How Not To Make It In Webcomics - Part 3

Artwork and Image

You don’t have to be much of an artist to make webcomics. I can reference you to a number of stick figure, disproportioned, or motor skill deficient webcomics. I can’t really teach you how to draw. In contrast though, there are some INCREDIBLE works of art out there that just blow my pathetic abilities out of the water. But regardless of your abilities, several important things make the difference between amateur level artwork and “What an interesting choice in style” artwork. The difference is in the details.

1. Font - DO NOT. DO. NOT. Use comic sans, arial, or a standard font. Don’t use lower case. Downloading a simple, free, comic font will go a long ways in upgrading your work. Great artwork is ruined by shitty lettering. There are plenty of great resources out there to use, go nuts. On a related note, use pen tools to create sharp looking speech bubbles if you chose, avoiding shading and following the next rule.
2. Line Weight - This is something I see most often overlooked in well-drawn but poorly polished manga comics. The lineart is pixellated and thin as if it were drawn with a pencil tool in MS Paint. Use bold and/or dynamic line weights, As a general rule, give external lines bolder weights while using finer lines for facial features and detail. Using thin, uniform line weights creates flat, uninteresting images and detracts from otherwise great illistration. Also, pencil or blurred lines are a no-no.
3. Consistency - Your characters should be recognizable from strip to strip. My favorite, Calvin and Hobbes, is drawn uniquely in every comic. The shape of his eyes or details of his demeanor were hardly drawn the same way twice, but the proportions remained the same. Fluctuating proportions such as head size or facial feature placement makes any comic look amateur.

These small improvements are key, but decent artwork doesn’t add up to an image. A good comic has a defining style that goes along with the theme and target audience. This includes font choice, title pages, website layout, black and white or color. Be it serious or quirky, a comic with a defining image is one that readers will remember and revisit.

If you haven’t caught on yet, the key to having a good looking comic is to make it look like you know what you’re doing as an artist. If stickmen is all you can draw, draw them with style and polish all the details. There are plenty of “successful” webcomics out there who did exactly that.

The following is in every way an example of what not to do. A two minute search on TopWebComics led to ten jewels like this.

Another Unidentified Comic ... ironic title. Another tip, if you want credit for your images reposted elsewhere, stamp your site name somewhere on the image.