Everybody has weak areas. For some of us, our whole LIFE is a weak area 
But seriously, us aspiring cartoonists have always something to improve, and if you don’t, what are you doing reading this? Go back to reading The Wall Street Journal or swimming in your spaguetti sauce pool, you demi-god ¬.¬
Now the thing is, when you’re trying to improve whatever, the really hard thing is knowing where to start. Some people take an objective look at their comics or ask their friends, and all the get is a “I dunnoooo…” and you know what? They’re probably not lying. Knowing the problem behind a drawing, or a comic, is a much much more complex task that you’d think. If the problem is too obvious then it’s relatively easy to fix. If they tell you: the boobs are weird, or people don’t talk like that, what the hell is this blob in the drawing, the lettering is unreadable… those are easy fixes.
But what happens when you have a crapload of problems in a ton of areas? The most tempting thing is to say “I’m not good at this…”, rise a fist to the skies, and go look for something else to do.
Well, don’t! Every problem can be fixed, you only need a little nudge in the right direction!
Now, I follow a certain methodology to solving problems. I have found this is pretty common for people like me… people who code. As such, fixing bugs is a big percentage of the time we spend coding, and this requires a)looking for the bugs and b)squishing them. Sounds easy huh? Well, it requires a bit of practice, but this is what we do.
First, we choose what problem we want to look first. If we were coding, the obvious choice would be fixing the errors that are not even letting us run the program in the first place. In cartooning, we want to solve the problems that are either preventing us from running the comics, or preventing the reader from reading them. This includes things such as unreadable lettering, bad compression, bad size etc.
Can the comic be seen? Good! Now, what to fix? Go for the most obvious and glaring. There’s nothing that jumps at you, but it still “doesn’t seem right”? Aaaah, now THIS is where it gets interesting!
The first thing you have to do is to narrow it down. Let’s look at an example. “I don’t like this drawing” is a very general statement. Look closely at it. Look at it from AFAR. Look at the separate parts (cover the rest with your hands or a sheet of paper or your cat if it’s available). Where’s the problem? Make a list of the things you particularly like, and make a list of the things you don’t.
Now take a look at the list of things you don’t like. Imagine that you blew the candles on your birthday cake and item A in that list got magically fixed. If that’s too hard to imagine, then cover the particular item with a post it or something so you don’t look at it. Has the drawing been substantially improved? No? Move onto the next item. Once you do that with the whole list, you can now figure out which item on that list seems to hurt the drawing the worst. This is the thing you should work at.
The second thing you have to do is to isolate the problem. What is exactly wrong? Bad anatomy? Weak inking? Rigid, stiff pose? Asymmetry?
You don’t know?
Check out other, similar drawings made by yourself. If you don’t have similar drawings, then make one. There’s no need to make the whole drawing, just do over again the part you’re focusing on. Now, is the problem still there? Can you figure out what the problem is, in the second drawing? No?
Then it’s time to fire up Google and find either a photo you can check out as a reference or even better, a drawing. If there’s several, that’s even better. What element is missing in your drawing that makes it look weird and not right? Try copying -not tracing- a pic that does look right, and see what you’re doing wrong.
The third thing you have to do is tailor a solution for that particular problem. Is asimmetry a problem? Grab a mirror and put it next to your drawing while you’re doing to check the drawing is not skewed to one side (this is a very common problem, and I have noticed it’s very frequent in manga style). Anatomy? Try to find a live drawing class with a model, or borrow a digital camera and use the timer to pose for a pic you’d like to draw. Then use it as a reference.
Whatever the problem is, you should work at it focused. One thing at a time. Don’t expect yourself to simply produce flawless pics if you fix everything in a drawing: you’re learning. It’s the same as working out: you pump a particular group of muscles at a given time.
Now in the next article we’ll discuss how to fix certain, specific problems. Feel free to comment with your problem and see if we can come up with a solution for it!