This is something I've been thinking about lately. Usually, when I see amatures doing something (webcomics being a particular example, but it could be
anything -- music, writing, whatever), and they get suggestions to improve, it almost always boils down to advice to make THEIR thing just like EVERYONE
ELSE's thing.
There are at least two lines of thought for that type of criticism. Number one, it's telling the artist, "You're not a beautiful snowflake." Number two, it assumes that what people have been doing works, so why not stick with what works?
For a third line of thought, I've actually seen John K. tell young artists, "You should not develop a personal style."
Personally, though, I think it's a mistake. I guess it's just a lot more challenging to find what is unique in a person's style, and encourage that, yet still suggesting ways to improve while remaining true to themselves.
I guess this might seem vague, so here's a particular example. Maybe not the best one.
Someone asked for a critique of this comic. When you look at it, is there anything that stands out to you as done well?
I can name one thing. The artist does a pretty good job of shading hair with a colored pencil. Particularly for the kid with the dark hair.
The advice the artist got was to drop the colored pencil and do all the coloring by computer.
Hmm. Well, earlier strips done with colored pencil (or is it even something like crayon?) do look bad. But on the other hand, if you took that strip I linked earlier and replaced the pencil coloring with computer coloring, it might look more "professional", but it would definitely look more bland. At that point, I think there would be nothing unique left in the comic at all.
There are at least two lines of thought for that type of criticism. Number one, it's telling the artist, "You're not a beautiful snowflake." Number two, it assumes that what people have been doing works, so why not stick with what works?
For a third line of thought, I've actually seen John K. tell young artists, "You should not develop a personal style."
Personally, though, I think it's a mistake. I guess it's just a lot more challenging to find what is unique in a person's style, and encourage that, yet still suggesting ways to improve while remaining true to themselves.
I guess this might seem vague, so here's a particular example. Maybe not the best one.
Someone asked for a critique of this comic. When you look at it, is there anything that stands out to you as done well?
I can name one thing. The artist does a pretty good job of shading hair with a colored pencil. Particularly for the kid with the dark hair.
The advice the artist got was to drop the colored pencil and do all the coloring by computer.
Hmm. Well, earlier strips done with colored pencil (or is it even something like crayon?) do look bad. But on the other hand, if you took that strip I linked earlier and replaced the pencil coloring with computer coloring, it might look more "professional", but it would definitely look more bland. At that point, I think there would be nothing unique left in the comic at all.
