I dont enjoy drawing comics. Help me change my mind!

[KennethLopezJr921]

I'll just cut straight to the point. I don't enjoy drawing comics, and I don't think I ever have. And when I say that, I don't mean my series specifically, I mean the medium of comics. And I cant name a single point in the past 7 years where I genuinely enjoyed drawing something comic related, with exceptions of course. But whenever I would find myself hating what I was doing, I would tell myself to suck it up, because this was the only effective medium I could use to tell my story. Which, up until a year ago, it was but things have changed since then. In late 2024, I started attending animation school where I learned animation, of course, and where I brought myself closer to turning Crescent Blue into a show. In that time, I've found animation and storyboarding to be more creatively fulfilling than drawing comics, even though both mediums are equally labor intensive. And that's not to say comics as a medium are inferior, that's not what I'm saying, but at least for me, I was getting something more out of animation and animatics than I was out of comic making. I felt more at home with animation than I had ever felt with drawing comics. Because of this realization, Ive become more comfortable admitting my grievances and being okay with it, rather than suppressing it like I had in years past. Also, in going to animation school, Ive gotten closer to turn Crescent Blue into a show like I said earlier (not there yet, but its closer to becoming a reality than it was 3 years ago), which has always been the goal from the beginning. So because of this, I dont feel as obligated or motivated to work on my comic as much as I used to. Im more comfortable with waiting than I used to be.

Now, like I said earlier, my comic making experience hasn't entirely been negative. There have been moments where I genuinely enjoyed making comics. An example being the Q&A strips I did for my comic's main character 3 years ago. I actually had fun making them which has not been something I've usually said when working on my main series. But there have been moments of joy there too, usually pages where the drama was ramped up or action scenes. But I think in regards to the first example, that worked because I went into that project knowing it would be a comic first, which is not something I've done with Crescent Blue. I've always seen comics as a means to an end; as a way for me to get my story out there before I had the means and skills to do it in animation. Plus, I had always imagined Crescent Blue as an cartoon first and found the changed Id have to make in order for it to work in comic form very limiting and frustrating. And now that I have the ability to work in animation, and as that intended goal gets closer, the drive to draw Crescent Blue as a comic has completely evaporated. But its not like I can just stop uploading comic pages and call it a day. I've already gotten this far with my comic and I would be lying if I felt there was a part of me that wanted to make this work. I have some ideas on what I could do to make it work, but I just wanted to hear what people here thought just to get some perspective. Maybe I've been approaching this with the wrong mentality the entire time, who knows!

Edit: I should clarify that I dont plan to make crescent blue animated by myself. I plan to do it once I have assembled a team because I know doing it by myself would take a lot longer than it would to make a single comic episode ^^'

[jwabeasley]

If you think it would be better told as an animation than a comic, by all means go right ahead and do that thing!

I like animation fine, but I've always loved comics in all forms, especially the classic newspaper strip. I also don't have many art friends (before doing this, I had almost none) and I do not have the skills or the time to do everything an animation requires solo - so comics are feasible in a way that animation is not for me. As great as it would be to head a production house with a staff of artists and a multimillion dollar budget, it's not in the cards for me anytime soon!

Granted, I did not go to animation school. I'm glad you're having a good time there.

My experience making Etherwood is that I do really enjoy the process. Each page I try and outdo myself from the page before. I write each page to have a joke, a revelation, or something cool on it, and I put everything into making that element come out (even if not always successful). If I had no need for a day job and no home/family responsibilities, I'd make comics or comic related art all day every day.

[justincarbunkle]

That’s great you feel fulfilled animating. If you don’t mind the bigger workload + wait to tell your story, power to you.

I also envisioned my comic first as an animated series, but went the comic route due to the time + labour needed to produce animation.

I do have serious plans right now to produce a pilot episode, but I don’t believe I could confidentially produce a decent pilot without the 4 years I spent drawing the comic. The comic gave me an easy to manage method for telling my characters stories, a relatively quick outlet where I could learn how to write and draw my world, while also producing something of entertainment value.

I prefer animation, both to consume and to create, but I did get a lot of gratification in producing comics, and respect anyone that is willing to work with this medium.

[ShidoDraws]

It seems you might have already made your decision, in this moment at least. I can tell you really want to animate your series, but I can also tell you were bored to death with this project. If you can, you should test the water with this. Animating is much more time consuming than making comics. At least, I know that much.

To be honest, I've always imagined my story as an animated series. It's why it doesn't look like a manga. If I did try, I could churn out more chapters in black and white, but I love coloring and inking was never my favorite thing to do. To me, it dulls a lot of illustrations and kills the experience when it comes to reading some of my favorite manga, maybe because I love animations more. Of course, I don't enjoy animating as much as creating a comic. Perhaps when I try to tell short stories, it would be cool to animate. But based on my story, there's too much to tell and too little time, so although writing other stories and participating on other projects sounds cool, I try to keep myself on track and reminding myself what my initial goals are before I even started my comic, which is making a comic. I've always just wanted to make one, and now I need to finish it, to prove my younger self that "yes, I can finish a long-term project".

Perhaps you should ask yourself what you would do with your limited time in life. All of us will inevitably die someday, and the essence of our ideas will go with us. You should think about it.

[DiegoPalacios]

In that time, I've found animation and storyboarding to be more creatively fulfilling than drawing comics, even though both mediums are equally labor intensive.

As someone with experience in both.....

Animation takes waaaaaaay longer and requires waaaaaaaay more work, but if that is what you prefer doing and it's the medium in which you visualize your project working out, go for it.

That being said, if you wanna finish your project before you run out of your lifespan you either need to make sure to adjust the scope for solo animation or assemble a team.

Don't forget about voice actors and music.

[KennethLopezJr921]

I should probably have clarified that when I say doing it as an animation, I don't mean by myself. I mean with a team of people. If I did do it by myself, it would take even longer ^^'

[DiegoPalacios]

Yeah, that makes it more viable, hope you find an awesome team to work with.

[ThunderChicken]

When I was a teen and into my early 20’s I loved drawing comics. Then, in the mid 90’s, I simply stopped. I don’t know why I stopped. I didn’t make a conscious decision to stop. I just didn’t feel like drawing anymore, and so I didn’t.

Almost 30 years later I started drawing again. Still don’t much care for drawing comics, but I do enjoy drawing.

[Azifri]

Oh if someone else will do the animation (or a good part of it) then the decision is easy Why is this even a question lol

[KennethLopezJr921]

Because there's a part of me that wants to continue drawing my series as a comic. Not only because Ive been doing it for a long time, but also because I dont want give up on it on such a sour note.

I did say I had some ideas on what I could do and one of them was adding animated panels or pages; not only as a way to keep me animating outside of school but also as a way to making a comic page more visual interesting for me

[KevinReijnders]

If it is storyboarding and making animatics you like more than making a comic, I would suggest to start treating your comic like it's a storyboard.

While I'll be the first to admit that comics =/= storyboards, when I transitioned from the animated medium to the comic medium it was the how I approached it at first. Maybe that'll help you find the drive to continue the comic and start enjoying it more again.

[Krysteena]

Honestly, if I had a team, it would be so bad. It is hard as an individual, but I would definitely take mental breaks. Sometimes you get in a funk. I personally love drawing my characters in clips from my manga, but trying to make a whole storyboard is a bit overwhelming. I think it's because I am new, only having technically 3 chapters, but over time, I think it won't be so bad.

[Cairn_Rath]

I enjoy comics but id do struggle with motivation on a page by page bases.
I found that for me i have to constantly 'innovate' or try something new with every page.
The momment i get a routine a, this is how you shade , colour, the momment my panels & pages start getting uniform or a pattern, i (unaware) slowly start to lose interest.

So every page i try to find an 'anchor point' or something new to do and try to keel me invested.

Its just how my brain works. i've seen whole comics were the aftist stricks to a 6 panel grid, so the few momments when they break the border or do a full page splash the effect hits.

But i just cant, id get bored before page 3.

This has its draw backs of course, panel- panel story telling can be negatively affected, can make things harder to follow and my experiments dont always work out -Also as mentioned above, the fun interesting panels dont have the same hard hitting affect- but it keeps me going.

Now i look at every page like a new challenge. I ask myself "what something different i can try" or "how can i improve upon a past failed attempt" were as before i was going more on how comics were supposed to be made, cause i was beginer who didnt know what to do but to follow the advice of those more experinced.

The only advice i can give if your deteremind to try and finish your comic, is to look back at those momment in comic making that you genuinly enjoyed and ask what exactly about that experince you enjoyed, that kept you going, not neccasarly with joy but with a quiet contentment (aslong as its not misery)

Than test out your theory and alter it till you have something that works best for you.

[DiegoPalacios]

If it is for hobby reasons, do whatever is fun for you at the moment it is fun. You can do both.
Maybe one day you animate, another day you make comic pages.

Now, when it comes to choosing animation as a career, you gotta wonder if you only enjoy bringing your vision to life or if you also enjoy the process of animating.

I can't recommend universities, but got a friend that studied animation, and gotta warn you, it's intense....way more than comics.

If what you want is to assemble a team, my biggest tip is that you need to pay them. (having someone work for free is extremely rare because exposure is no real currency). If you can't afford full time workers you could work with people on a commission based format, paying for gigs. That requires budgeting and communication, but for some that works wonders.

Another key aspect when choosing people to recruit is to check their portfolio and their work ethic. I rarely work with complete strangers because it's harder to tell when you don't know the people.

Hope this helps

[KennethLopezJr921]

I've kind of seen my comic pages like that in a way, where I would do a panel for panel adaptation like what anime does with manga. Although after having a storyboarding class at school, Ive come to find that both are different in multiple ways. Like in storyboarding and animatics, the goal is limit the number of shots for a given scene in order to make the background artist's life easier, but in comics you don't have that limitation.......something I thought until typing this out. Ideas like reusing the same camera angle and background for certain panels never made sense in my mind until just now, though Im not sure if thats what you meant. Did you mean that in doing a storyboard first then turning it into a comic?

[jwabeasley]

Nah, I'm pretty sure that he means it in the sense of having a complete visualized story. Just like all those anime that use a preceding manga as the basis for most of their shots.

I will say in comics it is actually a pain in the butt to do the same background for several shots in a row (without resorting to cheap tricks) and it is a lot more acceptable to just have panels with no background at all. A lot of webcomics would do well to focus on limiting the overall number of pages needed to tell the story to control for project bloat and avoid endless hiatuses.

[KevinReijnders]

I mean, that'a not necessarily the goal of storyboarding, to be as limited as possible. I'm assuming they're training you for very lean/low-budget tv productions. But those are constraints you don't have.

But that's also not what I meant. I meant that if you enjoy making storyboards, format your comic like it were a storyboard! Just put 3 panels a page, that are essentially storyboard frames.

Hell, panels in a comic book are already semi-keyframes (at least that's how I approach it)

What I'm saying is, you don't have to strictly hold yourself to a rigid comic book format and just adapt it to fit your interests.

[KennethLopezJr921]

That...........sounds very tempting!

Like yeah it wouldn't be standard but Im passed the point of wanting to follow the standard comic book format and Im more willing to do things that aren't standard but make it less of a slog to go through. And the case like bellow, I could literally reuse the shots from this animatic of a chapter 3 scene in my comic XD