Alethea Finished a note on Suggestions (Patreon)

So here's what I mean by a note on suggestions: If you post anything on the internet you're bound to get some criticism sooner or later. (And that's if you're lucky. 90% of the time it's amazing if you get noticed at all. Damn cat videos!) I've learned to roll with it for the most part. Despite the dozens of torrent sites that lovingly steal my comic, I've only found two sites that have a comment section for me to peruse; Hentai Foundry and E-Hentai. The folks at HF are pretty much all friendly and respectful, while the folks at E-Hentai, while mostly complimentary, tend to be a bit less constructive in their criticisms. (I can't help but think it's at least partly because the poster is some random dude I never authorized and not the original artist.) But internet trolls, obnoxious as they are, can serve a purpose if you let them.

Sure, you can't take every critique to heart. For example, the guy on E-Hentai who thinks Switch is "terrible" because my characters look like "transvestites?" I ignore people like that, but every now and then a constructive criticism hits home. And any decent artist who genuinely wants to improve can't help but hang his head and say, "Dad-gummit, they got me good. " (Saying "dad-gummit" is crucial to the acceptance process.)

So long story short I keep hearing that I use the same face in all my ladies. I honestly never gave a thought to it. I've seen lots of badass artists use the same face over and over. Even Reiq, one of my all time hentai heroes, largely uses the same face on all his drawings as far as I can tell. I always just strive to draw the most attractive face I can by my standards. But I think I should expand my arsenal a bit and attempt to become more versatile. So from now on I'll be trying to employ at least a few different face templates depending on the character of the woman I'm drawing, starting with Alathea here. She's what I'll call the "Classic Beauty" face. In that she has a wider jaw than I normally depict and she has pronounced cheekbones.  And I'll keep developing new templates as I go.

It may suck at first to hear someone smack-talking your work, but if you really want to improve you need to learn how to separate the legitimate constructive criticism from the trolls who just want attention for one second to distract themselves from their sorry little lives. I'm doing my best to keep a balance and I hope I can count on you guys to let me know if I'm leaning too far one way or the other. :)