Smoll, timid artists:

[yartzanaserenade]

Hello everyone, especially those of you who like me are shy, overwhelmed and frightened by talking to strangers online or people in general.
I wish I was the kind of person that doesnt mind about sharing and resharing their work 100 times over until people catch on. I limit myself into quietly mentioning it, lowkey hoping no one would hear, but when they don't I just think I did an awful job and feel embarrassed for no reason. So if you feel this way too, I invite you to share what you do, your comic, or even your normal artwork. I'll try to give advice and critique if I can, though it's hard for me to find the words, I will try.
Let's have some tea, let's get to know each other here, I want this little corner to be safe and comforting and supportive.
Tell me something about you, about your art, something interesting, something wholesome.
I don't want spam or random links dropped just cause. show care and affection to other artists <3
.

I'll start.
It's been 6 years since I've posted anything here or worked with the idea of making a story.
When i was little I had so many ideas, i was overflowing with imaginary characters and fantastical places, i dreamed of collecting these stories and sharing them to the world.
Growing up, something broke, it became intensely hard for me to express myself through art and storytelling,and even though I was improving artistically, I felt like it was almost impossible for me to reach out inside of me and get everything out collected into something made for others to enjoy.
I am still today far from that, though my husband is a brilliant mind and helps me by filling in the holes of my limitations and pushes me forward.
I hope one day I will be able to create with that ease I still dream of.

For now, I am working on this new project alongside my husband, he wrote the script for the first 3 chapters in a heartbeat and I really loved it so much. I feel like I couldn't really do what I was envisioning but I'm working on perfecting my vision.. it's immensely hard to find the motivation to work on it, thinking nobody really cares, it's too abstract, too dark, it would be easier to just draw a romance and everyone would enjoy it and I would have a much easier time!
But somehow I could never do anything easy, I overly complicate myself and then suffer for it. But when I achieve my vision it is priceless.
if you want to read it it's called SHAMANKA. I won't post a link because I don't want it to look spammy. I also posted it on webtoon, there's 2 more chapters over there, though I have to fix a few things and re-upload them soon.
It is gonna be a surrealistic take on mental illness and healing.

If you read this far I hug you and pat your head.
I never talk but sometimes walls of text start pouring out of me.
See you soon xoxo.

[WillowTree]

You should post the link

I get nervous responding to comments! Like heart pounding in my chest! I don't know why, but it happens every time even though like 90% of the time I'm just saying 'Thank you' or leaving some hearts. It's so dumb because I love getting comments and I want my commenters to know that I've read their comments, but it just works me up lmao

Edit to add something wholesome - My husband and I took on fostering a stray kitten last week and she's become the feistiest most playful little thing!

[yartzanaserenade]

I feel the same! often when the comment is very nice, I get so overwhelmed by happiness and i dont know ho w to respond and I often leave for later and then forget about it, or it becomes weird and awkward to answer after so long

[WillowTree]

I have a couple comments on my earlier chapters that I forgot to come back to and leave hearts on! And like you said, now it feels awkward to go back to them and leave little hearts!

[RyzaCobalion]

Heyo!

i can definitely related on as an artist well because there was a time in my life where i had a creative block hit me really hard and i wasn't able to write or draw for about 3 months and it nearly drove me insane not being about to create anything. Let alone question myself a lot if whether or not I am fit to be artist. i get out of it after a while of deep meditation and contemplating. And I learned that I needed to do better for myself. Not just for being an artist but for a person and it was long three months just do that. So the life and struggle of being is real and it hits everyone in different ways. Also, I just check your series out and I love the art style!

[Hexigate]

This post resonates with me a lot. I comment sometimes, but I'm mostly a lurker. More times than actually posting a comment, I would write the comment and not post it because who wants my input, right? I've done my fair share of self-promotion on this site, but I never do it outside the Tapas forums. (I don't even have a sizable social media presence.)
With making comics, it feels like the only things I'm interested in writing and drawing are the opposite of what most webcomic readers look for, so you're not alone in feeling that nobody cares about your stories. But I kept working on the one series I post on here, and I was having fun with it. And eventually a few people did start caring about my series. They subscribed, viewed every update or binged it in chunks, they left comments that made my heart flutter, stuff like that. And I think your story will be the same.
Something that my mom told me is that the first person to believe in my stories has to be myself.

[WillowTree]

Oof. Yeah. I'm a big 'write out massive paragraph of everything I loved only to delete and say 'this was so great'' person...

[TheGentleArtist]

The not expressing yourself is a rough one; I hit that part in my life during and sometime after high school. I had some kind of presence, but after coming back it was pretty much gone; but I still continue making art and posting, cherishing the view, likes/favorites and comments I get on my pieces.
Comics was something I wanted to do, but never got into it during the past cause of: school, procrastination, underlying fear and recognizing my artistic capabilities; it is only recently that I finally got around posting my current comic and it has been a steady ride. I'm pretty sure most of the traffic is here in the forums instead of sites like Deviantart and Wysp.

I barely comment, mostly being a ghost and seeing other comments and topics.

[alexlcuri07]

I literally saw the title of this thread and was like "omg its me"

Honestly can relate to this a lot in terms of putting myself out there and feeling brave enough to self promote. I had the idea for my story for close to six years before putting it on paper and it took another three years before I felt comfortable enough to post it. I almost took it down right after I did too, because it wasn't gaining readers and because I was really insecure.

But it worked out. I'm glad I found fellow creaters here on Tapas who could relate to the struggles I was having and I hope you find that too.

[amortelito]

I'm very awkward about sharing my comic, I feel stupid so I barely ever promote it. I'm not a beginner anymore but somehow posting in social media is still frightening so I can relate to what you are saying.

In my comic the comment section is what I love the most, we hang out and I wouldn't have gotten such strong support if I haven't engaged with others. If you like receiving comments I advise you to respond to them even after some time passed If not people start losing interest in engaging with your stuff thinking they are talking to themselves or you don't care. Respond however you know how to. Even tell them straight up that you are not good with words but you try to communicate through your art.

I can't read your beautiful comic now because I have a long-ass list of comics I promised to read but I will subscribe. Good luck, hugs, reach out if you need something.

[rumpenstiltzkin]

I limit myself into quietly mentioning it, lowkey hoping no one would hear, but when they don't I just think I did an awful job and feel embarrassed for no reason.

oh boy do i relate

every time i comment on someones work, or even try to promote my own i just feel so awkward and i think of it alot, did i write the right words, did i say something stupid now, i feel super embarassed about posting my own work and comic but also a part of me just fuck it lets do this.

ive been wanting to draw comics for so long and i just never felt good enough but finally i had some friends pushing me and i just felt like, ok, ill learn by doing instead of feeling like i need to perfect everything!

I have social anxiety, and some ppl say that its so much easier on the internet where you can be whoever you want, but my anxiety doesnt let go even through the web, i still feel super aware of what im writing and how i write it and how everyone going to think im stupid or something.

i really want to be able to comment/communicate more both on my own comics comment section, and also others, but i never know what to say? so it always ends up with something stupid like "wow nice" / "looks great" when i really want to say so much more :S

[migxmeg]

I'm part of a husband (writer) - me (artist) team too and it's really a great experience to work on something with the person you love. Thanks for your post. It's so relatable. Working on something you care about is its own reward but it's human nature to share and communicate. It's so scary and we don't want to bother anyone!! It helps to know that other creators are struggling with the same thing.

I'm wishing you such luck and success!

[yartzanaserenade]

She is right, it doesn't really matter if people like it or not if you create because you NEED to create. I think we are often forced to feel like our work must be appreciated for it to be worth it at all, or not a waste of time.
As a lurker myself I often find it pointless to comment things and participate because i think someone else is gonna do it better than me anyways, so it's a habit that extends farther away from just being scared of sharing a comic.
Hopefully being more mindful of such behaviors would make it easier to stop them.

[yartzanaserenade]

Maintaining relevance and an audience is one of the hardest things ever, especially for an introvert like me. When I am more aware of the people that follow me I tend to get very anxious and overwhelmed by this imaginary sense of expectation that they have for me.

I am glad you finally got around doing what u love, keep going steadily, I know it's hard but if you do it'll probably give some fruits.Good luck <3

[yartzanaserenade]

That sounds very lovely. I am glad that though you struggle to share your work you still found people that love what you do and support you <3

And don't worry about reading it, I myself take a long time to get around reading other people's works, because I want to do it with care, as a fellow artist, I think it;s important to consume content in a more careful analytical way and try to encourage and offer good advice, it requires time and energy, so it may take a longer time than if you just read cause you're bored at school I think haha.
though sometimes I do enjoy doing some mindless reading<3

[kmlangleyauthor]

So much this! (I say after lurking this thread with no intention of commenting )

I have social anxiety, and some ppl say that its so much easier on the internet where you can be whoever you want, but my anxiety doesnt let go even through the web, i still feel super aware of what im writing and how i write it and how everyone going to think im stupid or something.

I get kind of impulsive when I comment sometimes... and then I’ll obsess about whatever I said DAYS later

[TheDoublekey]

Yeah I'm a veeeery shy person as well. I too used to be very anxious and/or excited whenever I had to interact with other people virtually, but now the thing has toned down. Unfortunately though, I'm still a very shy and anxious person and whenever I meet other people I know in person, I just feel clumsy and awkard and I start panicking when I should just be saying "Hello" and nothing more.
It's a hard thing to deal with, especially for me because I'd love to enter the animation industry and I'd like to build many relationships with people.

I fully understand the feeling but I always try to be creative and put everything out on my art.
And also, yeah it's very frustrating to lose creativity and sometimes it happens to me as well, especially now.

[yartzanaserenade]

I feel you
Think that I just got back on this account after 6 years and I found a lot of old posts and comments on this forum I made, that i completely forgot about, and now im trying hard to ignore cause they embarrass me! I'm trying to not delete cause you know, it's life, you say things, you feel stupid, move on, grow up, it's not as big of a deal as we think it is<3 (I says after deleting a comment cause it wasnt written exactly right)

[yartzanaserenade]

i really want to be able to comment/communicate more both on my own comics comment section, and also others, but i never know what to say? so it always ends up with something stupid like "wow nice" / "looks great" when i really want to say so much more :S

This is so trueeee. I wish I could support other artists properly, but it's so dang hard to find words to describe art or to say what you think in any way. And if I ever feel like giving some art advice or something I fear I'm gonna be seen as rude or entitled but the truth is that I would like to see more of that in general, cause we are on the internet, ,many small artists at their first arms don't really have anyone to give them a few words of advic and would benefit from it but it's still... hard to do.
I also am very appreciative to the few comments I get and the people that reach out, but sometimes I just feel dumb saying thank you so many times haha

[Legendofgenii]

I can really relate to this (even the six year break!). I am such an anxious and socially awkward person - I even dread talking on the phone.

I am much more chatty and relaxed online though. I guess because I grew up with it and you can edit what you write before posting. I can't undo some of the silly things I anxiously blurt out in real life. Lol!

You are not broken though. I'm sure it's all there still. Creative people are emotionally delicate and feed off praise and being around other creatives - so your husband joining in will be great for morale!