The Most Difficult Things About Making A Comic

[tayo_rafferty]

We are all readers and lovers of comics! Some of us are even creators. Today I want share with you a list of things which I find most difficult about making comics. In no particular order.

1. Backgrounds
2. Action Scenes
3. Vehicles
4. Finishing a project

What are some of the things that challenge you most about being a comic creator?

[AnnaLandin]

I'm with you on the vehicles! I can usually get by alright if I need to draw carts or carriages or whatever, but as soon as it's a car or a bicycle or motorbike or something, I'm lost. >.<

Backgrounds

I used to hate those too - which is part of why I decided to focus on drawing as many of them as possible in Grassblades. These days, I don't mind them - unless there's, like a million roof-tiles or incredibly complex architecture happening.

I find it helps to think of them not as a background, but as an environment. Your characters aren't standing in front of a backdrop; they're interacting with objects and spaces. You can tell as much of the story with the places your characters move through as you can with dialogue and action-sequences.

[punkarsenic]

overall id say its just how time consuming it is. i can spend whole days drawing non-stop just to reach deadline.

in actually making the comic id actually say that its foreshortening, complicated poses, and scale (although that one might be because my comics full of a buncha giants, ranging from 8ft to 80ft)

[mindybat]

I'm also furiously negative about backgrounds. They're the worst, but they're super important.
Aside from that, I feel like, for a long time, it's also incredibly difficult to find the motivation to keep posting regular when self-doubt kicks in as the views slow and your subscriber numbers don't go up even after you worked your ass off on those last panels.
Art is about your own expression and escapism rather than other people's, but it's nice to feel as if what you're making has more potential than to just be YOUR temporary picnic break from reality, sometimes it stings a little when you discover that your little portion of mystery and magic isn't everybody's ideal concept of an escape.

[Shanny8]

The most difficult thing for me:

Getting started

Once I'm in it & going, I'm good. But It's takes SO MUCH sometimes to get the energy going or get in the mood/zone to get started for me. I guess that's one of the reasons why I work the way that I do- once I'm in that zone I try to do as much as I can, coz it takes so much energy to get in that zone sometimes.

And then, if I have to break that energy- by going home on the weekdays or running errands on the weekends; it messes me up as far as momentum goes and once again it takes a lot of time to get it back.

[tayo_rafferty]

But It's takes SO MUCH sometimes to get the energy going or get in the mood/zone to get started for me.

For me the obstacle to getting started is distractions and lack of focus.

Yeah, I have been considering going to my doctor for awhile now because I honestly believe that I may have some kind of problem with focusing, like ADD or something. Sometimes I literally start thinking about something and then digress within my own thoughts and this can go on and on for up to 30 mins. Then I have to unpack my thoughts to remember what I was originally thinking.

Also sometimes I walk into a room and then forget why I am there then walk out and remember why I went there and then have to go back to the room. You can laugh, because it is funny, but it does seriously happen all the time.

[Emma]

BACKGROUNDS, OMG

I hate drawing backgrounds, which is a HUGE reason why some pages can feel a bit eh... empty, to say the least. However, I'm trying to implement more backgrounds so that the classrooms aren't just white voids with some curtains. Heck, the reason why I even started drawing a comic was to practice with backgrounds, so when the backgrounds are just white voids, it pains me so much.
Other than that, getting started! There are a bazillion distractions when you use your computer.

[vongcw]

Backgrounds for me. Slowly learning to master em by incorporating them into my art instead of having them as secondary thoughts.

I think though the most energy sapping thing for me is keeping my spirits up. For the most part, that's due to my issues with depression. It's not easy to kick old habits, but I've been quite proud of how I've kept my nose to the grindstone taking joy in my art, in spite of what the other voices in my head are telling me. (horrible things like, your artist uncle is a failure, and so will you be too. your comic is the wrong format for this site. your art is amateur at best). Life would be a lot easier without those voices. I think all of us have them to some degree.

[jurinova]

I totally agree with vehicles! Those things are always frustrating to draw. I have to draw some sort of motorbike in my next chapter and I'm already stressing it. Worst thing is that it's a scifi motorbike, so I also have to design it. Ugh.

Another thing is angles. Making something look the same in a different angle can be a total pain in the butt. Especially if it's something with tons of details.

Outside of drawing one thing I find very difficult is pacing and editing the writing. Is this scene too long? Is it too short? Are things moving too slow or too fast? What do I cut and what do I keep? It's a constant struggle.

[shazzbaa]

A lot of the things that are difficult aren't things I dislike, just things that take a lot of time and are really hard. Environments definitely fall under that for me! I do hate vehicles but uh, that's why my story is set in the pseudo-middle ages!!

Visual research is another really difficult part for me. It's not just the matter of drawing the crowded market, the office, the impressive great hall, but in paging through fifty photos of real markets trying to figure out what elements I want to use for mine, doing a ton of google searches on what tools would litter the desk of a medieval draftsman and how those tools would be used just so I can draw the desk, what sorts of things should I hang on the walls of this great hall and how do I even search for that? etc etc.

I love writing, but that's definitely another hard part. My story has ten billion things going on all the time, and keeping track of all the things I need to set up in any given scene is a lot of work! There's some exposition we need to set up before page 12, also I need to show these two characters are starting to understand each other so that it's not out of the blue when they become friends next chapter, I need to make sure this other bit of conversation happens because it's a set-up for something 5 chapters from now, I need some panels to hint at one character's secret feelings, and I need to make sure this scene flows naturally into the next. Writing can definitely feel like trying to keep a ridiculous number of plates spinning at once.

[Valalaraptor]

Probably positioning the characters in panels. Like, I have a general idea of what I want them to be doing, but I want to make sure that I'm not just using essentially the same panel from a recent previous comic. People can't know that I'm not a versatile artist.
Also, expressions. I can't into reading emotions and body language very well, so I always fret that my characters aren't conveying the emotions I want them to, even if I'm using references.
And, of course, vehicles. Vehicles can heck right on off.

[UrMom]

Vehicles, oh my god, I hate them. They're the worst things ever, I can never get their shape right, and if I manage to do that the proportions compared to it's surroundings is always wrong.

A problem most of the people here can't empathize with. Perspective where the horizon line is off the page, so I have to tape on another piece of paper is a pain, and if I'm not careful enough the paper will move which totally messes everything up.

Lastly, cityscapes. I hate drawing them, there's so many straight lines and little details. The people, the cars, the lights, the telephone poles, the trash, the businesses, the architectural designs. There's so much stuff I tend go into sensory overload trying to draw them accurately, but at the same time I want to get better at it and is the whole reason why I set my comic in a city. Man, when you get that stuff right, it can look amazing.

I think though the most energy sapping thing for me is keeping my spirits up.

Not sure if you've done this before, or if this isn't to your interest, but you should do a Bob Ross marathon while drawing. It helps me to listen to his overly peppy, calm voice when I'm feeling particularly shitty, and unmotivated. Going for walks helps too.

[jessicasurline]

Most days it isn't even the art that is hard but trying to balance time between art and life stuff. Good art takes time and I am naturally a sloth of a person so I pretty much cause my own stress there lol! As far as art that I can get hung up on, non organic things like vehicles and backgrounds are always a challenge. Sometimes I have a hard time with faces too. Especially when I'm trying to show really intense emotions. Without reference I would feel lost lol!

[indagold]

Backgrounds are the easiest part for me. If I could do a comic with nothing but backgrounds I would. I suck at drawing people. I'd say not getting tired of what you're making is the hardest part. Sometimes I get tired if it's a long piece of work and might get lazy on a page or two. Also linework, I have such an unsteady hand when it comes to stuff like that.

[mintycanoodles]

@indagold bruh same.

backgrounds are my art happy place. the actual people in the comic tho...less so. and linework is the bane of my existence. which is why i gave up doing it

[KSlinger]

I'm with @indagold and @mintycanoodles, backgrounds are fun. At least in the drawing stage. You can go wild!

I find speech bubble placement a real pain, though. When I picture a page clearly in my mind the text just doesn't come into it-- probably a side effect of being heavily influenced by TV and film. I'm getting a bit better with that though, and thankfully my dialogue is clipped.

Also colouring, but you already knew that. I don't think I'll ever enjoy it. It's far too frustrating.

[shaneoid77]

I'll not lie, backgrounds bite me so hard, I use so much reference I may as well trace them. Ok sometimes I trace them. I don't feel bad about doing this, but it may be a faux pas to some people. The rest just kind of falls in to place. I find the hardest part has been establishing myself, finding an audience, making new friends, fighting through illness.

[Izzy]

As for backgrounds, I specifically don't like drawing cityscapes or buildings. I don't think that I'm very creative when it comes to building shapes - I'm pretty sure that they don't only come in box shape. And where there's one, there's probably 200 more. ( . --- .)

[edmourabarbosa]

Who thought that something that is skill intensive, time consuming and not profitable (for most of us) would be so soul crushing? Seriously, what's wrong with us? Art is really hard and we still insist and diving deep into it. Energy management should be a mandatory course for comic artist. Depression is a serious problem among all of us.

Besides energy management, I think that the most difficult thing for me is writing. It seems easy enough, but is the most important thing in the comic. Your art can be the most amazing ever on the whole planet, but if the characters/story suck, you're out. People won't care and drop it after a few pages. Art is only good for the marketing, it makes people take it more seriously and enjoy it more. That realization just fires my anxiety when I'm writing. It makes me so judgemental of my own work that it HURTS to keep on.
Yeah, there's definetly something wrong with us.

[seacho]

...backgrounds. (and many non-living things)
And if you check my comics, you'll see that there is a complex bond beetwen backgrounds and me.

EDIT : didn't mean to reply to you Izzy but I don't know how to change ^^'