Well holy shit. I was about to make a mock suggestion that was pretty much the exact thing you just put up. Minus some exploding Venus de Milos. I must be psychic.
Maybe this is your problem - you're just not cut out for writing humour, or at least comic-strip humour.
I'm not being gratuitously mean here, comedy is a talent like anything else. For example, I certainly couldn't produce a successful gag-based webcomic. So - I don't try to.
I think you should figure out where your skills actually lie, and redirect your effort into something worthwhile. That hand-drawn strip had some appeal, art-wise. Do what Iruka said, challenge yourself and find what works.
Okay, I added more corn. I am pleased with the result. Good suggestion. I also got rid of the Wacom pen that Mr. Stinky was holding in the 3rd panel, because now the comic reads more as "Mr. Stinky shits on the world" and less as "he drew a picture of shit on the world."
Maybe this is your problem - you're just not cut out for writing humour, or at least comic-strip humour.
I'm not being gratuitously mean here, comedy is a talent like anything else. For example, I certainly couldn't produce a successful gag-based webcomic. So - I don't try to.
I think you should figure out where your skills actually lie, and redirect your effort into something worthwhile. That hand-drawn strip had some appeal, art-wise. Do what Iruka said, challenge yourself and find what works.
Thank you for saying what I was thinking but couldn't put into words
Bro it's pretty funny how combative you're being with the people who are trying to help you not suck so bad at this.
It's like you're getting into fisticuffs with the rescue crews trying to get you off of the sinking ship. Eventually they're going to give up and you can have the last laugh as you drown and are subsequently forgotten.
I'm actually unsure hes actually read or comprehended anything we write. And I think its at the point where hes just going to ignore posts that don't have minor changes he can make. Its too bad, as his traditional doodles were pretty charming.
Whats frustrating is, I do understand the thought process behind doing something you want to do and deciding that there are just people you aren't going to please. Not everyone is going to do a 360 every time they are thrown a draw-over or a good, but image changing suggestion. Obviously those decisions are yours to make as an artist, not everything that comes your way is going to be valid, and not everything is going to suggest a direction that you appreciate. But being less flexible isn't an asset I would seek out.
iglidante, I guess what I'm asking is can you really not be bothered to draw something completely different for a day? It just strikes me as being idiotically stubborn to only take suggestions that can fit into the format you already have.
I really enjoy the Creative Screenwriting Magazine podcast, despite the fact that their interviewer, Jeff Goldsmith, is a massive tool. (That’s a post for another day.) The most recent one features several of this year’s Oscar-nominated screenwriters, and I highly recommend it.
One problem I have with this sort of panel, though, is the constant “follow you dreams” talk. Successful writers (and successful people in general) love to talk about how all you have to do is be persistent, and eventually you’ll reach their level of success. After all, they didn’t give up, and look how they turned out!
I used to work for a DVD distribution company. Part of my job was to watch unsolicited movies that were sent by independent filmmakers, and offer recommendations to my boss. I didn’t recommend many. This was the tail end of the indie boom, when movies were selling for millions at Sundance. Anybody with a 16mm camera and an idea could make a movie. And money.
First, they’d take their project to the mini-majors and studio indie labels. If those didn’t bite, you could always try pay cable networks, or even basic cable channels. Barring that, there’s always Blockbuster and Netflix. And then there was us. We were the last stop for just about everybody. We got the dregs of independent film, the movies nobody else wanted. And with good reason. You go to the multiplex and see some terrible action flick, or maybe a boringly pretentious documentary, or whatever it is you consider “bad,” and you might think to yourself, This movie is awful! This must be the worst film of the year!
And you’d be wrong. Every movie that makes it into theatres has something going for it, even if it’s just the fact that the camera is pointed in the same general direction as the lights. You’re comparing it to the top 1% of all films. You’re not even close to the “worst.” Maybe you’ve flipped through the channels late at night, and discovered a made-for-TV scifi movie, with bad effects and worse dialogue. Maybe you’ve accidentally picked up Transmorphers 2 instead of Transformers 2 at the video store. In any case, you think you’ve seen bad movies.
But you haven’t.
I’ve seen movies so mind-boggling bad that I’m not even sure how to describe them. The closest I can think of is when you open up the milk carton, only to realize it’s gone sour… and then you hold it out to your roommate and say, “Here, smell this.” That’s what we did around the office. “Here, check this out. Did he really cut to a shot of a snail crawling over a pen?”
But the thing is, the people who made these movies have no idea they’re bad. They had a vision, and by God, they made that movie.
Which brings me back to the pre-Oscars screenwriting panel. The people who made these films believed in themselves. They persisted, they didn’t give up, they followed their dreams. If you tried to explain to these filmmakers what was wrong with their movies, they wouldn’t even understand. It’d be like trying to explain to a colorblind person why red is prettier than brown.
What I’m getting at is, these people shouldn’t have persisted. They should have given up, moved on, tried something else. But successful artists don’t consider this possibility. Particularly Americans, I think. It’s in our democratic, populist nature. I’m not special. I just worked harder and longer than the ones who didn’t succeed.
But the sad truth is, some people don’t succeed because they suck. You just don’t hear those people interviewed on popular podcasts.
Hey iglidante, have you tried making that comic I suggested awhile back? It'd give you a reason to try drawing differently, and still have it be part of your comic.
I am so glad you acted upon criticism to add more corn to a steaming pile of shit. It's really the perfect metaphor for the entire thread.
Reacting to criticism of being self-indulgent by publishing a comic about the specific origin of the criticism pretty much confirms that the criticism is true. I mean, if I was a stranger visiting your comic, what the fuck would any of it mean? An audience shouldn't have to intimately know the creator of a work to extract meaning from it.
Also here is a picture of me:
In that photo I am trying to emulate your writing process.
Iruka, I hear you. The next thing I post won't be FMAF. Promise. It'll be something different, and it will illustrate growth (or an attempt at growth) on my part as an artist.
Okay, then, do a one-shot comic strip. Draw four panels of sequential hilarity and post it here. Hand draw it and use some original. I want to see what you're capable of if you're not confined to the style you've set for yourself.
You'll have to give me a bit, but I'll try to take you up on that.
I gave this advice back in October:
Look at it this way: your first try at anything will nearly always be pretty awful. If you like this comic idea so much, don't you want to do it right? Do something else for a while, develop different styles, and when you come back to it you will be ready to make it everything you hoped you could make it.
I don't have any delusions of being the best advice giver in the world but the rest of the thread's been saying this too. Your guest strip for Polk was not bad! Can you draw some other stuff for the AC? Doesn't even have to be a comic. We've already established that this forum doesn't like your comic and you're making no effort to change it, so further updates to this thread along these lines go nowhere.
The AC is for the betterment of your artistic abilities, so post some different things and see what sort of comments you get. Go sit in the park and do a life drawing of a dog. Heck, stand your two dog toys next to each other and do a pencil still life.
At least the Polk strip was vulgar. I thought it matched his style pretty well.
And like I said, if you're worried that people won't like a comic, just try some art instead. There's a lot you could be doing to try to improve. Maybe practice composition by taking a Cyanide and Happiness strip and doing the art in a different style, while trying not to lose what makes it interesting? Or have someone here write you a strip, and then do the art for it.
Please draw some other things in a different style. Give people something different to comment/crit, since nothing more can be said about this comic.
That's just me, and not what others have been saying.
Draw something else. Draw a cow as realistically as possible. Draw a guy holding a Dear John letter in his room, looking devastated. Draw a bird wearing a suit of armor. Draw a still life of a stack of books and a wine glass.
Uh...shit, Sporky, that's one thing I'm no good at. I can't blend color and lay down decent lines with graphite. Or pens. Or markers. I really, really need my undos.
Uh...shit, Sporky, that's one thing I'm no good at. I can't blend color and lay down decent lines with graphite. Or pens. Or markers. I really, really need my undos.
There's your problem. It's not that you can't, it's that you can't yet. Nobody should expect to be able to do something straight off, and learning to draw (or paint, or scupt etc...) is especially difficult since it typically can't be described in words and the only way to actually learn is to just do it and pay attention to what works. If you're constrained to drawing digitally now you will always be constrained to drawing digitally - it's not going to magically change. Drawing with real materials is important party because you don't have an undo button - it forces you to stick with an idea and to follow through, and helps you to take risks and realize that they actually sometimes* pay off. It's good to hear you resolving to do something other than this comic - please please follow it through.
Don't be afraid of learning, embrace it and realize that the harder something chances are the more you'll thank yourself once you've done it. Unless, you know, if that thing is snorting marbles.
Uh...shit, Sporky, that's one thing I'm no good at. I can't blend color and lay down decent lines with graphite. Or pens. Or markers.
That's exactly why you should do it. Do you think people only ever do things that they were magically good at in the first place? How do you expect to be okay at these things if you NEVER try?
The only thing this comic has succeeded in doing is passing the last two hours at work. Mostly with the thought "my god this guy is dense." And maybe an inkling of hope that you might post something that would make me smile. You didn't. Please listen to someones advice.
No, you guys are right. Learning how to do it right the first time, with constraints, is what makes decent artists better, and good artists excellent.
No it fucking isn't.
Most people have to teach themselves art. From square one. It doesn't make "decent artists better." It makes laymen into decent artists. Sometimes, those people are adults before they ever get started.
Instead of coming up with reasons why you cant do it, why don't you give it a few tries and create an art thread?
Iglidante, keep on keepin' on man. Just go. Go enjoy making a comic that a few people will like and a vast majority will hate. It sucks that you don't want to improve your art or your humor. Instead of actually trying ANYTHING, you react just terribly by doing some kind of crazy passive-aggressive attack on an internet forum...one that was actually trying to help, which is just beyond my understanding.
Honestly, I think we're giving attention where attention is no longer needed. Bad or, well, really bad.
Iruka, I hear you. The next thing I post won't be FMAF. Promise. It'll be something different, and it will illustrate growth (or an attempt at growth) on my part as an artist.
I'm willing to hold the dude to his word, here. Hope you come back with something new and maybe open yourself up to broader directions for your art.
Posts
Maybe this is your problem - you're just not cut out for writing humour, or at least comic-strip humour.
I'm not being gratuitously mean here, comedy is a talent like anything else. For example, I certainly couldn't produce a successful gag-based webcomic. So - I don't try to.
I think you should figure out where your skills actually lie, and redirect your effort into something worthwhile. That hand-drawn strip had some appeal, art-wise. Do what Iruka said, challenge yourself and find what works.
Forum posts as performance art?
Eh, it's been done.
Your first sentence and your second sentence don't seem to be saying the same thing.
When I want to show a couch, I draw a couch. You're saying I don't know how to illustrate a narrative with the correct pacing and flow.
It's like you're getting into fisticuffs with the rescue crews trying to get you off of the sinking ship. Eventually they're going to give up and you can have the last laugh as you drown and are subsequently forgotten.
Scared to make anything that isn't stupid.
iglidante, I guess what I'm asking is can you really not be bothered to draw something completely different for a day? It just strikes me as being idiotically stubborn to only take suggestions that can fit into the format you already have.
Hey iglidante, have you tried making that comic I suggested awhile back? It'd give you a reason to try drawing differently, and still have it be part of your comic.
Reacting to criticism of being self-indulgent by publishing a comic about the specific origin of the criticism pretty much confirms that the criticism is true. I mean, if I was a stranger visiting your comic, what the fuck would any of it mean? An audience shouldn't have to intimately know the creator of a work to extract meaning from it.
Also here is a picture of me:
In that photo I am trying to emulate your writing process.
really i don't think most of his recent posts have been anything but bait to try and trap people into arguing about/legitimizing his site
i, fletcher fletcherson, do hereby pledge never to read or post in this thread ever again
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February:
That's just me, and not what others have been saying.
Draw something else. Draw a cow as realistically as possible. Draw a guy holding a Dear John letter in his room, looking devastated. Draw a bird wearing a suit of armor. Draw a still life of a stack of books and a wine glass.
Just draw, and draw for real, not digitally.
Uh...shit, Sporky, that's one thing I'm no good at. I can't blend color and lay down decent lines with graphite. Or pens. Or markers. I really, really need my undos.
There's your problem. It's not that you can't, it's that you can't yet. Nobody should expect to be able to do something straight off, and learning to draw (or paint, or scupt etc...) is especially difficult since it typically can't be described in words and the only way to actually learn is to just do it and pay attention to what works. If you're constrained to drawing digitally now you will always be constrained to drawing digitally - it's not going to magically change. Drawing with real materials is important party because you don't have an undo button - it forces you to stick with an idea and to follow through, and helps you to take risks and realize that they actually sometimes* pay off. It's good to hear you resolving to do something other than this comic - please please follow it through.
Don't be afraid of learning, embrace it and realize that the harder something chances are the more you'll thank yourself once you've done it. Unless, you know, if that thing is snorting marbles.
*not always.
That's exactly why you should do it. Do you think people only ever do things that they were magically good at in the first place? How do you expect to be okay at these things if you NEVER try?
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
No it fucking isn't.
Most people have to teach themselves art. From square one. It doesn't make "decent artists better." It makes laymen into decent artists. Sometimes, those people are adults before they ever get started.
Instead of coming up with reasons why you cant do it, why don't you give it a few tries and create an art thread?
Honestly, I think we're giving attention where attention is no longer needed. Bad or, well, really bad.
Good luck.....you're gonna need it.
I'm willing to hold the dude to his word, here. Hope you come back with something new and maybe open yourself up to broader directions for your art.
your music is seriously rockin', though