Art preference: what do you like to draw and watch?

[SagaUnn]

I'm an artist, going to art school and everything :3, and was thinking what people like to draw or watch/read when it come to art work, just cause I'm curious.

Do you like realistic comic art? Cartoon art? Manga? Pretty characters? Exaggerated features?
Hand-drawn art? Or computerized?
How much does the art matter? If the story's good the art doesn't matter or should a good story be made better with top art? Does the genre change you standards for art?
Who are your favorite artists? heck what are your favorite comics? (and has the art anything to do with it?)

You don't need to answer these questions just some kind of summary of how you think of art is fine, as an artist or fan.

[Annabeld]

Good question. I personally prefer good storytelling over fancy art any day. I love art with character, it doesn't have to be perfect. I like unique things.

[robybang]

I have no preference when it comes to art, computerized, hand-drawn, realistic, stylized, etc. I'm not big on manga, though that doesn't mean I wouldn't read one if one caught my interest.

For art/story, it depends on the genre. In my mind, comedy can get away with less realistic art if the jokes are funny. Drama requires better artwork because I associate "realistic" scenarios with realistic art. You probably could use cute or simple art for drama, but it would be tough to bridge the dissonance between characters that look like Tom and Jerry monologuing about their own mortality and cancer.

[xox1melly1xox]

I draw for fun xD.

Manga in general... but really, I just like any type of art that looks rather pretty. I guess I shift toward for semi-realism manga.
I prefer to draw digitally, but if I could, I want a cintiq so line art would be easier lol.
Story is far more important the art in my opinion... Though I think it would be important for the art to be decipherable at the very least, otherwise it's difficult to tell what's going on.
Favorite artists would be Eita Mizuno, Kentaro Yabuki, Jun Mochizuki, and Red Juice.
Favorite manga : Spiral Suiri no Kizuna, One Piece, Skip beat, Pandora Hearts

[ajramsey86]

I like to draw more realistic. When i was a teenager i was into the whole manga/ anime thing but i grew out of it and wanted to try to make things look real. Now im not saying i dont like manga/anime style, i still like, i just dont like to draw it.
I prefer to read comics with a more realistic style to them, but i tend to go for story more so than art. As for art, i LOOOOOVVVEEE comics that have painted artwork, example Legends the Enchanted, FVZA, even the graphic novel joker had painted panels. I wanted to try that myself but it takes way to long for me to paint something XD. I also like silly art too. I think really when it comes to comics i think the art needs to fit the story, i dont think you could have Jhonen Vasquez create the art for the walking dead, it just would fit and you wouldnt get the realistic feel of the drama and fear of the walking dead story. It needs to fit, if its a comedy make it silly, exaggerated, if its serious make it realistic, because with most comics your not reading the feelings or the actions of the characters, your seeing them, but thats just my opinion.

[Erdgeist]

I just like to draw for fun, lol. And it's pretty useful for character designs and story concepts!

I generally have a thing for semi-realistic comic art styles like Clayton Crain's and manga styles like Kazuaki's. I think I kind of prefer really stylized art, too!
For me, cool unique styles >>>>> realism
My favourite artists (and art influences!) currently are Phobs, Kali Ciesemier, mistkay, Penmouse, Kumiko Suekane, Kazuaki, Clayton Crain, and USKR.

I also realized recently that the way people colour is what really attracts me to art.
Somehow, an ugly sketch coloured amazingly appeals to me more than a good sketch coloured horribly!

Concerning art vs. story, it's all about the art for me, haha. Video games, cartoons, comics, you name it-- if I don't like the art style, I barely give it a second glance unless I've heard of it before!
If the art is so-so and the story is so-so, it's not for me.
If the art's pretty good/great/fantastic and the story is absolute shit, there's still a chance I'd buy it.
Even if the story's great, I probably wouldn't go for it if the art is terrible.
/shallow

[RyoSoulreaper]

I like Cartoon art. Though you could say I take a liking to Manga-inspired cartoon art. Which I guess you can call my style sorta. I draw as a hobby so I don't really have time to improve as much as I'd like.

I prefer to draw by hand. For whatever reason whatever I draw solely computerized turns to shit in a matter of seconds.

If I had to chose between Art and Story I'd go with story but I like when the art complements the story and isn't just like ,"lol face and half body through entire comic". I'm pretty open to just about an genre.If I like the plot and characters then I will like the comic.

As for favorite artists and shit, I don't really look up artists unless the style REALLY catches my eye. You could say, I prefer art by Bryan Lee O'malley and Eiichiro Oda. Their stuff is just so appealing.
Favorite comics, well non SJ Webcomics would go to Homestuck(Jesus Christ the plot was written so beautifully.) and Bittersweet Candy Bowel(The characters are well done and the art ain't half bad either.).

As for physical copies, I'd go with the Scott Pilgrim Series and One Piece obv. Scott Pilgrim is what I inspired my style from and One Piece was just awesome to the max.

[xkrazydog]

im not too picky about art in comics. I like cartoony, realism, manga. superheroes etc.
i'm super picky about story though.

[Seven Rain]

Do you like realistic comic art? Cartoon art? Manga? Pretty characters? Exaggerated features?
Any of the above if I like the characters and story.


Hand-drawn art? Or computerized?
Irrelevant. Skilled artists can make both look amazing.


How much does the art matter? If the story's good the art doesn't matter or should a good story be made better with top art?
I can deal with "bad" art to an extent if I enjoy the story but there is a limit to my threshold for it. I mean if it looks like the person doesn't even really try, I usually won't bother.

And it should go without saying that regardless of whether art effects your enjoyment of a story or not, better art will always compliment a story. Nobody's ever going to read a comic and be like "Well the story is great but the art is a bit too good... I wish the author would tone it down and make slightly worse art." :P


Does the genre change you standards for art?
Not really. Comic authoring has surely made an impact on my opinions in general regarding comics but I wouldn't say my standards have ever been changed... Or defined. It's just like music, if I like it I like it, I have no preset standards for enjoying something. Whether it's some god-tier high-class stuff or things I didn't grow out of after middleschool. *Shrug*


Who are your favorite artists? heck what are your favorite comics? (and has the art anything to do with it?)
Too many to list... Akira Toriyama, Yoshitaka Amano, Kim Jae-hwan, Tetsuya Nomura, (yeah I said Nomura, get off my back!) Sonic-ock, Ken Sugimori, Toru Nakayama, etc. Not kidding, too many to list.

As for comics that's easier, just check my SJ faves. :P
Seriously though, most of the comics I read and love are webcomics, on and off SJ. King of Hell, the Pokemon Mangas and Scott Pilgrim are the only print comics I've read either to completion or plan to do so, (in KoH's case. I don't think it's finished yet and since Tokyopop is gone I have to pray that people fantrans the remainder of the series and posts it to MagaFox.)


And finally, I-

You don't need to answer these questions just some kind of summary of how you think of art is fine, as an artist or fan.

...

Dammit.
Posting anyway.

[Wulfmune]

I tend to like strong line work, doesn't really matter what style or if it's traditional or computer, color or B+W. I tend to prefer simple styles with good movement over very detailed stuff that can look stiff.
I go for story > art when it comes to comics, but I have somewhat eccentric tastes. That art has to have a strong enough foundation that it doesn't detract from the story telling.

[uglyfun]

I'm most attracted to cartoons and cartoon-style drawings, predictably enough! I love animation and the expressions and gestures that come with a style inspired by animation! That said, I've never been able to get through an episode of an anime show, save for Pokemon as a kid. It's just not my thing, I guess. I have been able to find some manga that I like, mostly weird horror stuff! But really, all genre generalizations aside, anything that tells a solid story, has appealing character designs, and something special going for it-- whether it's beautiful lines/forms, incredible colors, or a real sense of time & place, or something else--has the potential to catch my eye.

I tend to especially like characters of the ugly-cute variety, if that makes any sense!

I think both traditional and digital can be used well, but in many cases I prefer traditional.

For me personally as a reader, good art can save a mediocre story, but the inverse rarely happens. I will usually abandon reading something if the art bugs me.

I think any style of art could work for any genre... just depends on how it's applied...

Comics & artists that are grand! Calvin & Hobbes of course. Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol. Hark, a Vagrant by Kate Beaton. All of Junji Ito's stuff, but especially Uzumaki. On that note, I like Umezu and Shintaro Kago as well. Pure Trance by Junko Mizuno. Solanin by Inio Asano. Jhonen Vasquez's stuff was my first ever introduction to indie comics... :'D Black Hole by Charles Burns. Little Nemo by Windsor McCay. Purple Pussy by Dave Kelly. uhhh... um... I'm blanking... thats all for now...

[Asj]

I like realisticly drawn stuff and anime/manga (although when it's too realistic, it has a boring feel to it, so I like some stylation and such). I also like pretty characters, but I think almost everyone does. I like animation more than still images, but I've been getting more into comics in recent years (probably mostly because it's easier to make than animation). For writing, I tend more toward... something believable (at least for the story's universe), but not necessarily realistic (why read or watch something that happens in real life? :/ ).

I dislike computer animated movies (or comics, but I've only seen one or two of those). There's just something about 3D that looks so... weird to me. 2D looks 3D to me, so it's just overkill. But some movies can use it in some scenes where it doesn't look like computer animation at all. For digital vs traditional (both 2D), it doesn't matter much to me. I like how digital art's coloring can be more consistant, though. (when I was around 6 to 8, I used to bust my thumb open trying to get crayons to give consistant coloring. There's not many traditional coloring mediums that I can use that will give me a solid color, so when I got a computer, I started coloring digitally more and more) But sometimes traditional stuff has a nice look (at least for still images).

Art tends to give me the first impression for shows (for comics, I would usually see the description before the pages, but banners and ads can get me interested before that point). Usually the art is about equal to the story, so it works for me for the most part. More cartoony things usually have a cartoony sounding story and very well drawn things usually have a pretty good story. There's been some animes that I liked, where when I tried looking at the corresponding manga, I didn't like the art as much and couldn't seem to get into the manga as much as I did the anime. I can get used to art over time, though (sometimes I'll dislike a look, but I'll end up getting used to it and semi-liking it later from seeing it so much). And if a story's interesting enough (when I dislike the art), I can pay more attention to the words than the drawing style. If there's a story with a good art style, but the story's kind of boring, I'd probably give it a chance, but would end up disliking it, dispite the art. But for the most part, I like stories with an art style I like. (but when I find the story really intersting, and I think the art's really good, I like those the most)
For fanfiction (or fiction in general, but I tend to like fanfiction more than original fiction), I seem to have different criteria. The art for fanfictions are in my head, so the art is always good for them. So I usually search for specific plot elements when looking for fanfiction. I like stuff like amneisa, brainwashing, and general changing/losing yourself types of things, so, every so often, I'll pick a series and do a fanfiction.net search for "amnesia" "memory loss" and the such, sometimes attaching a specific character to the search (but most series have slightly different ways of expressing the type of story I like, so my more specific searches usually depend on the series I'm searching within).

Hmm... I'm not sure I have any specific favorite comics or artists... On deviantart, I like Washu-M's drawing style, and I like Goten0040's fanfiction, I like other fanfictions on fanfiction.net and other artists on deviantart, and I like several comics on smackjeeves as well as others online, like Strays and Paradigm Shift, um... I can't seem to think of any specific ones from Smackjeeves to show, but you can look in my favorites here (and my favorites on fanfiction.net for that matter).

art, fiction, animation, and comics are all under some larger category for me, since I have similar feelings toward them and they share some elements. (well, except sometimes art, but I never really cared much for museum art)
Hmm... the line between artist/author and fan kind of blurs a little for me, too. I started reading more comics at the same time I started trying to make them. (I also started reading and writing 'fanfiction' at about the same time, but I acted out, and later wrote, stories I made up based on tv series as long ago as I can remember, I just didn't know about 'fanfiction' until way later. But that was probably more about watching TV - seeing stories, making stories) Most of what I said is about me as a fan (and sometimes it also applies to me as an author/artist), except the obvious places I'm talking about myself doing stuff.

[Durvin]

Good art is good; bad art can be good too, so long as the artist knows it's bad and doesn't try to hide it. The ugliest comics I see are the ones with mediocre art, where they think maybe they're doing a good job but they're totally failing at it.

The quality of the writing can be important, but one thing that we haven't touched on much here is that besides story, there's also the skill of writing well--using good grammar, that kind of thing. Know how to use commas. Spell-check. Use exclamation points no more than necessary. If your dialogue sounds like a badly-translated Korean RPG, you're doing it wrong (unless your comic takes place in a badly-translated Korean RPG). So, my point there is that your story-line might be good, but if you don't know how to write the dialogue like you've passed middle school grammar, I'm not going to read long enough to find out.

Anyway, the title of the thread talks about art. My favorite comic artist ever is Steve Purcell of "Sam & Max", and the whole reason I got into comics was simultaneously learning about Ethan Nichole ("Axe Cop") and Chris Hastings ("Dr. McNinja"). Besides that, I can totally dip into my fine arts background and hipster youth--Heironymus Bosch, Winsor McCay, Francis Picabia, Shigeru Miyamoto.

I'm going to go out on a limb and start a flame-war here by saying I'm actually not a big fan of manga. The characters look too much alike, the scenes are laid out confusingly, and everything moves way too slow. I understand it a little better after reading Scott McCloud's explanation of it in "Making Comics", but I still don't enjoy it; there's just something incompatible with me and Japanese storytelling.

[Guildadventure]

I like to draw manga, specially pretty girls XD, i draw it by hand but the inking/tonning process is computerized, just for personal preferences, i dont think draws can be done better with a tablet than with a pencil, but i like the aesthetic of digital inking.

Dependending on the genre art will be more or less relevant, i personally try to do good art, but i dont think is necessary to do an amazing art if the story/narrative is good. Just need to pick an art style that matches your story telling.

My favourite artist is Yukito Kishiro and his comic Gunnm, he have influenced me a lot.

[Creanyu]

I like mangas! No, I'd rather say: Asain comics, including manwha, vncomic and all (thought, chinese comic isn't really my thing, I mean the historical ones).
I read every genre. If I have to say what I like the most, It'll be psychological and one-shots. I don't really like super long series. ^_^

And I like to draw comics as well, I want to get semi-realistic, and well-drawn art but realised that maybe I should just accept my own way of drawing. I'm not really into details and stuff! I like to draw humans.