Have you ever felt a bit insecure about your comic?

[siluscomics]

I feel the same way a lot of the time too! I tend to go through about a month where I'll think, why do I even bother with this anymore? But something usually happens that boosts me back into it. Even one like is motivation for me because I think well, at least someone likes it!

[Legendofgenii]

All the time. It’s mostly self doubt and feeling like I should be better and faster than I currently am.

I’m trying to look at that as more of a drive to keep improving though. I suppose if we were completely happy and confident in our craft then we would never improve or try out new things.

[rumpenstiltzkin]

oh, all the time
but as you said, I too love working on my comic, but I'm always scared how other will perceive it, how will they interpret this, am I showing this thing in an understandable way, am I making any sense in this dialogue, am I the only one that think this character is fun, will I be able to tie it all together in the end etc etc

but still I keep going, I enjoy drawing the characters and being able to show their story, so as long as I enjoy it I'm just gonna keep on drawing it, and just have to think to myself that I will learn and get better in the progress and this feeling of insecurity might not always go away but maybe we can just find ways to learn to cope with it

[iHateFridays]

Hollyyyyyy shit I'm always insecure about my comic haha. XD I'm very hard on myself in general and I'm very critical of my own work. However at the end of the day I like making it so that's all that matters.

[enoshiwa]

I'm awfully insecure about my comic. I feel like my pages are lacking something and my art is just bad...
I don't want to come off as edgy and tryhard, too, so I'm super afraid sharing it with anyone.

Still, I enjoy working on it and the few fans it has.
That's what matters!

[ble]

I'm always insecure about...most things I do. Including the comic.

Recently I had to look at my first pages, and wow, I don't even know how to do it that way anymore ( I honestly don't remember how I painted a certain way, etc) and the style of the characters seems like they were made by someone else.

The story part, well, I started writing romance/girls love comics because it was the only genre people care about my stuff lol, but because it's a genre I have not much experience with, either in personal life or in the things i consume, I guess I always think of myself as an intruder/outsider or something.

[Stargazer31]

Some days I wonder if my comic is badly drawn, or if the plot is confusing, or if the characters are bland, and I think that other people are doing better.

[Puck]

When I was a kid I was secure about everything I drew. My brother and me would draw page after page and I had no problem drawing in front of other people and I drew comics for girls and gave it to them.
That changed when I started relearning to draw at the age of 40 and when I started to learn the theory, now everything looked wrong and it became impossible for me to finish anything because I always thought that I have to work on the fundamentals more and my mistakes were more obvious for me.
Now after learning and training over 5 years I´m trying to get back to creating without overthinking every little step, I don´t know if I call that being insecure, I know when it´s shit and want it to look better

[Cervie]

I played knitting in the allusion of trying to find something that makes you happy.

I really tried to knit, but it annoyed me too. And then I rediscovered the watercolor during my consultations at the psychologist, and since then I have been doing it. Watercolored everything and everyone, every day.

I still insist on the comics, but I'm almost leaving the web.

[KiabIce]

I feel like this all the time! You're not alone!

I also get insecure when I see low readership.

I do see previous pages and see how I could have done better. But it is what it is.

[carloswebcomic]

I feel insecure about my comic 150% of the time.
I think it's because I'm very limited in skill and I literally have no idea what I'm doing.
Everything from the art and writing, I feel like I'm never good enough and that I'll lose all my readers in the blink of an eye.

I would strongly advise you to find a way out of thinking this way as it can eat you alive and make your life a living hell, specially if you have a mental illness like myself.

[SpavVy]

Lol all the time but I keep going because I love it.

[Rhonder]

Very much so! Especially in the "I don't think it's bad per se, but I don't think it's that good either kind of way lol. Time is the biggest drain on my creative sanity: the fact that comics are such an incredibly time consuming endeavor pushes me to always be go go go going and pushing forward as fast as I can... but then I look back and notice that I keep making the same mistakes over and over again and rarely slow down or stop to put the time in to practicing those things- my work is passable so time spent refining "small" things could be spent making more comics instead, right? Well yes... but the time into improving is also valuable. It's just hard to convince my brain that that's true

But then on the flip side I've had overwhelmingly positive and supportive responses from my readers over the years. People scoff when I point out the things that I'm insecure about and reassure me that they're fine. So I do try to take that to heart as much as possible! I know it's not good to be complacent and always try to push my work to be better little by little... but I also try to continue moving forward as fast as possible. Over time I can see this approach working, but issue to issue, page to page, episode to episode it's definitely rough. Over the short term those rough patches shine through constantly

[Zak]

Yes, very often all the time. Sometimes it gets to the point of self harm, mentally or physically to try and forget about the thoughts i get. Then i forget about it and move on to try and improve. Lately i havent had the need for it but thoughts do linger.

Anyone reading this. Dont do what i do. I do it because of outside influence growing up. Its okay if I do it.

[rajillustration]

Yes, I do, and I've been doing art for a long time. Even the other week I was handing in artwork to a client and in my head I was like "uhh I'm going to have to do so many revisions!" and it was fine. They loved it. It's just...kind of the nature of the beast that you get these anxious feelings.

For me the biggest thing is to pinpoint where these feelings are coming from--because it's not just from art, it can come from a fear of failure, a fear of being made fun of (I mean comics aren't really considered high art), a fear of being ignored, a fear of your own art peers, even.

And so when I write these feelings down I can assess where it's coming from, I can ask myself if these feelings are even true and backed by fact (they're usually not), and I can talk back to them, basically--because even though these feelings happen, you have to overcome them to progress. So while I still have these feelings, they're more fleeting than they used to be. I'm quicker at shooting them down.

[Ayumi]

Sure. I was 15 when I started my comics, now I'm 30. Of course I had no idea about many things when I started, which I would change if I could start them again. But I rather keep going on than drawing them again, and again, and again... because I think that has no sense. I would like to tell my stories, but turning back would not help me in it, and with time I would start to not like the new version either XD
When I read back the old chapters I try to look back at them with proud, because I developed so much, and also, it is so good to think back how hard I worked on those lame pages too.

[Lady_T_Musings]

It be like that sometimes. I've been making short comics/stories for years to myself, but this is the first time I've ever gotten the guts to make a thing out of one and turn it into a whole series. I know I'm making errors and things could always be better, but that will come with practice and time. At the end of the day I'm making art that I wanted to see more of in the world and even if it's not critically acclaimed, it's going to always be a part of my journey as an artist and that experience is priceless. Besides, I'm looking forward to comparing myself from when I started my comic last month to what it will look like on the year 1 anniversary and every anniversary after that.

I truly hope you are able to cheer up soon though GGY <3!

[pilot-obvious]

I'm really insecure about my comic, especially the writing and character personalities. I'm always afraid that there's some sort of loophole that someone is going to call out in the comments or that people are going to be super confused about what's going on. Or that they just hate it. I've had a lot of people reassure me that it's not the case and that I shouldn't worry so much, but the doubt is still there. At the end of the day, I love making comics as a pastime and hobby, so those feelings of passion overdrive any negativity. Admittedly, sometimes the end result just feels lackluster.

I keep looking back at older pages and thinking about how I would have handled things differently. But I can't get too caught up in revising old work because it's important to move forward. I think I might start taking notes about things I would change and then apply that knowledge to the newest pages.

It's hard as a creator to have to tackle every aspect of comic making and marketing. I do think we should give ourselves more credit for the time and effort we put in.

[GGY]

Thank you so much All of these responses are giving me such high hopes for the future and how I see myself and my work You guys are awesome. I'm so happy this thread exists so I can revisit it every time I catch these feelings. (and ofc be an aid to any1 else feeling this way too so they don't feel alone)

[GGY]

Well said! We do the most honestly and I guess in the heap of it all we really do lose sight of that sometimes. We do amazing work for something that really should require a whole production team haha