Draw each panel seperately or use premade graphic sheets?

[AlienChickenPie]

Me and my friend have decided to move from sprites to actual drawings, and we're having a debate over the technique. I think we should just draw each panel seperately, but my friend suggests that we should form a large collection of the characters in various poses, furniture and props, just paste them to assemble the scene in each panel (sort-of like using sprites) and update the collection from time to time.
Can you help us decide?
Considerations-
We plan to update 3 times a week
Each comic is going to be made of 4-6 panels
We are not exactly elite artists
We aim for a rather simple drawing style

[Esoterik]

Keep in mind this is my opinion.


I'm for drawing. I like to draw; somehow drawing something once and then re-using it seems odd to me. However, you're not me...

People have done what you propose before and it's worked for them.

[McDuffies]

Pros for drawing each comic separately:

1. You'll be more respected, the other idea is basically still sprite comics, and sprite comics are generally not respected too much.

2. Your pages will look batter and the comic will, art-wise be less boring.

3.

We are not exactly elite artists

You'll inevitably improve by drawing more.

4. Lost of comics over the net are already done in copy&past and, while some of them are really populat, it's tougher to get respect that way because then you're relaying only on script, with not much help from art.

Pros for copy&paste:

1. It's easier.

[William G]

Me and my friend have decided to move from sprites to actual drawings, and we're having a debate over the technique. I think we should just draw each panel seperately, but my friend suggests that we should form a large collection of the characters in various poses, furniture and props, just paste them to assemble the scene in each panel (sort-of like using sprites) and update the collection from time to time.
Can you help us decide?
Considerations-
We plan to update 3 times a week
Each comic is going to be made of 4-6 panels
We are not exactly elite artists
We aim for a rather simple drawing style

Every TV show and cartoon does something like this all the time. I think it'll all come down to your writing and in how well you use the material. Truth be told, most of us dont vary our characters and their positions that widely. As well, I personally feel that Elf Only Inn's best era was the early cut and paste comics.

I say give it a try, and if it becomes crap, try something else. It's not like your artstyle is set in stone

[Grayswandir]

IMO, it depends on what style you're going for. Furniture and various props I would understand, however you are eventually going to have to draw them if you can't find the object you are looking for in the right angle or pose.
The people, on the other hand, I think you might want to draw. That way you aren't limited by what you already have in your collection and you won't try to limit yourself if you can't find the right pose. I'm not saying you will, but if you can't find the right pose or action, you might just go and use the closest ones you can find instead of coming up with something original. You end up with a comic that looks alright but doesn't feel right because it isn't what you wanted. (Hey, we're all human right? Laziness is the answer! )

Now, if you are going for the cut out style then I think it would work fine.

As I said before, the main problem with the copy & paste, is that you won't have the custom poses when you need them. So, in the end you'll still have to be willing to draw some stuff.

[Christwriter]

I would suggest drawing as much of it as possible per strip and just keeping it simple for a while.

At least, that's what I'm doing for right now.

CW

[Akewataru]

Drawing eventually will improve your style. And readers appreciate it MUCH MUCH more when you put more effort into your comics.

However, if you plan to do it 3 times a week, you might want to look into copying and pasting pre-made sprites.

It really depends on how much time you have or are willing to spend.

[Jim North]

I've found it's nice to have a few small things here and there pre-made for copy/pasting. Nothing big, just small stuff that people really wouldn't notice, anyway.

For example, behold the almighty Koke can!



I also paste a scan of my signature in every comic because I don't always know where I'm going to want to put it until after I've got all the coloring done and the word balloons laid out.

As the others have been suggesting, tho', don't overdo it . . . hand-draw as much as you possibly can. It's what I've been doing, and my artistic abilities have increased an amazing amount over just the past few month as a result.

[William G]

I see comics as like making love- The more you do it, the better you get at it.

[AlienChickenPie]

Thanks for your replies.
I think I'll just draw every single comic from scratch, without keeping any butchered scenes or characters for scene-assembly. Unfortunately, my friend is absolutely obsessed with using the "drawn sprites" method, because he thinks it'll look as good as actually drawing everything, and nobody will notice the repetetive lameness. Can you give me some links to comics that had a "drawn sprites" period, or anything else that proves my point? I'll greatly appreciate it.

[Mercury Hat]

What comes to mind is http://elfonlyinn.keenspace.com for the "drawn sprites" aka cut'n'paste. For some strange reason the cut'n'paste worked with the basic idea of the comic seeing as how it takes place in a chat room/message board environment where people would have just one avatar or character picture.

But c'mon, even South Park changes up the drawings every once in awhile.

[Phalanx]

Thanks for your replies.
I think I'll just draw every single comic from scratch, without keeping any butchered scenes or characters for scene-assembly. Unfortunately, my friend is absolutely obsessed with using the "drawn sprites" method, because he thinks it'll look as good as actually drawing everything, and nobody will notice the repetetive lameness. Can you give me some links to comics that had a "drawn sprites" period, or anything else that proves my point? I'll greatly appreciate it.

This might help.
viewtopic.php?t=54824&highlight=noy2%2A

Cut and paste has its places in comics, but use them wisely. Personally I use them for stuff that needs to stay exactly the same (i.e. Backgrounds, unmoving things) but for everything else: fresh drawing!

And let me put it this way: when you look back at your drawn comics, you well feel this sense of greater pride as opposed to what you would feel for a bunch of cut and pasted images with text on them.

[DGC]

Most of my comic so far has actually been an experiment in a sort of cut and paste style. I didn't do it to save time as much as I did it to get more control over the composition. Being able to resize and move things around on the page is one advantage I can think of to doing it that way. Still, I've found that if you go for quality, it doesn't save much time because you end up drawing just as many custom objects and poses. Disadvantages include getting sight lines and proportions to match when characters were drawn separately and then CG'd to be in the same panel.

[Yeahduff]

I've been drawing for about three fourths of my life, and even now, when I compare what I'm currently doing to what I did a couple months ago, I'm amazed at the rate of improvement (more like I'm ashamed of what I did a couple months ago). That alone is a reason to draw everything anew.

But then, I am a bit of a purist.

If you must, recycle some things, but redraw most of what you do. You'll be happier with it in the end.

[Mr.Bob]

I've been drawing for about three fourths of my life...

I believe the correct term is "three quarters".

[Grayswandir]

Really, where?!!!

[Grayswandir]

Really, where?!!!
*searches for quarters*