I’ve been posting my art online since 2010, and have been on Tapastic for the past two years.
Popularity (or lack thereof) was a source of anguish for me for the longest time. However, I eventually found that my desire to become popular was interfering with my ability to create – I would spend more time checking my social media accounts than actually drawing, and feel unhappy when my art didn’t get as many likes as I hoped.
Eventually, I decided enough was enough. I deleted 5 of my social media accounts and restricted myself to Deviantart and Tumblr. Even those I banned myself from visiting most of the time.
I lost more than 6000 online followers during that purge, but in exchange I regained my focus.
Not receiving instant feedback on my art hasn’t diminished my motivation to draw. If anything, I now have much more energy to spend on artmarking, and the quality of my works have improved as a result. That has ironically made my work more popular in a roundabout way.
I speak as a serious hobbyist, and I’m aware that professional artists may disagree. However, this is the advice I wish I had received two years ago:
1) Popularity is only popularity
Fifty Shades of Grey isn’t better than the Discworld series despite selling more volumes. Justin Bieber isn’t better than Tchaikovsky although his music videos get more views on Youtube.
When someone is more popular, it doesn’t mean their work is necessarily better. Perhaps their work has more mainstream appeal, perhaps they spend a lot more time and money promoting themselves, perhaps they were lucky.
Don’t take the numbers too seriously.
2) When you’re excited about your work, others will be excited too
The artworks that people responded most enthusiastically to were the ones I drew thinking, “I love this idea. I’ll draw it even if nobody else likes it.”
Conversely, whenever I drew fanart simply for the sake of getting likes, I’m always disappointed.
This is the magic in artmaking: your viewers can feel the emotions you’re experiencing when you create. When you’re impatient, the viewers feel irate. When you’re calm, the viewers will experience peace. When you’re deeply in love in what you’re making, the viewers will feel that too, and they will reciprocate the love in kind.
3) You only get better at what you spend time doing
The fastest way to become better at drawing comics is, surprisingly, sitting down and drawing a comic. While it’s good to be inspired by other artists occasionally, that should never take precedence over the real work: drawing a comic.
There’s an amazing amount to be learnt from just experimentation. Don’t depend on the internet for guidance. When you do your own work, you’ll find your own answers.
I learnt storytelling by drawing a chapter again and again, each time slightly differently, until I made a version that excited me. Sometimes I drew six drafts before arriving at one I was satisfied with.
I’m always surprised by how much I discover by just sitting down with paper and a pencil for a few hours.
When you draw something you care about, the work will be intrinsically rewarding. You will grow stronger and depend less upon the internet for approval.
If you make a living with your comic, you might be more pragmatic about getting an online following. However, if you’re a hobbyist like me, my advice is to explore and experiment. Dig deep and find out what you truly love. Take the plunge. Stop caring so much about what other people think.
Even if your work doesn’t become a success, you would have enjoyed yourself and learnt a lot in the process.
You would have made something that you can smile fondly upon, many years down the road.
p.s. I recommend Neil Gaiman’s Make Good Art speech, Art & Fear by Bayles and Orland and Deep Work by Cal Newport. They have always been inspiring when motivation gets low.
