Taking a moment to breath (neverending work)

AffectedMind 2016-01-10 21:08:00 UTC #1

Have you ever feel like you are trapped in neverending work? It's no secret drawing comics is time consuming and time flies by like crazy. I get that feeling very often, like, I don't have time for anything else, when I actually do. Drawing pages from deadline to deadline, coming up with new wallpapers for patrons and looking for a job (which is a real pain, none wants me xD). Additionally working on a giveaway and speedarts and Q and A video and EVERYTHING! Sometimes I even feel guilty when I just watch silly stuff on youtube or playing games, because it's the time I could devote to my webcomic right? Is it possible that I have so many thoughts on my mind that makes me feel so busy? I even had a long break for Christmas and yet I don't feel like I got enough rest o.o
To clear things up I love making comics! I love to tell the story I'm working on, it's not like I want to give up on it, just feeling like, maybe I do too much of it? So confused >A<

dsandoval3 2016-01-10 21:18:26 UTC #2

thats life bro thats why were here to keep the flow constant it never stops we just keep going were beasts man we dont give a fuck when we cant move anymore we keep going when were not awake anymore we keep going its a never ending goddamn cycle. and its dope as shit. life is awesome.

zerofruits 2016-01-10 21:38:24 UTC #3

Yeah I think most of us can relate to that. It's even worse when you have a fulltime job and after your daytime job, you kinda go to work again :/ But ofc drawing comics/fanart/illustrations is a much nicer work than 8+ hours in the office haha (the pay is a different topic though...)

But yeah, I know this feeling of neverending work..
But don't feel guilty if you don't draw! Everyone needs a break sometimes - and most often breaks are more beneficial than working all the time! And too much stress isn't good for mental health either >__<

AffectedMind 2016-01-10 21:45:40 UTC #4

That's why almost all of us have Patreon, so we don't have to torture us with 8 hour work
Of course you have no guarantee if it will work or not, but nothing will come to you by itself!

Recently I've been addicted to Guild Wars and I'm leveling up like a mad man, then I realize it's already evening xD I think that's why I feel guilty, I feel like I didn't do anything productive during days like this.

shaylafarley5 2016-01-10 21:57:56 UTC #5

That's life and you're taking on a bunch of projects all by yourself. Don't feel guilty of you wanna relax and catch up on your shows.
Idk if this help but play your shows or listen to music for a few hours while you work. Take a break and search for some jobs for about an hour. Workout, relax, or meditate to ease your mind.
Just don't sit in front of the screen giving yourself headaches and eye strains.

shazzbaa 2016-01-10 22:00:46 UTC #6

A lot of times I've had to remind myself that stopping and doing dumb stuff every now and again is just as important as eating and sleeping. If you say "well too bad I don't have time to sleep" then eventually your body will disagree and you'll crash, and I believe the same thing happens if you don't rest mentally, too. You crash and wonder why you spent all day playing Don't Starve or why you can only make yourself draw dumb fanart. It's because you're exhausted.

And I think the analogy holds up a little further -- if you sleep the day away over and over again, that's a problem that you have to fix. There's a balance between "never sleep" and "sleep too much" that you have to strike. And ESPECIALLY when you work for yourself, you have to strike that same balance between "never play" and "play too much." A lot of people have huge guilt over this and I think it's important to break through that!!

This might be something you already know, but I had someone point it out to me and it helped a lot -- making a to-do list can help with this! I have a problem where keeping EVERYTHING THAT I NEED TO DO ON MY MIND will stress me out and overwhelm me, whereas writing it all down allows me to let go of those thoughts and not keep cycling through "okay I gotta do this and then I gotta do this and then tomorrow I need to make sure I finish this," and it's surprising how much difference it makes when I write those things down!

zerofruits 2016-01-10 22:03:17 UTC #7

Yeah, 8 hours work is a lot of torture, especially when you think that you could spend these 8 hours drawing on your webcomic or just...improving your skills in general D: But i'm not going to complain here - I'm grateful for having a good office job and steady income - though it really eats up a lot of "drawing time" ^^'

Haha but don't feel guilty. Nothing to be guilty about! And if you really do, just tell yourself, that gaming and enjoying your time is just another way of working on your webcomic - finding inspiration, recharging energy, finding new ideas etc - There really isn't such thing as non-productive

AffectedMind 2016-01-10 22:17:32 UTC #8

I never put webcomics over sleep. When I'm tired I can't draw anything so I go to bed like a good little girl. I don't oversleep day either, so it's pretty balanced in my case ^^

makes notes

Well of course, who would quit their job just for the sake of webcomics, especially if you have nice, steady income. I would be more than happy to have webcomics as my job, but none will throw money at you just because you draw comics xD Unless you have a publisher, but I wouldn't really want to. I prefer to be independent artist because no deadlines are chasing you. You try to hold up to the schedule, but then only person that can scold you when you are late is you or maybe your fans xD

allenthomas 2016-01-10 23:34:14 UTC #9

I honest feel the exact same way as AffectedMind. I always feel like I'm endlessly working. My friends and family also don't really understand and view what I do as a small hobby. Occasionally when I take breaks during the day, it is usually something FAR removed from my comic like playing a videogame, watching a movie, surfing the web, hell sometimes I'll just sit outside just to get some fresh air. I think as webcomic creators we live very different lives that not alot of people can relate to, especially when you explain that you're not getting paid for it.

shazzbaa 2016-01-11 00:37:41 UTC #10

Hahaha, this is good! ;u; But my point with the sleep comment is that I kinda carry over this attitude to mental rest as well. When you sleep, you (hopefully) don't feel guilty for sleeping -- you know that you need to do it to recharge, and that going to bed is the right thing to do. So when you mentally rest, by playing games or drawing something fun that's not for work or spending time with friends, don't feel guilty about that either! It's like sleep -- you need it to recharge!

Oh man, this is a really good point too!! I remember some of the coolest advice I got from one of the comic pros who came to talk to us in college -- "If you're not living your life, doing things other than drawing, then you'll find that when you sit down to draw.... you won't have much to say."

demthorshie 2016-01-11 02:11:45 UTC #11

OMG, all the time, that is my life! I feel overwhelmed pretty much all day, every day, but when I finally do get a break, I feel like i'm forgetting something in my life! I kind of feel like i'm wasting time if i'm not constantly using my hands to create something. I think all creative individuals can relate to this feeling.

Mharz 2016-01-11 02:49:56 UTC #12

We all have to take a break somehow. Even if we're doing is our own webcomics. Escpecially when I feel stressed, I take some time off drawing, log out of social media and either I'm gonna binge play games, watch anime, read comics or just lie down. It helps keep the brain from going insane.

Though I'm pretty guilty of procrastinating. Which is a hard habit to break.

AnnaLandin 2016-01-11 06:44:18 UTC #13

Yes. All the time.

I'm a bit of a workaholic - if there's any spare time in my schedule, I feel the urge to fill it with something - and just like you, I easily get stuck in thinking that any time spent doing something fun (watching movies, playing video games, etc.) is time I could have spent drawing. I feel guilty about having fun.

Which is NOT a healthy behaviour. One of my goals this year is to work on NOT feeling guilty about doing things for fun. It's okay to take breaks. It's okay to spend a couple of hours doing something silly. It's actually a good thing to do, since working all the time means you risk burning yourself out completely.

I'm starting by scheduling a day once a week when I do something fun. When I have to step away from drawing and do something that doesn't involve pens, paper or cintiq. Then I'm going to build from there.

Pandastrophic 2016-01-11 07:22:13 UTC #14

I think burning out is one of the worst things that could happen, it happened to me in one of my previous comics and I've been doing my best so that it doesn't happen to me again. It's very hard to balace working on your comic, university/work/responsibilities and the time you spend doing something fun or resting.

I tend to work better with a schedule so I tried to balance everything out that way, when I'm working on illustrations or drawing other fun things I tend to not feel guilty because I was doing it in the time I scheduled. I also have a day scheduled, which is our family day, where I won't be working on the comic at all.

At the start it was hard to keep up the everything and it toke a while to get used to, I update a lot of content weekly and so I have to draw and color up to 15 panels per week. I was afraid of falling behind or burning out from working constantly eveen though I really enjoy working on the comic and so I decided that after every 3 weeks of updates I take a 1 week break, whether I need it or not where I don't work on the comic and focus of other things, it's like a monthly break which I found was very helpful and readers got used to it pretty quickly.

scythe 2016-01-11 08:01:05 UTC #15

You get to be a man of a certain age and start to realise just how quickly life goes by, and how you never know what you're gonna get, so if you're anything like me, and you have some things you want to achieve before shuffling off this mortal coil, you either get busy living, or get busy dying. Plenty of time for sleeping when you dead, but along the way, never forget a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. Have yourself a healfy helpin everyday!

Stellamari 2016-01-11 08:30:23 UTC #16

Yes, I am in the health industry and it really hit me everytime I see people with diseases or injuries that somehow happen for no reason at all that life is not eternal.

jmhenry 2016-01-11 10:48:38 UTC #17

Definitely, especially now that I've made the switch to full color pages. Doing that while trying to update at the same frequency you used to when doing B/W, I found I didn't have a whole lot of time for anything extra, so I wind up having to miss out on doing holiday pages, bonus chapters and all that fun stuff(as well as gaming less... I miss my free time u_u). It's also why I plan some time off between chapters, else I'd go insane...

dylangandune 2016-01-11 10:49:01 UTC #18

i know the feeling...
i work 10 hr days at the day job (which i did some comics about http://tapastic.com/episode/256938 )
and when i am home...i have to take care of a 4 year old daughter and take a 9 year old son to and from school...there really isn't much time for drawling without giving up sleep time....

it's tough, but it's for comics...

jmhenry 2016-01-11 10:58:12 UTC #19

Learned that the hard way recently. I spent my week off after Christmas working on pages because the buffer ran low and I kinda... needed too, but as soon as break was over and I was back to the usual, I could barely get anything done. Spent most of last week just drawing for fun and playing games cause I was weirdly too tired to focus on the usual.

AffectedMind 2016-01-11 11:23:01 UTC #20

But remember you need to rest someday too! At least you have steady income and I bet your kids are wonderful

I know that feeling. I already have problems updating more frequently with black and white pages. I can't update more than twice a month and some readers are even forgeting some plot points and characters x_x Wish I could update once a week but I don't have any buffer for my Patrons that are promised to see some pages earlier.