Q: I’ve been a doodler and cartoon sketcher all my life, but I’ve never really had my own style. In middle school, I mimicked anime. In high school, I mimicked Penny Arcade’s style. Now after college, I mimic whatever style I feel like at the time. What this means though is that while I can draw anything from looking at a reference (whether it be realistic or cartoon-like), I’ve never been able to develop my own style of drawing or been able to capture the images I have in my head. I’ve always needed some reference point to draw from. Do you guys have any advice for how an artist can develop their own style? Is it just a matter of practicing without looking at a reference? What are your thoughts?

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A Private Forum discussion has developed focusing on using smartphone-enabled readers and other digital methods to process credit-card orders at conventions. It’s worth a look. Also check out the following from the archives:

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Last week, the Webcomics.com poll asked how many updates were in your buffer. The overwhelming majority reported zero updates. The next largest group said they had one update in their buffer.

So this week’s poll asked a follow-up to that question: Which sentence describes your buffer? The choices were:

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