Art(hur)

[scarfman]

Friday's Arthur, King of Time and Space reflected that I am once again considering, and more seriously this time, converting AKOTAS permanently to triangles from line drawing. As of this writing, in reaction to Friday's cartoon, I've received two lukewarm comments against the idea and none in favor.

Today marks eight years of consecutive daily updates at AKOTAS. I made the decision at the beginning to create it in line art because I knew that appeals better to a general audience than the triangle style. For much of eight years I have wished I had decided otherwise. Despite several occasions when triangle style has been evoked under emergency circumstances (usually for only a day at a time but, now, twice for weeks at a stretch), I have resisted making the change because I feel a reasonable expectation has been created for the readership that line art will be the standard.

The thing about line art in webcartoons - the thing that induced the switch, in effect to this day, to triangle style for my fanfiction webcartoons in 2001 - is that line art relies on computer peripherals that break down and can't always be promptly repaired or replaced. Every other production decision I made at the beginning of AKOTAS - working in MSPaint, what font to use, to code the site myself in what HTML I know so that anything that goes wrong is something that I did and that I can fix myself - was in aid of streamlining production so I could produce cartoons at any Windows PC in the world, so AKOTAS would never miss a scheduled update.

And I like the triangles. I like minimalism for its own sake. I deny it's a lesser style because it's simpler and faster. For my purposes it's better because of those things. And it's distinct: it won't ever be confused with someone else's work.

I like the triangles better. Yet there's still that nagging reasonable expectation I feel I've created for the AKOTAS readership.

But then there's this:

You may remember this drawing from my LJ entry of 2/20/12. In the comments then I said I wasn't seriously considering switching to this style for AKOTAS because of, in so many words, the reasonable expectation thing, but that was a little disingenuous.

I could do this without a scanner or a drawing tablet. It wouldn't be quite as time efficient as the triangles (but it's actually less time efficient to produce this style from scanned line art). It could be done with tablet line art or with the line or shape tools in MSPaint.

I am probably going to switch to this style at AKOTAS sometime in the next week, to try it out. If I never switch back, you'll know what I decided. But if I switch back to triangles about a week afterwards, that might represent a permanent decision.

Comments

[billroper]

I'll say that I like the non-triangle style a good bit better. Maybe it's just me, but I find it much harder to keep track of the characters in the triangle format.

[trinalin.livejournal.com]

That's the issue that I have with the triangle toons, too. I like this other style you intend to pilot, certainly more than the triangle style.

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

Perhaps because I associate the triangles more with your fanfic cartoons, AKOTAS triangles always feel sort of "one step removed" to me, if that makes any sense. It's not a big deal, but it's there.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think that's true for me too. Some part of my brain thinks they're not canon or something.

[acmespaceship.livejournal.com]

My opinion on any question of this sort is the same as my opinion about how to run an SF convention: them who does the work gets to decide. I call it the Little Red Hen Theory of Management and Artistic Expression.

Not to mention the Theory of If You Really Care Then Buy The Artist A Wacom Tablet.

FWIW, I do agree with both Bill and daibhid_c. I get that "wait, who is this again?" feeling more often with triangles.

[pedanther]

I may be misremembering, but doesn't the litany of Computer Peripherals That Broke already include a tablet?

[scarfman]

I have a Wacom Bamboo tablet whose cord seems to have got damaged when my laptop slipped off my lap at the end of March. If not for the tablet cord, the laptop would have hit the floor, but that was the same accident that has ultimately left the laptop unable to draw power from its power cord. So on the whole it would have been better if I'd had the recliner's footrest up.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

As a long-time reader, here are my three reactions:

1) If you continue using triangle style, I will continue reading, because I am an addict.

2) If had first encountered AKOTAS during a triangle phase, I probably wouldn't have become a regular reader.

3) When you first posted the image above back in February, I liked it better than the traditional AKOTAS black-line style, and said so. I think it works well with the style of the strip and takes the best advantage of the medium. I think it will be immediately accessible to new readers, moreso than the black-line style (which comes off as "sketchy" to a lot of people, alas).

[omorka.livejournal.com]

I agree with point 3 here. I also agree with the previous commenters that the different characters in the related color groups are often difficult to tell apart in the triangle style (its primary downside, for me)

[pedanther]

I personally prefer the black-line style to the outline-free style, and the outline-free style to the triangle style (I'm not against the triangle style per se, but it doesn't quite work for me here; and I'm another one who has trouble recognising the characters in triangle form sometimes), but you shouldn't let that influence you unduly, because I'm going to keep reading whichever style you use. In the end, it's your comic and you should do whatever works for you.