Do any of you ever get really tired of looking at your art and suddenly think that it is really bad?
Sometimes I will be looking at my comic, or a page that I have been working hard on, and suddenly it looks bad just bacause I have looked at it soooo many times. I think that if I look at it too much, it gets old. If I don't look at it for a while it suddenly looks great when I look at it again!^_^

I don't know if anyone else ever gets this feeling or if I'm just crazy...

Oh, I always get those feelings, especially after a month after finishing a page, looking back, and saying "Eww, that's no good! That's no good at all!"

So don't feel weird about it. I'm sure many others go through same thoughts. But if you get the feelings, then in most cases that would mean that you're improving.

I'm in that phase right now. I'm just tired of the way/style I draw. Probably why I haven't done a new Last Call in a long itme.

...Or rather, I'm just tired of drawing, period. I'd like to be more experimental and do stuff that I did back when I was in college, like painting, sculpture, pottery, etc. Something that I can hang on my wall or put on my coffee table.

I do somethimes. But when ever I do get sick with my art, I start to fucos onto something else. Like reading a new books, or painting something.

I do this, i get done with a new comics and think "this is excellent my best yet! ^_^" and put it up proudly. Then i few days later i look at it going "i can do better this sucks ass :/" so i make the next page even better and then repeat the process.

I'd like to see an artist try to say they've never been tired of their art.

One problem is I'll do a piece, think it is absolutely awful. Then pull it out a while later (think a few weeks at least) and I can't believe I was the one who did it, because it looks that good. There is a disconnect because it can't be my work because hey it's halfway decent! In my youth I never had that disconnected feeling on seeing an older piece and thinking it's good. I'd see only only an abandoned piece of shit.

Fortunately I work in so many different media (mediums?) that when I grow weary of one I just jump to another. Of course this has a down side; things aren't always finished as quickly as I'd like. But I am getting better at that. Really.

No. My art always amazes me every time I see it. I just want to die when I look at each new piece because they're all so amazing, it'd be worth it if that was the last thing I ever saw. And everyone else feels the same way when they look at them too, people are always loudly telling me how amazing they are. Ha! Like I need to be told! Hahahaha!



psst, I'm joking...

Honestly, I think any true artist would feel that way.

I know I do.

I often wish i was better at different art styles so that i could make two comics in completely different styles. But whenever i try i sort of blend back into the way i draw anyway. So yeah.

I get that all the time, especially with the pages that are online already. When I finish a new page, it usually looks decent enough, but then few weeks later I'm several pages ahead, pull out the old one and go "damn, was that supposed to be a hand? what's with her eyes? and why is he so tall on this panel?". The result is, I try even harder on the next batch of pages, thus making the pages I just finished look bad to me too.

An artist that's absolutely satisfied with his/her art stops developing, and quite often even falls behind.

I definitely felt unhappy with my art. So much so I deleted it and I am reworking and redoing it from scratch. I am redesigning the characters and tweaking the storyline. Some people may say that's not healthy or an artist shouldn't do that becuase that art you had done shows your development and marks a period in your artistic career.. i.e. Picasso's blue period. But I felt the need to discard it and start over. Question: Was that a bad choice?

@ Midge:

Comparing your newest art that I came upon, to your early DD art that I remember seeing, I think it may be a good choice. Because it's not just gradual passive improvement. You decided to radically revamp/upgrade your art and style, and that can warrant a re-do.

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Um... I'm never tired of my art... Because I never ink/publish a page that I feel has failed, or could be better. I start over. (I don't restart entire comics, though.)

And regardless whether I think the page succeeded or failed, I always try something new, or try harder, for the next page.

Psst, I wasn't joking.

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Really, I'm like most people here; sometimes it sickens me and I can't go on, literally. Other times, my first post is actually pretty accurate.

Good topic! When I've read interviews with artists who were open about their work, they've usually said the same thing: they'll reach a point where the page they're working on looks like the suckiest thing that ever sucked.

When you reach this point it's important to get the thing finished and leave it alone. I've got a folder full of unfinished pages in my loft. I abandoned them years ago because they were so bad, but if I look at them now I can't see anything wrong with them. I can't remember which, but one of the early greats of American comics had an assisstant who used to post his pages off to the publisher at the end of every day. He knew if he saw them again next morning, he'd start changing them and end up losing a days work.

So no, you're not crazy: you're in good company (see posts above!)

No, never. Im always completely satisfied with my art....a year or two later i may see something that could be improved, but i never think it sucks. But then again, I just have a huge ego like that.


and im not joking...

Well, I'm not always 100% satisfied, but getting to the point where you're sick of the way you draw? I don't think I'm at that level yet and I'm hoping I never will be.

Feelings like that usually stem from comparing yourself to another artist. Their style is wonderful, yes. But it's different. Artists have to face and accept that they have their own style and they shouldn't feel like it's inadequate.

My style is like simplistic fusion and while there are days where I feel like I've been drawing the same thing forever, there are others where I pull something great and new out of my sleeve and I can't help stepping back, looking at it and saying "MAN, I'M GOOD!" It's not concieted, it's positive thinking. And it's very good for you-- optimistics live longer! XD

i agree with that post. look at james kochalka. hes amazing, and he has the "crappiest" little style ever

All beginning artists feel this way. I felt it myself. Before, I always draw stick figures having hair and wearing kimonos.

The truth is, stick figures are the best figures to represent anatomical design. If you start on one art, always feel like you should improve (although I am satisfied with my art already).

Wait! Why do I sound like a teacher?

Back when I was 13 and "ZOMG SAILOR MOON IS THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD I MUST DRAW LIKE THAT!" I could now and then feel that feeling that my art was boring. Today, so many years later, I know why. It's one word: Generic

Now when I have my own cartoon style I never get tired of my art. Instead I feel happy when I draw (even though it might come out looking like crap) because it's ME

Yup, all the time. The problem can be down to your own personal progression. A lot of the stuff I was happy with a couple of months ago looks terrible now and I feel I have to redo it (I don't necessarily redraw it, I'm too lazy for that).

I get the same sort of thing with jokes. I can think of a joke that will have me crying with laughter the first time I draw it, but after drawing the comic I think "Is that funny?" And end up hating it. It can be down to spending too long on a page.

not tired, rather ... ashamed, when i look back at my older works (yesterday's) i cannot help but to feel ashamed, but well, i belive one cannot satisfy everything (except for unsatisfaction, that's the only thing we can satisfy)

Never gotten tired but frustrated. Especially trying to force on myself to adapt new art styles and trying hard to improve but never gotten any much drastic improvements.

It's weird, because I'm never satisfied with my work and always want to get better, but I still recognize that I've come a long way from how I used to draw. There are many days where I'll stare at a page I've drawn, decide it's awful, and totally scrap it and start over.

With Ialus, I've restarted several times- this is my third go at the story. I still have the old work posted in another location, and while I'm not perfectly happy with how I approached the story this time either, I've given up "starting over". XD

I don't fully understand the concept of being "tired of my art." I don't consider myself a raging egomaniac, and there's been some pages I haven't been thrilled with...but tired of my own art?

For me, personally, I can't get tired of my art! If I don't like something, I push myself to improve, to analyze my process of organizing the page or the frame or the issue in general and see where it's not working, where photo reference might help -- and most importantly, to push past the problem, whatever it is. I just keep trying...

I know each of us loves our art, even if we're frustrated with something about it right now. If we didn't love our art, we wouldn't try at all. We wouldn't put it in public for people to view it...but some part of us needs to.

Don't get tired of your art, just strive to change, to get even better, to do things you've never done before...to risk failing because at the same time, you have just as much chance to succeed!

Sorry if that seems loopy but it's late and I'm exhausted and very loopy!

I almost never turn out an image I think is substandard any more, but not because I'm the most amazing artist on the planet , just because I get OCD on it and keep reworking and playing with it until I'm happy with what I've got. That leads to me feeling like I occasionally want to chuck a piece at the wall because I feel like I spent way too much time on it, but I don't get tired because I think it looks like crap. If I ever return to a piece and notice what I could have done better, I tend to just make a mental file and call it good for what I was capable of at the time.

I feel good looking at my own art. Unless those from 2 years back or something. That kinda bothers me. lol

LOL... The last sentence is the one I don't believe...

I hate my old art, even though I understand where I was back then, I look at it now and say "my god this sucks!"

If I had the time I would re-do my entire comic... but that would only be a temporary solution as I would hate it after a few months.

(Arr… The cycle of development be a cruel one :S)

I know what you mean. when I draw something funny, I never laugh at it, because drawing it all and staring at it afterwards just sucks the funny out of it. so when people find it to be really funny, I have no idea how they can XD

My art drives me nuts I am never satisfied with what i've drawn. I can't count the different comics I want to redraw before posting on here. As a person, in real life I'm pretty funny or so I know and have been told. But my humor is sick, and I wonder if it translates well with friggin cows and pigs.