I stand by my assertion that a lot of the problems people seem to be specifically pointing out about my comic are a matter of taste. When it comes to the concept of talking heads--in other words, groups of panels that tend to feature nothing but a character's head and what they're saying--I really don't mind the criticism. I know the degree to which I use talking heads goes against the grain, but I'm using them to "excess" on purpose. Instead of cramming a lot of dialogue into a couple panels, I like thinking of paragraph breaks as moments where a character gets maybe a new facial expression or demonstrates that he or she is maintaining the same expression.
As for the idea that I need to shift viewer position more often during pure dialogue sequences, this gets in the way of the aesthetic idea most dear to me, particularly with Venia's Travels, that the story should be told from the point of view of only a couple characters, and consistently. In this case, the whole comic's told from Venia's perspective, and one of the ways I maintain this is through eyeline--when a character's talking to Venia, they seem to be looking at the viewer. When Venia's talking, she seems to be looking off panel, and her backgrounds tend to be more minimalist.
A poster named "angryblackguy" attempted to actually recolour some of my work to demonstrate to me how it ought to be done properly, and with all due respect to Angry Black Guy, I actually prefer my own colouring;
To my mind, Angry Black Guy's take, which is the bottom image, makes Venia look older and distributes the light source oddly. It's a matter of taste, I'm sure, because he probably doesn't see it that way. He also says the even spacing of the eyes is a mark of an amateur, but is something I'd again have to label a matter of taste. I've been drawing people since I was small, I've experimented with all different placements and sizes of eyes, and this currently happens to be what I like best for several characters in the current comic.
He concludes by saying, "People will scrutinize your flaws more than your good work. Either fix the flaws or remove them altogether."
To which I'd reply that if I did that, I wouldn't be drawing at all, since practically everything I do is considered a flaw by someone. A lot of the flaws pointed out in this discussion--my lettering, my talking heads--are things people have volunteered compliments on in the past. I think my art's flawed but I need it to tell my story. In short, I'm doing my best, but if someone wants to do a better job for me, they're welcome to.
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