Jan 2019
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Jan 2019
Jan 2019
akitsukino
Jan '19

TL;DR There's a really cool video by the creator of Space Boy about creating out of trust and not fear and letting your intuition and your love of the process take over. Thoughts?'

Recently I made a post abut who important it can be to be nice to yourself, and on that post I linked to a website called Doodle Alley. (It's here.2) There are a lot of really good comic essays here about what it can mean to be a comic artist. But there's also this video on the site that got me thinking.

Create Out of Trust, Not Fear

A big part of the video he mentions trusting your instincts and letting things happen naturally in your creative process. You could accuse him of being biased( Of course he can say this. His webcomic is insanely popular!), but I still wonder if he's onto something. I mean, Space Boy has some of the more organic character interactions I've heard in a webcomic in a while.

It can sound so irresponsible to say, "Oh, I'll just start and I'm sure everything will work out in the end." I've seen comics stop updating because the creator said that they didn't know where to go with the story. I actually feel very surprised when I hear comic artist working on long form comics say they don't know everything that's going to happen.

I always tense up when I hear philosophy's like this. (Them: Just do your best and trust that everything will work out! :blush: Me: Trust!? You can't can't trust things out here! Have you looked at the news and twitter? Because I did and I shoudn't have! :confounded:) I know a part of this has something to do with my anxiety. I deal with it with minimal success. I think of how anxious I get when I don't know what's going on, so I'll make rigid plans and when those go south (meaning I still don't know what's going on) I'll freak. (Ex. Yes, I'm on the right bus! Wait, why is it turning a different corner? There's an alternate route today?! How was I supposed to know about that?! (wheeze)). I somethime feel like a Type B personality trying my hardest to be a Type A and failing at it.

I think the reason I tense up is because it might be exactly what I need to hear.

Thoughts?

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VibrantFoxRegular
Jan '19

i think im a mix of following instinct and planning things out or researching.

for me at least i like to have a lose map of how things happen in and when and where in a story, having the skeleton y'know? but once the frameworks put together and its time to flesh things out thats when I'll let instinct pilot the ship.

if anything i find this useful because I've gotten back to working on a short story I'd like to have up this year and I've been almost panicked about getting things down but it does pay to go with the flows sometimes and i think its a way to surprise yourself

keii4ii
Jan '19

I think he's onto something, but I would word it differently. There is something I've seen floating around on Twitter that describes the same idea (I think?), with better wording, buuuuut I can't remember the exact quote. It was something like this:

"Create what you are passionate about, not what you think you should be passionate about."

It's about knowing yourself, and not being afraid to show who you are through your works.

It's not about "don't worry about lack of skills because you can do no wrong!!!"
It's about "don't worry about what other people like. Do what YOU like (but by all means, strive to do it well)."

I do get the feeling that he's pushing for a pantser type of writing, which I don't really agree with. You can be self-indulgent and still be a planner. It just didn't work out for him because when he was trying to plan, he was doing so in order to appeal to a publisher, to other people. To me, this isn't about pantser vs planner. It's about who you're trying to please: yourself vs others.

Moxxi
Jan '19

"Trust, not fear"

That issue plagued my life in art for SO many years! I was so fearful of making decisions that would cause fans to dislike characters based on their actions that I never explored what my characters were capable of.

Yeah, the key to consistent comic production is not just plenty of rest, but quality rest. I'm best when I'm totally relaxed and unencumbered by any lack of deep sleep.

Giving so much focus to beautiful and eye-catching artwork did certainly get in the way of telling my stories, since it took me so long to produce even one page. Just being able to produce artwork at the rate I am now with simpler linework has made me a happier artist overall.

redmancomics
Jan '19

I like this philosophy. It's true that sometimes if you overthink and over-judge what you're making you can just get kinda locked up. The best thing to do is just keep moving on and make what you love.

qwerty
Jan '19

I agree with this sentiment! What I've found many times (especially recently as I've been trying to learn to draw faster) is that it's often not my lack of ability that holds me back, but my lack of trust in my existing ability. The mindset where you hesitate over every line of dialogue in the script, every stroke you make on the canvas, because you're worried it's not good enough - that really slows you down (and doesn't even produce better results in my experience).

When I escape that mindset and just do it, either out of trust that the results will work out or out of lack of attachment to the results - paradoxically that's when I usually get the best results. And faster. And while enjoying it more.

Of course, "just doing it" doesn't mean being sloppy or refusing to plan something out when necessary - you're still doing your best. Just with a different mindset :slight_smile:

punkarsenic
Jan '19

thanks for sharing this video!! trust not fear is a really great mantra. its something i need to learn myself...

i think im gonna make that one of my project goals / reminders in my sketchbook actually. in basically all my projects i continuously seize up, terrified ill miss deadlines, not live up to my expectations, not trusting my own instincts and holding back for the feedback and guidance of teachers. and that guidance is valuable, but ive found that when i just let it all go and focus on the process of exploration and experimentation, things go, like, really well.

i do feel like pantsing a longform comic is less trusting and more plain risky - how are you gonna foreshadow the ending if you dont know what it is? how are you gonna structure setup and payoff when you dont know what youll be paying off?? ive seen it work sometimes, but usually to incredibly chaotic results - and more often to cancelled comics.

i mean, i say this, but i totally pants twaw for two years. i regret it. i now have some plot contrivances / maybe whole ass holes that i cant fix without going back into the already-published parts of the story. but it was certainly a better thing to do than plan something i never make at all.