Experiences sharing your comics with people irl? How did it go? (Share your stories)

[Tweekling]

I asked this question on Comic Fury and was absolutely appalled at how terrible some people irl react when someone shares their art. Sometimes even aggressively. I have a bunch of experiences to share and I'd really like to continue this discussion because it's very interesting to me and kinda sad that some artists actually fail to meet each other simply because they're so scared. Familys can also be super unsupportive and that's a shame.

I'll share my experiences (some drastic, some not so drastic) after I see if anyone has any interest in this?

[60Six]

The majority of response I get is pretty much a neutral "Oh, that's nice." Which is better than negative, I guess. I've gotten a few really nice supportive friends IRL who have even read it and actively ask me about it. They're fantastic, even if it's only about two people. The only "negative" response I've ever gotten is a sort of passive aggressive comment from another friend that kind of came down to they think I'm just wasting my time and have more important things I should be doing. I guess like playing video games, like them.

[joannekwan]

I have a few irl friends that read my comics and they generally like them, particularly Demon House. A couple even support me on Patreon! Not sure what they think of my other series, best not to ask. Which is fine, because my other big series is a male x male romance. xD I believe most of them go by "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all"

I generally don't share my art with irl friends and acquaintances, unless I think I did a super good job on a piece (and it's sfw) and I post it on facebook. Usually I'll just leave a link to my tumblr or something and let people check it out on their own. I'm not really looking for feedback from them, I prefer the anonymity of the internet.

[Tweekling]

Story #1 I kinda shared on another topic: I have this one artist friend in particular who tries to tear me down every time I even so much as mention any form of success I have/had with art. If I mention fans, or whatever, they get upset. They either straight up ignore me when I say things or get kinda mean. One time I told them about how I've had a lot of people say I'm their favorite artist and they said ,"People exaggerate" and that... sucked to hear. It took me a bit to get over because these people have been fans of mine for years and as my gf says they have no reason to lie to me. I'm really sick of them blatantly ignoring the words coming out of my mouth though. Not to mention this friend also rips apart my art work and even when I don't ask for critiques and doesn't even give me advice, just tells me that it essentially sucks and I should give up on it. Yikes.

I've had other writer/artists friends who ALSO ignore everything I have to say and it's so awkward. I mention any success and they just freeze up and sit there silently then say something completely unrelated, I don't get it?

Oh, and they all avoid reading it except for one or two of them.

[heterodont]

I really haven't had any negative experiences from sharing my comics with people or in general my art? (besides one vaguely detrimental comment from a family member but I don't care about them so who cares)

For the most part a lot of my friends are surprised I have a comic and want to read it whenever I bring it up. Then the friends who already do know about my comics are positive about it and often times tell other people to read it... There is one friend who does give me 'iffy' criticisms but it's not like its unwarranted - it's often times just problems I'm aware of but find no need to try fixing them because it's not like it affects the overall quality of my stuff.

[SirHellsir]

The only time was in highschool, I had this notebook with a stickfigures superhero comedy and accidentally left it open and some of the "popular kids" started reading it. I almost die of embarrasment, but they said they had like it.
My mother say that she don't understand my current comic, but that she likes how I draw (she's the one that taught me to draw) and has been very supportive.

[SirHellsir]

those are some salty friends you have there

[lyon]

I usually "read the room" when sharing comics. If I think someone might be into it, and they're curious, I show them stuff. That is to say, I share stuff on Facebook, so it's no secret that I'm making the comics, but that doesn't necessarily create any obligation for anyone on my feed to check it out. I have a couple friends who like Bent Pins, and I've had no family members disown me over Undecayed (yet) so that's good, but it's still early haha.

[lyon]

I'm definitely more sheepish when it comes to sharing art with my friends who have actually finished or are working on their art degrees. I can't see them reacting THAT poorly, but I'm always afraid they're at least scoffing internally

[PixyByte]

I feel bad for any artist who has a bad experience with sharing their art. I've had my share, and it's not fun. Honestly though, all the negativity I received IRL was in middle school/high school. And when I say negativity, I don't mean just kids making fun of me, teachers would insult my art right to my face.
One of my worst stories from high school was when an English teacher would allow 10 minutes of free time to the end of class before it was over, and in those 10 minutes you could do anything you wanted as long as you were quiet. I decided to doodle. Nothing offensive, just like flowers or little cartoon Harry Potter characters. She came right over and told me it wasn't art class. There was some back and forth arguing, which ended in her making a huge deal in front of all the students and tearing my picture to shreds, while saying "If you put this much attention to your English assignments, maybe you wouldn't be failing this class". I wasn't failing her class.
I get mostly positive now, but I've also learned to adapt and work that "selective hearing" skill towards anything that's too negative for even constructive criticism. I usually get positive feedback IRL with my comic. The worst I've gotten is a "oh, that's nice" in a disinterested sort of way. I don't take that too personally. My comic is a gag-a-day style, and sometimes it's just not a person's taste in comedy which is nobody's fault. I've only showed my comic to friends and friends of friends and friendly acquaintances, and that's only because my friends told me to (I hate showing my art to people). I don't know if I'm being politely lied to, when people say they like my comic, but I've had some really good reactions. People who see me somewhat regularly in day to day life always ask me about it, and recently a friendly acquaintance had a group of his friends over that I didn't know, and got them all interested in it and we were all talking and laughing about possible funny situations to go in the comic. It was just a fun time all around

[UrMom]

Luckily I don't experience the lack of support most get, my family actually pushes me to make a living off my work, but aside from a few glances I don't show my stuff to anyone. I only know my family and coworkers irl (no friends on or offline), my coworkers are very... close-minded, and no matter how a character looks my family always asks if that's me; ALWAYS. So I keep it all to myself, less hassle, less questions.

[DsCashewsOfficial]

Luckily I haven't received any negative feedback IRL. Every time I show my site to someone, they always laugh pretty hard and tell me that's awesome.

Unfortunately that doesn't turn into any type of interest in following what I regularly post...the people I have shared my site with in real life have no idea I still even have a site whenever I bring it up with them again.

You mention having real supporters who have been following you for years. That alone is worth way more than any comments made by someone IRL and should give you a better view as to what people think of your work.

[Tweekling]

This happened as a result of sharing my art on FB. It also made everyone around me uncomfortable.

A few months ago this design company (they do t-shirts and and stickers and stuff) approached me and wanted me to be an artist for them having been sent to me through a friend who showed them my art, and I decided to go for it. I signed a contract, was happy that I might be making money off my art outside of commissions, and didn't consider anything bad would happen. Over time I noticed that everything seemed too personal and unprofessional.. The head guy in charge of everything wanted to text me and stuff and I thought it was fine because I assumed he'd be giving me business updates but nope.

Then he started coming onto me really hard and being very, very creepy. He wanted to take me to a nudist spa alone with him, complimented me excessively, wanted to take me to bars or to his house to drink illegally (I'm underage) and even joked about threesomes between me and his girlfriend. I wondered HOW or WHY he'd be hitting on me so I assumed I must be confused. He didn't even know what I looked like. Come to find out my friend showed him art on my facebook profile so. Yep. I had to cut all ties with him, void my contract, take down all the art I made for the company and bail. My friend felt so bad, she is one of the only supportive artist friends I have.

It sucks because I told a bunch of people I was doing it and they were excited to buy my art merchandise. This included friends and family, then I had to keep it a secret that this guy was doing this to me until it became too much when he started sending me expensive gifts when I didn't respond to his millions of texts.

So yeah. That was shitty. I lost that opportunity and shamefully avoided telling anyone that happened because I was afraid they'd be disappointed. Once again another experience where I wish I hadn't shared anything irl haha

[Sanz]

I was told to stop drawing and grow up, by my mother once. When i was younger she would support me and stuff, and think it was nice i had a hobby that kept me in the house. but when i mentioned i wanted to go to an art school when i was like 14 she said i needed to grow up and do something else. I never did get to go to an art school and self taught myself everything i had a supportive art teacher, in high school he said "people will always pay for what they can't do themselves" and i will never forget that. nowadays when i show someone, they are shocked i draw comics...they'd be even more shocked if they knew what half of them were about , i don't know why they get shocked..but. then we start talking about marvel. lol

[Tweekling]

Geez man I kinda get that. My dad harped at me about how art degrees are useless and how I better not hope to go to art school. And I don't want to in the first place, but good god. All he did was talk about how impossible it is to be an artist and how it's pointless and I'll starve on the street etc. My dad supported me until I hit about 15. Sorry you had to deal with that.

[Sanz]

yeah same here with the harping, she said i'd get nowhere, i'd starve, i'd never have a car ...all this garbage, she would also kinda criticize it if i showed her something. and not the good kind of crit, but her tone of voice was just disappointment. it sucked.

[Sanz]

holy crap dude that's awful. I never understand how people get off like that. hopes and dreams crashed on top of a creeper...

[Tweekling]

It really sucked. I thought it was the first good thing to come from sharing my art with friends and then nope. God it was so bad. I almost had to get the cops involved too. Everyone should be really careful when they're offered opportunities in the art world, especially young women.

[Dozzer]

I recognized your icon @Tweekling right after I read your post.
I'm all, "Wasn't that the artist that got featured 3 hours after posting their episoooooddeee yeeeea it is!"
Your series: The Settlers

I'm sorry to hear about your RL experiences. It's tough to keep up motivation when surrounded with such negative energy.

For what it's worth (and I'm sure everyone here can agree on some level), the tapastic community is a very nice and welcoming one. Glad you post on forums. Hope to see you around often =D

My series: The Middle Crowd

[Tweekling]

Yeah! It's really friendly here I'm enjoying it a lot thus far. I'm planning on being active here as much as I can. It's a much nicer place than offline, but most people don't /understand/ the world of comics unless they're involved so I guess it's understandable but good lord sometimes it's pretty discouraging. I'm feeling a lot better though.