I don't know anymore!
I've been doing comics on my site for four or five years now, even had a few run on Cracked, but when I read some of my other favorites around the web I feel like I've seen their techniques and styles evolve a lot better and farther than mine. I always intend a fun, cartoony feel but ultimately the results looks too stiff and lifeless to me. I think I have major problems with color, poses, backgrounds, the entire staging of my panels...I'd enjoy advice on anything, really, and try as many suggestions as I can in my next comic.
I have more than a hundred, but this is the most recent:
Here's a couple others:
A lot of my comics involve large, amorphous biomasses, I'm sorry...I'm not looking for writing critiques, that's a whole other topic.
I think my biggest concern is detail level. I'm always trying to find the comfort zone between crude, loose cartoon people and a more realistic look. Gunshow is one of the best examples (to me) of the former, and
Skadi my favorite example of the latter. Both honestly just as nice looking. I'm actually a little more comfortable drawing like this:
...And I draw like this more often than I draw comics. I have almost 500 of these monsters. This just isn't the look I want for
comics. Am I spreading myself too broadly?
I'd also love some tips on good brushes and techniques for Sai, if anyone knows their way around that stuff. I still just use the default pen, and it's beginning to feel really restrictive.
Posts
I think it's the strongest of the 3, by virtue of having cute characters - the Pokemon one would probably be better with 'normal' looking human characters, imo.
So to answer the thread title - more ugly, less often?
I think your colors are serviceable, but gradient backgrounds are always kind of lazy looking in my opinion. Even kc green tends to use solids or attend to gradients with a little hand drawn texture.
Unfortunately I really don't know anything about Sai.
When I look at some of my older, technically crappier comics...drawn in flash with a mouse, the worst possible combination, I actually find things I like a lot better than what I'm doing now. It's hard to lighten up once a style has "tightened"
That's their ultimate dream, right? Just an amoebic mass of wolf?
Man, you can still jump on the "31st PA:AC Challenge: The Discomfort Zone IV, the smell of discomfort", where a lot of GREAT, GREAT, very talented AND good looking artists are participating and are doing exactly that. After all, its more a game than a challenge, and a great incentive to try different stuff, wich is something everyone needs.