How do you handle art change

[Douglas Byrd]

I'd been trying to improve my artwork for my comic since i've started it, but then i found something that dramatically improved over what i had before; which wasn't good in the first place, though my drawing still is far from perfect, but the difference is far enough though that i can barely recognize the characters that had already been established drawing them the new way and they look really bad the old way. is it better to redraw them since there aren't many comics yet, or just put an annotation to re identify the characters, or what?

[Meghan]

If it were a very drastic change, the easiest solution would be to acknowledge that in the cast page.Example being "Here's a picture of what (character) looked like in the beginning." "Here he/she is now."

If it's bothersome enough that you want to redraw, I recommend not putting off the current updates just so you can go back and redraw pages. If it's that important, perhaps you could redraw pages as you go along in your spare time?

[Douglas Byrd]

ah, ok. I haven't made a cast page yet since only a couple of the characters have been introduced so far, but i can try that ^_^

[Nate Fakes]

I've re-drawn many comic strips because my characters have evolved so much. I have found that holding back and not switching, changing things can be bad for a comic. It's important to expirement and try new things. Eventually, it'll all come together and you'll have your comics looking consistantly the way you want them. It takes a lot of drawing over and over - which can be aggravating, but worth it.

[Dominic Salerno]

My characters have evolved drastically over the years from mid high school to post college. I still use all of them. I always left signature characteristics in all of them so that even when old friends have come back to see my current work they can still identify key characters.

How drastic are the changes between them?

The cast page could certainly remedy the issue. I think redrawing the old stuff would be a waste of time. Part of following a webcomic is the evolution of the characters in every aspect from plot to design.

Penny-Arcade is a perfect example. Look at their first post and compare it to now.

[Douglas Byrd]

OOTS is an even odder example, i can't tell what is different from the way the characters are drawn in the first and last comics, but they somehow seem very different.

its a pretty drastic change i think, http://novacorp-online.net/NovaGG/Without.htm is where the comic is, its not very long yet and it already has at least two major changes in the artwork

[Neftali Rivera]

My comic, at www.Midtoon.com started just last January and there have been changes already in the art. I find that if people are reading your comic sequentially, as they are meant to, they don't really mind the changes. The only ones who could have a problem are those who leave your comic and then return. They might be a little lost.

This should not be a big problem, because people will tend to go back and read the previous strips anyway. In Midtoon, I even made a sequence (6 strips) about one of the characters changing her look. You can check out the series starting one strip before the series, here: http://www.midtoon.com/010606.htm, then just click next to cycle through the next six strips. If you want to see how Mabel looked before the change, check this one out: http://www.midtoon.com/010406.htm. This is the last strip where she appears with enough closeness to appreciate the details. You can tell that there is significant difference, especially if you look at her latest appearance in http://www.midtoon.com/010905.htm, yet the readers seem to accept that.

Another thing you may notice, especially of you cycle through the comics, is that she looks more consistent in later strips. I was having trouble keeping her looks to remain the same from frame to frame, but practice surely helps.

Do not apologize for the changes in your art. Even the pros change their look every once in a while. If you don't believe me, check old Garfield comics and tell me if the cat doesn't look diferent.

If your differences are major, you can try tagging them, like having one character call the other one by name the first time they appear and so on. You can also use the change for effect, just like I did. Of course, this doesn't have to go all the way to make a sequence out of it, but a one liner could suffice. "Hey Mabel, you look different, I almost didn't recognize you."

Hope this helps.

[Dave LaPlante]

It seems we all agree on this. I introduced a character in early 2008 and it took a whole year before that characters appearance became refined and standardized. Your characters will change because your drawing style will change. I think that is normal and expected. We all get better at our craft over time. As you draw the same characters over and over you pick out things you like and things you don't and it just evolves. I like to see that. It's more realistic than some of the comics that have been around for so long things never change.

[Travis Surber]

I'm only 40 strips into mine and the changes are starting to be noticible.The best thing is to just keep moving forward,don't redraw,own that old work.If the characters have a strong visual identity than they will be recognisable no matter what.Look at Batman,no matter who draws him or in what style he's instantly recognisable.Another fix though would be to have your characters use each other's names in conversation to reinforce the identity.

[Donna Barr]

The first published book I did, I re-drew 27 pages because they just weren't what I wanted. But that doesn't say annotation won't work just as well. It's your book. Besides, People Grow, People Change.