🎨 Artcow Iconoclast / Jonathan Mack Sweet - The Chris-Chan of Arkansas

[Chan the Wizard]

The chinaphone is still the dumbest Sweetism to me. With how much television he watches, even he must realize that isn't normal relationship interaction.
We know it was a troll, he suspects it was trolling, and still he believes girls are calling up random college guys.
This is despite the death of landline use.

 

[DrJonesHat]

The chinaphone is still the dumbest Sweetism to me. With how much television he watches, even he must realize that isn't normal relationship interaction.
We know it was a troll, he suspects it was trolling, and still he believes girls are calling up random college guys.
This is despite the death of landline use.

I think in his heart he thinks that's how dating works, but that "Ashleigh" was coerced into calling him by his enemies because they knew he'd go for it. He says she may have been a troll now because that's what we say (it's obvious to us she was), and he changes his story in a futile attempt to look less inept.

 

[sparklemilhouse]

Does Jon create his entire comic on the ancient computer?

 

[Adamska]

Does Jon create his entire comic on the ancient computer?

He pencils it and then scans it in. Then he uses MSPaint to color it in, making it even more unreadable than the pencil sketch would be otherwise. Literally because the fuck is inking in his mind.

 

[sparklemilhouse]

He pencils it and then scans it in. Then he uses MSPaint to color it in, making it even more unreadable than the pencil sketch would be otherwise. Literally because the fuck is inking in his mind.

It's just amazing that he knows how to use a scanner.

 

[Adamska]

It's just amazing that he knows how to use a scanner.

Someone showed him how most likely, or it might have been one of the few times he dedicated enough effort to learn how to do it. Mainly since his shit comics are his life. Figuratively and literally.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

He pencils it and then scans it in.

Like I said earlier, it's baffling why Sweet didn't just make Belch Dimension in all traditional media (and then just scan them if he wants to upload or copy it) if he has issues with technology. It would've avoided the whole CD burner issue.

I guess no one told Sweet that one can do drawing, inking, and coloring with traditional supplies that one can probably get at any Wal Mart Mal Wart newsstand at 4AM.

 

[Adamska]

Like I said earlier, it's baffling why Sweet didn't just make Belch Dimension in all traditional media (and then just scan them if he wants to upload or copy it) if he has issues with technology. It would've avoided the whole CD burner issue.

I guess no one told Sweet that one can do drawing, inking, and coloring with traditional supplies that one can probably get at any Wal Mart Mal Wart newsstand at 4AM.

I genuinely think it's a mixture of being cheap and being lazy. Art supplies cost money that can be used for his battery fixation and children's shows dvds and vcrs. On top of that, it's quicker to just use the fill tool for big blank areas and then use a thick pencil tool for the rest of it. Plus traditional stuff don't allow him to steal images and put them in his comics.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

fill tool

So Sweet puts forth enough effort to learn to put together Belch Dimension as it is, but he doesn't go into better methods of production via traditional media, nor does he try to learn to use more functional programs than MSPaint, claiming that the basic stuff any Windows computer comes with is "juuuuuuuuuust fine."

 

[Meowthkip]

Like I said earlier, it's baffling why Sweet didn't just make Belch Dimension in all traditional media (and then just scan them if he wants to upload or copy it) if he has issues with technology. It would've avoided the whole CD burner issue.

I guess no one told Sweet that one can do drawing, inking, and coloring with traditional supplies that one can probably get at any Wal Mart Mal Wart newsstand at 4AM.

Can you imagine Sweet shelling out money for Copics?

Crayola markers would be too rich for his blood.

 

[The Walrus]

Considering that Sweet's main characters are stick figures, it would probably be best if Sweet made his comic black-and-white, so that the backgrounds wouldn't get in the way of the people. Not only that, it would be one less step for him, since he could skip the step of coloring. Of course, nobody told him he didn't have to use color in his comics.

 

[Dr. Merkwurdichliebe]

He pencils it and then scans it in. Then he uses MSPaint to color it in, making it even more unreadable than the pencil sketch would be otherwise. Literally because the fuck is inking in his mind.

It looks to me like he inks the horrifying lettering with a ballpoint pen before he scans the page. And it doesn't seem to bother him if the pen is defective or running out of ink.

 

[DrJonesHat]

I can't draw at all, so I can't really criticize his art, other than to say it's very hard to follow. But the thing about "publishing licenses" really drives home how out of touch Jon is with the real world. I guess his reasoning is that since TV and radio have to have a license to broadcast, newspapers have to have a license to publish which shows he completely misunderstands why TV and radio require licenses. If he thinks newspapers have to have licenses, I wonder if he thinks websites do too. He could have just made it up for the purposes of his story, but that seems like a stupid way to make one's point.

 

[AJMLurker]

Look, I can't draw good at all. I posted some autistic comics on AJM back in the day. They were complete crap, but I was like 13 at the time when I drew them and it was my first time drawing ever. I have improved over the years, but I rarely draw so I can only do basic stuff. All I can say about Jonathan M. Sweet's art style is that it is very unappealing to look at. It's just a very disgusting style if that makes any sense. Then add in the fact that it is impossible to follow because of the coloring and text box placement.

I believe Jon has potential to be a decent artist, but he refuses to listen to criticism and improve his art. If you try to point out a fault, he will rationalize it away. If you downright start telling him that his work sucks, he'll yell you off for being an idiot. There is no helping Sweet. Worst, he PUSHES his comic on you through his incessant powerleveling, making you really want to dislike his comic.

This stupid comic that he shoves down everyone's throats is only meant to appeal to him. Take one look at it's "most notable" saga, Sweettart. It's Jon's childish view of how events unfolded for him back in college.

 

[John Titor]

I can't draw at all, so I can't really criticize his art, other than to say it's very hard to follow. But the thing about "publishing licenses" really drives home how out of touch Jon is with the real world. I guess his reasoning is that since TV and radio have to have a license to broadcast, newspapers have to have a license to publish which shows he completely misunderstands why TV and radio require licenses. If he thinks newspapers have to have licenses, I wonder if he thinks websites do too. He could have just made it up for the purposes of his story, but that seems like a stupid way to make one's point.

Look, I can't draw good at all. I posted some autistic comics on AJM back in the day. They were complete crap, but I was like 13 at the time when I drew them and it was my first time drawing ever. I have improved over the years, but I rarely draw so I can only do basic stuff. All I can say about Jonathan M. Sweet's art style is that it is very unappealing to look at. It's just a very disgusting style if that makes any sense. Then add in the fact that it is impossible to follow because of the coloring and text box placement.

I believe Jon has potential to be a decent artist, but he refuses to listen to criticism and improve his art. If you try to point out a fault, he will rationalize it away. If you downright start telling him that his work sucks, he'll yell you off for being an idiot. There is no helping Sweet. Worst, he PUSHES his comic on you through his incessant powerleveling, making you really want to dislike his comic.

This stupid comic that he shoves down everyone's throats is only meant to appeal to him. Take one look at it's "most notable" saga, Sweettart. It's Jon's childish view of how events unfolded for him back in college.

I like to see it as this: I don't make movies, I don't really know anything about movies, I don't know anything about film history or theory. I do know is that the infamous Battlefield Earth is an incredibly stupid movie. So even if you can't draw, you could probably explain what you don't like about his work. One of the most common examples from non-artists here was "can't see shit, captain!"

 

[ToroidalBoat]

I can't draw at all, so I can't really criticize[...]

even if you can't draw, you could probably explain what you don't like[...]

One doesn't need to be an artist to criticize art. Like I said earlier, one doesn't need to be a chef to criticize food.

 

[AJMLurker]

I like to see it as this: I don't make movies, I don't really know anything about movies, I don't know anything about film history or theory. I do know is that the infamous Battlefield Earth is an incredibly stupid movie. So even if you can't draw, you could probably explain what you don't like about his work. One of the most common examples from non-artists here was "can't see shit, captain!"

Oh, Jonny boy's art style is complete shit in my eyes. I was just being kinder to him in that post since I've drawn dumb comics myself.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

I've drawn dumb comics myself.

I think it's actually pretty normal to draw crappy comics. The difference is that most who do so don't think they're the best thing ever and try to spam them every chance they get. Especially not in death threats.

 

[Dr. Merkwurdichliebe]

I wish that Sweet would explain his workflow so we could tell him what he's doing wrong. The online -- and doubtless the printed -- versions of his comics are almost certainly more awful than they should be.

For example, the finished product displays noticeable jaggies on every element that is not a horizontal or vertical line. This is almost certainly a result of his inability to set his scanner's parameters correctly. Using a low resolution for faster scans and smaller file sizes is undoubtedly part of the problem. And it's dollars to doughnuts that he doesn't understand that line art should -- somewhat counterintuitively -- be scanned as gray scale to improve the quality of the final image.

Another major problem is his utter lack of attention to detail when lettering. Take the following example:

In the main dialog balloon, great looks like gre6t, one looks like ome, hack looks like haol, and doesn't looks like do6smt. Random words and random letters within words appear to be in bold face. The idea that text should have a baseline is alien to Sweet, which makes his walls of type even more difficult to follow. And this example is fairly clean by his standards.

He must ink the lettering before he scans the line drawings. Doing this in MS Paint would take forever. It's a pity he can't be bothered to do the job properly.

As a famous cartoonist, Sweet owes it to his adoring fans to explain his workflow in exacting detail. Types of paper, pencils, pens and inks used. What elements are inked before scanning. Make and model of scanner and a complete list of settings. Procedures followed in MS Paint. Once we have this information, we can begin our own humble and unworthy attempts to imitate the master.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

For example, the finished product displays noticeable jaggies on every element that is not a horizontal or vertical line. This is almost certainly a result of his inability to set his scanner's parameters correctly,

From what I gather, Sweet normally scans in a Belch Dimension page (drawn in pencil or pen) as a binary image (each pixel is only black or white), and then does further work in MS Paint (mostly the paint bucket). That's why we see the jagged lines and the less-than-perfect coloring.

Random words and random letters within words appear to be in bold face.

Sweet seems to be just imitating a standard convention of American comics with that. In American comics, words are sometimes bolded for emphasis. Sweet also carries that habit over to writing, where he italicizes words for emphasis.