons why I create my comic using Flash symbols is because I want the style to remain consistent throughout.
Showing obvious improvement
Showing obvious improvement just means the artist is/was incapable of doing what you're already doing.
Besides, the drastic changes over time was just called interesting. And it is, kinda. But it's better to start out awesome.
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I was just curious what the
I was just curious what the popular opinion was within the comic audience, because as a relative newcomer to this medium, it seems as though drawing ability is often given an inordinate amount of importance. But with art being as wildly subjective as it is, I think it's probably impossible to gauge. What some perceive to be growth and improvement, others may view as a decline.
Any time you start doing
Any time you start doing something day to day, and do it for a long time, you are going to get better at it. The greats and the fringedwellers alike, anybody who keeps at it for long enough evolves in some way. Improvement does not mean the artist is/was incapable of doing what you're already doing, it means they're pushing for better and better of themselves and aren't afraid of admitting that we're none of us born masters of anything.
Even if you start out awesome, unless you somehow start out infinitely good, there's still room for growth. So far nobody's ever done that. No staggeringly complete artist has blessed us with his utterly perfect designs, so far beyond reproach that all must bear witness to the absolute spiffiness of his muse. Just because a person doesn't grow doesn't mean there was nothing they could have done to improve, it just means they couldn't/didn't try.
Show me one person anywhere who started out so great that their earliest work compared to their present work shows no improvement, and I'll show you somebody who never stretched and grew, which to me, isn't so great at all.
Even flash work built of simple polygons and circles improves as a person becomes more familiar with the tools-- IF the person behind them is trying to learn. Even Dinosaur Comics, which uses the same art every single page, gets tighter writing and more esoteric subject matter. If someone's not improving, well, then they're just reproducing the same work over and over and good for them if they manage to stave off the boredom.
It does mean that they are
It does mean that they are already capable of doing what you cannot. And that is "having a style for your comic that you are more or less satisfied with." Many people start a comic with a sort of look imagined for it. Those people can create that look when they start. Others can't.
When someone starts with a fairly resolved style, their improvements only show slightly over time. It doesn't mean that they aren't growing as an artist. That's kind of a ridiculous statement. It means that their improvements don't apply in any strong way to the work they are doing in their comic. If you become a master of photorealistic rendering and color theory, it's not going to show in your black and white strip about the people with triangles for heads and squares for bodies.
On the other hand, if you're trying to draw a photorealistic comic and start out pretty sucky, your improvements in that regard will definitely show up in your comic.
Some people look at style differently of course. Some have no plans for a consistent style and shift looks as they improve or their interests change. Other people prefer consistency and don't start work on something until they're ok with the style they've developed for it, and they stick to that style more or less. But everything they learn while executing that style still works to improve them as an artist so that when they do something that isn't that particular comic, they can make use of them. If you're looking to see the full extent of a particular artist's abilities, it probably isn't going to be found in one of their comics.
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Nothing Wrong With Consistency
Nothing wrong with consistency at all. I didn't put this post up to say that if you don't change you're bad - to the contrary many artists either (1) won't publish on the web til they've got something they know they'll like forever, or (2) practice LOTs offline before putting something on the web for all to see;
Others don't or maybe others do the above steps but still decide to change/evolve the artwork - and the nature of the web is that everyone gets to see it. Looking at QC it seems to me it's a simple case of Jeph improving art-wise over it's existence (with a turbo boost to the art happening when he decided to make QC a full-time job)
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Xaviar Xerexes
I am a Modern Major Generality.
I didn't take your post as
I didn't take your post as an affront to my methods, I was just curious how important artistic growth is to the comic audience, because this is an issue I've been contemplating a lot lately.
Because my work has more in common with graphic design than fine art, consistency is very important to me. Yet I often wonder what kind of longevity my approach has in a medium where one's drawing ability is given so much importance.
Re: I didn't take your post as
[quote=Orneryboy]Yet I often wonder what kind of longevity my approach has in a medium where one's drawing ability is given so much importance.[/quote]
Webcomics? Placing great importance on drawing ability? You're joking, right?
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Watching an aritst's growth
Watching an aritst's growth was one of the things that got me hooked on webcomics in the first place. I'm afraid at time's my own style is getting sloppier, but only time will tell.
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