How to be creator with zero experience and zero skills

[mlocik97]

Hello,

I have BIG BIG really BIG idea, about something I want to create, but I'm totally bad in writting, and even worse in drawing. So How to start, and How to be creator with zero experience and zero skills? Do you have any advices?

have it all in head, I started to have idea about this comic about half year ago, but I can't even start, because I'm totally incompetent fool, that can't do anything on it's own...

[KoreanTacos]

Hire someone else to write and draw it for you

[darthmongoose]

....Practice and study so that you DO have experience and skills.

[HGohwell]

Just jump in anyway. Lots of people do with no experience or idea what they're doing (and then regret it later). Alternately the smart move of start a small or not so big/important to you idea and learn as you go before you get to the big idea.

[Chopythes]

Or maybe start small?
Have you read Scott McCloud's books on making comic? (they're awesome!)
They give out great tips on what to think about when you're making comics and what makes it work.
Then start making one page, make it small, like about someone... Maybe finding something? Or tripping? Just something you can finish off within a day or two.
Then make something in about 12 or so pages, so you get to know your own abilities and how you work.

Don't think about it being good looking or perfect. Practise makes perfect as one say, right?

Making comics is actually a great way to improve both your writing skills AND your drawing skills at the same time

You can jump in right away and start working on your big project no matter what your level of experience is. The sooner, the better I'd say!

[Kelheor]

Well, this is a hard one As for art, I will recommend checking out Sycra on YouTube. I think his videos could be great to check for a beginner. He has How to draw, Colour, Cellshading, etc. playlists.
Unfortunately, I cannot really say anything about writing, but I will recommend searching for Save the Cat book. If you cannot have the book, at least check out the things you can find from it easily on the internet (like outline, structure, etc). It won't teach you how to become a great writer, but sure will come in handy for plot making.

Next: start drawing! You'll need to practice a lot. Yes, you can copy other artworks for practice purposes (please don't just post them online and also have in mind that you also copy the artist's mistakes and "artistic choices" though). Don't skip the complicated background and full body poses and drawing hands just to get things done with a lot of flying heads on white background. The more you draw things, the better you become in drawing them

I will say though, if you are an absolute newbie in everything, you'll probably need more than one attempt to get your comic to where you want it to be. It's okay, we all started somewhere

[Dane_Sherbet]

Started from the bottom now we here at the bottom.

[mlocik97]

Thanks for answers. About hiring, I don't know, it cost a lot, and it will not help me to be creator. If I would hire someone, then I only for helping me. But I'm not sure about costs. In my opinion, many would refuse to invest time in something they would have nothing of.

About doing it on my own, I tried to draw, but my drawing looks so bad, even my self next day doesn't know/can't recognize what I drew, if it's dog or spaceship.

[Arieso_Here]

Well, you'll have to do everything for the first time with zero experience, so that you can do the same thing again with fewer mistakes...
Take me as an example...This is my first time writing a story and hoping for the best!!!

[darthmongoose]

About doing it on my own, I tried to draw, but my drawing looks so bad, even my self next day doesn't know what I drew, if it's dog or spaceship.

You have to keep doing it and looking up tutorials and books to get good. You wouldn't just pick up a guitar, strum a bit and go "ah that didn't sound like music, I guess I am incapable of learning to play guitar"!
Every good artist is good because they practiced. We weren't gifted magical drawing talent by the drawing fairies. I practiced so much from such a young age, the thumb on my drawing hand is about 2-3mm shorter than my other thumb.

Making good comics takes time and hard work, and now is as good a time as any to start working on it!

[Kelheor]

Well most of us here are not authors with millions of fans, but it's always better not to consider yourself a failure ^^

@mlocik97 don't forget you can always ask for opinions here on forum. Don't hesitate to ask, we're here for you.
Maybe you need another approach, not just drawing what you see, but breaking things on big parts and then adding details. Like the dog's eyes mean nothing if we cannot say if it's an ear or a snout
Check out this video (it's more about design than just drawing, but I think it's pretty useful), and btw it's absolutely great channel too

[MegaRay]

Start small. Learn from your mistakes and apply what you learned to your big project. Also, you need experience or skill, so you want to either work in your writing or art.

[KRWright]

Practice. It took me 15 years to write something that I was happy with enough that I thought: "hey I'm getting pretty good at this writing thing!". Yeah, you might be like "BUT FIFTEEN YEARS IS A LONG TIME AND MY IDEA NEEDS RIGHT NOW!" and that's fine, go ahead and make it. You can always return to it when your skills improve if the idea still speaks to you haha

No one's first creation (or their first idea tbh) is the best, most perfect, most brilliant thing in the world. Use the passion you have for this idea to create your first work and then your next one and your next one until you have something you're proud of. You don't have to share your stuff publicly until you're confident in it too remember.

[Dysis]

You don't have to share your stuff publicly until you're confident in it too remember.

I agree with you on this one. It took me five years to finally have the confidence to think about publishing my original work, but even then, I haven't done it. It's waiting fifth on line. Four more works need to go out there, face public scrutiny and give me the skills that would finally convince me that it's worth bringing the original one out.

Till then, I keep saving all my ideas in my phone and keep writing alone. Helps in skill building when I read good books too. It all goes down to practice.

Edit: I think I came off as rude here. It wasn't my intention, and I'm sorry if it came off that way. Five years is nothing as compared to fifteen. The efforts put in by artists who have commented here are far more than what I have gone through. I just related to your idea so much that I pounced on it to comment.

[Kelheor]

It's not really about the amount of time. It's amount of practice and effort. One can casually write/draw for half an hour a day for 25 years and another will spend 7 hours every day for 1 year. Don't diminish your achievements, we all walk a different path, but we all sure can relate to "practice makes perfect" ^^

[shfra13]

My advice is

yes totally intentionally not putting the gif

I mean, how can you know you suck if you don't do it? And how can you grow if you don't do it? The best way to be a creator with zero experience is with practice.

I understand the feeling. I'm currently rewriting a story I started six years ago, the one I thought was a masterpiece (SPOILER: it sucks), and I realize how bad my writing was. But, I still love my work, I still think it has decent plot, though lacking in other aspects. So, I edited it. I add details that I need, I patch any plotholes, I'm polishing my work as best as I could. Yes, it takes time. Yes, it takes years. Yes, it takes multiple trial and error. But, that's just a process of learning! Most people aren't born prodigy; a lot of fantastic creators started as an inexperienced person. That's why, you need to start. Otherwise, the idea wouldn't go anywhere. It will be stuck in your mind without reaching any reader.

Do some drawing practice here and there. Draw things that most likely will be in your comic (character design, setting, etc). Yes, it will suck at first, but as you keep going, you'll get better, until the point where you think your drawing is decent enough for the big idea. You can always ask for people's opinion, feedback, and advice. The key is consistency, and

[cherrystark]

Practice. Practice. Practice. Read other people's work. Learn as much as you can

[rajillustration]

Just go for it. Sometimes we get so precious with our ideas--but you'll get older and will want to be doing different things. Make what you want to make right now, while it's still the season for the story in your head.

And I would just write with where you are right now. With the skills you have right now. Maybe it's not pro--but just edit down the story, so it still works with where you are right now. So maybe instead of doing like a huge long epic--do just a short story from that universe of like 3-4 pages to start, so you get the hang of pages. Instead of complicated character designs, go simplified, for now, and lean into graphic design. You'll get the techniques of the big comic creators eventually, but for right now, make something at your level. And if you're level 1, do a level 1 comic where you're just learning how to set type, set up a page, make it coherent--that stuff takes time to learn, and it takes small and simple projects to learn.

And when it comes to drawing--practice your characters in standalone illustrations. Where you don't have a deadline, where you can play around with different mediums and different styles--it's a big ask to do a whole comic with consistent character design if you don't have experience, so doing one shots of like...1 or maybe 2 panels that are more illustrations than they are comics are a nice way to break into drawing characters.

Eventually, as you get comfortable, you can stretch yourself to draw longer comics, more detailed comics, and in a much quicker amount of time. But to start--you don't need to build Rome in a day.

[CttMaurice]

So you have no experience and skills but have a big idea.

Cool, now you have two options.

One, gain those skills through a lot of hard work and effort spending many hours to make that idea a reality through your own perseverance. In this, you will feel more rewarded in the end and will be proud of yourself but will be struggling a lot during the process.

Or Two, hire someone else to do it for you. Your idea will come up faster and possibly better than if you were to do it but it takes money out of your wallet.

You have to ask yourself a couple of questions before doing either I'm sure so if you really want it to be done consider them well and hard.

[Phantomlight]

I agree, sometimes just creating it is in itself a learning experience. And that's how you gain experience xD How can one gain experience if they do not begin their experience? Even professional creators are learning new things along the way, I am sure of it!