Advice for not burning out on webcomic?

[matthewroel]

Hey, everyone, happy to start posting here with an avatar. I'm in the process of creating a comic series (or multiple ones) that I can post on here, and I'm in the very beginning stages of actually starting the thing. But, I fear that in the process of planning up my schedule for the summer, I might potentially be setting myself up for failure, artistic burnout, and frustration. Fun things!

I want to be a professional freelance artist, making comics, illustrations, and potentially storyboards. I want to improve my art fundamentadraftsmanship, but I feel that I need to focus on something, a personal project - this is an idea from ever-so-cool art teacher Chris Oatley - something that has a beginning, middle, and end, a tangible, completed project that was also a vessel for improving in the craft, without "improvement" being the goal. I want my webcomic (s) to function this way, and they also help make for a great portfolio for companies in the industry.

The trouble is, I also want to create standalone illustrations - around two to three per month - that put into action my daily four hour art studies. I did the math and, after taking a few hours off my initial plan, I found that by working 5 hours on the webcomic daily, and four hours on both studying on standalone illustration, I would be working on art 91 hours a week. I think in my initial plan, that number was even higher!

I want to push myself to more effectively and efficiently get closer and closer to being a professional comic artist and illustrator, but I think I'm overworking myself? I'm curious to hear from anyone else how they effectively manage their personal projects/webcomics and investing in their craft enough that it's of professional quality. Keep in mind, I don't have a school or a job, so that's why I would have so much time per week.

[UzukiCheverie]

You're overthinking it. This alone is going to cause more burnout than any amount of actual labor work will cause.

Thing is, as you draw more and more comics, and create a buffer for your readers (ex. if you do one update a week, so long as you consistently work on your comic, you could have the next 4 weeks worth of updates planned in advance), and get faster at making comics as a whole (which you will as you figure out faster way to do certain things), you'll find that you'll be getting work done quickly and efficiently so long as you put the work into it. Back when I was in college, I was managing a page-a-day comic, along with full-time school, as well as my part-time job at Starbucks, and I still had plenty of wiggle room to sit back and relax and play video games and do other things outside of work and school.

Considering you do have this much time per week (unlike many of us who are in school/have a job or two/etc.) then you should be feeling a lot less pressure than the rest of us. Don't feel like you need to be putting every hour of your day into your comic; even if it's a passion project, when it's something you're doing just on the side as a free project, you need to balance your schedule accordingly.

Start off small. Dedicate a couple hours a day for comic making in the beginning. Soon, once you get into the flow of it, and get a buffer going, you'll find that you'll have a lot more time on your hands, and as a result, a lot less pressure on your shoulders.

TL ; DR Don't put any imaginary expectations on your shoulders. You haven't even started your comic yet, let alone gained a readership for it, so don't feel like you need to be pouring your all into it right away and perfectly satisfying an audience that isn't there yet - getting stressed over your workload is what causes burnout, and if you do that before you've even started your comic, then you've already lost the battle.

[shazzbaa]

I don't know that I could look at the numbers and definitively say if something is overwork or not, and I suspect different people burn out at different rates.... I think the big question I'd ask is, do you have time for other stuff?

Are you planning to be able to take a day off to see friends or family pretty often? Will you have time to stop drawing and play a video game? Will you make time to take a break and go outside and garden for a couple of hours? Whatever it is -- does the schedule you're drafting give you time for An Activity That Isn't Drawing? I think if you can look at that and say, "yeah, I'm making sure I leave time to be social occasionally and/or have a regular hobby," then heck, it's worth a shot!
I feel like there's no harm in being ambitious -- as long as you give yourself room to breathe when you need it. But it's easy to not notice that you're in the middle of burning out if you don't place real value on that time off.

Some of my favourite advice I've gotten from comics pros was this: "Life is a part of art. If you're not living it -- at least a part of it -- then when you sit down to draw, you won't have much to say."

[matthewroel]

Excellent points. I have a tendency to over think things. I guess me having THAT much free time, and not being comfortable with my skill level causes me to want to make sure that I can do as much as I can per day.

I'm really intending to focus on making a 15 page one shot, which is very small, and I just wanted to quickly build a buffer, but I should perhaps scale back in terms of hours per day spent on it.

[UzukiCheverie]

I'm really intending to focus on making a 15 page one shot, which is very small, and I just wanted to quickly build a buffer, but I should perhaps scale back in terms of hours per day spent on it.

A one shot is a great place to start off! I don't know what style you're going for - if you're going to do a full color comic, whether it's as fully-rendered as comics like Scurry and Fisheye Placebo - but doing a one-shot is a good way to kind of get your feet wet when it comes to starting off with comics Don't feel like you need to get it done as quickly as possible though; the readers here are very patient and encouraging, so you won't be running into anyone who pressures you to upload more. Take your time and deliver the best quality work you can

[matthewroel]

Great response! Yeah, my fears started to arouse when I looked at my daily routine, and found that I would only have about 4-5 hours of "free" time, per day - that's not a lot. To put it one way, I would be working on art more than most people work at a 9 to 5 job, and that's kinda crazy! it stemmed from me to wanting to learn effectively, make better pieces of artwork and have them be constructively critiqued, but having those habits orbit around my webcomic projects.

If lots of other artists can do that, balancing craft and content, then I'm figuring out how to do that in a way that's ambitious, while also giving me space to be with family and friends, which is really important to me.

[Michelle]

First off-- hi fellow Oatley Academy person! : D

I think it's great you're setting a plan for yourself. However, maybe you're planning it a bit too thoroughly. When you calculate things down to the hour, it adds a lot of unnecessary stress. Rather than say "I will devote x amount of hours to this and x amount of hours to that", maybe set looser goals, like "I will finish one page today and draw 20 gestures". Maybe it will take 12 hours of your day, maybe it will only take 8. Maybe you only get 3/4 of that page finished and end up finishing it off the following day. It's good to be flexible and forgiving, especially when you're learning. Just drawing every day in the first place is a great commitment to make.

And it's been mentioned, since you haven't started posting pages online, there isn't a huge need to push yourself to a strict schedule. Take this time to comfortably build a buffer, so you don't have to worry about it once you start posting your comic.

As for building fundamentals, it is good to do individual focused studies, but honestly comics is one of the best ways to hone a bunch of fundamentals at once! D: I mean, you're doing anatomy, perspective, environments, design, and more, and if you really put the effort in, there's no way you won't learn and grow in the process. I think a quick one-shot is a great way to learn a ton about fundamentals AND comics at the same time.

[matthewroel]

waves Hey! Cool, a fellow Oatley Academy student! Magic Box rules!

Yeah, I can see how putting down strict hours can be stressful, but I thought of it as basically being a useful baseline for "try and do this for a set period of time". But, I can also see that, if my comic is a 15 page one shot "test run", and I DO want to make and receive feedback on individual pieces of artwork, then I can afford to not bumrush through it by working five hours everyday. Plus, I agree with you that I can develop my fundamentals with a quick one shot. I could make it a really interesting story with a strong basis in a solid grasp of art fundamentals, like something from the Flight anthologies, which had some gorgeously illustrated stuff.

[AnnaLandin]

I can totally see where you're coming from here, but I think you're running into the same problem I do a lot - spending more time pointlessly panicking about lack of time than you do actually drawing the thing.

I have sleepless nights when I worry about getting things done on time - and then I get up in the morning and manage to have the thing I worried would take DAYS all wrapped up and done by lunch.

What I'm saying is that step one is to stop worrying and just do.

Step two is to adapt the scope of your project to suit your needs and available time. Making comics is a good way to give yourself a regular thing to work on; it instills discipline, and allows you to put all those art-fundamentals into practical use. However, you don't have to jump in the deep end and do a 1000-page epic from the get-go. You don't even have to do a 150-page graphical novel! You can do oneshots of 25 pages or less, and still get the practise in! It's a smaller time-investment, and you can set yourself a deadline you're more comfortable with.

That way, you will still be able to take the time to do all those illustrations and practise-pieces. And with a oneshot, you don't need to worry as much about doing it super-fast; if you do 1 page a week, a 15-page oneshot is 3 and a half months of your life. That's not actually a whole lot, if you count up all the other stuff you'll be doing at the same time. You need to be thinking about the fact that you WILL need days or nights off, time to spend with your family relaxing and doing something just for fun, too.

You will get faster as you go along. You'll pick up time-saving tricks, you'll get used to drawing your characters, you'll get more comfortable with your chosen tools, etc., etc. When I first started drawing comics, one page a week was about what I could manage - these days, I manage a regular webcomic updating twice a week with full-colour pages, loads of single illustrations, some commissions AND oneshot comics on the side, and still have time to laze around on the couch a couple of nights a week. That kind of speed won't happen overnight (it took me about 10 years) but it IS possible to get there.

Don't stress, don't worry, and just do. It's okay to be slow at the start, it's okay to work on smaller projects, it's okay to just do things at your own pace. You won't get awesome by rushing it.

[Mharz]

This is just my two cents but artist doesn't suffer from burnout because of the hours they work on it but rather they're losing the fun/enjoyment in doing that certain project. I experienced it myself. I enjoy doing my personal projects (I create both webcomic and illustrations, btw) even though it doesn't pay at all than paid projects that I have no interest in. So my main advice is always have fun on what you do.

Also, it's not like you have a boss or client that gives deadlines so don't beat yourself about the hours. Even if it's just a pencilled page a day or whatever as long as you're making progress it's fine. Take it easy. Get enough sleep cus trust me, you'll be less productive if you lack sleep. If you're stressing out, take a break, go outside, play games, eat. You'll see the things you need to improve when you get back at it.

Focus on finishing one stuff a time. Don't overload your brain. Example, you can focus on creating a comic page today then the next day, do an illustration. Have a feasible daily goal but don't be too strict on yourself. It can't be helped if something unexpected disrupt your pace.

Well that's just my opinion anyway, Everyone has their own pace so just do the pace you're comfortable with.

[matthewroel]

You're totally right, it's all about not rushing, but adjusting to the process gradually. You can't rush art, but you can invest as much as you can each day. Stress will kill you, not waiting, so just do SOMETHING each day that'll move you forward.

@avimHarZ
Yeah, just one thing at a time.

So many awesome and smart creators on here! I'm really humbled, and I'll always keep this thread in mind when I work this summer.