Comparing yourself with other creators… How to overcome this?

Channel all that nervous energy towards yourself! Pour over your past work, identify the weaknesses, and become someone who your past self would be jealous of. I stuck to that method for a while and now some of the people who seemed impossibly better than me have around the same amount of subs as I do! Just focus on your own growth, it's all you need to do. c:

I think it's one of those things where every artist does it, but something I came to a realization about was that I was comparing my work to people whose work I didn't really like. "I don't have the style of that artist," I'd think. "They have a distinctive style. I don't like it." But for whatever reason, I kept riding myself hard because I didn't consider myself at that level.

But I was. Even technically speaking, I was always doing fine. It's something that even now I struggle with, the temptation of comparison -- it's toxic, more times than not, and as others have pointed out, sometimes you have to just step back and just stop looking at others if you're going to be tempted to compare yourself unfavorably.

Artists are almost always our own harshest critics. And people are almost always their own harshest critics too; artists get it double! It's important to realize this and let it go, appreciate that you will be developing your style throughout your life and just keep doing that instead of comparing yourself to others who are likely struggling with the same insecurities.

You can do it!

Indeed, this is a real struggle! It's especially troublesome with an art style where you don't know how they do it. At least some art styles you can try to copy and learn from them, but when you're clueless, it's easy to say "I'll never be able to do that!" Something I do when I run into this problem is I compare my favorite artists to EACH OTHER. Some have simple art with beautiful colors, others have fancy realistic painting, and some have really good stories! They're all different, but it doesn't make them better or worse than each other.

Remember that you can ALWAYS change your style or technique if you're not happy with it! Try something new, even if it doesn't seem like "you" yet. If you like it, give it a try and figure out why you like it! No one is on point all the time, and it's okay to change. In fact, if you were satisfied with your art all the time, it might mean you're not growing as an artist!

If I'm really overwhelmed, I do what @shazzbaa and @avimHarZ do and just STOP LOOKING! It confuses me until nothing I draw looks right, so I take a break. I make some tea, watch TV, read a book. Then in a few hours, I try to draw without looking at anything. I'll get something that is only mine in its purest form, plus it's usually faster and easier than before! Don't think too much about it, tell yourself "I don't care how this turns out, as long as I do something." In my experience, these doodles are some of my best work haha

I agree with you: as creators, we need to come together and encourage one another wherever possible!

Personally, I struggle with comparisons too, although I've been a lot better about it in the last year or two. What I have to remember is that my style is different from another artist's, my approach is different, my stories are different; I had a major breakthrough when I realized I wasn't really being honest with myself. I'd look at another artist's work, another comic or what have you, and feel immediately bad about what I was doing.

Then I took a step back and asked myself, "is that really what you want to do?"

It wasn't. It never is. Even if it's something similar, it's not the same. Even if it's along the same lines, I would realize it differently, I would develop it differently.

It's still very hard to look at things sometimes if I like the style or approach, but something important to remember is that every artist has a different style. Like Judy Garland said, be yourself -- you'll only ever be a second-rate someone else. There already is one, after all!

We all have the things we're doing, and they're fantastic. We must hold onto them and keep working to develop our own personal styles. We're so familiar with our own work, our own output, that it often doesn't give us the same feelings or effects that others' work will. That's just natural. But it does give those feelings to others who enjoy our work. We are always going to be our own harshest critics, in large part because we are so intimately familiar with every slightest flaw due to working so long and so intimately with our art.

I'm always better at it when I'm giving someone feedback or critique they've approached me for, but I've finally started to remember it for myself: in art, there really is no "better" or "worse", art is expression and there is no handy scale for absolute figuring of quality. Photorealism for example is not superior, and it isn't a goal for every artist, or even most artists -- which is a huge thing for some people to realize. We must walk away from terms that set certain specific stylistic approaches above others. There is no better or worse, as I said; there is only "different".

We can always develop, and we will be developing the whole time we are creating art. A good artist, I think, continually develops and tries to become the best possible at any given time. It's perpetual learning. But as artists, and as audiences that appreciate creative work, I feel we must reach the point of understanding that every artist and every style is -- and should be -- essentially different. We must appreciate our abilities and skill that we have worked so hard to cultivate.

I just remain focused on my goal. And keep going and going and going.

Sometimes I compare my work to others, but I've kind of avoided doing it as I kind of felt like an asshole for doing that. I would compare my work against others I felt were inferior, and pondered how my views/subs would be less, but it wasn't really worth it. Getting critique about my art was even more annoying (with the exception of anatomy comments which I actually have been working on). Someone compared my work and I just said forget it. My works fine the way it is, it's my style and my subs like it.

If you compare yourself to another artist just remember you two are very different people with different skill sets. It's how you use your skills that matter.

NEVER COMPARE! But learn from them and others to help grow your own styles and skills

I catch myself doing this- "I can't draw as well as so and so," "I'm not as prolific as..." "I'm not as funny as..." and "I must be awful because I have only a few subscribers, " Then I tell myself "You're not gonna get any better by whining. Stop complaining and start drawing, dummy."

Ugh I compare my art and storytelling capabilities to other people all the time and whenever I do, my art and writing gets WORSE until I cut the crap and just create without thinking too hard about it =_=

Look at their first page/strip compared to their newest. Do the same for yourself. This helps to show that everyone starts somewhere and that you're capable of improvements as well.

I think this is something most comic artists struggle with but in different ways. Some people envy how good another person's art/story is, some envy how successful it is or other things. It's best not to expect anything so you don't let yourself down. I worked so hard on making my new comic but only got 10 followers. I love my story so I keep on making it. Just remember you're making comics for fun and to improve your artwork and story telling. Try not to compare yourself to others if it makes you feel bad, channel it into making yourself work harder.

as a first timer it can be a little scary when comparing yourself to bigger artists/ comics and you start to feel kinda bad about the way your comic and art is going but sometimes it's good to see others pieces and be inspired and to know that you're having fun with your creation than just putting yourself down and stopping all together.

I used to compare myself to other artists a lot, and boy, was that a real setback - for periods on end, I'd be drawing nothing, and whenever I did, I'd just scrap it because it was (honestly) pretty trashy. One day though, I kind of snapped - I just accepted that I'll be wherever I am, and that I wouldn't really ever get too big.

Ever since then, I've been drawing in a sort of furious, hazed state, like a madman really - drawing without thinking. It's kind of like I know failure is the only thing that's awaiting me, but I don't know any better but to keep drawing the best I can - I concluded that it's much better than stopping now.

I guess the best thing when it comes to this predicament (I really like that word) is to focus only on what you're trying to convey, be it the message or the story, whatever the hell it is. In a way, being self-indulgent is the only thing that's driving me at the moment, especially with the new webcomic I'm working on.

I don't even have anyone to compare myself with becasue technically my comics aren't really /real/ comics because of how horrifyingly bad they are X_X
I think that just that fact speaks for itself X_X

Just don't.
It's counterproductive and just spoils your own art style.

It's hard not to compare, especially since I'm always comparing myself to others. The best thing to do is just focus on your own work and improvement.