Behind the Scenes: Style Shift
[dc]I[/dc]f you go back and read a comic’s archives, you’ll notice how the artist’s style changes over time. It just happens. Heck, look at the first season of The Simpsons compared to season 20.
Yay, comics! Photo via The Commons on Flickr.
A fun activity is to look at the first strip of a popular, long running comic, and look at the most recent (pick any). I have only been drawing my Clattertron comics for a little over a year, and my style has changed (here’s my first comic, from April 2012).
My style changed considerably since September, a mere eight months ago. This week’s comic, The Playoffs, was a callback to a strip I did about the NHL lockout, back in September, Another NHL Lockout.
Here’s the September strip:
Artsy.
Now, here is this week’s comic:
That’s just silly.
Big difference, right? Granted, I’m still working on staying on-model with my own characters, so changes are pretty much weekly. Compare the second panels of each comic. Both have expressions I am happy with, but the latest comic has a better style (I think).
I don’t think I even have my Ames lettering guide in September, so my lettering is a bit better as of late too. I enjoy watching how my style changes over the months, and how I get a bit better with each strip. I certainly pay more attention to panel layout and composition these days.
For example, there are a few older strips, that if I drew them today, the composition would be very different. I re-read them and think, “X character should be on the left of the first panel, not the right,” and such.
Forcing myself to stick to a weekly deadline helped my skills grow considerably. Otherwise, I doubt I would have nearly 60 comics done. I might have ten, if that.
Is every strip perfect? Heck no. I probably have a few I’m super-happy with, but each strip is a stepping stone. When I started, I knew it would take a year or so to get my style figured out. I think in about five years, I might begin to maybe know what I am doing. Maybe.
Until then, I’m having fun, and that is all that matters.
(That, and I get to draw cartoon animals yelling).
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