Gotta love this Philip guy, eh? He sure does make you think when he posts. :)
Philip
So every talent here has diverse gifts that would probably violate my perceptions ... perhaps depending of genres and such.
I think you summed it up right there as well as what Ben offered here:
"there is singing and then there is singing. Someone who is "trained" will undoubtly sound great whether they are in a drawing or a painting. Then there are the rest of us, me included who are not always on the money but when you layer the vocal within the painting it sounds heavenly. This is because you are reinforcing the sonics or the pure note." Those two things in my opinion, totally dictate the outcome. Let's take singers like you and I. We have a good pitch perception, we can phrase, we have decent timbres, but us vs. say Dann Huff, Tim McGraw, Mariah Carey, early Whitney Houston, Luther V etc....they're going to cook us voice for voice because they are just more "singer" than we are. We need backing music because we don't quite have the ability to really vocally shine like them.
Look at Bob Dylan or even Tom Petty. I bet they fail too if they sing alone or when "drawing" as opposed to their final "painting". Yet, there we have two of the most talented and reputable artists alive. Do I think they sing great? Not at all, but like The Beatles, when you put them all together and allowed them to let go in a "painting" situation, magical things happened.
Then of course there is the other factor. Sometimes "unique" when used as a genuine word instead of when "unique" gets used TODAY as a misrepresentation to the word "great", we don't need a fantastric voice. We can sit here and name several vocalists that weren't fantastic singers yet had that special something that didn't matter whether they had music backing them or not.
I'm not a fan of John Lennon's voice. I loved his writing and how his end result would be great...but his voice never impressed me as "wow". However, he could just sing something alone or play an acoustic guitar....and the man had that certain something that just made you appreciate him....flaws and all. I never liked Stevie Nicks due to her "billy goat" vibrato. However, no one could replace her in that band because of her vocal timbre and delivery.
So in a nut-shell, I think it all depends on the person as well as the song really. Just because some of us may have to illustrate within a drawing or even make the drawing a full painting doesn't mean the drawing part is bad. We have to start somewhere, ya know? We can't just build a house. We need the ugly beginning. The footing, the framing and all the stuff that no one will see once the house is built. The most incredible mansion in the world was a drawing that had early "ugliness". Yet, it turned into something beautiful.
An ugly ducking that turns into a Swan...the list goes on and on. Now, the fix for this stuff...
If you are unhappy with your drawings, you must ask yourself why. One of the things with your voice that you may want to look into would be vocal inflections. When you sing, you sing very straight forward. Your annunciation is perfect, you try to nail every phrase and always try for perfect timing etc. These my friend...can make things sound too polished. When singers don't annunciate so precise like a grammer school teacher would, it gives the vocals soul. I'm not saying don't annunciate to the point where people don't understand what you are singing...but there is a certain "dirt under the nails" in a sense that I think is really important.
Vibrato is important. That is like the finger print of a guitarist. Once he can control vibrato correctly in his execution when playing guitar, this is what makes that guitar player have an identity. I say this because it's the same with vocalists. I mentioned Stevie Nicks...though I hate her vibrato....that's her sound...her signature. You can tell it's her singing in seconds. Identity is important. Several attempt it purposely while missing the obvious while few achieve it done in that manner.
Maybe some vocal lessons would help you to appreciate your own voice. At least you sing in key bro...that's 90% of the battle if you ask me. I always examine myself musically to see what I can improve on. To me, I'm often times way too hard on myself to the point of making myself miserable. If anyone ever knew how much I put on myself, they would never believe it. I'm beyond brutal.
But that said, good can come out of it. Because I was unhappy with my drawings and not liking my voice from an acapella stand-point, I attempted to fix it. I've been a smoker for 34 years and just up and quit cold turkey on March 12. The change in my vocal is astonishing. My range has improved, my control is 100% better (though it was hard as heck to control for the first month...you have no idea!) and my vocal quality, consistency and endurance has improved ten-fold.
It's also helped me to sound a bit better by myself. I can now pick up an acoustic guitar and sing to where I sound like a singer where as before, not so much IMO. I'm still not good enough to compete with Mariah Carey in an acapella situation nor do I think I'm ready to just start singing without music, but I have definitely improved one of the things in my "drawings" that makes them more acceptable.
So question why your drawings may sound the way they do. Maybe there's room for improvment on your voice, playing of other instruments....the list goes on and on. But only you can determine which things to work on and which to leave alone. To be honest, I'm perfectly happy with illustrating my picture. I'm not one that really likes drawings or nakedness/super raw ideas anyway. I like to hear them polished and presented in their final state.
That said...if the drawing is really bad, the painting probably will not be much better. There has to be a certain amount of skill in the drawing. If we were having a house built and had two architects drawing up plans for us, and one presented a drawing that looked like a 5th grader using stick figures etc and the other guy presented plans he drew up in Autocad, which guy do you go with?
So to an extent, sure a drawing should have some good qualities within it that shouldn't make you cringe. But as long as the idea is there and you are still delivering the goods, it's not something I would worry too much about other than if you feel the need to hone your skills a bit more. That's the good thing about a drawing....you can't run and you can't hide...it shows you for who and what you are. Sometimes...this can be great! Other times...it can be very unforgiving yet it can show you where you may need work. Anyway, I hope some of this helps. :)
-Danny