The Most Demotivating thing you have ever been told

[Alexandritea]

A few years ago i did a re-draw challenge. So I drew a picture in 2011 that I decided to re-draw in 2013.
I was told that I had made no progress and that I should stop drawing altogether. I was very sad and mad at that time. But look at me now, I never stopped drawing, and I'd say I have gotten much better since way back then .
Still an unacceptable thing to say to a young, aspiring artist who just loves to draw, in my opinion. But life is full of A-Holes !

[darthmongoose]

I've had multiple publishers explicitly say they're interested in pitches or samples, put in tons of work to make bespoke samples to their specifications, then had them do one out of: Never responding, Responding to tell me to send it to somebody else who doesn't repond, not responding and then a year or more later being like "whoopsie, we lost our slush pile to a clerical error!", saying "Ah sorry, we got you to do this but decided instead of an artist we're going to use a cheaper option", saying that they WERE taking pitches, but now they're not, saying "Ah, we want pitches, but not manga style" (wtf why did you even ask a manga-influenced artist to pitch then!?).

Every time, it's like "Oh come ON!"

[kalrhungus]

made me stop attempting to share my stories through novels and move onto comics

isn't that usually the other way? peaple realise they can't draw and move to novels...

someone told me "where's the dislike button?"

was probably just trolling, but i really miss a dislike button on tapas.

[byelacey]

was probably just trolling, but i really miss a dislike button on tapas.

the “dislike” button is people minding their business and finding another series to read instead, and leaving the creator alone ;D

[byelacey]

i really think downvotes/dislike buttons serve no purpose other than to be abused, hah. i feel the same about the rating system on webtoon. take likes and subscribers into account when judging how good a story is. while some good stories do slip through the cracks, it’s generally a good indicator of quality.

also i promise most creators would rather you just unsub and move on without telling you why they’re going, as evidenced by this threads existence.

[kalrhungus]

if there is a like button, there should also be a dislike button. just because you can't cope with criticism, doesn't mean we should get rid of all negative expression. it works well on sites like youtube or 9gag.

[Kelheor]

Comics are not being seen on these sites as it is. Being constantly downvoted is really not good for anyone. Sure, the series can be bad, but at least people either won't read it or write you what is wrong with your series, not simply smash dislike.
People on 9gag are not original content creators, they have zero personal attachment to what they put on this site.

[byelacey]

thank you! that’s such a good point.

just because you can't cope with criticism,

i’m not against criticism where criticism belongs, and i’m pretty sure downvotes... aren’t that.

[kalrhungus]

then let's also get rid of the like button.

[byelacey]

alright, we’ll let subscriber count speak the loudest haha ;D

[Legendofgenii]

.........

[byelacey]

sorry yeah, that joke was a little snarky!

[Legendofgenii]

The face was for whoever said that to you.

[byelacey]

oops, i didn't click to see what that was a reply to! yeah, phewf. the worst thing is a lot of my art ends up looking at least a little like me so it felt kinda personal!

[Legendofgenii]

Lol! Same here actually. Especially my expressions. When my other half reads my comic he's constantly saying - that's the face you pull. Haha!

[nathanKmcwilliams]

So... I've not had the pleasure to be hated on for my comic yet. And that's kind of demotivating. I really want to get some true hate voiced for my work.

But besides that...the other thing that has demotivated me in the past was actually my parents. Not that they say I'm a bad artist or anything like that, but more of I'm not making the story they want to see. I understand why they feel that way, and I'm not going to drag them through the mud here and say what it is.
The other slight demotivation is my IRL friends and family not really reading my work. Oh well...I don't do it for them anyways.

Mostly though...I don't care what people think about my work. Or me. I will do what I want with my art, thank you very much. I owe no one a single thing.

[DualDragons]

Huh, I never posted on this thread? Odd.

The most demotivating thing for me was actually two things, one for comic I had: hate and nothingness.

When I first started out before RotH, there was this user who came around two months after me starting out. He would comment on every episode saying how ugly my art was, how ugly the hairstyles of my oc's were.
He lowered the rating of my webtoon and said it made his eyes bleed. And lastly, when I tried a new thing he ordered me to never do it again.
When I asked feedback, he would respond with "not my problem". It was someone who just stuck around to deliver me hate.

After I stopped SR and started RotH, he commented one last time on my q&a saying he was relieved that I stopped Sorcerer's Rise because it "made his eyes bleed for two months". Never heard of him ever again.

Then... nothing. I barely got any traction if zero at all on webtoon. I was lucky to receive any likes and happy to receive even one comment. I was depressed over it a while. The silence was just incredibly painful.
(This was before I joined Tapas and this forum).

I am still considering to just drop webtoon because most subs don't even interact with my series anyways.

[frgmnt]

Perhaps it's because I've always showed my work to very few people offline and don't have much of an audience online, but I've never been told things about my work that would be actually hateful. I've gotten some critiques, but they were all well-needed and polite. (The one that hurt the most was when my art was described as "a little naive" I could not ask the person what did they exactly mean by it, but I guess I can kind of see what)

But.... yeah this hurt me the most -

Then... nothing. I barely got any traction if zero at all on webtoon. I was lucky to receive any likes and happy to receive even one comment. I was depressed over it a while. The silence was just incredibly painful.(This was before I joined Tapas and this forum).

Oh I can relate I've gotten depressed over this so many times. I can't remember where I've read it, but I've seen this sentence claiming that "lack of any attention for your work could be a critique in itself". Yeah that's... not making anxious unpopular artists feel any better. I mean, they probably have a point - but thinking of it just makes me feel I'll never be good enough that my work would attract attention without me trying much, and I fall back into self-hate. So basically, I am my own harshest critic lol.

[DiegoPalacios]

With the current model in Tapas it is perfectly viable to give a negative review by commenting. If the disliker is too lazy to give the criticism, is not criticism, just random bashing.

[DiegoPalacios]

But besides that...the other thing that has demotivated me in the past was actually my parents. Not that they say I'm a bad artist or anything like that, but more of I'm not making the story they want to see. I understand why they feel that way, and I'm not going to drag them through the mud here and say what it is.The other slight demotivation is my IRL friends and family not really reading my work. Oh well...I don't do it for them anyways.

Sometimes it just comes to tastes. Different stories have different audiences.

My current comic is not my parent's cup of tea, but they really enjoyed another comic i made. (it hasnt been published online tho.)