THAT my dear is why bristol is so heavy. In moments like that it's perfect for beating people.

No, people who don't like your art just because and have no reasons for it are a great paradox to all artists. You strain and strain to get a piece done, and if someone tears it apart, and I mean seriously just correcting Every little thing, but they tell you whats wrong, then you respect them.

But, the person who just doesn't like it just because, they are always the ones that we strain to impress the most, and thats just a waste of time.

My God, that Promethea artwork is insane. They didn't do the whole comic like that though. That was only part of one of the chapters, where Promethea is going through various places in the plane of imagination.

Heh, it's “photo real” because it's so obviously photo :)
Based entirely on photographs. One just wonders how much is retouching or actually copied from a photo. The clues are 2 things: Bad colouring, bad posing. The models display typical photo pose stances there; sort of lacking any immediacy, flaccid, waiting. You can see it a lot on some old magazines that tell stories with posed sequential photos, or children's pulp fiction novels from the 80's with their posed photo painted covers. :)

It's a valid way of working, as is any other, but you could hardly call the stylisation in manga “lazy” if that is the alternative. ;)

ccs1989
My God, that Promethea artwork is insane. They didn't do the whole comic like that though. That was only part of one of the chapters, where Promethea is going through various places in the plane of imagination.

yeah, that's true, but that sort of thing, creating realstic artwork using photos or some other forms of media is used a lot in comics…espeically in American/English comics.

reminds me a lot of greg horn's art. I could never get around to the fact that it was blatantly taken from pictures. plus he uses lens flare and other filters constantly. his art looks so fake and plastic.

I've never taken up art classes. So, I have to say I've never experienced this so-called peer criticism. But I had experienced criticism from a friend during my high school days when she said my pencil shadings looked cartoonish and she challenged me to realism drawing. So, we chose a picture and drew one of the person in the pic.

And after comparing our drawings, she kind of turned silent seeing my drawing. I'm not saying I'm good at drawing realism but I had more practice experience in drawing (manga stuffs) than her. Actually, I'm not saying that drawing manga a lot will improve your drawing skills. What I meant was that if you practise drawing more, the way you hold your pencils will be much steadier than those who had little practice.

Has anyone ever seen the artwork of Alex Ross? His art looks completely realistic but still retains the power comics are supposed to have.

Though personally I'm a fan of comics that have a really good basis in realism with great backgrounds, but also have an original style, like Invincible.

I've had a few people question me as to why on earth I'm drawing my comic in the manga style. One of those is a friend who is an artist himself.

The first webcomic that I did was done in the realistic style. After I was finished with the story, I started working on How Unfortunate. At first I was going to do it in realistic style too. But the style didn't seem to work with the story. So, being a fan of anime since I first saw Speed Racer and Battle of the Planets, I decided to try drawing HU manga styled. And in my opinion, the style works better with the story. But my friend didn't see it that way. He said didn't give much of an excuse as to why he didn't like it. Just, “Manga sucks”. I didn't let it bother me. My opinion is much like what others have said in this thread. If you're going to say to me that you don't like the artwork, at least give me a better reason than just manga sucks.

And BTW. To the guy who said the Hanna-Barberra didn't have any realistic-looking characters or cartoons. I have two words for you.

Jonny Quest.

~.~; I'm sick of the manga/real debate. It's wrong to discriminate against ANY style just because it's not your preferred artstyle. Manga might be “easier” in some respects, but some people aren't out to be professional comics. Now! Granted, there are a lot of oversensitive, self-centered, juvenile brats out there who draw in an anime-ish style who refuse to even attempt other styles. I have tried to brave the frontier into “realistic” occasionally, and am glad to see that I'm not ENTIRELY based on the art style I'm most comfortable with.
Attempt at different style Not exactly completely different, but ignoring the flat 2-dimensionality of Steve's shirt, it's an attempt at “something else”.

As far as I'm concerned, I draw in an anime influenced style because that's what I LIKE. Not to the exclusion of others, mind you, but it's what I enjoy drawing.

Moving onto the topic of this thread…I've had a person come up to me while I'm drawing before and, without my asking him, volunteer to start demonstrating how to draw things correctly in my own sketchpad. I asked him what he meant by “correctly”, and he said “None of that anime crap”. I thanked him for his help, but suggested that he leave me to my own work. v.v; It's not that I don't mind advice in improving, but telling me that the style I'm actually enjoying drawing in is “crap” doesn't help me to improve, exactly. That's a matter of opinion.

I've also had that experience of a friend approaching me, seeking compliments but asking for “advice”, and snapping when I give them advice. I know I'm not perfect, and that I have a lot to improve on myself, but snapping at me because I tell “you” that “A good rule of thumb for distance between eyes is to imagine a third eye between them” is not very fair. What bugs me a lot are people who actually draw REALLY well who have no confidence in their abilities. They make those of us who are still at “amatuer” stage feel even worse about OUR art…and it's sort of a “fishing for compliments” maneuver.

On the anime/non-anime thing.. I must comment that I personally do not feel a western hemisphere artist can get away with drawing anime professionally. Maybe I'm wrong, correct me if so, maybe there are plenty of famous western hemisphere anime artists I hadn't heard of. In my own art, I've decided to attempt a more western-styled art for one of my more popular comics, not so much realistic, as just.. not anime. Though after so many years teaching myself how to draw in anime style only, it's really hard for me to produce something with the same amount of detail but in a style more befitting of my incredible whiteness. It all looks animeish still. Like my icon. And that makes me go urgh. But in my mind to be taken seriously as a non-asian comic artist, I shouldn't draw in anime style. To each their own, though. I do like anime a lot and respect those who can draw it really well, just as much as I respect those who draw any style of art really well. Look at the comic Peanuts, after all. It's hardly got any detail at all, but it's one of the most famous comic strips..ever. And the style really fits it, and it's drawn excellently. *stops ranting about this now*

As for my worst experience.. Foremost, I should mention that I do many kinds of art besides anime or comic art, and my friends know this. Alright. I was at this poetry slam with a bunch of my friends, a couple of which who were actually poets in the slam. (who by the way, decided to ignore me the whole time for their fellow poet friends the whole time) I was sitting with the friends who weren't in the slam while waiting for it to start, and we were discussing poetry. I mentioned that I'm no good with poetry, mainly because I have trouble expressing my feelings with words, and one friend said to me “Well that's because you're simple.” She and pretty much the rest of them in the group stated that because I cannot express my feelings through poetic words, that I therefore am incapable of being deep or profound. I countered that emotion and feeling and depth can be expressed just as well through art. They said poetry -is- art. Lacking better words, I said “visual art”. To which they all laughed and compaired me to a stripper… ahem. So the basic consensus was that I'm simple and incapable of “real art”. That pisses me off to this day. Those rubes! grr.

Worst experience? … someone once said my stuff looked like “Jewish Anime”. And no, I don't actually draw anime :P It was quite funny actually.. xD
And to add to the manga/not manga debate, just so i can do what everyone else is doing, I personally have been inspired by both manga and american artists. good ones, mind you, not wannbees ^^' I like to think my own style is original..?
maybe it is, maybe its not, but hey. I like my happy little world. :)

shadowmagi
Worst experience? … someone once said my stuff looked like “Jewish Anime”.

Oh! haha.. Because of the noses.

I mean.. That is so insensitive. And politically incorrect.

I think your art style is just awesome, though. *actually.. really interested in angels of the fallen. faves it so he can start reading it tonight. totally not a part of this subject anymore, so just mosies off*

o.o aw, im flattered ^^

lol it was a bit insensitiv of them, but like i said, i just laughed when they said it :P

character / idea theft.

The worst and most annoying thing I've witnessed was an artist who had traced an existing art piece, altered the colouring and clothing a little, and posted it as their own without giving credits. Someone exposed them, but said artist didn't admit to tracing. One person even put the two pictures on top of each other with low opacity and it was just… so obvious. The artist still denied having traced. Bah. It was a fun flame feast, though. Kinda. :D

Other than that, I can't really think of anything… but yeah, most artists aren't very good at accepting criticism. Me, I don't reject criticism as long as it's constructive and objective. I'm ok with people pointing out anatomy issues, or imbalances in the composition, unfitting facial expressions or something like that… Then again, I'm used to it from freelancing as an illustrator. You can't work in the field without taking criticism well. ;) What I don't like is subjective or generalized criticism - as in, “I just don't like it”, “I prefer manga style”, “It looks weird” etc. I've never received comments like these, mind you, but it seems to be happening to others. And it's not really helpful, is it?

Re: Manga/realism… What I prefer, personally, is an art style that fits the story and has character in itself. Most manga art is seriously lacking in the character and uniqueness department. Most of the comics I've seen in manga style look like ripoffs of each other. It's not that all manga art is bad, it just doesn't appeal to me because all the characters look the same except for the clothing and hairdo/-colour. How am I supposed to find characters interesting when they aren't visually interesting? It doesn't have to be realism, though. You make it sound like there's only two ways to go… Anyway, I can accept a comic in manga style if the writing is really good and if the characters are well defined. Sadly, that is rarely the case.

I'm awfully picky.

Cookie
The worst and most annoying thing I've witnessed was an artist who had traced an existing art piece, altered the colouring and clothing a little, and posted it as their own without giving credits. Someone exposed them, but said artist didn't admit to tracing. One person even put the two pictures on top of each other with low opacity and it was just… so obvious. The artist still denied having traced. Bah. It was a fun flame feast, though. Kinda. :D

sounds like rob lefield

subcultured

Cookie
The worst and most annoying thing I've witnessed was an artist who had traced an existing art piece, altered the colouring and clothing a little, and posted it as their own without giving credits. Someone exposed them, but said artist didn't admit to tracing. One person even put the two pictures on top of each other with low opacity and it was just… so obvious. The artist still denied having traced. Bah. It was a fun flame feast, though. Kinda. :D

sounds like rob lefield

I was thinking Greg Land.

Worst experiences… hm…

Really, there's only one other person in my school who's openly artistic. My style is like a dumbed down version of manga with a small bit of Western elements thrown in (if I ever get a scanner, I may upload some of my sketches on here). Her style is completely manga. We're both pretty much amazed by eachother's work, although I really don't know why she's amazed at my sketches. Personally, I think she's a much better artist than me (I have alot of trouble with shading and proportion). Really, there haven't been any bad experiences…

In elementary school and middle school, I had a very snobby art teacher. If she didn't like what you were drawing, she would take the pencil out of your hand and just proceed to mess around with your picture. She actually did end up ruining a few of my sketches.

I've been going to private school all my life, so I've met quite a few of elitist people. This one girl decided it would be fun and cheerful to draw happy faces all over my paper. Just how is drawing happy faces all over my sketchbook without my permission going to cheer me up?!