Okay... so i've been asking for critiques from the art forum section if a certain well know webcomic. And I'm not sure what to do with their advice...
They have many suggestion, but one of the main ones is to just not do stick figures
QUOTE...
"To sum it up, your work is good, the stick figures are cute, but we know you can do better and I think the stick figures were the worst thing you could do to your comic, it allows no more room for improvement as you are at the top of the chart for drawing them, and they do need improvement. "
I'm not sure though... part of my agrees... but part of me doesn't... stick figures are so much easier (obviously) and I think that I can get better expression with stick figures as well... it wasn't my idea in the first place to switch to stick figures someone else suggested it when they saw some of my stick figure stuff... i was skeptical at first but the idea grew on my so I started doing them... but now I'm hearing it's a bad idea... and I'n not sure which way is best...
So what do you guys think? are sticks holding it down that much? or is it fine? does it maybe even add to the strip?
ideas?
ComixTalk is not responsible for comments, blog and forum posts. News and ComixTalk Magazine articles are copyright by their respective authors.
ComixTalk, its websites and logos are ©2003-2008 | Managing Editor: Xaviar Xerexes | Site Design: Mind Faucet
Sticks are fine
Personally, I like the stick figures. They don't look like they were drawn by a four-year-old, they're fully capable of emoting... I don't see any problem with the art.
But that's just me.
Well I DO enjoy a good set of ellipses...
Yeah, the whole spend time creating rather then getting advice is something I've recently been realizing I need to do. I think one of the reasons that I've been to obsessed with getting critiques is because I'll make a comic and be really excited about it... but then won't make another one for a couple days because it's not on my "schedule" and will be thinking about my comic but not getting any satiation because I'm not doing it. So instead of filling that emptiness with doing another comic, I go out and find what people have to say about my other comics. Which is why I'm going to try and start doing my comics 3 times a week instead of two. I have the time to do them, but it's just intimidating to start on one because I know it's going to take a while, so instead I go to a forum or browse the internet where i could theoretically stop any time, but don't. So I'm left unfulfilled.
I'm going to start doing them 3 times a week though, not POSTING them 3 times a week at first, but doing them so I can get use to it. The real best way to get better is from practice and doing them, and getting in the grove. So that's what I'm going to be doing.
Thanks!
Probably won't hear from me much again, at least if it all works out like I hope! ;)
_________________
where you are going wrong ...
is assuming that just because that art forum happens to ride on the webspace of a well-known webcomic, it is geared towards webcomic artists. It is absolutely not. That forum is designed by artists, for artists, and will always be oriented towards fulfilling and maximising your artistic potential, not creating a successful webcomic.
I've said this to you before, and I'll say it again - you obsess way too much about the superficial problems with your comic, without addressing the fundamental flaws. Which are your joke setups (you tend to telegraph the punchline waaaayyy too much) and your writing abilities. I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you're fussing around about the stick figures because, in essence, it's an easy fix for you - you're not a bad artist, so it's something you can alter relatively easily.
To quote from something you yourself wrote:
Of course it's hard. That's why it needs addressing. If it were easy for you to write a succinct, pithy gag, then we wouldn't be having this conversation.
On a slightly different note, it seems you've been spending a lot of time shopping your comic around and asking for advice in many different forums and locations, and while I can't fault ambition (even though the nasty elitist side of me is thinking that maybe you should just pipe down for a bit), the fact is that you will build a readership much faster if you just buckle down and produce content at a regular pace. You only have ten comics in your archive (I am aware that you have started and stopped a few times, and that we are merely seeing the current incarnation of your strip, but you still haven't actually been around that long). Stop mucking around with trivialities, and create. Learn by doing. Stick figures? Fine, no problem, stick figure art can be great for comics, but only if you know how to write a decent gag. So stop focussing on changing the shape of your characters heads, or the colour of your backgrounds, and concentrate on improving your writing. You have a GAG strip. Thus your success depends on your gags. It's pretty straightforward.
Also, you use far too many ellipses.
-----
Byrobot Dot Net
Byrobot Dot Net
If the comic you're making
If the comic you're making works with stick figures, then leave it as is.
But, if you actually are capable of better, and want to prove it. Why not?
_____
The William G - Romantic Drama, Post-Apocalyptic Monsters, and More Comic Experimentation