Something Scary About Drawing Fan Comics Is When You're Faced With A Pose, Or A Background, Or A Color

Something scary about drawing fan comics is when you're faced with a pose, or a background, or a color scheme that is needed to move the plot forward but you *know* is beyond your skill.

Or even just a character that's hard to draw (looking at you, early versions of bowser lol).

You know it's not turning out and it's not going to be perfect. And it won't be perfect for a while as you figure things out slowly, and the fear everyone else can see you struggled with that one panel, or that one page. Just feeling like everyone can *tell* this is where you faultered and the scope of your story was bigger than what you could do but you pushed forward anyway.

And then I read other artists comics and I wonder if they are having the same struggles. And they *must*, I can't be alone in this, but I don't see those struggles in their work. So surely If I'm reading their comic and I can't see where they faltered or struggled or feel that 'this is the worst page I've ever drawn' then no one else can see it in mine, and we truly are our own worst critic. We judge our own work on a scale we wouldn't judge others by.

You got to remind yourself the viewer most likely won't see those mistakes. And if they do they are already reading the next panel and moving on. They didn't stop to analyze and judge that one mistake that you agonized over yet couldn't properly resolve.

Sometimes when I'm struggling, when a panel is just...not how I want and I realize I've spent so much time trying to fix small things no one will give a shit about I hear that meme in my head, the one that says "fuck it, we'll do it live!" And I move on. It's just gunna be like that. I gotta keep the momentum going. I can't be hung up on one thing.

And the momentum is crucial with comics. You gotta keep moving. Every panel or page you finish helps the next one be better, because soon things you once struggled with are second nature. You gotta use the tools in your toolbox. References are not cheating and every person who ever said that to an artist held that person back from improving. You're never going to fully know how to draw that angle if you don't *look at it*. It wont become second nature to draw if you just hope you can guess right through sheer force of will.

And coloring is fucking hard. It's tedious. Its boring but god when you finally get it right it's so rewarding. When you learn a new thing that makes your work pop.

And you gotta just accept your art will not look the same from page one to page 50 if you're learning as you go. You got to stop being embarrassed. Because it shows you were *learning*. It shows you improved and yes the early pages wont look as good but look!! Look at what you can draw now. It's a visual representation of every new skill, every new technique you learned on the way and we gotta stop cringing at our old work and instead thank it for getting us to where we are now.

from now on, whenever you see an art style you wish you had, instead of going "oh I WISH I could, I want ALL the art styles and yet I am CONFINED to only ONE, and anyway I am not GOOD enough to do that one!!!", repeat after me: "ooh, I wanna try that later."

like, yes, yearning feels Passionate and Artistic and Emotionally Intense, and by going "I could never do that" you leave the art you love with a kind of Legendary Mystique--as if you are a child watching a magic trick.

but you can also switch your brain to "how did they do that" mode instead and play around with anything you want. you can learn the trick for yourself. and it may seem less dazzling afterwards, but that's the price you pay to make your own magic.

in short, basically, you can do whatever you want forever.

young me especially would have hated hearing this but networking is literally the most important thing you can do to improve your situation like forget economic barriers to education etc just keep making friends with different people and eventually someone will offer you a hand up just because they dig your vibe and that is exactly all that's happening when undeserving people surpass you anyway

I've been working on this project for a while now, I don't remember how long it has been but I believe it was a couple months before spring break?

This is where I post something other than my cat

I finally got the confidence to post my art on any social media site after a while, most of my thanks goes to @bertrumstrousers for inspiring me to draw this!

Joining on this bandwagon 🍞

We should be fine as long as we do not reblog bread.