Since taking illustration and comics more seriously, I’ve been fortunate enough to improve in leaps and bounds. Our first comic is less that two years old and the other is coming up to it’s one year anniversary. In terms of a comic’s age, that is not very long, however, that doesn’t mean that the art hasn’t come a long way.
I’m proud of the progress I have made but there is also a flip side to it. And that is coming to terms with the feeling that the artwork that I used to be very proud of, suuuuuuuuuucks baaaaaaaaaaallls in comparison to where I feel it is now. I look at it and my fingers itch, wanting to go back and make everything look consistent.
But one of the advantages of having accessible art of old, is that you can see your progress and knowing how far you’ve come in that time can really give you a confident boost. Sometimes it feels like your pushing a boulder uphill when it comes to making progress in webcomics so it’s always good to take the time to see how far you’ve come.
So, at the end of it, stand by your old art as it might inspire other artists to continue their craft knowing where their favourite artists came from.
Do you ever look at your old artwork? How do you feel about looking through other webcomic creator's archives? Let us know in the comment section below. And join us on Sunday evening for our Quackchat at 5:30PM(EST)!
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Standing by old artwork
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, March 8, 2019
4 likes!
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RobertRVeith at 12:31AM, March 10, 2019
In the past decade, I've been working hard on getting my art up to something I like to look at. I have a few years of "ramp up" work prior to the first published Civilized Lands pages. Some of it holds up; most doesn't. Subsequently, the gains have been smaller. I'm not embarrassed by earlier work, but I do see how I could have done it better. As each chapter has an incremental—small, but noticeable (at least to me) improvement in the art, I don't doubt that I will eventually hit a point where I hate the early stuff and want to go back and redo it.
ShaRose49 at 12:18PM, March 8, 2019
I don’t think I’ll go back and fix all my old art, at least not for a long time. The important thing to me is to move forward. I hope seeing how bad my art was at first inspired people rather than turns them off
usedbooks at 12:08PM, March 8, 2019
I'm not sure if I've ever been proud of anything I've created. I like to see other people's artwork, though. It's not really a matter of improvement as much as a journey of change and style. Although, I think it is most profound in professional work like long-running animated series or comic strips.
JaymonRising at 12:02PM, March 8, 2019
XD...I just looked at some..."art" (more like toxic exploitation) I did in 2013, and...well...let's just say I should've stayed in 2009 if it fits my reaction fairly well. https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Jands/5445039/
entropy0013 at 9:34AM, March 8, 2019
Old art work let's you know what problems you had learning and rendering. It also give a way to gauge what might still be a problem in your current work when you look at your art in a continuity. Sometimes, you rediscover an old idea that you can really can do justice to now in rendering. Now, after viewing my work I can say it's a dumpster fire.
DaniBoy at 7:31AM, March 8, 2019
Gosh, I have folders of art saved all the way back to 2005. I don't personally mind my old stuff in spite of how bad it is. I mean, it was stuff I did as a kid, of course it's going to be bad, but at the time I was really satisfied with what I accomplished. Sometimes I still go into those folders, or onto my original DA page to see my old stuff. It's kinda motivating, especially since improvement doesn't come in leaps and bounds like it did when drawing was still a new thing. As for other people's old art. I don't feel much about it, everyone starts somewhere. Usually old archives are impressive when the artist is still a child/teen, and their work went from a dumpster fire to Da Vinci in just a few years. Those are the scary ones.
Froggtreecomics at 6:18AM, March 8, 2019
Old artwork should be deleted, stomped on and set fire to.
KAM at 6:17AM, March 8, 2019
My art peaked years ago so any improvement is smoke and mirrors. Go back to my old art books and relearn lessons, find new art books to try something different. The illusion of improvement, while I'm really just running twice as fast to get half as far.
mks_monsters at 6:02AM, March 8, 2019
Honestly, I find my work is like night and day compared to how it used to be. And it keep evolving more. Maybe someday, I might even do a redo entirely of the chapter covers at least.
Ozoneocean at 4:38AM, March 8, 2019
I look at my old artwork and think "Man! I have to compete against that?!? :(" The past me tried too hard XD