Askblogs are often drawn more to comic guidelines. Some artists do go a step beyond and make super detailed panels, but at the same time, ask blogs also help to improve speed, which means a lot of panels are just a fraction of what the artist can do. It’s a balancing act between output and quality.
Personally, I feel very competent as an artist, however my two askblogs don’t reflect the full extent of my ability. What they HAVE taught me is how to pay more attention to organization, writing, and action, and have seriously improved my speedpainting/drawing abilities. Plus, they’re fun and casual— this stops being the case if I’m spending 4 hours on every panel (out of 5-8 usually) like they were prints.
For this reason, when it comes to critiquing an askblog artist as a whole, it’s better to do some research and see the full extent of their artwork, and see if there’s any differences in their askblogs and personal art. Judge them on their recent best or out-of-the-box works. I’ve found that critics who haven’t done their research often just wind up looking incompetent (and easy to dismiss).
- Submitted by zedrin-stormshock