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N1ghtm4r3
Sep '22

well i started the story maybe 15 years ago as just something cool inspired at the time from world events and characters i made up as conglomerations of parts from more well know charcters, at the time gundam wing was on so there was that to,alot has happened in the last 7 years tough as my grandpa passed and lilttle mroe then 2 years ago my mom passed away as well as two pet dogs that same year , those are just the 2 bggets moments there wre some good and bad intersperced in that 7 year run but not worth anythign really

thespiritinme
Sep '22

Wow, 15 years is a long time. Good job for sticking that long and hope better times come and you are happy :slight_smile:

XiuLyn_12
Sep '22

What I had to go through is probably less deep than everyone else.
But when I was very young and starting comics, I used to be afraid of drawing extreme body poses, angles, and backgrounds. I happen to be very unmotivated if I have to draw them.
I know they're essential in making comics, so I have to suck it up and do it, although I have never liked the result. I asked my sisters to help me sometimes, but they also had things to do, so I couldn't ask them to help me all the time.
I slowly learn about the alternatives to doing the things I hate, and I find out I don't have to come up with poses and angles with my brain. I learned about references and apps to help me create those. Now i'm still struggling a bit, but to produce good content, I got to keep going and improve myself! :smile:

thespiritinme
Sep '22

As a starting comic artist those was my struggles as well! I would be amazed by some backgrounds I've seen like, it would take me literally a month to draw that. And that's one panel! Until I discovered they used photo editing and that's why it's so detailed haha there are many shortcuts to make the process shorter but it's still takes a lot of time to bring out the best quality as a one man production so I'll have to wait for a bigger team, I haven't gave up on that dream yet :slight_smile: Good luck with your work!

Lensing
Sep '22
XiuLyn_12

I can relate to this a lot.

The question is if we really should push us to do things that we hate or that are boring for us instead of
putting all the energy into things we love and enjoy while doing.
Imagine you would only draw the things that you love drawing and do all the rest in a very minimal way.
I´m also not good at that, I always try to push myself through the hard stuff so I can finally draw something
that´s fun, but then I´m exhausted and maybe don´t want to draw the fun stuff anymore.

When I´m really desparate and exhausted I look at Charles Schultz cartoons and think life could be so
easy for me. I´ll upload 2 examples. One is the normal Charles Schultz background and the second
one is the one where he put more background. We are both able to do this :smiley:

47a2985a980487abf122052ea4e44885.jpg1256x1244 205 KB

XiuLyn_12
Sep '22
thespiritinme

Yes, I noticed some artists (mostly webtoon artists) use photo editing for their backgrounds!
I don't think it's wrong to do so. It's for the sake of efficiency, I suppose.
But it kinda beats my effort to make decent-looking backgrounds. At this point, I might use their methods, haha. :smile:

XiuLyn_12
Sep '22
Lensing

Oh, I've never seen this comic before! And I agree that minimal-looking backgrounds can be enough. :grinning:
Thank you for sharing~

Lensing
Sep '22

It´s maybe because it´s old, he died 22 years ago.
But he is the most successful newspaper comic artist of all time, ten thousands of comic strips,
50 animated movies, he drew more strips than I can read in my life :smiley:
I always take his comics as an example because it shows how you can focus on good characters
and short storytelling in an efficient way without worrying about perspective, anatomy and backgrounds.
It always depends on the creator and the comic genre of course but I think it´s important to focus on
things you love and which are important for you

Lensing
Sep '22

I don´t feel like I had to go through anything to make my stories.
My stories are influenced by things that I always loved or can´t stop thinking about and
that is the 1930-1950s era, humour, office jobs, human relationships, bizarre characters, erotic

I had to go through some things to write my autobiographic stuff, I´m writing stories about the life
of a touring musician. Not sure what I will publish, I probably have to talk to a lawyer before publishing
the stories

RobertBMarks
Sep '22

My novel is my statement on my media landscape, and it is the sum total of:

  • Being an fantasy and SF fan in the 1990s.

  • Attending SF conventions as an author in the aughts and meeting other authors (including Sir Terry Pratchett).

  • Being a pop culture commentator on and off from 2000-2019.

  • Doing a graduate degree in military history from 2008-2011, meeting a bunch of combat officers who served in Afghanistan (and when Americans were visiting, Iraq) in the process.

  • Getting properly into anime in 2020.

  • Having Re:Creators (Rei Hiroe's statement on his media landscape) implant itself in my head and not leave.

And that is how you get Re:Apotheosis and its characters - I don't think the novel would exist if any of these elements were missing.

powerplantanimations
Sep '22

Had to go through a rare autoimmune sickness which caused me to stay quarantined BEFORE the quarantine. Decided to brush off my writing skills. I tried to push for this other webcomic, but I soon realized no one would read it since it was sci-fi. I made connections with people on Discord. Met skilled artists and animators in the industry. Continued to push for the sci-fi story, until I came up with a stick figure isekai idea. I pitched the idea and then I got my artist's attention. There's a TON of other stuff I had to go through, but eventually that time I was quarantined helped me be super resourceful and smart with my time.

I thank the experience since it gave me a "work smarter not harder" mentality.

That Stick Figure Isekai is also a backdoor pilot for my sci-fi story. I wanna make peopel hyped for it.

thespiritinme
Sep '22
Lensing

That's so true! It's also true for my novel, and I believe for every story. If the characters are interesting enough, and the plot is interesting enough, all the rest is just an extra. Charles Schultz really knew what to focus on and what not, to be efficient with time and as evidence, it really worked for him. I want to make my story a comic but I don't have enough time to do it the way I want to as one man, so once I get recognition I'll hire a team and be the director of it :smiley:

thespiritinme
Sep '22
Lensing

To me it sounds that you are going through your passions in order to create your stories, which is lovely :slight_smile:

thespiritinme
Sep '22
RobertBMarks

You have a rich bio! It's very interesting to see your self observation and the awareness of what made you created your craft. In my eyes it's show the self digging you had to do to understand yourself and your surrounding. Well done!

TheLemmaLlama
Sep '22

Hm ... so my ongoing series bitwam only became its current incarnation at the beginning of last year, but lots of the characters and themes stretch back to 2016 when it was a dating sim visual novel idea. So I guess here's some themes I plan to explore in my comic, and some stuff I went through that informed them:

  • Homeless by choice: I've always liked the idea of living as simply as possible to maximize free time. Late high school, I remember having a conversation with my school counselor about wanting to be homeless by choice, but I was being vague out of fear and the counselor totally missed what I was trying to say :stuck_out_tongue:
    Late 2016/early 2017, I tested out that idea for the first time. I told my parents I was moving out, but gave them a misleading address. It didn't go very well; I was carrying a lot of stuff I didn't end up using, and squatting in university buildings after hours, which somehow landed me in psych ward rather than jail XD
    Cut to end of 2020, when I finished my masters and realized I hate applying for things and justifying why I deserve a job/grant/whatever more than the next person. And also that I had enough money saved up to afford food for the rest of my life. So I gave being 'homeless' by choice another shot, this time wiser from previous experiences. I travelled light, and packed for warmth so I don't need to be inside at night. So far I've been doing this for 19 months and it's been quite nice :]

  • Boundaries and individualism: It was a relief to start university in 2016, as I'm out of the house more often. It was even more of a relief when I moved out.
    My stepdad was kind of toxic; he'd do stuff like accuse me of something then accuse me of calling him a liar when I asked for evidence, ask me questions that need something more complex than a 'yes or no' answer but demand one anyway, and saying that I'm 'playing mind games' when I try to introduce any nuance into our conversations. He's incredibly inconsistent, contradicting his own values and getting mad at me when I try to clarify what he actually believes.
    This has lead me to the belief that power lies in not needing stuff. If you don't need anything from X, you don't have to deal with X's bullcrap. This may have contributed to my eagerness to be homeless by choice, as well - which is essentially applying the same mindset to employers as well as family and personal relationships.

  • Different beliefs, demonization, understanding As a kid, I felt like a bad person no matter where I went, no matter the political affiliation of the people I was talking to. On the left, there was your stereotypical tumblrites and on the right, there was my stepdad. I couldn't even fit in with the 'centrists' because they seem to think 'extremists' are more narrow-minded and dogmatic than more moderate people whose beliefs fit neatly into the overton window.
    My first experience with discussing politics with reasonable people was in my first year of university, in the math society. They explained their point of view, addressed my questions and didn't accuse me of 'playing mind games' or otherwise discussing in bad faith. I still get emotional thinking back on this experience, and I don't know if that's a good thing :'D
    But yeah, my less fun experiences with politics left me with some self-worth issues for a while, and there was a time where I always felt guilty and thought I was a terrible person who hurt people just by existing (a la 'if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem'). One character in bitwam is kind of a vent character for this experience (though I feel the need to clarify that it never got as bad for me as it gets for this character at the darkest points in the story XD). But I've since gotten better, and here's what I'd tell others who find themselves in my previous position:
    -'There's no such thing as thought crimes; what goes on in your head and stays in your head has no bearing on your moral character.'
    -'People don't want to make you feel guilty; they just want to stop being hurt themselves, and they'd rather accomplish that without hurting you.'
    -'An important part of being a rational person is not letting bad delivery of good ideas stop you from recognizing those good ideas.'

thespiritinme
Sep '22

Sounds like you put so much of you into the story and I'm liking it even without reading it. We share a lot in common, wish you best of luck :slight_smile:

1 month later

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