Aikonia Webcomic - Season 4, Page 1 Comment

Season 4, Page 1

Chapter 4, Page 1

Hello everyone!
For those of you who haven't read the blurb from the last page of chapter 3 and the blog post we wrote alongside: Chapter 3 was the last chapter that Katie Tiedrich was illustrating. As you can see, chapter 4 has a slightly different art style, and that's because it's illustrated by our new illustrator, Jared Markley!
We hope you enjoy his artwork just as much as you enjoyed Katie's and, please, don't be too harsh on him :)
Enjoy the new page and have a great week!

Caesar said:

Love the new style. By the way will you be updating the cast book any time soon? Posted on November 19th, 2012 at 12:09AM Reply

Andrew-David replied:

Jared is working on his self-portrait as we speak! Posted on November 19th, 2012 at 12:13AM

Aeronaut said:

I like it! The style's different, but in a good way. Still looking forward to all the great comics to come. :) Posted on November 19th, 2012 at 12:17AM Reply

KC said:

I like Katie's art a lot, but I also feel like Chapters 1-3 were an "arc" of the comic. Hence, new "arc", new artist, new art is still amazing, no complaints. Posted on November 19th, 2012 at 12:20AM Reply

Libbie said:

It's going to take awhile to get used to the change in art style...but Jared does better horses! Posted on November 19th, 2012 at 12:21AM Reply

Alexinos replied:

Oh, you're right, the horses are indeed nice.

On another note, did the type face have to change along with the artist too? o.o Nice art nonetheless. Posted on November 19th, 2012 at 12:55AM

Mic replied:

@Alexinos: You're right about the typeface, it's just default Arial. Looks like it was added in MS Paint. I hope the artist improves because so far, not impressed with the change.

I'll stick around, see if it improves, but have a nasty feeling I'll just end up coming back months later, read the story, then disappear again. Posted on November 25th, 2012 at 10:06PM

Faenhir said:

I can't wait to see how he does is sound effects...
Though I'm sure "flapple" is forever immortalised in the Hall of Onomatopoeia :P Posted on November 19th, 2012 at 12:40AM Reply

Chreiya Natas said:

I'm okay with the art shift... but what happened to the other part of the comic? It seems like it just cut off. ._. Posted on November 19th, 2012 at 01:26AM Reply

SteveZombie replied:

The same thing happened between Chapters II and III. Posted on November 19th, 2012 at 04:57AM

Andrew-David replied:

Yeah, we tend to do that =P Posted on November 19th, 2012 at 10:57AM

Krad said:

Art style is really nice. About the text though, it seems outta place to me. Other than that, I welcome the new artist! Posted on November 19th, 2012 at 08:19AM Reply

Sheikah said:

AAAARGH NEW ART IS HORRIBLE AAAARGH
Lol just kidding. It's actually really good, almost a bit like manga. I can't wait to see how he draws Cyril, Gwynn, Enceladus and everyone...I have a feeling Magicka Creature (forcing myself not to call her -- um, IT -- demon Ariel) is going to look great :D Posted on November 19th, 2012 at 10:44AM Reply

Name said:

I only worry whether or not old characters will be noticeable (or perhaps they aren't supposed to be in certain situations). For example, is this perhaps Solaris and a group finding the village of life magic users? If so, is Solaris talking to someone we know? Posted on November 19th, 2012 at 04:54PM Reply

Sheikah replied:

Oh wow, you're probably right. In that case, I think the younger one is Solaris, and the older one is his teacher or mentor or something. So if that's the case, then he can't be talking to someone we know because the old guy would be dead by real-time in the comic.
So I guess, I dunno, Solaris messes up a bit (first mission?) and lets one escape? Posted on November 20th, 2012 at 02:17AM

Mutterscrawl said:

Not a fan of the new art, kinda worried it'll be hard to recognize older characters. Sticking with the comic though. Posted on November 19th, 2012 at 05:08PM Reply

nope said:

Why does everyone have a baby-face? Faces are too round and soft for adults. Posted on November 19th, 2012 at 05:20PM Reply

SirCannonFodder replied:

Yeah, that's one part I definitely don't care for with this style. Posted on November 19th, 2012 at 06:12PM

Jaron said:

Ah, great choice! =D I really enjoyed reading Jared's style and guest comics and the comics on his DeviantArt page. I was waiting for a name I wouldn't recognize, but instead I'm really excited to see how the new chapters are going to turn out. Good luck, Jared! Posted on November 19th, 2012 at 05:21PM Reply

LabrynianRebel said:

I hope we get a three chapter arc with the new artist as well. If you change artists too often (or in the middle of an arc) it won't mesh very well. Posted on November 19th, 2012 at 06:02PM Reply

Wat said:

I dont like the new art style. Its just too childsly and for fsake THE HORSES HAVE ANIME EYES. Its horrible.

Im sorry its just my opinion. Posted on November 19th, 2012 at 06:11PM Reply

SirCannonFodder said:

My feelings about the new art style so far:
Katie's better at drawing faces and making poses look natural (something just seems kind of awkward about the people in this. Might just be me), Jared's better at drawing facial expressions that are much more subtle and emotive. Of course, it's hard to make judgements about a single page, so I'll wait to see how the next few look.

Although as Nope and Wat say, the faces are definitely too child-like. Posted on November 19th, 2012 at 06:47PM Reply

Sheikah replied:

Hmmm. You're right about the poses. And I think I'll really miss Katie's expressions and faces...Though, yeah, this guy is better at subtle emotion. And stuff. Posted on November 20th, 2012 at 02:21AM

Randalf replied:

True that. Katie's faces were always truly unique, full of expression. They gave that impression that these were people reacting to events, not just actors putting on their "shocked" or "caring" or whatever look. Looked "natural", for a want of a better word.

IMO better choice would have been to pick someone with a distinctly different art style; to boldly accept and embrace the change. The new guy can never be the old artist, so no use trying.

As an aside, switching art styles right after Guest Comic segment was a truly terrible idea. I didn't even notice it was back to regular broadcast until I saw the "Chapter 4" label. Posted on November 25th, 2012 at 08:04AM

Smurfton said:

I find myself impressed at how much an art style can change.

As it turns out, the eyes of a horse generally appear totally black. Posted on November 19th, 2012 at 07:48PM Reply

khiton said:

I must say, my suspension of disbelief always gets rattled when major changes like this occur in webcomics. Jared's artwork is beautifully illustrative, but it is a rather jarring change from Katie's. Keeping in tone with her angular artwork and the fact that the comic has a fairly serious nature I think that reducing the eye size and especially the pupil size would help ease readers into the change. Regardless, I think it's just a matter of time for people to adjust and accept the new style as the standard for Aikonia. Posted on November 20th, 2012 at 03:02AM Reply

Kellan said:

Though I have no problem with the style in general i feel the characters have very stiff movements already. Plus, I miss Katie's VERY EXPRESSIVE faces. So just a few things I hope Jared gets more comfortable with as he draws the characters more, I know unfamiliar characters take time to get used to drawing so the stiffness will wear off hopefully. Very bad choice of angles though with scenery perspective. For example brown haired mage should be slightly bigger in panel 2, plus the facial features could be exaggerated with more shading to give his a "cloud of doom" feeling. I do like how his eyebrows convey some of his anxiety. Also grey guy is too far up on his horse. Jared should use more reference for that. Posted on November 20th, 2012 at 09:06AM Reply

Dirk said:

I can't say that I enjoy the new artist, but like what was said earlier I can't find anything all that wrong. Katie's art was very expressive, while this one's fairly rigid and almost bland. The characters also, at least to me, look a bit too much alike in this art style. Posted on November 20th, 2012 at 06:01PM Reply

Shadowdragoonftw replied:

I'm agreeing here. It's not that it's bad art work by any means, I just don't care for it. Especially after three huge chapters of Katie's art, this is going to take a lot of getting used to. :/ Posted on November 21st, 2012 at 05:35AM

Mandy said:

Well hrm, kinda looks like a blast from Aikonia past to me. Either that or we've suddenly found ourselves in a different region... Posted on November 21st, 2012 at 04:46AM Reply

some guy said:

I love Katie's art and I may be biased in saying this, but if this page is any indication, I hope the speech bubbles improve. Katie does a really good job with them and I'm not liking these as much. The art style is very different and will take some getting used to, but other than the speech balloons, I think it's nice! It reminds me of Erfworld. Posted on November 21st, 2012 at 01:55PM Reply

Inu said:

I'm going to try to be nice....but honest. And frankly, I'm not sure how this sits with me.

While I don't mind a new artist or the new art...I feel iffy about the whole thing.
It's too...anime to me, and not in a good way. I feel like I've seen this style a million times. Katie has a style that you can easily pick out when coupled with many different pictures. On top of that, Katie was able to give everyone different faces and body types - as sillouettes you could easily tell who is who. (Provided you remove the robes, but sometimes, even then.)

The three characters here look so same-facey. Even their facial hair -something that can truely define a character - is similar. (Not sure if I care for the way brown haired one's beard was done. There is something awkward about it.)
The faces themselves are too rounded - and frankly - effeminate. Without that bit of beard, I would have thought the brown haird one was a woman, especially in the second panel. (More easily than the other two faces, since he has less of a beard.)

Finally, the horse faces bug me. I think because of the eyes. They look like the start of a human and then suddenly: horse face. I'm not sure how to fix that other than making them smaller and a little more spread out.

With that said, I DO like the art, I especially like the choice of colour. I think I prefer the new artist's backgrounds over Katie's. Slightly more detailed and more realistic colours. Although Katie knew and understood atmosphere, it is too early to say how atmospher will work out with this new hand.

But, the art being such a drastic change - going from something like Katie and her whacky, loose cannon art to something more 'human' (although anime-ish) and 'static' (compared to Katie, not so much as independant work) might not work out so well - at least not for the 'fans'.
It all depends, I'm sure the new artist will improve with time - especially as he gets more familiar with the characters. It's just... I dunno if I'll be able to stick with it if the artist doesn't do more to define faces and make the men.... look like men.

(I used to draw anime, I've been on the road of everyone thinking my male characters were female. I changed all that, though, and I do my best to give every one of my characters a unique face. (And I like to think that I do.)
Since changing, you don't know how much it peeves me when all the men look like women. It's okay if it is a character that has a more effeminate face type/hairstyle or tries to look female - but that would hardly apply for everyone.)

And I...think I'm done here. I don't mean to be disheartening at all. And I know the new artist will be great. I'm just not sure if it'll click with me personally. :)
Posted on November 23rd, 2012 at 06:07AM Reply

Clockderp said:

I'm not sure I like this new artist; there's just something really stiff and awkward about it, which is pretty jarring when transitioning from Katie's very expressive posing. Plus, the faces just seem too... soft? I guess? Other people can articulate this better than I.

I'll stick around for the writing, but... Posted on November 23rd, 2012 at 10:17PM Reply

Hal said:

Count me along the people who are not fond of the new art style.

As much as I'd like to be nice to him, I'm not a fan of his art style at all. Whether or not he had Katie as a predecessor.

But I'll def stick around for the comic's story. Posted on November 25th, 2012 at 09:12AM Reply

A Person said:

Wow.... to say the least I'm not that impressed with the new artist. One would think it's more about the jarring shift in style or missing Katie's superb artwork but there are a few things about this new style that are really bothering me. Like plenty of people had said in other comments it's just a tad too anime-ish, especially the eyes. That, and the faces themselves don't look all that different from one another. Second, the style itself is just too bland IMO. Nothing is that detailed and the full body shots look pretty unnatural, I don't know what it is but these people don't look like full-grown adults. Everything is also a tad to rounded. Based on what I've seen so far, I have a feeling I won't be enjoying this artist nearly as much as Katie. I just hope that maybe this will change once I see more of this artist's work but right now I'm not terribly optimistic. Posted on November 25th, 2012 at 04:09PM Reply