As I finished drawing my comic yesterday, I was kind of disappointed with the results. What I thought was a really funny idea last Thursday didn't really pan out the way I had hoped.

That's when I started thinking about the time I started drawing comics. I wasn't a great artist, but I thought I had some funny ideas. I was kind of worried that it wouldn't be any good at all, that people wouldn't like it, and that no one would read it.

But as I started drawing my comic, for the first time in my life really, I decided to say "The hell with what people think. I'm doing this for me." I made a pact with myself to keep doing it even though I knew I would probably be disappointed with it in one way or another.

Week after week, I put my own self doubt aside and made another comic. I made peace with the fact that every comic would be different, and some would be better than others. If the outcome was failure, at least I tried.

I still have trouble with failure, but drawing my comic helped me learn that the fear of failure can be fought and overcome. Not many people read my comic, but I'm really proud of it, and every once in a while, I find someone who does care for it.

Learning to accept failure has helped me as a comedian and in life in general, and I have my comic to thank.

Has anyone else learned anything important from writing their comic?

I started putting up webcomics originally for the sake of my own therapy. As a teenager and young adult in early 20s, I had alot of angst built up in me. I didnt care at all what people would think. Didnt care if i had less than 5 readers at that time. All I cared about was venting out my angst and frustration on the web.

But later on as I matured, I realized that this webcomics thing is actually an avenue for meeting people... even though ironically my comic was about being anti-social. lol

And not just as an avenue for meeting people, but also as a medium to spread my message.

SarahDot
But as I started drawing my comic, for the first time in my life really, I decided to say "The hell with what people think. I'm doing this for me." I made a pact with myself to keep doing it even though I knew I would probably be disappointed with it in one way or another.

I think that's the lesson for me right there. :D

When I first started my comic, it was for me, but when people begin to comment I think you inevitably start to think about what they think. It used to bother me a lot when one person or the other didn't understand something, didn't really like something, didn't notice a detail that I spent a lot of time on, or when I began to notice my comments decreasing in amount @_@.

On top of that, I was nervous about my art. I don't think it's the best, and I used to feel embarrassed when I would look at another comic and think "wow, look at what this person can do! Why I'm I posting all this rubbish for everyone to see?? ;__;"

But now I just think to myself, whatever. It's my story, it's my style, and no one told me I had to do it a certain way. And I guess I've improved a lot from the beginning. I'm almost going to hit 100 (official) pages, which would make TRK the biggest project I've ever worked on (and am still doing!). It's fun to do and thinking about future pages is exciting...so yeah, draw your comic for yourself and don't think too much about peoples' opinions. :P

Overcoming fear of failure and comics being an avenue for networking are good points.

Besides the above, the lessons I've learnt from illustrating 'Death & Fairy' are mostly related to the practical aspects of comic creation:

- Deadlines are key to getting things done. Always set a deadline
- Thumbnails are critical to creating logical panelling and page to page pacing
- And most importantly, in the war of Speed vs Quality, speed reigns supreme

OBP

I started my comic while also starting college in an artistic venue, and it is sometimes hard at this point to divide what I learned from my comic and what I learned from college but here goes:

- I stopped trying to become "good", I just want to get better.
- Once someone put their eyes on your comic, the story changes, you always have to be careful for misinterpretations.
- Beeing lazy often leads to more work.

I found out that making a comic is more enjoyable and relaxing than spending hours playing online video games, that's for sure. There's just something about letting out that creative spark that is sort of enlightening...sort of

I've been drawing comics for over 15 years, but only the last five or six years have been for any audience (I drew for a college newspaper from 2005 - 2008). Over that time, I have learned how to draw better, but that's natural considering my earliest stuff really sucks.

My writing, however, has taken on a different element. Over the years, I've written some stuff that was downright insane and ludicrous , to something more serious and heartwarming . Then there's the stuff I've done that's somewhat disturbing .

Basically, it's a way to let loose my creative urges.

oneblackpaper
- Deadlines are key to getting things done. Always set a deadline
- Thumbnails are critical to creating logical panelling and page to page pacing
- And most importantly, in the war of Speed vs Quality, speed reigns supreme

- As a huge procrastinator, I definitely agree with the first point.
- I don't really understand the second.
- I disagree with the third. I think the important thing is doing the best you can with the time alloted. It isn't one or the other, but a proper balance of the two. If a work is done too quickly, it will stink. If you chase perfection, you'll never get anything done.

demontales
- I stopped trying to become "good", I just want to get better.

Dude! What great advice! I need to remember this. ^_^

Sarah

To absorb criticism and use it to improve.

SarahDot
- As a huge procrastinator, I definitely agree with the first point.
- I don't really understand the second.
- I disagree with the third. I think the important thing is doing the best you can with the time alloted. It isn't one or the other, but a proper balance of the two. If a work is done too quickly, it will stink. If you chase perfection, you'll never get anything done.

2)
The second point is all about thumbnailing.
It is key to creating good panelling, because the first layout in your head usually isn't the best one. Thumbnailing allows you to experiment with layouts and choose the strongest one without having to commit too much time.
It also enhances page to page transitions. We all understand that with sequential art, the panels need to transition from one to the other smoothly and easily to make for strong story telling. However I find most people forget or don't pay enough attention transitions between pages.
Comic pages are not independent of each other, by thumbnailing your entire comic chapter, you create a story that flows naturally from one page to the other.


3)
You're absolutely right, the way I worded it didn't make sense as to what I intended it to mean. When I say speed, what I meant was being fast without being sloppy; at least maintain a sensible standard of quality in your art.
Practice makes perfect and striving to be fast at what you do facilitates more practice.

-OBP

I can't say I really have taken all that much out of the web comic experience. I really started working on comics so I could push myself into a regular routine to practice what I was learning in my art classes and get feedback. It also helped to force me out of my comfort zone to try out things I wouldn't normally do in my sketch book. I'm getting that same experience from my job, now, though.

I can't say I've really gotten any good connections or really any worthwhile critiquing out of the community. Most of it just boils down to "your work is so good" or "your work sucks" with no real reasoning behind it. I originally started working to improve my drawing skills and I think I really got a lot more from my education than I did exposing myself to the online community. I may have gotten some false confidence from the praise, but nothing really constructive. Practice is always good, but the public element really didn't do anything for me.

I may go back to web comics some day, but I would really need to come up with a good reason to invest the time and effort into it. I don't need to rely on it for practice, anymore, and the audience is kind of small compared to say the TV audience. I also don't feel I need to pad my ego with positive comments and I prefer working in other mediums, so it's kind of hard for me to find motivation to go back at this point.

I don't know, I guess the biggest thing I learned from working on comics is that I'd rather not waste my time working on comics.

I recall being the only one in my class who drew comics. Others drew, but I drew comics. That meant, panel for panel, characters interacting from one page to another - as opposed to the class clown drawing an actual clown on the chalkboard. Comics at the time, were very obscure when I was growing up; I'd see images of things like Wolverine or Superman, but I didn't really get to indulge upon them as time wore on. Only until I was starting to get notice, without being just known as 'the comic artist' in class - that my interests flourished.

When I have learned from comics is the basic means of coming up with a story and working on that area. Where in which one comic would be an homage to my favorite series, another would spring up with another new idea - it grew from starring me and my friends at the time, into coming up with original set pieces and 'film locations', as it were. I looked at examples on what made a Hollywood film work, alongside a good book, or a good comicbook, and studied those.

I'd say I'm still in the process of relearning a few new things and improving a lot of areas, because there was a huge gap in which I remained unsure if comics as a whole were right for me. A whole two to three years slump wondering if I'll ever relive those days; back then, it was both me, and my friends, that I was shooting for. Being the usually ghostly-like back-in-the-corner kid in all my classes, I used the comic for a means of escape as well as something to make people notice me.

isukun
I can't say I really have taken all that much out of the web comic experience. I really started working on comics so I could push myself into a regular routine to practice what I was learning in my art classes and get feedback. It also helped to force me out of my comfort zone to try out things I wouldn't normally do in my sketch book. I'm getting that same experience from my job, now, though.

I can't say I've really gotten any good connections or really any worthwhile critiquing out of the community. Most of it just boils down to "your work is so good" or "your work sucks" with no real reasoning behind it. I originally started working to improve my drawing skills and I think I really got a lot more from my education than I did exposing myself to the online community. I may have gotten some false confidence from the praise, but nothing really constructive. Practice is always good, but the public element really didn't do anything for me.

I may go back to web comics some day, but I would really need to come up with a good reason to invest the time and effort into it. I don't need to rely on it for practice, anymore, and the audience is kind of small compared to say the TV audience. I also don't feel I need to pad my ego with positive comments and I prefer working in other mediums, so it's kind of hard for me to find motivation to go back at this point.

I don't know, I guess the biggest thing I learned from working on comics is that I'd rather not waste my time working on comics.

lol

That's a lotta words for someone that doesn't care...

Doing my comic has opened a few interesting avenues for me over the years, helped me get jobs, vastly improve my graphic design skills both technical and artistic, helped me meet lots of interesting people...
I understand story pacing better, I now realise just exactly WHY people always use the same tired old cliches all the time in stories (makes it a million time easier to get people to understand what's going on), helped my painting/colouring skills a lot, it's even helped me understand computers waaaaaay better (hardware and software), it's even helped tighten up my clothing design skills!

...not to mention all the tangential things I've had to learn about for making my comic: I learned about various weapon systems, the histories of various countries, detailed history of all of pre and post WW1 Europe, the clothing styles of various regional peoples, detailed stuff about Muslim culture... I could go on.

Also: is it better to go to a party or finish a comic on time?
-heh, go to the party of course, but there was a time when the answer was different.

I've learned a lot and I've loved the time I've spent. Plus, I now have buckets more respect for the professional comic artists of the past than I ever used to before.

That's a lotta words for someone that doesn't care...

I didn't say I don't care, just that it hasn't been much of an educational experience for me. It's a little different for people like yourself who had more experience and more polish to your style going into your projects. Sure, it forced me to draw regularly for a while, but I learned moe about drawing, anatomy, and color from my fine arts classes than I ever did working on my comics for eight years. I've learned more about writing, pacing and so forth by actually writing scripts and producing animated shorts. And I get far more practice in these days just doing my job.

Comics can be a decent way to force yourself into a routine, but I find there are better ways to actually LEARN drawing skills and making any real professional connections through web comics work is a rarity at best.

Ok Isukun, understood.
You are a good artist though and it was a fine forum for your work while you were still doing it.
___________________

Ah, one thing I forgot... I kearned that the big popularity race really doesn't mean as much as you think it does in the end. And the true value of comments isn't how many you get or the nice things people say, it's the immediate connection to real people out there who are actually reading and looking at and appreciating what you do as you do it and caring enough to say something about it.

Well, my art has gotten better. I'm not an artist by any stretch, but I definitely do much better now mostly because of encouragement.

The biggest thing (and I know others have mentioned this to) is simply that I was able to lower my defensive social walls. When I joined, I was so terrified that people could leave comments. I'm not used to positivity anywhere, especially on the internet. I don't go to forums. Socialness in all its forms frighten me. On top of that, I've always had serious hang-ups sharing my stories. I usually write them for myself. It was pretty amazing to have even one person who actually wanted to read something I made not only without me asking them to but because they liked it. It kinda changed my perception of me. I was absolutely humbled when the people I think of as amazingly talented started leaving me comments. I still am, in fact.

Also, with other people reading, I felt determined/obliged to work at a higher level, the very best I could or better. My mediocre is fine for me, but I wanted to make myself worthy of those reading. (Hence a small increase in art quality.)

Oh, and I also learn random trivia throughout my research process, but I can't credit webcomics entirely for that. I've been researching and writing stories for a very long time.

I am a failure at making comics.

So I continue to do so.

Practice makes perfect I suppose?

ozoneocean
Ah, one thing I forgot... I kearned that the big popularity race really doesn't mean as much as you think it does in the end. And the true value of comments isn't how many you get or the nice things people say, it's the immediate connection to real people out there who are actually reading and looking at and appreciating what you do as you do it and caring enough to say something about it.

I agree with this. I don't draw a comic, or perform stand-up to make everyone laugh. I want some people to groan, some to get disgusted, and some to get so angry that they heckle me, but I want everyone to care about what I'm doing. Apathy is the worst emotion any artist can cause in my opinion.

Oh this is pretty straightforward. Drawing/ writing comics forced me to practice drawing, practice writing stories/ characters, doing various research to write the stories, learning various new traditional and computer instruments/ programs/ techniques in order to raise the quality of my work, and socialize with collaborators in order to soundboard or to get things done.

Because without comics, I wouldn't be drawing and getting said practice, or communicating with other comics artists/ writers. Even if I drew poster art once in a while, it wouldn't be anywhere near the sheer volume of work I do because I am "forced" to continue drawing a sequential story.

If your work is in the field, like Isukun, yeah you get your practice elsewhere, and your creator's itch is already scratched. But for the rest of us, this is a hobby. Getting better at your hobby is its own reward; I'm not paid to do any of this.

Unsurisingly, pmlai has put it exactly as I would have. Making comics taught me how to make comics. Or at least how to make them a little bit better than I used to.

As for webcomics, I guess I have also learned about some standards of internet communication... not that I use them that much. But I'm not active on other forums or in other communities, so webcomics have sort of shaped my POV of the internet too.

Well, I've learnt a hell of a lot in the 4 or so years I've been making comics.

On a practical level:

-I've learnt more about anatomy

-I've learn more about perspective

-More about panel flow and overall composition

And much more


On a uh...non-practical level?:

- I've learnt to stop worrying about how my art compares to others work, and worry about how it compares to my own previous work

- That, to me, telling the story in a way that compels the readers is far more important than creating the best/ perfect comic

- That just because people around me work at snails pace for no good reason, doesn't mean I can do that

- That my ideas that I think are 'nuts' or 'completely insane', may be the best ideas I've ever had


There's a lot more, I've learnt so much since I started making comics that I can't even recall all of it to write it here lol

Has anyone else learned anything important from writing their comic?

It's harder than it looks.

Apart from learning to draw things out side of what I'de normaly do. I have learnt that my selth dout still owns me.

Well the main thing I've learned from the comics thing is to be more appreciative towards slow or late updates, even from people with "simple" art like mine. With all the site issues and my own experiences with constant interruptions and lacking inspiration, I think I can better understand why some comics update so slowly.

There's also the wide variety of things I've ended up having to learn how to draw, not always does the result end up in the comic, but I still like the variety of things I get to study.

in the course of my researches into stuff for the comic i still haven't made and looks like i never will , i learnt how to calculate Angular diameter
and if you hold out your fist like you're giving the black power salute to the sky it covers about 10 degrees of sky and the moon is only 0.5 and you can block it out with your little finger ,even though it looks much bigger , go ahead and try it

Since I started my comic, I feel like I've learned a great deal in various aspects.

For starters, I'd like to think my technical skill has increased drastically since I first started. Going from Here:http://www.drunkduck.com/Minion/index.php?p=71213 to Here: http://www.drunkduck.com/Minion/

I think I've also learned a lot more about writing. I've been working hard to try and make sure my characters don't come off as 2 dimensional. I think I've achieved this with mixed success that'll still require much more work.

What have I learned overall? I've still got a ways to go. But it's fun.

I've learned a lot yet I've also neglected to evolve my comic. Though my art has improved, I haven't dared to force myself out of my comfort zone of drawing. It is very easy for me to write some mildly humorous dialogue between a pig and cow standing around talking to each other. It's ten times harder for me to push the envelope and write a more complex scene for them to play out.