Why we stop drawing?

[Mikayi]

so I was looking through some of the comics I favorite/subscribe to, not so much on this site as other sites I'm on. and something occurred to me, some of those comics are dead, or disappeared/moved.

I was just randomly thinking about this as I read some topics dealing with Subscriptions/favorites. I see a lot of people asking for subs. wondering how to get them, and I see often people give advice it's the same advice. which means there's no magic to it. Back to my silly randomness,

do you believe that people stop drawing and writing because they feel like they are invalid, as when someone shares a comic or story but they get little or no support. so something they love turns into something they believe they are no longer good at and just stop drawing/writing ect. I seen it happen to a few artist, and not sure if it maybe a common thing. Because Subs are kind of like supporting the person, and even some stop because regardless of subs, they don't get comments, and again feel depressed/lonely.

I'm always sad to see someone give up on something they love because they feel no one cares. but that's just me, I'm sure others feel that way too.

I don't get very many subs. or favorites by a lot, but for me it's something I love, ( I share it with those who want to read I'm happy for those who enjoy my art and writing.), even the small amounts. so I may not be a great motivator to those people who feel like they need 1000+ subs to feel good about themselves, but I do love this saying:

"you don't write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say" F. Scott Fitzgerald.

maybe it can help anyone who feels like just because they don't have 1000+ subs. that doesn't mean you are unnoticeable. be happy there are even a few people out there that want to read your stuff, even if it takes a while.

anyways I got off on a tangent. sorry about that, but it was my little randomness I thought I'd get others people 2cents in.

[SirHellsir]

Some people just want popularity
Some people just think they can draw well, then realize is not so easy, so they quit
Some people don't get the validation they wanted fast enough
Some other burn out (like me, but I haven't quit)

Other thing I noticed is that there are artist that spend years building a followbase, came here, get a 1000 subs and other people think that they got that followbase from one day to the other (and get frustrated went they can't pull the same stunt)

[Greg_Dickson]

It's not entirely the popularity that concerns me. It's just the need to feel that I'm growing, even if it's just a little bit by bit. When you produce content and you feel that barely anyone is reading it, it becomes discouraging. At the moment for me, every little bit of momentum I had going has come to a dead stop today. Literally, pretty much the whole day has passed without a single view for me, and I just released a page yesterday (one that I worked nearly a whole week straight in my spare time on). I'm not saying this to blame anyone. I really do want to tell my story, and I'm going to push forward, but there's a large feeling of discouragement that I'm internally trying my best to overcome. While I'm definitely happy for those few people that come along (which is all that keeps me going), it's just hard physically watching my progress seemingly hit a brick wall. It's like everyone vanished today, and it's just so easy to notice because it's been my day off. Regardless, I have been working on another page throughout today, but the lack of traffic leaves a nagging feeling that makes me question when or if things will ever pick back up again. Lastly, I will say that I do draw because I love it, but I would have never posted online to begin with if I didn't care if anyone saw it. I'm half doing it for me, and I'm half doing it for an audience that I hope will get some joy from it. I do think I articulate my thoughts better in the "Are We Subscribe Crazy?" thread better though. Things have been bad lately, but I do hope they will pick up eventually.

[carliv]

I suggest people should draw for the love of drawing. Not just for subs, but to share what they love. Ps sorry for preaching lol

[Reraser]

I think only a certain kind of person can feel fulfilled with their work existing in a vacuum.

I went through a period where, on DeviantArt many years ago, I had built up at least a tiny following that I knew was watching. Moving on from that, I felt discouraged from creating knowing that I would have nothing get seen. That was basically through my college years, now I started my own comic here because... Fuck it, right? I finally took on the thought process of "Well just make it, shoot for success but don't demand it as the price for working on your hobby."

Still, though, I will always understand and sympathize with the mindset. Admittedly I find it kind of whiney how people make threads dedicated solely to "Why am I not getting subs though?" instead of attempting to do something creative and engaging on the forums to get some possible attention; but I think we're lying if we say we don't understand why someone would give up. Drawing takes up time, especially to maintain a regular schedule that people can follow. It's a form of work, even if you find it more fun than other forms. As a communal species, it's difficult to get over the thought that your work is made invalid when no eyes but your own see them.

It's also forgetting the intent of stories- to be put into the world to share a piece of ourselves and try to teach lessons or inspire others. We draw because we feel the urge to, but it's disingenuous for us to suggest that wallowing in obscurity isn't frustrating when your time is going into something that is designed to be shared.

That went on long. I hope someone reads it. And subscribes to it. Why am I not getting subscribers?!?!?! I gotta go make a forum post about this...

[shaneoid77]

I don't think that's preaching, I think that's sound advice. The internet has cultivated a 'like' culture which attempts to validate us numerically. There are no numbers attached to that which you love.

[Mikayi]

@SirHellsir: I thought a little about it, but I wasn't sure if that could be a main reason for it. but it does make since. and I do understand being burnt out. it's a lot to keep up with, that and everyday life. I'm glad you haven't quit though. ^-^
so they get fed up with not making fast fans? I understand people gain fans over a long period of time, or they started with a bunch of people knowing them. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
I
@Greg_Dickson : I understand that feeling, I think at some point I felt the same way. and it is heart breaking that no one has viewed your comic. I do hope things pick up for you though. it's a hard thing to go through. I took a peak but it was mobil and I'll be happy to go check the comic out and give it a good read through. (I only saw thumbnails) after all I'm always looking for something interesting to read. I do hope though that you don't quite, and I'm hoping that you get more love! I'm glad you shared this with me.

@carliv: I don't believe that is preaching, I do think that you are right, that people that love what they do shouldn't stop. I was just curious about how people felt when they feel that no one is supporting them. or in a way makes them feel alone.

@Reraser I think sometimes it's hard to admit, but I always have that feeling that people shouldn't be in a vacuum, and that people draw sometimes because they want something to share, and it's difficult to feel like you are 'wanted/noticed' when it appears that even online no one does. I read through some of the 'why don't I get subs?' post, the only reason I don't reply is because I don't know the answer to that. although maybe it is a way of trying to get attention? but at the same time I wonder if it takes a lot of effort to pull yourself out and try to write on a forum or ask. I personally was really nervous about posting on a forum. wondering if anyone would reply. but when I did and it was just a simple hello post, I'm actually glad I did. because people are friendly and honest/open here. which I like.
but I have to admit I felt that way too, at times it's hard to get noticed, and I just go to work and home. so I don't get out much and I probable live online. but I think in a way I understand the feeling of people not having any support in life or online. it's fine I don't mind reading all you wrote it was interesting to read. thank you .

[Ringarune]

I can see two sides to this aspect.

Sometimes I'm sure people just get tired of making comics. It's a lot of effort and from my personal experience it can be strenuous and stressful at points. For some people the stress might be too much and for others they may just lose interest in their projects.

i can also understand people who drop their comic because of lack of subs. For me at least, I write stories so I can share my ideas with others. If I didn't think others were enjoying my comic, I don't know if I would be still writing it. I already know how my story ends and what events are going to occur, so I wouldn't really need to write it if it was just for myself. Of course that's just my opinion on the sub thing.

[Greg_Dickson]

It's also forgetting the intent of stories- to be put into the world to share a piece of ourselves and try to teach lessons or inspire others. We draw because we feel the urge to, but it's disingenuous for us to suggest that wallowing in obscurity isn't frustrating when your time is going into something that is designed to be shared.

YES! That is the exact statement that describes how I had been feeling today. Stories are meant to be shared. We work hard and passionately to share a piece of ourselves with the public, and when your work is never seen, you don't feel validated. You feel kind of rejected, even when it's not everyone else's intent to make you feel that way. We put hours upon hours into our work, because we care so much about our content, that we use up our free time to give something back to the world, and in the end, it feels like it's thrown into a void, so you question, "Why did I just spend all of my free time working so hard on that?"

Regardless, I've gotten some good words of inspiration from others today, and rather than just feeling like we're all whining about it, I find having good discussions and talks about these things are what's going to keep the smaller creators going. It's certainly helped me.

@Mikayi Thanks, I'd be happy for you to at least give my comic a look, if it's your thing. It is action-based, but it will have a surprising amount of character development, as well as some comedy peppered in. I don't plan on quitting, as I'm determined to push through this uphill battle. I feel discouraged sometimes, yes. But I've invested way too much money, time and passion to give in. I'm really glad that you replied to me on this too. The support I've gotten today has really meant a lot to me.

[keii4ii]

Abandoning a comic and completely stopping drawing are very different things! A lot of people abandon (or take an indefinite hiatus) their comic, but don't stop drawing. This happens for a number of reasons:

• They had characters and thought it'd be fun to make a comic with them, but had NO idea how much work it would be to actually make a comic and keep updating it consistently.

• They had characters and thought it'd be fun to make a comic with them, but didn't have a well thought-out story. They realize the story wasn't strong AFTER they've drawn some pages, so they abandon it. Afterward, they go back to just making illustrations.

• They write themselves into a corner. (This, and the factor after this one, happened to me after 600+ pages.)

• They have a life-changing experience, and the story they wanted to tell is no longer as relevant to who they have become. (As I mentioned, this too happened to me...)

[Mikayi]

it does seem like that plays a bit roll. especially if it's a hobby, I see a lot of people with partons.(?) and it heps them make some money which is good. but I assume a lot of us work to support ourselves and it can be stressful to keep up with everything. I'm glad to hear that you keep at it. I understand. I think that is one reason why people do draw and write I feel the same way. I have a story to tell, and I do have endings so I know they end, but I want others to share in it. we have things we want to share with the world. and it's always a good feeling when you have people that enjoy your work.

[indagold]

It seems if subs are keeping you from having a early mid life crisis then you gotta leave the house and get help...

[Mikayi]

by no means did I mean they were the same thing, but I was wondering because I did have a lot of favs. and from what I noticed they do stop after a while because they think no one cares. and I did find one on Tapastic here that moved from an older site, (I was lucky to find it because the other site they left no note) but that's very interesting to hear. that seems like a good reason. and I did hear from some people that drawing illustrations are different then actually having to do a comic which is sequential art vs. a kind of stand alone. Comics are not the easiest things to draw, you have to think of a lot even panel placing. and I have done that, I actually have a comic that was 7 volumes long, and over 2000+ pages. that's a lot, but at some point, I started to redraw it, and it's now in volume3. However the reasons is that I drew it and the story was not as clear as I wanted. it's the same story though, just better done.

@indagold is it like a mid life crises? I don't really know, I'm just curious about how everyone feels about the reasons someone may stop working on a comic. Personally I have no life I go to work and back home. but I know my reason, just like to relax when I have days off and fix the car or draw. or take the pups for walks.

[Kura]

Most of the times I see a webcomic series end is because the artist didn't realized just how much of their life this project would be taking up and just no longer have time for it. Though honestly, there's a million reasons a webcomic project will not work out.

I don't think I've encountered too many that quit do to lack of validation (the list of reasons people quit is pretty long) but I have seen it happened before, most prominently being when inkblazers shut down, a few comics that were previously being paid for scheduled releases to that site could no longer justify the time and work that a comic took, because they were not pulling in the numbers they needed quickly enough to fill the pay cheque loss. They needed money, lot of people quit their jobs to be able to create the update schedule required for that site, so they had to quit their webcomics to get money elsewhere, because the numbers were just not adding up to pay their bills.

[Mikayi]

I do remember inkblazers, I didn't know that they were getting paid to update. or maybe I didn't pay much attention. but I see your point. it does take a lot of work. I update bi-weekly because I can't update daily with jobs and other things going on in life. but it seems like it maybe a dominate reason. I just seen a few that lost validation and quite, so I figured I'd ask if it was comment or not.

off topic, but are you on Drunkduck? I think I may have seen your stuff up there. but I'm not positive.

[alaingrey]

I have a horror story about ending a comic. I worked on a comic for about a year and a half once. I decided I was going to make it super detailed and all digital (which I'd never done before!)
I redid pages over and over until I found a style I liked, and then I got to work! At the time I was working my first ever full time job, and I'd also just discovered the wonderful world of "mind altering medications." Needless to say, it was hard to find the time to sit down and draw. Regardless, I started working on pages that took me ridiculous hours to complete because I had a laptop that would constantly crash and also no skills and knowledge that might make comic creation easier.
I started putting up the comic online sporadically- It was hard because I started up at school again, and was still working side jobs- and it actually got a fair amount of attention for a side project with no schedule. Some of my favorite writers are still subscribed to the sad, abandoned account :"D
School finally ended and I graduated early to take time to work on this comic- my masterpiece, my David.... I worked on it pretty much constantly while in and out of rehab.
Then, one night I was sitting with a friend and my computer made a funny noise. I restarted it, and when it came back to life I realized that without warning my hard drive had crashed. The attempts to rescue files failed. my computer was wiped. I had never backed up my comic anywhere. It was gone.

Now it's been a year since The Crash and I'm still not over it. I'll never be over it. I don't know if I can revive an interest in that story because it just stresses me out.

The moral of the story is invest in a Dropbox or an external hard drive. Take it from me. Please.

[Kura]

I do remember inkblazers, I didn't know that they were getting paid to update. or maybe I didn't pay much attention. but I see your point. it does take a lot of work. I update bi-weekly because I can't update daily with jobs and other things going on in life. but it seems like it maybe a dominate reason. I just seen a few that lost validation and quite, so I figured I'd ask if it was comment or not.

off topic, but are you on Drunkduck? I think I may have seen your stuff up there. but I'm not positive.

(Yes I am on drunkduck, I'm not a 'keep all your eggs in one basket' type person, especially when comic hosting sites seem to come and go so fast)

Yes, the way inkblazers worked was VERY numbers driven, but it was mostly applicable for the featured and premium artists, once you were on one of those lists (which I was) you had to play the numbers game if you both wanted to stay in that tier as well as attempt to make money.

There were two 'money pools' one for their premium comics section, one for their featured section. It was basically a set amount of money that the artists in that list would pretty much 'fight over' the more hits your series got, the more money from the pool you got. But there were also 2 requirements that you had to fill, you NEEDED to updated 4 times a month (once a week at the least) for featured, while premium you needed up update 15 times a month. If you did not meet the required number of updates, you did not get paid. Also even if you did meet the update requirement, but your comic pulled in less than 20$ of worth of hits YOU DID NOT GET PAID (at least that's what it was for featured, it was higher for premium I just don't remember the exact number) Even when the site introduced the 'all comics get paid for views even if you only make 30cents' that did NOT extend to featured and premium comics. If you made less than 20$ you still did not get paid for that month.

Because of those requirements a good amount of artists on that site that were in those two tiers HAD to make comicing their full time job, they HAD to make sure they kept bringing in numbers. I think how the pools evened out you had to at least be one of the top 10 - 15 ranked comics in your list because the ones under usually didn't get enough views to get over 20$ of the pool money and therefor got nothing. (at least for featured, premium got a small concert payment AS WELL as a pool for the artists to fight over, again thought the requirements for qualifying for that pool were higher too) The site was VERY competitive (though a lot of people outside those tiers didn't realize it)

That's why it was such a big hit for some of the artists that came from that site. They needed the subs and view counts to make money, they quit jobs and made comics full time to make sure they were able to make enough money. When the numbers and money did not equal up on other platforms they had no choice but to slowdown or completely stop their comics and seek work elsewhere, because they had bills to pay and they could not afford investing working time into making a comic that did not pull in enough for them to eat or afford heating.

That being said, when numbers = $$ for an artists that you need to live off of (not extra pocket money, money to pay bills or get out of debt) and those numbers are just not being met. Then I don't blame an artist for stopping their project or giving up from lack of support. Not everyone is making comics for as a hobby, fun, or for 'just personal reasons' they do it because it's their job or they want to turn this into something that can help them earn a living (not to be rich and famous, just earn a living) and because the ratio for financial success in the very over saturated webcomic market is so low. Numbers ARE important when it comes to that regard.

[Mharz]

We may never know the real reason why an artist stops drawing. It may be like you said they feel underappreciated because they don't have much subs but it's not necessarily the only reason existing. Who knows, maybe there are sudden turn of events in their personal life that they can't find the time to draw/create comics. Maybe they stumbled upon a financial crisis and art isn't going to save them so they have no choice but to get a different job. Maybe they're not that passionate enough to pursue art so they just went in take different careers. Maybe they're not confident enough and thought that it won't work. Maybe they got sick of everything and decided to just quit. Again, we may never know the reason.

[Vikiro_Hop]

So I have been waiting for a good place to mention this. There is a rapper who gave up on being a visual artist and has struggled with it all his life.

Here is a a quote from a site

In “Rings,” Aesop Rock reflects on his memories of being a young visual artist and the twenty or more years he spent convinced he would make a career out of it. It’s a story of lost passions, nostalgia, and dwelling on the “what if?” question he has had for his own life.

He made successful career out of music but sill reflects on what he missed out on. This isn't an unsuccessful dude, just one who thinks he could have been more.

[rodrigomush]

I can talk about my experience, i started my strip and was really motivated. I was loving to draw, tried to get more disciplined about that. One day i just started to feel less motivated, started to feel sad, about my art, and about other thing in life. During a week or two i was really depressed, and my comic stoped... And since then i just can't draw regurlaly as i wanted... I'm trying to come back, but now the wall of insecuity is back again as it was before i started anything.