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Feeling burnt out.
4 years ago
I feel like I've made a terrible mistake by trying to push myself to make a weekly, long-term comic. It isn't working, and trying to push myself into making something with a set schedule has sucked all the fun out of trying to make it. It's even been less fun to make other art because now I always feel like "I should be working on my comic instead of doing this."
Maybe people would actually care that I want to make comics if I hadn't claimed, again and again, to be working on a comic only to scrap it when I've only gotten three pages at most finished. Nobody takes my goal seriously when I can't ever even stick to one damn idea for more than a few weeks at best, and have never made anything substantial or even interesting.
I think that, for the sake of my own mental health, I'm just going to take things at my own pace. Do what I think is fun, don't worry too much about keeping a consistent schedule for now. Maybe someday I can start shooting for a more consistent schedule, but I am simply not up for it right now.
So I'm going to just make comics and other art as I feel like it, and just focus on what I want to make and make it. I'm going to compile a bunch of ideas as I come up with them, and draw whenever I can.
Maybe people would actually care that I want to make comics if I hadn't claimed, again and again, to be working on a comic only to scrap it when I've only gotten three pages at most finished. Nobody takes my goal seriously when I can't ever even stick to one damn idea for more than a few weeks at best, and have never made anything substantial or even interesting.
I think that, for the sake of my own mental health, I'm just going to take things at my own pace. Do what I think is fun, don't worry too much about keeping a consistent schedule for now. Maybe someday I can start shooting for a more consistent schedule, but I am simply not up for it right now.
So I'm going to just make comics and other art as I feel like it, and just focus on what I want to make and make it. I'm going to compile a bunch of ideas as I come up with them, and draw whenever I can.
The first comic is always the hardest, because a lot of the work in making a comic comes from the parts that isn't drawing. You've gotten to the point where you have got a distinct, stylized art style you can hit pretty consistently. Finalize the characters you want to be the focus of your comic, and then set them aside. Draw one once a week, fill a whole page with that one character. Deliver that to muscle memory. Then a week of backgrounds. Then a week of props. Then the next character. You're on your own schedule, your own time table. The final result can be done this year or in 5 years, the trick is to work up to it and be consistent. There are on-line courses on comic design, maybe taking a step back and working through one of those could help.
The first comic always fails. Always. Doesn't matter who you are, the first attempt is always a disaster, because the tricks to make the effort easier take time to learn. Starting with a webcomic format is difficult as your first foray into this. One panel comic. Newspaper (3 panel). One page comic. 22 page comic where the whole story can be told in a limited space. Don't start with the stress of the grand concept. You're making the comic you want to be known for your first effort. That causes burnout. Set it aside. Smaller projects you don't care about. You know many artists, and can always ask for help if you get stuck.