Should I give up on creating a comic?

[ssalssal]

Hello everyone! There is something I have been struggling with for quite some time now, so I thought it might be a good idea to turn to this forum. I’d take any help, advice or pointers I can get, so here we go;
I’ve been drawing for my whole life, but I didn’t get a tablet and start ~digital arting~ until, 3 years ago? Drawing and painting has always been an interest of mine, but it’s been something I’ve done more as a way of passing time and letting out my creativity, never with a goal in mind, but that changed when I got into web comics. Suddenly I had all these thoughts, “what if I could also create something like that?” and finally I had something to work towards; a goal. A dream.

I bought my tablet, started drawing like crazy everyday to get into digital artwork and develop an art style. However, 3 years later and I still haven’t created anything close to a comic. Why? I just keep losing focus. In the beginning I blamed my lack of skills; but I got better and more satisfied with my art yet I was stuck - my skills aren’t the issue, no, it’s my lack of patience. I’ve never been very good at completing projects, and on top of that, I’m a perfectionist. Over and over again I’d try to start working on my comic, but after finishing a few panels, I’d lose patience and then scrap everything I have done for the comic only to start all over again. This repeats itself, over and over.

After years of doing this, I’m feeling so incredibly frustrated with myself, and I honestly don’t know what to do. I have a plot and characters all fleshed out, an art style I’m actually happy with and currently a lot of time on my hands to work on this comic, yet nothing comes out of it and at this point it feels like i will never, ever be able to create a comic of my own. I’ve tried taking long breaks from drawing, only creating one “page” at a time, simplifying my art style as much as I possible can, yet nothing works.
Any tips what I can do to change this?

(sorry for the wall of text. also, apologies if i’m posting this in the wrong category, i’m new to the forum.)

[minerrale]

I've had the same thing for years with writing. I can't remember how many books I have started and never finished. I just recently started to finally post a novel on Tapas, and realised that I had been afraid for nothing.
I was never satisfied but guess what? Some people actually like what I do, even if I don't like it myself!
So here is the only piece of advice that I can offer you : dive in! Just force yourself to get out of your comfort zone, to create a schedule, and just do it!
Like, make yourself do one page per week and post it. Even if you're not satisfied, even if you don't like it. People here will help you get better! And besides, after you have some experience with publishing here and improvements, you can always go back and remake your old pages.
Sorry if I'm not clear, I'm exhausted and english isn't my main language ^^"
Hope this will help, and please when you start posting, let me know!

[punkarsenic]

have you considered trying something shorter to start with? a four page short comic is way easier to complete than a 400 page epic.

[ssalssal]

@punkarsenic Oh you mean like a shorter comic (and not just less panels)? I don't think I ever tried that, whenever I come up with an idea the plot bunnies usually multiply real fast and I end up with this... huge thing. Maybe I should try to limit myself. Thank you for the tip!

[CarolRiverArt]

Well, take a advice of a person who just started late because of life stuff.
But I always loved to make comics.
You get stuck because of many things, distraction, perfection, others, etc.
JUST DRAW, PAINT or whatever. Don't think about what people will think, or anything else. When you draw your skills start to get better in many ways. You can work in other things and also draw, when you qualify things as "work, hobby" and that kind of stuff you are starting to put limits.

Do what you like most. Don't expect that people say your work is perfect (even if it perfect people will troll anyway). Just do what makes you happy the most! and you will be fine!

[Rhonder]

I'll second the tip about starting with a shorter, more manageable project! I've had the plot for this huge epic fantasy story in my head for like 10 years now, have draw the characters hundreds of times, revised the plot heavily now and then, and drawn the first like 10 pages at least 6 different times. It never took off.

I had just been working on it again this January when i came to the conclusion (after reading a lot of threads here) that I should start with a shorter one-shot comic to get my feet wet! I now have a short like 66 page comic 100% story boarded out and ready to draw, that I'm hoping to finish either at the end of this year, or early next. In fact I just penciled the first page last night!

There are 2 really cool things about it:

1.) Even though it's in doodle story board form, I have a whole complete story that I wrote in a PDF that I can scroll through. It's a really cool feeling!

And 2.) I know exactly where I'm going which i think will make the actual work easier, mentally. I managed to pencil out the first page in like under an hour last night thanks to the story board where I already worked out a lot of the challenging lay out/angles/etc.

So yeah, I'm excited to get started, but i don't think i would have been able to very well with the first story. I'd like to revisit it someday, but for now going to do some short -medium comics!

[MGComics]

I would suggest maybe creating an outline and start with short stories first?

An outline is used by several authors.

And to be honest, If you are making the art simpler just because, you don't have to do that. Maybe you find more motivating to put all your effort on every panel. An examples is the comic "Kings Folly", which you can find on Tapas.

Yes, that person has a hard time keeping up with the quality of the pages at a fast speed. But If you find motivating the fact of making incredible artwork, work ahead and do what you like.

Other suggestion that keeps me motivated is that I never finish everything at once. There was a time in which I sketched 40 pages, then I would ink and color each page. But I don't like that because my art improves and I'm doing too much of the same thing. So now, every single page, I draft, ink, color, format, and then I start again the whole process. So that way, I'm more motivated by every step of the process, instead of seeing I have to only color 30 pages at once.

Good luck!!

[eochoa92]

Sounds similar to the guy I somewhat have a collaboration going on.
He came to me with an idea that he wanted me to write while he did the art. Everytime I sent him something, he expressed his satisfaction with it, but would always say that he wanted to change it up a bit. So we'd go back and forth doing this on and on and never get past the brainstorming phase. It's been over four years and still nothing.
I also met a creator at my comic book shop who was promoting his finished project that took him 12 years to finish. And let me say that this wasn't a comic that had religion, history and all those tropes thrown into it. But it took him twelve years.

When I finally decided to start putting out my own stuff (I write), I started to see other creators say that when starting out making your first comic or comics, your first project shouldn't be your 500-page epic. It could be. But the reason they advise against it is simply because of what you mentioned - that being your lack of focus, especially if its your first time tackling something like a comic book.

And to get going, it is as simple as just writing or drawing. Start off by doing one page a day - or one drawing that can pertain to the project you're working on; characters, backgrounds, etc.
I follow a novelist on Twitter who mentioned something that was truly motivating. He said that even if you write one page a day. In a year, you have enough pages for a novel.
I know it might not fully resonate as I'm presenting examples given by writers.
I, too sometimes feel discouraged with my stories as well. But whenever I see - even the preliminary sketches to my scripts, that's something that always brings me joy and then motivates me to keep creating.
Perhaps that kind of joy can give you that extra boost to follow through on your project.
Much luck. Cheers.

[silverraven0]

Tell you what, I have no tablets and only known the existence of digital art one year ago (I'm pretty much living under the rock XD ).

Once I know I can draw stuff with medibang on my android, I started to give it a go.

I did tend to get frustrated at times since I can't (and still can't) make the sense of the perspective and depth on my phone screen (and my eyes obviously gotten more bad recently) and had gone into hiatus (for my comic) atm since I just don't like my artwork that looks so different from my actual drawing on paper.

But why gave up? You love what you do, and you should keep loving what you do! I'm on hiatus with the promise to draw again in the future, but I surely wouldn't ever giving up on my dream to becoming a mangaka. I'm more focused on writing stories at the moment, but my ultimate goal is to became a mangaka in my life.

I'm also the kind to procrastinate and running away from finishing my works, but in the end, I have to kick my self on the a*s and just post whatever i have in hand, even thought I know its s*it.

And you surely doesn't have to giving up. Take a break, but don't forget to go back again.

Sorry if this ended up as rant. Best of luck.

[fuyudust]

Try making 1 page per update type of comic then. You can check Tomo-chan wa Onna no ko ! and Mousou Telepathy for writing style reference, not sure about now but they were hella popular back in the day, they updated daily and the readers were really lively in the comment section of each chapter.

[s.j.meek]

Starting shorter is definitely the way to go here. Don't beat yourself up about it. The other important thing to remember is whatever you do, nobody will ever see it until you choose to show them. One of my mistakes when I started was I'd show off every new page I'd done (not the complete comic). Learning patience here is a very important tool in actually creating and completing something from start to finish.

Making comics should be fun! That's the first and foremost rule!.

[zoonland]

I have the same problem, I start something but I never finish it. Then, one day I decided to start a shorter project to see if I would finish it, and... I'm going to end it in a couple months, but I've already wrote the story/dialogues and did the storyboard.
Don't give up before starting. You need to trust in yourself a bit more.
The very first thing is to find and wrote down an idea for a project that you really want to do (example, an epic story with fantasy creatures and paladins? A romantic story? A story with animals as main characters? Etc.).
Then start writing the story and dialogues, and then do a storyboard, before moving to the "real" webcomic pages.
Step by step, you will reach the end. It may take months, or a year, but the most important thing is that you don't have to think that you aren't gonna make it

[kip]

Hey! I definitly heard of problems like that before. Making comics forces you to have a lot of self-control, but it’s worth it at the end.
Here’s some tips I have! (recently completed my first comic, double-tasked making it for 9 months while working a full time army job):
- Start short. ~50 pages or less is ideal.
- Have your whole story plotted out before you start posting.
- Cut corners. Don’t be afraid to put less effort into panels that aren’t as important, find out what you don’t care as much about and cut it off (for example, using a font instead of hand-writing)
- Limit your sketches. A lot of people I know have a problem dragging them down speed-wise which is re-sketching the same panel over and over to make it cleaner before lineart. Try and avoid that and learn to line from a rough sketch, if this is a problem you have at all
- Don’t look back. This is probably the most important tip I have; don’t go back, don’t redraw panels or pages, just straight up look ahed and focus on creating new content. I promise your readers will appriciate it more, too.
- Post consistently. Get yourself in the habit of posting consistently, once a week is commonplace but depending on the amount of free time you have more could be good, too. I personally don’t reccomend posting less than once-weekly. Decide on a day in the week where you’ll draw your comic. Having that impending deadline can definitly help motivate you to finish it, too. (don’t forget to get a buffer ready just in case, though).
- Work with others. The biggest motivation I had while drawing is my friends I could discuss the comic, development, and my reader’s reactions to. I also find scheduling “art dates” where me and my friends drew at the same time motivated me and was a lot of fun.
- Focus? Find your ideal workspace when it comes to focusing. People tend to think you work best when you’re focusing souley on the task at hand, but that’s not necessarily true. For me, for example, I focus best when I’m watching a series or listening to a podcast while working, so drawing becomes secondary and I don’t get bored or tired as quickly.
- Do what you like. Work in your ow style- drawing in the style you’re most comfortable with can definitly help out when it comes to speed and burning out. Write about what you like, topics of interests and genres you enjoy.

That’s about it, I think!
Best of luck

[Kyuu]

Im feeling the same. Its strange because it sounds like you are writing about my own life.

So I can't really give you an advice.
It sucks sometimes to see someone's comic that does well and feel like yours is better.
It sucks sometimes that no one will notice your comic, and that there is no purpose to it whatsoever.
It sucks as hell that you spend so much time into making comic but you only have one page done.

All I can do for you is to tell you that Im here too struggling through the same thing.
Also I'd love to read your comic. If you are like me and hate self-promo because it feels phony, please DM me or something.

Your situation is so relatable to mine that I feel like I'd come to love your work.

Keep drawing.

[feuersichel]

I'm unsure if I can help you at all, because I'm one of those who is able to finish comics. I only tend to struggle in the first pages. After that I just keep on going and I don't really know why. Maybe the difference is, that I see me and my skils mediocre at best and the comic I'm on is meant for learning (it got into a big project though).
Also I do it for me and the few people who enjoy the story. So I don't have the preasure in being perfect. For me its the pure feeling on getting it done and looking back on the finished pages even though they aren't as nice as the recent ones.

I think one of the things that might help you is to figure out, how much perfection is needed to make you feel good but doesn't overdo it. I found myself editin tiny little bits for hours but the difference wasn't even visible.

Also you should let the older pages rest and focus on making new ones. Later, you have all the time you want to do editing and redraws. Or let it be and make a new one with improved skills.

What also helped me was to loosely draw the pages on some scrap paper. That way you actually do something and still have all the posibilities to make changes. Getting the lines down is my bigest issue, this methode made it sooo much more easy.

I hope i was able to help you a little and sorry for bad english.

[ssalssal]

@kip Dedicating too much time to the sketching part is definitely something I'm guilty of, so I'm gonna try to fix that. Art dates sounds fun; that's something I did as a kid but I think it's something that could push me now too. Also gonna try listening to a podcast as I draw, that way I might not get distracted by the rest of the internet haha. Thank you for the tips, they're all very helpful! I feel a lot more motivated now

[lisahenriques]

Don't give up
Save the scraps to work on them later

Bridge of Sights | Tapas

Best Regards,

[Harmony-S-S]

I understand where you're coming from and I cannot tell you how many times I have done that with my writing. My advice is take your time, you're not in any rush. So I think that maybe you should try working out your story. Like writing the whole story down in an outline form, imagine it in your head, then draw it a page at a time. And don't worry we've all been where you are , it's just a matter of conquering it. I'll be honest with you what you're going through right now is pretty common because almost all creators started out the way you did. So it's just matter of beating it!

Hope this helps and welcome to the forum!

[SEHarrison]

I would suggest doing a shorter project, and using techniques and materials you enjoy and are most comfortable with using. I chose to do the bulk of my comic traditionally, simply because I'm more comfortable with traditional inking, despite digital being the more efficient option, and when I decided that I actually got started after months of procrastinating.

I would also suggest being ruthless with the ideas you choose to do. For a long-term project, you have to love the story itself enough to love it even when you hate it, if that makes sense. Having a story you are passionate about and have a lot of ideas for can go a long way to help. With something like a comic, like a novel, the story is really important, not just for the end result but for your enjoyment. I've finished several novels and they were always the ones that I found way more exciting and had fleshed out more than the many others I didn't finish, and the number of unfinished ones far outweighs every one that stuck, haha. Maybe spend a bit longer with your story and characters beforehand, without worrying about putting anything on paper for the time being, and just get to know them really well? I find that characters I know well tend to be characters I really want to see the story through for

[SEHarrison]

*not every idea is necessarily the best one, is what I was intending to say. Sometimes even with fleshing it out it just doesn't sort of 'click'. I tend to sit on my ideas for a long time before I actually write them, so the ones that don't capture me as much just sort of fall away and I'm left with the better ones.