Are you any better off asking for writers than artists?

[RKDS]

A comment in the 'how to get seen' post in another forum reminded me of a question I've been wanting to ask for quite awhile. If asking for an artist to draw your story is such a sure formula for failure, does that doom the reverse (artist looking for a writer) as well?

[Cope]

I understand that the reverse is rare enough to generally bestow it with better chances.

[Kris X]

Either way you're screwed. Writers tend to do the looking for some reason though.

[Keffria]

As I shall say every time this comes up, artists say a lot of things, but most of us are fundamentally lazy. Even if you can find an artist, good luck motivating him/her.

[Jackhass]

I understand that the reverse is rare enough to generally bestow it with better chances.

Yeah, you'll meet very few artists asking for writers. Because, well...everyone can write. They may not be able to write well, but they can write. On the other hand lots of people simply can't draw...like, at all.

The natural inclination is to want to have as much control over your stuff as possible, so most artists try to make a go of it and write their own stuff.

[Thatreevesgirl]

I think that 90% of all writer/artist pairings will fail. It is my belief that it doesn't matter who is searching for who, but rather whether or not you and the other person are compatible. Finding a good partner in writing or art is like dating...its gonna take awhile to find a good match. I also think that there has to be a common vision in the project, one where both persons can put their input into the aspect that they aren't in charge of. That means the writer has to allow the artist input and the artist must also allow the writer input.

[Mo]

In some weeks from now, I may have an answer to this question...

[Vorticus]

Much easier to find a writer, especially if you're easy going about creative control.

[Kirb]

I'd have to say it's much easier to find a writer than an artist, for many of the reasons explained above.


I couldn't handle being a writer/artist for another person. Control freak. Either my partner would strangle me to death, or I would shoot him with a gun. So I guess we'd both die. Hence why I work alone.

[BKR]

It's true, writers in general are more numerous than the artists. This isn't limited to just webcomics though - the main reason why I can make pixel art and draw a little bit better than a doorknob is because I couldn't find anyone to do the art work for a game I was making. Ended up for the better however.

[McDuffies]

Artists who are in need for writer seem to prefere to ask someone who they already know as a good writer to write for them. Maybe some of them search through writing offers and samples to find something that fits them, but not very often. Though I've seen a few cases of people asking for a writer so I suppose...

[Shishio]

Even if you can find an artist, good luck motivating him/her.

I find money works quite well.

[Black Sparrow]

I think it may be a little easier, since there are so many writers out there. But, the issue is, finding a good one. Writers hae a tendency (myself among them) to prefer their stories their way, so the artist is little more than a pencil slave, bowing to the writer's whim.

Really, you should just try writing your own comic. That way, you'll know you have a passion for what you're doing, and you don't end up drawing gay furries or something.

[Blackaby]

I honestly don't think that you'd get more of a response looking for writers than writers looking for artists. It's all about shaping someone else's vision anyway, and writers are probably a lot more desperate to write their own thing and thus unleash their super awesome creativity rubbish than to play in someone else's sandpit.

[TRI]

One way to sum it it might be this, which sounds more familiar:

"I have this idea for a story but I'm not good enough to draw it."

or

"I have this art style but I can't think of what to draw."

[Snackbot]

Good writing is what I struggle with much more than art, so I've considered looking for a writer who can supply me with ideas...

then I realize that I'm much to much of a control freak to have a partner.

A friend of mine and I trade off doing comics for Vaguely Amazing, but that's hardly collaborative. Either he'll write and draw, or i'll write and draw. There's a pretty obvious difference in our drawing styles, too, so you can tell.

Sometimes we brainstorm ideas together, but never has one of us written the comic that the other has drawn. It's much more of a mishmash than that.

Now, not that Vaguely Amazing is a successful comic, but my personal experience in creative teams is that you definitely need to be the right type of people to give up an entire half of the creative process.

[Biev]

Books with no pictures and stand-alone art still exist, don't they?

[RPin]

I get the feeling most successful writer/artist pairings are from people who already know each other for some time. Asking for an artist/writer in a forum is sort of like blind dating.

[Vorticus]

I would suspect it's worse than that. With blind dating you can usually find out through friends what happened if they disappear for a while, on the internet you don't even have that.

[McDuffies]

And with blind dating, you can say "sorry, this is not working out" after a third date.

I think there's a lot of collaboration arrangements that people never consider. Some of them are more convenient for particular cases. For instance, collaborating on a short story instead of entire series, should be easier to maintain, and would be a good test area. Writers who are also colourists or even inkers, may find it easier to find artists (and learn to draw along the way). Artists might be looking for someone to write a comic based on their characters and ideas - that way they'd know that writer who agreed to that isn't a control freak.
Sometimes a problem isn't that the script isn't a reflection of artists's ideas (specially for arttists who don't have ideas), often it's simply a problem of unrewarding script. Seven pages of expository dialogue scenes? Or making an artist who honed his skills in drawing space ships, draw a real-life romantic story? Writers who aren't artists usually don't care about such stuff, their main concern is words, not images.