Visual Novel Graphics × Korean Webtoon Graphics

Scroll-driven panels against click-driven screens: the same drawn figures, opposite pacing.

From the research on Visual Novel Graphics (Sprites, Backgrounds and Textbox UI)

Mix them and make something Visual Novel Graphics Korean Webtoon Graphics

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Visual Novel Graphics, their arrangement from Korean Webtoon Graphics, the finish from Visual Novel Graphics. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Visual Novel Graphics (Sprites, Backgrounds and Textbox UI) Korean Webtoon Graphics

Type from Visual Novel Graphics: Humanist sans
Flush left, ragged right
Colour from Korean Webtoon Graphics: Full polychrome
Gradients
Form from Visual Novel Graphics: Stylised figuration
Borders & frames
Composition from Korean Webtoon Graphics: Column grid
Sequential narrative
Surface from Visual Novel Graphics: Frosted glass

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Visual Novel Graphics

Amour

Shippori Mincho, standing in for Mincho (serif) faces for NVL prose and titles

Text · Korean Webtoon Graphics

The full-colour, vertical-scroll comic that Korean web portals made standard in the 2000s and smartphone apps took worldwide. Each episode is one column read by scrolling: panels come one at a time, spaced by long gutters of white, black or tinted ground that pace time, suspense and reveals. Clean line art, cel shading, airbrushed glows and 3D-assisted backgrounds carry the story, with typeset dialogue in rounded balloons and drawn sound words, often out in the gutter.

Comic Neue; Korean Webtoon Graphics used Comic font in rounded balloons and Drawn sound words out in the gutter

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Korean Webtoon Graphics, with a counter-accent from Visual Novel Graphics. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Visual Novel Graphics (Sprites, Backgrounds and Textbox UI) Korean Webtoon Graphics

#ffffff ground · 36%
#0f1a33 ink · 14%
#3d8bfd accent · 18%
#e8c872 accent · 14%
#ff7aa8 accent · 10%
#8fc1e3 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #ffffff;
  --ink: #0f1a33;
  --accent-1: #3d8bfd;
  --accent-2: #e8c872;
  --accent-3: #ff7aa8;
  --accent-4: #8fc1e3;
  --font-display: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
  --font-text: "Comic Neue", cursive;
}

Use it with care

Visual Novel Graphics (Sprites, Backgrounds and Textbox UI): The commercial novel-game market of the 1990s was built largely on adult (eroge) titles, among them Shizuku and the Leaf, Key and Tactics wave, and many sprite and event-CG conventions grew up there, including sexualised depictions of young-looking characters. Borrow the layout, textbox and layering system rather than that figure vocabulary; keep characters clearly adult and depictions non-sexualised unless the context is explicitly adult.

Korean Webtoon Graphics: Series characters and artwork, such as those of Tower of God, Solo Leveling or Lore Olympus, belong to their creators and platforms; draw original characters, and do not trace or closely copy a working artist's panels or signature look. Korean webtoon creators have opposed AI-generated webtoon art: from 2 May 2023 some 60 'AI Webtoon Boycott' strips filled Naver Webtoon's Challenge Comics section for amateurs, and over 200 cartoonists said on social media that they would join, calling AI that learns without the original creators' permission theft. Label generated images as AI-made and never present them as a webtoon artist's work.