Eye, Caramba!

Simple Design Pros:

• Quick and easy

• Distinctive

• Easy to see

• Decent; does the job

• What I've been working on all this time

Simple Design Cons:

• Ghostly (tho I do like ghosts...)

• Described as "vacuous"

• Can look like eyes without irises or pupils

• Can look like inverted cartoon eyes

Complex Design Pros:

• Very expressive

• Eye color

• Popular

• More individuality

• Forces me to develop my skills

Complex Design Cons:

• Very time consuming

• Takes over twice as many layers

• Hard to get right

• I don't know what I'm doing

• Still have to do simple dot design from a distance

• Have to redo chapter one and other drawings

• Makes me wanna cry

Posting your work inevitably welcomes feedback... Always so scary. I've delayed announcing to everyone that my first chapter is out because there are some things that need addressing. First of all, I made the silly mistake of using Arial for the font. Completely forgot that virtually all comics use a handwritten all-caps kind of font. Silly me. It took the better part of a day, but I fixed that and should be able to post the revised version soon.

...Or I could if I didn't have an even BIGGER problem looming over me. My characters' eye design has come into question. I'll admit, I've wondered from time to time if my bright dot eyes would turn readers away or earn a few laughs (I'm sure parts of my art will regardless). With some experimenting, I came up with this design thinking it checked all the boxes I was going for. But I realize it may look strange.

I can do more expressive complicated eyes, but that's just the problem -- they're complicated. I'm not experienced in drawing them, they take longer to make, they use a bunch of layers, and I really struggle to get them right. But there's a reason they're the more popular style...

As you can see by my current gallery, I've invested just about all my practice into the simple eye design. Choosing to switch now is a big ask. It's heartbreaking, even, considering the work of going back to change all my eyes when I want nothing more than to keep forging ahead. But if it makes for a better product, shouldn't I? Even if I'm not very good at them yet, won't the endless practice of drawing them make me a better artist? Either way, I have to decide NOW.

So here's my list of pros and cons for each:

So what do I do???? The business-minded side of me says stick with what's faster and gets the work done. The other side of me says go for the more expressive style that'll force me to grow as an artist and probably result in a better product. If I hadn't invested my entire first chapter, gallery, and artist profile in the simple design, it'd change how torn I feel.

I guess what I need is more feedback. More of that scary, scary feedback...