The Most Difficult Things About Making A Comic

[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 ^^'

[tayo_rafferty]

I just started a backgrounds challenge! For those who hate backgrounds as much as I! (Or if you're one of those weirdos who loves backgrounds............you can go there too).

[dojo]

For me the thing I probably struggle with the most is not cutting back where I need to. I tend to go crazy with my ideas and have this desire to be super innovative but then get frustrated when I don't have the resources to do what I want to do and then drop the project. (for example at one point I wanted to do a monthly updated adventure game that would be on the web and people could just play in their browser. I got pretty far with the first episode, but lost motivation to keep working on it)

Which leads to another thing I have a hard time with is starting too many projects at once. I have three or four other comic ideas I really want to work on, but I'm holding myself back since I don't want to be that guy who starts a thousand comics and never finishes any of them. I'd rather have a better reason than "I got distracted and overwhemed by things that were well within my control" for not finishing a project. I might already be cutting it close with a daily comic and a weekly one, but I already have plans of cutting back on the number of updates per week with the daily one if it starts feeling like it's a problem.

So basically, I really like biting off more than I can chew and it takes a lot of self discipline to not.

[gateofselidor]

The time it takes, really. I love my comic, but working on it while I have a full time job means I have almost no time for other creative endeavours. I've been drawing it for three and a half years, in a consistent style, with the same cast of characters, and I miss having the time to experiment or work on short stories. I will never regret starting it, but I will be very happy when I finish it.

[joannekwan]

The initial sketch/thumbnailing for me.
Sometimes I have to rework a composition a lot to make it work, or I'll get stuck trying to figure out a logical transition between actions and how to translate that into panels.

So that and actually committing the time and effort to produce the thing.

[hades]

For those with trouble with vehicles AND enviros try this book:

As for what's the hardest...

to keep going.
I have manic depression and anxiety. I fear my readers and often am paranoid that they are going to turn against me on a dime or become disappointed in me at any moment. Due to this I struggle sometimes to keep working and making updates. It's an uphill battle.

[Michelle]

WRITING ;u;

Really, I'm terrible at writing. Planning a story and making all those plot threads intertwine in a satisfactory way is a fun (but very challenging) process. But when it comes to actually writing down how those elements play out in the final script, that's where I drag my feet the most. Especially dialogue-- I'll find myself tweaking the dialogue up to the last minute.

Also designing new characters. I find many people enjoy exploration drawings when doing character designs, but I'm happiest when the character is locked in and finalized, and don't have to worry about them going wildly off-model every other panel.

[vongcw]

Hahaha - I do listen to motivational podcasts and other Youtubers while drawing and they do effectively keep my spirits up (it's just that finding interesting ones to last me my hours is challenging lol). I'll give this Bob Ross a check! Thank you.

[scythe]

The most difficult thing for me is the time. Not only does it take ages to draw everything, but that also means that the story progresses slowly for the readers.

[NickRowler]

Honestly I rank vehicles harder than backgrounds. You can sometimes make a decent background without making it extremely complex however that is not that true with cars.

I used to loath drawing hands but over time I got better at it. So maybe I should practice drawing landscapes and interiors more.

I think something that really bugs me is how long it takes to make a page. Like, I really wish I could be working on two comics at once but instead I have to dedicate all my time to one.

[Kura]

The amount of time it takes out of my life.

[celliz8608]

The most difficult things are action scenes thats why Armor-I doesnt have that many and marketing comics

[Kyulein]

Personally I love making backgrounds, they're my favourite part of a page, mostly because it means I'm on the final stretch (aside from adjusting word balloons after that).

Vehicles, though... Yeah I agree they're hard, and as I don't have much practise with them they're also very time consuming.

What I find most difficult, though, is finding the time to make illustrations for my comic - next to day job and comic pages I'm alaways glad when I have some time left to properly relax. (Plus I feel like most illustrations ideas I have aren't that exciting or include spoilers....)

[endlessuprising]

Yes I'm with you on action scenes!! Man they kick my butt every time. Which is bad, when you run a shounen series.

[Wishjacked]

Oh darn , the hardest part??? But all the parts are hard?

1. The writing. I actually really enjoy writing, but it's definitely the thing I spend the most time on, and is usually the thing I'm least satisfied with in the end. it's sad. Every part of writing— the pacing, the character's voices, keeping it interesting— I have to run all of it through tons of beta readers and cry over it and it still just is so hard to get right.

2. The flats. It's not that flats are hard to do— they're just incredibly soul-crushing and I hate them, so they take me forever to do and I'm miserable the entire time. I'm actually currently paying my little sister to flat all my pages for me because I just find it too painful to do myself.

3. Saying it's done. There comes a point in every page where I have to just say, "this is as finished as it's gonna be." When I cannot get my lineart right, I almost always just have to move on and color it anyways. I could keep rendering colors forever, but I have to call it quits at some point. Deciding where to do that, deciding when a page is done…. it's so freaking hard.

[anitacomics]

On the drawing part, vehicles all the way. Backgrounds are rather funny, in my opinion, but cars...

On the creator-life side, I tend to fall into a "I must do it" pit, instead of having fun. This usually makes me stressed and lower the overall quality of the product. I can keep up with my schedule even having fun, so its really a matter of mental state

[VexinglyYours]

Q_Q am i the only one who genuinely enjoys drawing backgrounds? if you have a hard time drawing backgrounds, check out Google Sketchup and use Manga Studio 5's perspective tools. makes life 10000% easier.

honestly, the hardest part for me is drafting up the perfect page composition. i think that's the longest part of my process because it requires more brainpower than just plain old drawing.

[Daplokarus]

Vehicles

Those are insanely hard for me. They don't come up often, but when they do, there hard.

[whirlwyndstorm]

Composition and anatomy are the two things I have the most trouble with. I can replicate light and color really well but not space. =( I'm constantly moving my lineart around to try and get things "right" and it rarely gets there, so often times I have to go with "good enough" if I want to get anything done.