You know, as shitty a person as John Kricfalusi is, the dude knows how to go off-model and make it look good. If you're gonna go off-model in an animation, make it intentional.
Steven Universe is a great example of how not to go off model. Characters are wildly inconsistently drawn, most notably Peridot, whose height and hair fluctuate between each episode she's in. Either stay on-model or go off it as an intentional stylistic choice. The issue mainly seems to stem from a lack of discipline with boarders. It shouldn't be so easy to tell which artist boarded an episode- it's a cartoon, not a showcase of everybody's styles. Pick a fucking lead artist and have the rest of the boarders and animators trained in their style.
Imagine how bizarre it would be ATLA, BTAS or even Gravity Falls was animated this inconsistently. The lack of oversight indicates to me that SU is run by a bunch of hippies with no sense of discipline.
This has always been one of the things that has irked me with SU. Coming from a kid who grew up in the 80s where we had shows that had MULTIPLE FUCK-UPS in animation, there's just something about this that takes the cake, probally because how the show as touted as being so revolutionry yet can't keep itself in check, whether with the art or the story. I mean, we've been talking about the LOOK of SU and shows/comics LIKE IT but I'm certain a forum based on the shittiness of the STORY would be twice as long now. (okay, maybe NOT but it would be entertaining to riff on how this series can't keep up with its own continuity)
Tumblrinas jerking eachother off about how great the artwork in Steven Universe is adds to the problem. Its resulted in a wave of college students who think that their weird, block-y recolors of Amethyst and Jasper are good character design because "body diversity!1!11!". Things like anatomy, composition, technique, and originality get shunted down to near non-importance.
This is a big part of why Tumblr art styles are so samey. People put the cart before the horse by trying to create a Calarts-y "style" for themselves before actually learning anatomy. The overemphasis on having "muh style1!1!!1" in internet art circles has had a major negative effect on the way this generation views art. In reality, a style is something you're supposed to develop naturally as you become educated in art, not something you copy off of a shitty tv show as a teenager and use as a means to deflect critism on shit anatomy.
Have this for a thought; remember those How to Draw Cartoon and Anime books? I lived on those as a kid but even then, EVEN THEN, I noticed how WONKY and bad the final art was in those books and forever I could not figure out why. My work isn't perfect, I will admit that now, but a few days ago I suddenly realized WHY those guides, while offering some decent advice in things, still had really weird looking anime characters and cartoons.
It was because it was like they were taking bits and pieces from 'general anime look' and just slapping it together and the result wasn't something that didn't look as polished as a lot of professionals many artist look up to. You mentioned style; I feel style IS important so we can actually DIFFERENTIATE work and creators but the SJW/Tumblr 'style' doesn't do that because they're so blinded to LOOK EXACTLY LIKE whatever is the flavor of the month they just take the 'basic' look and keep doing that and doing that without developing anything of their own along the way.
The reason why those American anime guides look like shit (other than the person not being able to draw) was because they followed every CLICHE of anime and just slapped it on there without considering that even anime/manga styles cycle not just through artist but through the decades. Akira Toriyama's work doesn't look the same as Rumiko Takahashi's as her work doesn't look like Yuji Iwahara as his work doesn't look like Gosho Aoyama and even THEIR work has changed over the years as they continued to work and draw. Look at Toriyama from the start of his career and NOW. He's kept some themes that make his art his own but you can see where it has changed.
SJW art just adheres more to an ideal and a lot of rules that they act like you can't break otherwise your work is problematic. You really aren't allowed to experiment and exaggerate because they have this idea that everything has to be 'realistic' yet their work often results in lumpy looking characters with EXTREMELY unrealistic looks. There is nothing realistic about SJW art other than them saying that because they draw 'lips' or a character a little heavier it is 'real' and therefor BETTER.
IT'S NOT.
Even manga/anime has a WIDER range of looks while sticking to certain structures that have changed over the years. Hell, Western animation does as well but where SJW fails at is just as I and a lot of people have mentioned; they PURPOSELY set up rules and actively DISCOURAGE going outside the norm and pushing boundaries, one of the battles cries Progressives constantly scream. Anything that doesn't fall in that line of being safe isn't seen as good, inoffensive art.
That and they want the bar lowered so their work can be praised despite it being of shit tier without going through the effort of experimenting but OH WELL.
