Everytime I draw this guy, who's sadly one of the main characters :'D.. It's double edged sword since I love drawing him but for some reason I'm just super bad at it. It takes hours for a single face and I end up erasing till there's holes in the paper. Why must you hurt me this way??
NOW tell me what's your hardship.
Well, I just inked a panel the other day containing 31 people. The page as a whole had 51 human figures on it. And this page is not part of the current chapter, which I've lovingly dubbed "The one with all the crowd-scenes".
I don't know what part of my planning brain keeps going "crowd-scenes - what a great idea!" but I would like it to please shut up for a moment, because the me who has to draw all of these crowd-scenes is getting really freaking sick of it.
... But it's not on shoot-myself-in-the-foot level yet, and I don't think it ever will be. I love my comic too much.
If you do feel absolutely miserable about your comic, perhaps you need to take a break and do something just for fun. Taking care of yourself is important; don't burn out just because of this comic, no matter how important it feels.
Sometimes I'm getting bored with drawing static scenes and same character.
@AnnaLandin Still I'm keeping a record of quantity of people in a panel, but you're ahead of me with amount of people per page!
Yah, crowd scenes.. I have a few of those too and sometimes those are rough!! But its a nice effect when its done. 
Dude you need to rest up, just step back n relax for a week or so n then look at the happier parts of life cuz it seems like you're bout to jump of a bridge from stress.
My comic has also made me feel like I should juz give up hope on everything but I then think bout something that'll make me laugh n wipe away the stress from my body.
THE LAST SAMURAI4
Crowd scenes... long landsape shots... establishing shot (Kill me please).. and although I love the character, drawing Madda-Rakt from my comic Aether Eternius1 is both a blessing and a dagger in my side.. I blame the arms. All four of em.
The bane of my life are layouts and composition. Last time my comic DID break me, it was figuring out a panel arrangement :'D
I mean, crowd shots and weird angles and my stupid main character's design can get really annoying, but usually I get through it sooner or later, especially if it's more tedious than complicated. For this kind of work, livestreaming helps a lot.
If your work is making you flat out miserable, then as others have said, maybe it's time to take a break or balance your priorities :U
Time Gate sometimes makes me angry, but only because I know that I'm obligated to do to it - not just to myself, or to my readers, BUT THE GODDAMN VOICES IN MY HEAD THEY WON'T STOP UNTIL I FINISH IT-
Also because it's going to take me so long to finish. The Time Gate series as a whole is damn near 1000 chapters - that's thousands upon thousands of pages - and I've already got a back-up plan in case I die of old age (or any other causes) before I can finish it :U And I'm only 20, I'm not that old in the least bit, but I will not be able to rest until people at least know how it ends, even if the comic is never completed - even if it's only presented in a novel form, or even just a script format.
so when i lose a page because of a program crashing or pages get corrupted or something like that that causes me to lose my progress
it's like the only thing that still makes me cry lol
For those that know me they already know the answer to this one.
My shitty fans are usually the ones that make me want to stop working on something, or make me not look forward to work on something, or make working on something feel tedious. Also note that 'shitty fans' does not equal all of my fans, as most of my fans are great, very enjoyable and I appreciate having them.
I know may come off as horrible and unappreciative, but it's true. I've just managed to collect some really shitty fans over the years I've been releasing webcomics.
To use a more recent experience as an example (this is on dA not Tapastic). I had one guy that was just shitting on pretty much every page I drew (not literally, just leaving nasty comments on most pages, insulting the story, insulting me, attacking my other commentators or reader) continually insisting I need to quit this comic, because it's a garbage waste of time with no meaning and is a worthless pointless stupid story.
Doesn't sound like much of a fan right? Well he was... I work on 2 comics, this guy was a fan of the other comic I work on, and every time I updated the comic he didn't want instead of the one he wanted he would lose his shit all over the comments section of the comic he didn't read... because yeah... he didn't read it. He refused to because it was 'a terrible comic I will never read this shit, and even if I did read it 1000 times my opinion would not change because it's still a shitty comic'
Now, the easy solution would be to block this guy, but I really didn't want to because that would make it so that he couldn't read the other comic that I worked on that he liked, but the guy would not stop and kept getting worse to the point it was really bothering my readers. So I ask him nicely to stop. He did not. So I gave him a warning, that if he continued this behaviour that I would block him, which would effectively keep him from accessing my account. He of course unhappy that I had the audacity to threaten him.
After some back and forth he demanded to know why the hell I work on this trash comic with no meaning behind it (he kept bringing that term up 'no meaning' 'meaningless') I told him that it was alright that he saw the comic the way that he did everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but that for me comic has a lot of meaning to me for two reasons, it focuses on a lot of experiences I went through growing up, as well as it was my therapy comic, as my health and condition gets worse and worse it's harder for me to draw. Some days I can't even draw a straight line. So I work on this comic, because it's simple enough and unlike my other comic, has a warning at the beginning explaining that my art my fluctuate, so the readers are fine when it does. Just being able to work on something or be able to release stuff on a schedule is therputic to me, because I'm so, so fucking scared of NOT being about to do this anymore and being 'useless' (My other comic I unfortunately learned that I CAN NOT let my art fluctuate and not be good, because people will flip out, call me lazy, say I did a half ass job or that I don't care, and judge every little detail on it. With people who would even message me with PMs equivalent to 'do it right or don't do it at all.')
At this point THIS is where it got weird. This fan threw a fit. Because I did not 'warn' him that I was handicapped and having trouble drawing. That I should have 'warned' him because now I'm making him look like an ass... (even though that was all him. he did that on his own) He started going on about how it was my fault he was putting all these horrible comments on my pages and not his, and now I am making him look bad. Even though my dA explains at the least that I am sick, the warning disclamer at the begining of this comic, explained, that I was sick. My dA journals I would sometimes bring up that I was sick, having a flare up OR in the hospital, as to explain if I have a long hiatus. Those though did not mater apparently.
To end it all off he finished his grand argument with "Well if you're eventually going to die from this illness then why am I even following you. It just means you won't finish Raven Wolf (the name of the comic that I work on that he likes) so it's pointless to even read anything from you now. I'm just going to unwatch you now."
Like... just... fuck my health apparently or that I'm still trying to draw comics through all of it, if I can't entertain him with a story that will finish at a timely pace I, and my series are not worth his time.
At least this ordeal was over right? NOPE. HE WASN'T FUCKING DONE YET.
Several days later he PMs me, telling me 'my friends' are leaving mean comments on his dA for no reason that make him feel bad and make him want to kill himself, and he's sure they're doing it because he left comments on my comic. That makes him getting harassed by this people MY fault. So I need to make a public apology and apologize to him for not warning him that I was handicapped/sick, because it made him look like an ass (because that was all my fault remember)
For one, the list of people he mentioned were not my friends, they were no one I knew or recognized, and when I check out their profile NONE of them followed me or anyone that I knew. So there was nothing I could do about them, secondly I was not going to apologize for not 'warning' someone that I am sick and/or handicapped (and honestly me saying so did not magically make him look like an ass because he ALWAYS looked like one) I explained this to him as well that even if I did make a apology which I was not entitled to do, it would not DO anything to help because I don't know the people harassing him. I ended the response with 'I'm sorry this is happening to you, try not to let random bullying on the internet get to you, I know it's hard but there's more to life than just their opinions, and again I don't know anyone you linked and there's nothing I can do about them.'
He accused me of attacking him, and that I was ungrateful, and continued to insist that this was all my fault anyway and that I'm just making him look bad for no reason because he did nothing wrong.
=________________________________________________________________________=
@kurapikasuki You can block him, he will still be able to READ the other comic, he just won't be able to comment.
@AngieVX That's not what dA said when I read the terms/info to blocking someone. It said it would restrict complete access to my content. Unless of course I read wrong because I do that too.
@kurapikasuki Nope, it's not like this. It allows anonymous access to people who are not even signed up. From DA FAQ: "Once a block is in place, the blocked deviant will not be able to interact with the blocker and their content in any way. The blocker will also not be able to interact in any way with the deviant they blocked". And by interacting they mean sending messages of any kind. You still can access the gallery of a person who blocked you.
GIANT, VIVID FOAM FINGER AT THIS>>
I've only had Photoshop crash on me twice since getting a new laptop 3 years ago, but wowowow (emphasis on the 'ow'), it puts a noose around your neck when you've been working hours on something and neglected to save it just before a crash. That's the ultimate test of endurance, man! X]
I really want to get out of a collab I've been working on for 3 years. I'm the artist working for a writer. While I don't absolutely hate the story and all that, I feel I could do more with my art and earn more if I focus strictly on my webcomics. Seriously I've gotten more from ad revenue in a year than I've gotten paid for that project over 3 years! Right now I'm doing the project more out of obligation to a friend, because the writer is a nice guy and we like bouncing ideas off each other. But at times I really feel like getting myself fired from this project. goes to draw porn
@kurapikasuki Of course you'll be removed from his watch list but he will still be able to check your page manually if he's actually interested in your comic. Stay positive and creative!
we should team up
/waggle waggle
@kurapikasuki: I think a lot of your rough luck with "fans" over the years somewhat stems from the fact that you established your fanbase at DeviantArt. Yes, the website works for what it does, but it's definitely been a slow decline into chaos over the past several years :/ ( I finally just went "fuck it" when they did that major overhaul with the logo and the CORE program and shit... next to the fact that I had ZERO success on DA, as most of the views were - and still are - going towards furry art, Sonic art, pony art, Sakimi-chan, and the like, plus the community was toxic, and I just didn't see the effort in posting to it anymore when I had more success on platforms like Tumblr, Tapastic, Instagram, etc.).
Along with that, it seems like you fell into the "sunk cost fallacy" trap - despite his clear abuse, he was still a fan of another comic you made, so you let it slide for as long as you could. Let's compare the webcomic community to, say, a cafe (and I know that most of our readers aren't paying to read our stuff, but bear with me here lol) - there's one abusive customer who's in every day, constantly belittling the staff as well as other customers, and just makes it an overall negative atmosphere for everyone in the cafe. But this guy comes in every day, spends up to $10 a day at the store on average.
Should his behavior be tolerated?
Absolutely not.
Even more so in the webcomic situation - he's not paying to read your work, and you don't have any actual, positive incentive to let him continue that kind of abusive behavior, so it's best just to cut ties right there and let him suffer the consequences. Letting him continue just means he knows he can get away with it - which would fuel the fire even more for when you do block him, as he would come back over and over again, knowing that you wouldn't be able to do anything (maybe even if you could), and even go so far as to bring other innocent bystanders into the mix (some not even related to you in the slightest).
I know it's in the past now so my advice doesn't mean much, but this goes for anyone who deals with abusive readers - they are not obligated to read your work if they are just going to trash you and everyone around you. Reading your work is a privilege, not a right - and if they abuse that, and if you have the power to block them/ban them/etc. then use that power to its potential and protect not only your own reputation and comic, but your community and their online safety as well.
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There are definitely days where I just don't feel passionate enough to work on my comic so I just take a rest then, but in general I don't have a problem with that. Sometimes it's slow when I'm working on a boring scene or frustrating when I can't get a drawing right though.
Well, I want to dedicate most of my time to it, but I can't because I need money to survive, and the only job that hired me was one that keeps me away from home 11+ hours a day (sometimes weekends); and at the end of every work day I've so little energy that I usually sleep instead of draw. I feel like that if I had more time to spend on my comic, I could start making some kind of money, but at the same time I can't take that gamble because I've already lost that gamble several times before during some major financial cricis'. So I just sit and get frustrated at the fact that I'm slowly losing my artistic drive, my art is slowly deteriorating due to physical and mental exhaustion, and the direction I'm going with my life is so disappointing that I'd rather shoot myself in the foot and bleed to death.
That's it, there's literally nothing about actually working on my projects that makes me willingly miserable, it's the fact that I can't work on it.
