Do you feel that your work isn't good enough?

[on:]

Or at least, not good eough yet!

Well, you're not alone.

I was interested to see that Scott Kurtz. who has been publishing a web comic* since 1998 (!), apparently didn't consider his drawing style to be 'professional' enough for most of that time. See the conversation with his father here.


 * And making a living from it too.

[Reply #1 on:]

Well..

- Most artists will and SHOULD consider their work not good enough. Which -as a motivation for improvement- is not a bad thing.
- Web Comics may not be the best example. Most of them do not live by their art, but rather the characters and story. A weekly/daily strip may be forgiven sucky art, but will not forgive a boring story/characters.
Most of us could draw a halfway acceptable "Hägar, the Horrible", but also most of us could NOT come up with the idea to take an average family into the viking ages, and balance present time and past aspects in the appropriate humorous way.

[Reply #2 on:]

It depends what you're aiming for. I think some of my art is good enough to show people sometimes. I think it's good enough to be able to turn down other people wanting art trades. I don't know that it's good enough yet that I could make paid work of it though. It's just about practicin and how much effort you're willin to put forward to reach your oals.

[Reply #3 on:]

Ha, hell yes.



This is something I copied from a comic. I didn't trace it though.

Oh God I have a duckface in this picture.




These are some of my drawings. They suck, I know, I'm trying to improve my Fry.

Sorry about the crappy quality. I don't have a camera so I use my webcam.

[Reply #4 on:]

Great job, especially with Leela.  I couldn't draw to save my life, even trying to copy something.

[Reply #5 on:]

I couldn't draw to save my life, even trying to copy something.

We will never know until someone holds a gun to your head and orders you to draw...

On a more serious note:
Pumpkinpie>Looks good so far:) It's from the "asking-the-what-if-machine-about-Bender-traveling-to-the-past-terminator-spoof", right?
Did you draw the lines directly? If not:

The "how to draw this and that character" tutorials  usually feature some preview sketch models, based on geometrical shapes. You might wish to learn a few of these, because they will help you to keep the proportions steady.
(This will come handy when you draw your own comics...and you WILL draw your own comics, there will be no discussion about that, young Lady )

[Reply #6 on:]

There's always something in my art I think I can do better. Like hair. I'm still not quite satisfied how hair highlights and shading turn out, but since I use a mouse and not a tablet, getting one might help. I just can't get consistent, sweeping curves with a mouse.

Or if I see a piece I've done previously, I notice flaws that I didn't see before. Thankfully they're usually not huge ones.

[Reply #7 on:]

One thing I really struggle with is ill-fitting clothing or any kind of crumpled cloth.
GARRUGH.

[Reply #8 on:]

That is damn good pumkin, much better than what I could draw by hand! You should scan it and then do it up an imaging program (or I could do one if you'd like - I'd need a pretty good quality scan of the drawing though)

[Reply #9 on:]

I couldn't draw to save my life, even trying to copy something.

We will never know until someone holds a gun to your head and orders you to draw...
Pumpkinpie>Looks good so far:) It's from the "asking-the-what-if-machine-about-Bender-traveling-to-the-past-terminator-spoof", right?
Did you draw the lines directly? If not:

The "how to draw this and that character" tutorials  usually feature some preview sketch models, based on geometrical shapes. You might wish to learn a few of these, because they will help you to keep the proportions steady.
(This will come handy when you draw your own comics...and you WILL draw your own comics, there will be no discussion about that, young Lady )

Thanks! Yeah, it's from "Futurama Adventures".

[Reply #10 on:]

Pumpkin, won't you start an art thread up here? Your work is actually quite nice. You're emulating the style nicely and there's nothing that says to me "I'm crap, don't post me". Copying is a good way to learn how things work. The tricky thing is you can't make it your crutch, you have to take lessons from it and try new things too without copying. I should take my own advice because my art suffers from this so very much.