The new art style

[Zmeoaice]

As of #974, we can see a major change to the art style, specifically giving outlines and coloring to the arms and legs.

Personally, I don't think this is a good choice. The arms and legs are too skinny to add outlines, along with the trident-like hands they had. It would have worked better if they had thicker limbs and fingers, but that would have been a bigger art change, and they wouldn't really be stick dolls anymore (although the new design is kind of changing that anyhow).

Plus, I don't think having "kind of legs" on giant boots looks worse than stick legs on giant boots. But overall, I'm glad Durkon finally has footwear.

What do you think?

[Zejety]

I tentatively agree. "Tentatively", because I don't trust myself enough to be sure that this is just me not being used to it yet.

But yes, the hands bother me. The trident fingers worked for stick figures but they look kind of creepy and disfigured now. It also looks weirder how they overlap with held objects now. It was easier to rationalize it as abstraction earlier.

[oppyu]

Big fan of the noodle limbs and general art-upgradiness, the new font is growing on me and I'll get used to the pitchfork hands.

[Zejety]

Big fan of the noodle limbs and general art-upgradiness, the new font is growing on me and I'll get used to the pitchfork hands.

Oh I had not noticed the new font. I like it. :)

[Hjorth]

I don't mind the coloured-in hands and arms, honestly. It does look a little odd to me now, having been used to just outlines for so long, but I think it's an appropriate change - especially considering how much more detailed the art has steadily gotten. I don't know if it would have gotten to a point where the black outline arms/hands would be looking out of place, but I definitely don't think this looks out of place, either.

Durkon's boots are really cool. I also love how their feet are being drawn in perspective every now and again, like Durkon's Mama in the third panel on the first page. It looks great, I think.

[BobTheDog]

While I don't consider myself qualified to judge the art upgrade, I do wonder what was the Giant's motivation for adding color/outlines to the limbs. I think this is by far the most noticeable/sudden change in the comic so far.

Here's hoping we'll get some insight into Rich's reasons for the revamp. Well, one of the reasons is obviously "new book, perfect moment for an upgrade", but I'm more curious about why each new element came into being (such as Roy's skin color changing to make online->book conversion easier [edit: to clarify, Roy's skin color changed way back in book 2 I think, and it's not a major change, just using a more printer-friendly color, IIRC from the Rich's comments in the book]).

[zimmerwald1915]

As of #974, we can see a major change to the art style, specifically giving outlines and coloring to the arms and legs.

Personally, I don't think this is a good choice. The arms and legs are too skinny to add outlines, along with the trident-like hands they had. It would have worked better if they had thicker limbs and fingers, but that would have been a bigger art change, and they wouldn't really be stick dolls anymore (although the new design is kind of changing that anyhow).

Plus, I don't think having "kind of legs" on giant boots looks worse than stick legs on giant boots. But overall, I'm glad Durkon finally has footwear.

What do you think?

As I posted in the main comic thread, unless this change was prompted by a massive loss in accumulated art resources necessitating a total rebuild from scratch, I don't really see the point of changing from stick figures to noodle people. It seems like each strip would take a lot more work. For example, depending on how the Giant does things, either Durkon's skin-tight sleeves would need to overlap exactly over his arms, or his wrists would have to extend believably from the sleeves and pant legs. I'm not saying the Giant doesn't pull it off, whichever way he does it, just that it seems like a lot more work for not much gain.

I also don't see the need for outlines on the stick-limbs. Recoloring the stick limbs from black to flesh-colored and putting bulkier sleeves over them would have been easier for a number of reasons. For example, I can imagine the new hands being formed one of two ways: either the Giant overlaps the objects he uses to create the hands and then uses the union¹ tool to make one path out of them, or he draws the whole thing as one object from scratch. Either way seems more time-consuming than the old method of just placing one path on top of another. [EDIT: As Grey Watcher pointed out in the main thread, some characters, like Xykon, have had their limbs colored something other than black for a long while.]

But really, the style change is just jarring, since it's more drastic and fundamental than any we've seen before. The Order of the Stick has evolved over the years, to be sure, and mostly for the better. But it has always hitherto been a stick figure comic and it is not that anymore. It's probably still good. But it will never be the same.

¹I use Inkscape; Adobe Illustrator may use different terminology.

[Onyavar]

As of #974, we can see a major change to the art style, specifically giving outlines and coloring to the arms and legs.

Personally, I don't think this is a good choice. The arms and legs are too skinny to add outlines, along with the trident-like hands they had. It would have worked better if they had thicker limbs and fingers, but that would have been a bigger art change, and they wouldn't really be stick dolls anymore (although the new design is kind of changing that anyhow).

Plus, I don't think having "kind of legs" on giant boots looks worse than stick legs on giant boots. But overall, I'm glad Durkon finally has footwear.

What do you think?

I love the new art style, especially the footwear and the many small details, but I agree on the arms. The complete black lines were more iconic, and the three lines so close together are just making it harder to easily recognize gestures and stuff. Just look how ugly D.s Moms hand looks in panel 12.

Overall it looks a lot like a certain part of SSaDT, especially with that font. That story and also the new comic was very cool, but I can't imagine how much more energy it took, takes and will take to draw the pages. Also, it looks to me that the new style takes more place (which doesn't mean it's bad: splash pictures! scenery!)

[cobaltstarfire]

I rather like it.

I didn't notice at first but I could tell something was different, now someone pointed it out.

I think it gives everything a little bit more weight, while still sticking pretty close to the style.

[Sgt. Cookie]

Hm. The font looks nice, but the limb change is rather jarring. Maybe I'll get used to it, maybe not. We'll just have to see, I guess.

[Neosmith]

I'm not really bothered by the trident fingers. Rich clearly wants the characters to retain their inner 'stickiness'. To make them more human-like would probably deviate a bit too much from the original stick figure idea.

I admit it is a little creepy. But then again, a lot of drawn characters don't have the full five finger treatment.

[Osmium]

I'm dubious about the new style.

The new style represents a drastic move away from OotS's previously semi-schematic art style. As others have remarked, the limbs are probably the most jarring; the previous black lines I always interpreted schematically, and now they're flesh-coloured.

I always liked OotS's semi-schematic style for its ability to express only what was necessary, leaving the remainder to the imagination. By contrast, this seems a little too explicit. Footwear isn't usually relevant to the plot of OotS, but now it's there people are discussing it. etc. etc. The transition from a highly schematic character model to a more geometric one feels ill.

Ultimately, you can categorise basically all works of fiction by how much information they give the reader. Novels offer the least, painting scenes in the reader's mind only with the words the author chooses to offer. Films and modern video games go the other way, offering excesses of detail and leaving nothing to the imagination. The middle ground is interesting for its ability to compromise between these two extremes. Examples of the middle ground would be old low-resolution video games, which have low-resolution sprites left to the mind's interpretation... and comics. With this art upgrade, OotS is moved more to the right of the scale. I feel like this increase in detail and non-schematic representation tells me a little too much.

All that aside, I'm a bit iffy on the font. How should I say it? It doesn't feel like a font Vaarsuvius would choose. It's fine now, but when we first see that font on a speech bubble attached to V it's going to feel as unnatural as if V was suddenly given Durkon's accent.

Was the increase in resolution driven by the font issues, or was it something that was going to happen anyway? Hrrm.

[SaintRidley]

Part of the reason for doing the change now is probably due to the fact that this is the first new book since Snips, Snails and Dragon Tales. We got a preview of the style there - it's the 'enhanced stick' style used in the Julio story. Rich wants consistency within the book, so BRitF couldn't feature the new style without becoming a huge pain in the ass. So we get it now, at the time of a new book's start, a couple years after the style was previewed to us.

[GreenZ]

Pros:

Holy perspective, even just the boots look really nice.
New motion lines look good.
New text font also looks slick.
Details everywhere! From little cracks to shading on the stone, really great.
Durkon's armor isn't just a silver square!
Sleeves for people without robes! Finally non-casters get something nice!

Cons:

The trident fingers. It isn't that the fingers were necessarily 'good' before but the new style makes them feel more out of place than previously.


So I'd say that the new art style is pretty much worth it overall.

[3WhiteFox3]

I tentatively like this, I think it gives the characters more weight and gravitas. I feel that the art looks fuller and more detailed. I can see the point about the new arms, but it personally doesn't bother me much right now. That might change, and I do think it's a bit jarring, but I want to wait and see if I can look past the arms for now and enjoy the new style for what it is.

Also, while I can't speak for The Giant, I imagine the reason behind this is to give OOTS a fresh look. New forums, new book, new art style, a new development for the least developed member of the order. I think it's supposed to make it clear that things aren't how they used to be, this is something new. The somewhat jarring look to the arms might even be intentional, to shake up the familiar and get people to think about the new direction the comic is taking. That's my speculation.

[Bulldog Psion]

I like it alot.

Old style - excellent.
New style - super excellent.

Keep it coming, Mr. Burlew!

[Neosmith]

I'm really curious to see how Belkar's hobbit-feet will look under the new style. There's gotta be some alteration there.

[Elder Tsofu]

As I posted in the main comic thread, unless this change was prompted by a massive loss in accumulated art resources necessitating a total rebuild from scratch, I don't really see the point of changing from stick figures to noodle people. It seems like each strip would take a lot more work. For example, depending on how the Giant does things, either Durkon's skin-tight sleeves would need to overlap exactly over his arms, or his wrists would have to extend believably from the sleeves and pant legs. I'm not saying the Giant doesn't pull it off, whichever way he does it, just that it seems like a lot more work for not much gain.

I also don't see the need for outlines on the stick-limbs. Recoloring the stick limbs from black to flesh-colored and putting bulkier sleeves over them would have been easier for a number of reasons. For example, I can imagine the new hands being formed one of two ways: either the Giant overlaps the objects he uses to create the hands and then uses the union¹ tool to make one path out of them, or he draws the whole thing as one object from scratch. Either way seems more time-consuming than the old method of just placing one path on top of another. [EDIT: As Grey Watcher pointed out in the main thread, some characters, like Xykon, have had their limbs colored something other than black for a long while.]

But really, the style change is just jarring, since it's more drastic and fundamental than any we've seen before. The Order of the Stick has evolved over the years, to be sure, and mostly for the better. But it has always hitherto been a stick figure comic and it is not that anymore. It's probably still good. But it will never be the same.

¹I use Inkscape; Adobe Illustrator may use different terminology.

A third option if Illustrator is somewhat like Inkscape is just to draw the limbs as you use to (but in colour), duplicate the shape, put it below your coloured shape and increase the thickness of the lines. It is quite easily done, especially if you use hotkeys.

[hymie]

the new font is growing on me

The new font is AWESOME. I can read the strip again.

[Ridureyu]

I SAY:

Give it about twenty strips so it doesn't seem "new," and then we can really analyze it.

[t209]

They had pants. Now, we can finally disprove all of non-stick fan arts .

[hymie]

While I don't consider myself qualified to judge the art upgrade,.

I, too, do not feel qualified to judge the art changes, but I'm not crazy about them.

For a long time, "Maximum story, minimal art" was itself a topic of conversation, people insisting "The strip can't be good, look at the art. They're stick figures." In my valueless opinion, the new limbs are a surrender to this argument, that the art has to be "better" before the strip can be "good".

I also will admit that I'm afraid that putting more emphasis on the art will put less emphasis on the story and/or more time between updates.

On the other hand, I freely admit that I just don't like change. I suppose the new style will grow on me sooner or later.

[Mrc.]

Personally, I find that this works especially well in this strip with the only characters being dwarves. Popular fantasy has taught me that dwarves are more stockily built than the likes of humans, so I can definitely see the appeal of having more 'meat' to them, so to speak. Where this might fall down is with the, at least in my mind, skinnier elves and humans. Chunky hands like this might detract somewhat. We shall have to see.

[Anarion]

I too find the fingers a bit odd, but overall I like the change. The perspective is really good and the characters themselves look beautiful. There's a lot of opportunity for detail here, and I am continually impressed by this comic's ability to convey drama and emotion with its art style.

[Crod]

I've been reading this comic for 8 years now and first now I suddenly I notice the trident hands. I cannot un-see it. Now every comic looks kinda weird.

[Porthos]

I can't really say I'm surprised by the 'new' art style. He's been using it for quite a while on T-shirt designs and various other projects. And the main comic itself received major upgrades in shading over the last 50 some odd strips. And the number of character that had 'solid' limbs, as ooppsed to a singluar line, had been steadily increasing as time went by. They usually symbolized jackets, gloves, and other type of clothing. But it's not like this is unprecedented in the strip proper.

I agree that the hands are the most jarring change, but I figure we'll get used to it soon enough. We'd better because I figure Rich ain't changing it back any time soon.

PS: I told you all that Rich has been moving away from Stick Figure art. But did you listen to me? Nooooo.

[Sunken Valley]

While I don't consider myself qualified to judge the art upgrade, I do wonder what was the Giant's motivation for adding color/outlines to the limbs. I think this is by far the most noticeable/sudden change in the comic so far.

Here's hoping we'll get some insight into Rich's reasons for the revamp. Well, one of the reasons is obviously "new book, perfect moment for an upgrade", but I'm more curious about why each new element came into being (such as Roy's skin color changing to make online->book conversion easier [edit: to clarify, Roy's skin color changed way back in book 2 I think, and it's not a major change, just using a more printer-friendly color, IIRC from the Rich's comments in the book]).

I can think of one good reason (other than dispelling pantless Roy).

The comic likely going to finish in 6 years or so. Rich has already said he has plans for "what's next". One thing we can strongly guess about his future work is that it won't be stick people. Therefore Rich is trying to get experience in drawing "less stick figure like" stick figures so he can transition to drawing more real people easily.

[ImperatorV]

IMO, the hands are fine. The new perspective stuff is great.

I'm a bit worried about the higher detail delaying updates, but hopefully it'll work out.

[zimmerwald1915]

I can think of one good reason (other than dispelling pantless Roy).

The comic likely going to finish in 6 years or so. Rich has already said he has plans for "what's next". One thing we can strongly guess about his future work is that it won't be stick people. Therefore Rich is trying to get experience in drawing "less stick figure like" stick figures so he can transition to drawing more real people easily.

I'm not sure I buy this, because it implies that the Giant needs to gain experience drawing non-stick figures. I'd imagine he got plenty of such experience at art school, during all that time he didn't spend gazing through telescopes, timing variable stars, and charting asteroid orbits. And if I remember correctly, he's demonstrated great proficiency at non-stick figures at one time or another, just to make the point that he can.

[Smolder]

PS: I told you all that Rich has been moving away from Stick Figure art. But did you listen to me? Nooooo.

I kinda thought it would be like Calvin & Hobbes or South Park, where the art in the background improves continuously, but the main characters retain their minimalist style.