Feeling Unprofessional

I know what you mean...I've been making webcomics for 10+ years and I still don't like to call my work "professional" and wonder how the heck some people (often ones that seem to just pop up out of nowhere) make these INCREDIBLE comics without dropping dead perfecting the details.

Nowadays, I just find it best not to compare myself to others and live in a world of denial. It's always good to push to improve, but remember that every artist is different as well.

I do wonder though what qualifies as 'professional'? I never know if I can call myself that or not. XD

Don't beat yourself up though @MylCreates, I think your work is very high quality!

well it true that feeling is not super fun, but the feeling that you get after you saw your first page and the latest page, seeing the improvement is quite the nice feeling! Most people say that being professional is simply about being paid to do your comic and that it. There also the thing where you don't know what most artists thinks so they might be feeling the same even though they are good at it. Well you seem like you know what your talking about judging by the comments you make and the review you did of chaser's comic! You don't seem like don't know what your talking about and I often agree with what you say in the forums!

I do, but then I find that if I look closely enough at the work of those really amazing, super polished artists, I can see lots of tiny flaws in their work too. It reminds me that we're all people, and we're never going to be perfect. Usually those professional-looking artists are just as insecure about their own work.

Besides, recognising the flaws in your work gives you something to improve on, and pushes you to be even better.

all totally normal feels. We all feel it. I think its just us as artist are our own harshest critic

Well, first off, I'd say everything you're feeling is very human, and something we all will experience in all of our endeavours at least at some point. Actually I'd go further and say that if an artist doesn't feel anxious or unworthy of attention at least sometimes, then they're probably not pushing the boundaries of their abilities often enough. But I do think this is a kind of feeling you can overcome both through increased dedication to your work, and through the simple acceptance that, almost without fail, there will always be someone who can do this or that 'better' than you.

Thinking about this for a minute, it becomes clear that the concept of 'professional' is about as subjective as the concept of 'art'. Your idea of what the word means could be miles away from mine, and both of ours miles away from someone else's. Personally, I judge it to mean, "able to live off it", rather than simply, "highly skilled", because there's so much more to success than just knowing how to draw.

You're not alone... It's "Imposter Syndrome." I described this exact feeling to a friend once and they gave me this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome8

It's all about channeling it into a positive, using it for motivation to get better and improve every day. I'm still trying to fake it til I make it.

True, the actual definition of of professional is someone who is engaged in a profession, i.e., a job. Of course, if we take that into consideration it is really hard to be a professional when it comes to being an artist, writer, mangaka, etc.

However, there are good things as well. Plenty of "paid" artists create rubbish, and plenty of "non-paid" artists create masterpieces. To put the adjective "unprofessional" or "professional" on any kind of work is bad to do, especially on this site. What we should be saying is "Great art" or "awesome story". The quality of artwork will always be different artist to artist. For example, One Piece (I love One Piece) is more of a crazy cartoon that aesthetic-wise, is not perfect or really that polished. Far from it. While Bleach and Naruto are closer to "realism" as manga can get, with Bleach to me being the most polished out of the three. Which of the three is the most popular Manga/Anime in the world right now?

One Piece.

It has been going on for a long time, and will most likely be going on for another three, maybe five years to finally get to its end. And until then, the artwork will continually be getting crazier, cartoony, odd and weirder. And you know what? Oda-sensei is having fun doing it. I don't think he cares too much at how perfect things should look. Just as long as you enjoy drawing what you draw, keep improving and studying new techniques, and above all, having fun while making art. And if you get paid while doing it, that's only a plus.

Yes I have that problem too. But then again I always hate my work when I look at it the next day.
Even professionals make mistakes. But their work goes through a lot of feedback before it gets published.
And maybe you don't notice someone else mistakes that easy as your own mistakes.
Be critical at yourself and you will become better and more professional.

I feel that way too! to the point where I rarely geven get past the sketching stage (though that has to do with some other things as well...)
what helps me though is that with most of the webtoons I like, like black haze, tower of god or noblesse, that are published weekly (and as naver does pay a monthly 'wage' I would consider them to be professional), if you reread them you can see just how much better their art got over the years, and really quite frankly somethimes it wasn't all that spectacular in the beginning...
in the end especially if it's your first one (at least this is hiw I feel about it) it's fine to start while you're still learning, as I'm sure professionals do as well.
anyway..
for myself I decided to just go ahead and start uploading my stuff when I finish drawing it, and in the end that's all you can do anyway...

honestly though looking at your art it does make me feel that way as well, and I think it looks nice myself
maybe it's a bit like when you've written the story yourself it's never as interesting since you already know exactly what will happen (at least it's like that for me ), in the same way you can't always (or never in my case ) get a picture on paper the same way it is in your head.
ultimately, I see 'professional' (when I 'judge' my own 'work') as the style that most impressed me, and then I tend to start to try to draw like them (like yuumei for example) which I can't , and in the end while I do have a lot of room for improvement, that style might not suit me anyway, and it's also important to find what 'fist best' with you, rather than trying to be professional, I'd rather learn to draw things as I imagine them
just my opinion though

Yah, I do that too. I'm just getting started in making comics so everything I make looks subpar in my eyes. But I focus on the feeling of accomplishment, the feeling of, "Yes! I'm actually doing this! And I am going to be committed. I AM committed!"

And as mean as this may sound, if I feel really down, I look at published/popular/professional manga that - to me - has crappy art haha For example, Attack on Titan is arguably one of the most popular manga internationally at the moment. But have you seen the art? For real, some people could draw better with their feet. Don't get me wrong, I love AoT (I draw AoT fancomic here on Tapastic, that's how much I love it), but when I look at the art...it's just...awful at times. Perspective? Psh forget that, who needs perspective? Fingers and toes? What are those? Just draw blobs or do the classic hide-them-behind-their-backs move. And the screentones...more like just varying amounts of grayscale. And yet, look how successful it is and how much I, personally, am obsessed with it. It just gives me hope that even if my art isn't where I want it to be, as long as I stick with it and make a story that's intense and intriguing, I'll get to the level I want some day~

I understand what you mean but I try my hardest not to dwell on the feeling of being "unprofessional". I sometimes question how I work so hard and my comic still doesn't seem as polished or pro-looking as others. However, I think to myself about ALL of the cartoons and comics that exist in the world that looks "unprofessional" in their own right and are still hugely successful. South Park for example looks terrible and even worse in its infancy, but it was and is, very successful. If you take your time and put your heart into your comic, that will shine through the most even if it looks "unprofessional". Remember even crap appeals to flies, look for as many flies as you can. Boy, that was a terrible analogy.

I think this can be a common feeling for artists, not only in comics, but in music too for example, you just sometimes feel that you aren't professional at all...

But I ty to see the positive side of this feeling, in the end it makes me want to push forward, to make better art than yesterday, that feeling of getting better helps to tone done the unprofessional "embrace".

And yes, if you look at top of the line pros you can see they also make mistakes, and that's fine because you learn from mistakes a thousand times more than from victories. So, we can't let this feeling push us down so deep that we can't raise our heads, we need to turn it into a desire to grow and be better, to keep working on that what we like. That's how I see it. Regards Oo.oO

It happens to nearly everyone, especially with artistic pursuits - prior to learning how to do something, we see people create things (even when they're an amateur) and tend to think "wow, how do they do that, they're so good!!" It's only after you start learning it yourself for a while that you realize how steep the hill actually is, in other words how far you need to go until you 'master' it. If that makes sense haha.

I've been drawing since as long as I can literally remember, and I also still feel some insecurity about my drawing skills and see no end to how much there is to improve on. But I just try my best to enjoy the process of learning instead of focusing on how much farther I need to go in reaching my desired skill level. Because even if you reach your goals, if you didn't enjoy the journey then what's the point?

Also,
http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are?language=en2
don't fake it til you make it, fake it til you become it.

Thing is what artist DOESN'T feel that way? Not being fully satisfied with your work is normal for many artists even professionals feel that way as well, the author of the Dragon ball series has made some dumb mistakes like forgetting to draw the tails in, my favorite manga artist has made dumb mistakes as well and acknowledges his mistakes.