20 / 44
May 2021

depends on how fast you get good. For me it will be very slow, I've been drawing since I was 14. I haven't improved much despite all the tutorials and studies I've done

Sneaking a peek at another reply giving your age, I would also say that you'll likely find better luck with more stable partnerships as you get older tbh :sweat_smile: It's great that you have enough drive to start trying to get experience even as early as 14, but especially if you were working with people around your same age, it's not terribly uncommon for people to lack a similar drive or work ethic to commit to something like a collaborative comic.

Regarding "am I too old to get started if I want to draw?", heck no LOL. Big agree with @migxmeg - not only do people get started well after their teens, but you're still super young in the grand scheme of things. You have your whole life to continue trying out new things and developing new skills :joy: Drawing's not for everyone and if you find yourself not enjoying it then you of course don't have to force yourself too, but the way you were talking earlier I thought maybe you were like... going into retirement or something :sweat_smile: :triumph: definitely don't give up on either trying to find collaborations or learning to draw if you want to~

I still refer back to my previous reply for how to get started (i.e. still maybe try not to do a 15+ chapter comic for your first collab with an artist you've never worked with) but otherwise no reason to be down or give up.

You sound like you're in a rush to get this project done. While I can sympathize with that, I was 17 not too long ago, I think you should be more unconcerned about how long it's taking you to "get good." I do want to get into your drawing skills and help you there, if you don't mind, though I understand if you wouldn't want to.

But as for you initial question, and since hearing about how you've been burned by artists in the past, it might be a good idea to step away from petitioning from collabs and regroup. Reconsider what your goals are and how to put your time and effort into the right places, such as leveling up your drawing skills and saving money if you choose to collaborate in the future.

You're still very young, so you really don't need to worry about any of this. You're making way more progress than you think.

Maybe you should give up on collaborations though, for a couple years. Focus on writing scripts, improving your craft. Branch out to short stories and poetry, lots of smaller projects for yourself. Do the same thing with drawing. Small projects made for practice and fun. You'll get better and better all on your own until suddenly one day you look at yourself and realize, "Holy crap I've improved so much."

If comics really are your passion, then practicing both writing (in all mediums, but especially scripts), and art (in many styles and different software) should be paramount here. Have fun with them both! But don't try to rush through trying to make the giant pro projects when it's too expensive and too expansive; it's just a road to frustration. Trust me on that one; a skilled enough internet stalker could very easily dig up 5 or 10 failed collab projects I had when I was 17 that were way too ambitious and took up way too much of my time. I really had much more fun working on smaller stuff later on.

Christ, 17. You're only a baby yet.
The great thing about comics is the low entry barrier. Even if your works a little rough your storytelling can still shine through. I say chance your hole and start drawing. Comics have a great way of putting you through your paces in a way that practice drawings and tutorials won't because the story will demand certain things from you.
Also, if you've made your fair share of work on your own steam it may be easier to net an artist for other work. I don't know about everyone else but I'm far more keen to work with someone who's actually wrangler with the medium themselves.

My art is not even really all that readable even when I have been trying to improve.

You have so much time to learn new skills. So much time. My drawings were still absolutely terrible three years after I started trying to learn as well, it takes a long, long time. By saying you'll never improve, you're only creating a self-fulfilling prophesy. I have a friend in his mid 30's who only started learning how to draw a few years ago, also in order to create a comic, and his figures and perspective are only just now starting to come along nicely. He's still only working with pencil, and has a while yet to go before he can actually transition to digital and begin his comic in earnest, but he's on the right path. Again. Mid 30's.

I don't know what this society has done to convince 17 year olds they're too old to learn new skills, but wow. No dude. You're so young.

Art takes many years to learn. Art takes a long time to create, which is why you're having trouble finding an artist to work for free.

The only way to improve with art is to just do it, draw heaps and heaps, and accept that for the first few years, your drawings will probably be terrible. Enjoy making them anyway, and appreciate the improvements as they come.

If it's not just that you're not good at drawing yet, and it's more that you hate drawing, then there are other ways to get a script into the world. (You stated above you hate novels.) You can structure it like a play and upload it to the novel section. You could look for voice actors to turn it into a radio play on YouTube. Or, you could just hold onto it, refine it over the years, and see if a comic publisher will buy the rights from you. (In which case, they pay for the artist.)

But seriously, the best way to get a comic created is to learn how to draw it yourself. Accept that will take many years, and enjoy the journey.

THIS. There have been too many posts/threads with writers facing the same dilemma doing the same thing as listed above. No artist is going to stay on a project that long- especially if it isnt their own.

You might wanna start out with a shorter project.

My interpretation of a "collab" is me going in 50/50 with someone, not me contracting/hiring someone for something.

Upon reading more of this I do agree...you're 17, you have PLENTY of time to learn to draw and get good at it. I've seen plenty of artists do a complete turn around with their skills in a short amount of years- but they also probably sat at least every day working on it at one aspect or another. You have to be willing to put in the time to do it...

I wish I had access to computers and digital art at 17(I only had notebook paper and BIC mechanical pencils :sob:)...now I'm XXXX and putting every iota of energy into catching up. Some days it sucks(aint gonna lie); other days it's cool as heck.

You gave a thumbs down to whatever has been suggested. I don't know what else you can do to bring your project to completion anytime soon.
Maybe this is just a bad time? Like a little depression, and things may not be as impossible in the future.

You're probably looking for someone to tell you to give up because you're too old and it's too expensive or whatever, but a lot of people on this forum are like in our 30's. 17 years old is an excellent time to start drawing, and ten years go by quicker than you'd think.

As for the cost, publishing is very expensive, there's no way around it. Illustrators cost a lot, which is why standard publishing exists to cover those costs. Self publishing is WAY cheaper than it has been in the past, but it's still going to be a heavy investment, and you'll want to be older before you start making those type of investment decisions. That and like...you don't spend that money all at once--you do it per chapter, per page, over the course of many years. 15 chapters is a lot. (depending on length, too).

My suggestion is...if you don't want to do art but just want to write--write a book. Not everything needs to be a comic, and you can upload art to a webnovel. That way you might only commission like 1 or 2 drawings, and you can do it with other high schooler artists who will be a much more affordable range for you since they are your age, too.

Sorry to hear that... I know it can be overwhelming sometimes & then it feels like everything is doomed. Don't give up, even if you have to put it aside for a while.

WTF? plenty of artists that would do 4 chapters per month for just 200 dollars a month, that absurd price you're quoting is only for artists living in the first world, I know that because I live in the third world and I see freelancers here asking for 200~250 dollars a month (which is above minimum wage where I live)

really? I keeping looking for lower prices like that and I couldn't find many that I liked.

This isn't meant to tear you down, just a tough love(?) kind of post.

This depends on each person, how hard you are willing to work and how passionate you are about your project. I was a traditional artist, oil and acrylic realism paintings was what I mainly did and I just left the webtoon and anime drawings up to the professionals. Then I decided to start, and I found out how much I actually enjoyed it. I didn't improve much, but I wasn't doing it everyday, so that was a given. But because of covid, I ended up practicing everyday since I didn't have much else to do, and I improved this much:

Summary

And that was within the span of 2 ish years. You're about the same age as my younger brother who said he wants to get into art too but he's worried that he's too old to start. I told him this: If it's something you really want to do, you have to put in the effort and work, not wait around for your art to "improve". Art doesn't get better over time, it gets better with practice. I don't mean to be harsh but you just say, "your drawing skills are bad, they'll never improve." If you keep going with that mindset, you're never going to improve and you won't go anywhere. Have some faith in yourself, if you look at your four year old art vs now, there has to be at least one thing that improved about it.

sorry if I sound a bit aggressive, I just get frustrated when I see people who have potential give up. You never know, maybe in the future you could have a popular webcomic or manga or whatever. Just think of your goals and what you want, and aim for that. That's honestly how I motivated myself.

I'll be honest with you, that was the case until at least early 2020, but with the whole pandemic, I'm not so sure anymore, maybe people are hungry for more money because of uncertain times, idk, good luck tho.