What's your latest frustration with making comics?

[feardeer]

Three things have been frustrating me lately (and historically, and probably always will):

1) Technology (crashes, malfunctions, etc) - My lovely darling computer has been acting up a storm lately. I'm trying to deal with it, but I also still need to use it for work.

2) Lack of motivation - I try to compensate with discipline, but forcing myself tends to exacerbate my anxiety and has caused me months upon months of creative block before. Lengthy periods of creative block are the absolute worst and are usually coupled with lengthy periods of terrible depression. :U

3) Other projects and obligations - I have a lot of hobbies and things I want to learn and things I need to be doing. There is just not enough time. Right now my motivation for game dev has been making my comic suffer a bit. I wonder if I'll ever get the balance right?

[TheFalseVyper]

I've been dealing with the fear that my comic is trash. I replay the whole story endlessly in my head day in and day out, improving scenes and adjusting dialogue to better fit my characters, but I still feel as though it's unoriginal. I mean, people that turn into wolves, how more cliche can one get?

I justify to myself that the story makes up for the overused trope, but in the end I can't always convince myself that's true.

When those negative thoughts get me down, I have to really work hard to remind myself that even if my comic's plot has been done a million times, I continue on because I love my characters.

[Vanesalisa]

trying to think that's the good scenes to make people like it

[Draconic]

Brainstorming.

Sometime it take just a little time to got an idea, sometime it's forever.
Sometime you just have to do with what you have right now, even though it's not good at all due to deadline.

[DiegoPalacios]

What kind of brainstorming works varies a lot from person to person.

Here are some examples.
1-Some prefer to write as many ideas in a piece of paper during a few minutes.
2-Others prefer to suggest ideas to each other as a team
3-Or maybe starting with a question?
4-Setting cards with words and draw one randomly and think what ideas come with that word

Curiously the one that worked for me is asking myself a question about the plot of my comic or a joke, then i roll a dice, if i roll an even number is a "yes" and odd numbers are a "no". Then i ask myself why the "yes" or "no" is an apropiare answer for my story.

You must see what works for you.

[Draconic]

I think you missed the point of this topic.

I know what brainstorm is, I know how it work. I just hate it sometime because it take time to do.

Thanks for your comment though. That are some good advices.

[fakey]

Either feeling like there isn't enough time in the day or finding the motivation to keep working. I just got over a terrible funk where I didn't feel like doing anything for a while. Things are back on track but those little spells really suck.

[YangKoete]

I'm not in school. Kinda glad, kinda sad.

I just want to do everything but don't know where to start.

[BloodOgre]

I hate backgrounds. I suck at them so hard, but I’m trying to get better with them and don’t shy away from them with my comic. Thing is they take FOREVER and I feel like I’m swimming in quicksand trying to make a composition work. This doesn’t help that I’m a perfectionist.

[yozoragadaisuki]

When I know the deadline is near but I am tired af eventho I sleep all day. XD

On a serious note, one of the parts I hate most is when trolls come to comment on my works. I will share my experience in a different comment because right now I need to take a shower. OTL

Cheers!

[yozoragadaisuki]

(Okay so I took my shower and here is the promised rant XD)

1. Starting the comic
   The part that takes the most time. Drafting the whole story. Arranging dialogues. Arranging panels. Designing characters and objects and buildings! I always get questioned when the first chapter is coming out. The answer is always, I'm still working on the character designs because everything starts here and they need to have a strong foundation! I once (actually a few times) made a side character in a rush, and then a few chapters later I decided that the side character is gonna become more important, and that's where I regret not designing him properly to the point that his costume changes every frigging chapter. OTL Lesson learned; always design properly no matter how trivial that character/item/building is.

2. Art block
   Oh, yes. Do I even need to elaborate on this?

3. Difficult poses/scenes
   I can point out the very pages of my manga where I spent hours to draw one simple panel and still it doesn't look okay. T_T The only way to overcome this is to make it and let it go. Don't dwell too much on it. I regret not being able to do better though. T_T

4. Trolls
   My works are mostly available online for free, so it becomes really annoying when the leechers try to downgrade my works. Like, dude you're reading my stuff for free; if you don't like it get out of my site! But no, some of them just have to say something mean about my work in a place where everybody can see it. I believe that if you're not paying for it, you don't get to criticize it.

5. Loneliness
   Sometimes, I go live on instagram so that people will talk to me while I draw. There are days when everyone is busy and nobody would talk to me. And that makes me feel very unmotivated to draw. Hence the late updates. slapped XD

Ok that's it.

Bye!

Cheers

[dawgofdawgness]

Interesting compositions...

And pacing, too. My comic moves at a snail's pace and I hate it.

[TimCaloweh]

-The program sumopaint. Imagine having a chromebook, a program that needs internet and sometimes glitches out, and no way of making this better. There's a reason i don't add color to my comics. I don't want my f***ing art to turn to dust.

-Collaborators who don't have the guts to tell me they're abandoning the project. You can leave if you want but i'm still wonder whether or not you're here.

-Severe anxiety. Add a pinch of disappearing art work, and silence from people who were supposed to help, and you get an inch closer to (real) madness.

[Mari]

@YangKoete

Make a list. Then number the things you need to do in order of priority, and start doing them in order. This works for some people, but since I'm not a trained anything I can't (or won't) offer anything else; However, if you need to talk, you can always message me o7 You can do it

[Zugaikotsu]

I think... everytime someone says: 'Oh, your art is so good, your storyline is so nice... you should be more popular...' this hurts me a bit because it means to me like: "no matter how much effort you're pouring into this, it's not going anywhere."

But let's keep doing it! Fight!

[yozoragadaisuki]

I know that feel, bro. But I also try to understand their feelings that they honestly think your art is great, and that's why they say that.

[Zugaikotsu]

You're right! I go for the bright side and stick to this premise... it's just sometimes our mind wants so hard us to feel down! Thoughts are so mischievous! U.U

[Mari]

I feel like no matter how hard I try it will amount to nothing. I'm still trash, my art is mediocore at best and NSE is still a pile of shit. I want / try so hard to not have it be a steaming pile of dog poo...But it always is. I just want to delete everything sometimes. But at the same time there's some weird narcissistic streak where I feel like NSE SHOULD have more readers. It's a great mix I tell you, I can feel guilty about being a shitty person on top of the dissatisfaction I have towards everything I do.

[nerdybirb]

oof definitely writing characters and worldbuilding. it's so hard to start with no ideas aah,,, im gettting there tho !!

[punkarsenic]

im still not fully settled in on csp, and im unsatisfied with the pages im making. its really frustrating given the amount of time i spent on the thumbnails

although i also think im having problems w the thumbnailing translating to the pages - i think i need to do some shading thumbnails before i draw my pages