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No Excuses: "I'm Not Good Enough"Well If you're not a professional comic book artist, chances are you're right.  As logically if you were good enough you'd be a professional... and so it goes in circles.
But the fact of the matter is that if your answer to "Why don't you try and make comics?" is "I'm not good enough." Then what you have here is a full fledge Excuse. And if you haven't figured it out by the title of this blog yet, I'm here to force you to stop making excuses and start making comics.
So you're not good enough? So what? So that means you don't even try? What are you Homer Simpson?
Now lets be realistic.  You probably really aren't good enough.... right now.  If you're reading this blog it means you're interested in becoming a comic artists and you figured following one might give you some tips and tric
No Excuses: I try hard, but I don't ImproveI know this one is an easy excuse to fall into.  After all, you're working really hard to improve and no matter how hard you try, no matter how hard you study, it just doesn't seem like you're getting any better.  So just give up right? You're obviously wasting your time. Right?  WRONG. (duh... that would have been wierd if i said "right", and just ended the blog post right there huh?)
I know how it feels.  I want my artwork to be at the level of my artistic idols right now. I want to be like Walt Simonson, Marc Silvestri, or Adam Hughes. And though I've had minor success in my career so far, I'm a far way away from the ama
No Excuses: "I might fail"This is the second worse excuse I've ever heard.  First being "I don't have the right software."
Why is this this such a terrible excuse?  Because there is no "might".  You will fail!  Now wait a second, give me a minute to explain before you go jumping out a window.
Just like past posts, I'm assuming that if you're reading this, its because you're an aspiring artist or creator who's looking for the inspiration to pursue your dreams.  That being the case you probably have little to no experience in the comic industry.  And if that is the case I guarantee you'll fail..... at first.
What you have to keep in mind is that you're new at this. Everyone, EVERYONE, fails the first time they do ANYTHING.  I really cant emphasize this enough.  Have you ever seen a baby speak perfectly their first attempt?  Or perhaps a baby get up
No Excuses: I can't draw from my mind...This excuse has been posed to me many different ways:  "I can't draw unless I am looking at the thing I'm drawing."  "I can't draw from my imagination."  "I can see it in my mind but I can't get it out."...  Basically it boils down to: "I can make comics because I'm not good enough. I can only draw things that I can see, i can never draw things from my mind."
I find this excuse funny.  Why?  Because you're excuse is a problem all people have.  Not a single person alive can draw something 100% from their mind. Yet we have many great artists hanging around. It's like saying "I can never fly, because I don't have any wings."  Well... no one has wings, but people fly all the time, you're just making up excuses.
"But Shono," I'm sure you're saying out loud right now, because for some reason you like to talk to my blog,  "I see artists draw things all the time without looking at anything.  If no one can draw things from their mind, how are th
No Excuses: "I don't have enough time"Now I've heard the excuse plenty of times:  "I'd like to, but i just don't have time to do it."  And I'd like to discount this as a cut and dry excuse like I have in the past with other excuses, but its not that simple here.  Where inadequate software, and "I'm not good enough" could easily be overcome with some discipline and dedication, "Not enough time" has some merit to it.
The problem is, not matter what you do you're still limited to 24 hours a day.  And no matter what, there are still several things in the day that take up your time and there is no way around it.  Some of those things are obvious like sleeping and eating.  Most of you (if not all of you) have full time jobs, or go to school full time.  Or maybe go to school part time, and work the other part time.  There are even things that take up your time that you don't even think about, like chores, exercise, family obligations.  All of these cut into your limited 24 hours a
No Excuses: "What if it's not worth it?"And what if it is? What if you make something that changes the world?  You have alot more to gain than to lose my friends.  That's the beautiful thing about creating.  When you create something from nothing, you're always left with more than what you started with, you can never end up with less.
But I understand the sentiment. It's nothing more than a lame excuse, but i do understand it. I've had my days, my weeks.... my months even when I am working my ass off.  I've had barely any sleep, I'm stressed out to all hell, I have no social life, and I haven't played a good video game in ages, and I think to myself: "is all of this worth it?"  I have friends who have spouses and families, who make great money and work a quarter as much as me. They have time to play video games and go to sports games and hang out with friends.  And I think. "What if all these things I'm sacrificing isn't worth it?"
But that thought doesn't stick with me long, because almost imme
No Excuses: "They Tell Me I Can't"Fuck 'em.  What the hell do they know anyways?
Now I know thats a little bit harsh language but this excuse really pisses me off.  I'm not angry at the person who uses the excuse "they tell me I can't,"  I'm pissed at the people who tells the person they can't. Seriously, anyone who says you can't do it is making up shit and doesn't know what they're talking about.
I've heard many different variations of this excuse. "THEY" can be your mother, father, brother, sister, best friend, teacher.  "They" can be people on forums, or professionals you've talked to that have their head so far up their ass they forgot what it was like to start out.  But no matter who "They" are, the fact of the matter is they don't know anything about what you're trying to do. So what qualifies them to judge if you can do it or not?
What reasons did they give you to back up this wild claim of "you can't do it?"  Was it because You don't have the education?  the skills?  Is
No Excuses #4: SoftwareNow I get asked alot at what software I use to make my comics.  Which is a valid question.  There is alot of stuff out there, and people want to know what I use.  Some things are better than others depending on what you want to do with it.  Photoshop is great for photo manipulation, and coloring.  Sketchbook Pro is great for sketching and general drawing.  Corel Painter is great for digital painting.  But my weapon of choice is Manga Studio EX4 .  It allows me to do everything from pencil to ink to letter my comic.  I recommend it for people who are serious about making comics.  BUT that is not the point of this post.  This is a No Excuses post.  So what's the excuse? Well as often as I hear the question "Wh
No Excuses #3: You're not AloneOkay this is the official start to a new segment I'm going to have here on the blog called "No Excuses."  The point of this segment is going to be to encourage people to go out and create.  My focus will be the creation of comic books.  Mostly because that is what I'm an expert in.  But what I say could be adapted to any field of creativity from writing, to cosplay.  The reason I'm starting this is because I've found the number one reason that people don't follow their dreams is because they are afraid and/or too lazy to chase them.  And they make up excuses to justify their fear or laziness.  "I can't make my comic cause I don't know how to draw."  "I can't do a comic, I'm a terrible writer."  "I can't make this comic, I'm not famous, no one knows who I am."  "Who would buy a comic from me? I'm a nobody."  There are no excuses.  If you want to make a comic, then do it.  Where there's a will there is a way, and success co
No Excuses: I don't wanna be a professionalWELL YOU SHOULD! EVERYONE SHOULD! YOU'RE STUPID IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE!
haha oh man, can you imagine if that was really my response? All of you would stop following me immediately....
Seriously though the question isn't "Do you want to be a full time, professional comic creator?"  The question is "Do you want to make comics?"  If your answer is yes, then the fact you don't want to be a professional is irrelevant.
This is a tough excuse, because it boarders on the only legitimate excuse out there.  If you have been reading this for a while you know what it is.  If you're new, the only legitimate excuse is "I don't want to."  And really that's not an excuse as much as a reason.  It's the reason I don't play basketball or practice medicine.  I just don't want to do it.  I never will either and I'm okay with that because I won't be achieving a goal that I don't have... so it sort of works out.   The difference is, this excuse was told to me by someone who didn't want to make comics their
No Excuses: I'll Never Be Good EnoughNot with that attitude you won't. And in this line of work attitude is everything.
I'm serious, in a line of work in which no one is born able to do, your attitude will determine how successful you are.  Naturally your attitude alone doesn't make you a good artist, nor does your attitude solely make you a success.  But your attitude will influence your determination. Your determination will influence your work ethic.  Your work ethic will determine you how well you draw (or write, or whatever you're trying to do.) How well you draw will determine how successful you are.  So when you go in saying "I'll never be good enough." you pull the rug out from under that tower of success and purposely sabotage yourself.  That is unacceptable, and you know the saying here. We don't make excuses, we make comics.
So lets go back to the beginning where I said "...in a line of work in which no one's born able to do..."  What does that mean?  Well it's simple.  We, as human beings, are born with our bo
No Excuses: What if I get a better Idea...(the full title should be "What if i get a better idea half way through."  DA just won't let a title that long..... moving on..)
I'm going to be honest.  I don't understand this excuses. I don't understand how the possibility of coming up with a better idea stops you from even starting the first idea.  I mean, I understand the dilemma:  Here you are working hard on your comic idea, and your struck with a brilliant concept for another book.  What do you do? Do you start working on it right away? Do you drop the old idea like a bad habit? Do you shelve the better idea until the first idea is done?  What do you do? Its a tough choice.  But, even though thats a tough decision to have to make, I don't understand why it's an excuse to not make anything at all?
It's like an inventor comes up with an idea that could change the world.  Then he or she thinks "wait, what if while I'm working on this invention I come up with an even better invention?... well i guess I shouldn't work on anything th
No Excuses: I have artist's/Writer's blockFirst of all... What the crap is artist or writer's block?  I mean, I understand what it is, but how do you get it?  How do you run out of things to say, or draw?
From now on, I'm going to refer to this as artist's block as most of the excuses I hear are about art. But they apply to writer's block as well. (i just don't want to keep writing "Artists or writer's block")
So let me get this straight you want to draw something, but you don't know what to draw, so you're going to just draw nothing.... That makes no sense.  It's like saying "I'm really hungry, but i don't know what I want to eat, so I'm just not going to eat anything."  That doesn't happen.  What happens is you say "I'm really hungry, I don't know what I want to eat, so I'll eat anything I can find."  And that's how you have to approach your drawing.
If you want to draw, but you don't know what you want to draw, then draw ANYTHING. It doesn't matter what, just anything you can find.  I know exactly what your thinking right n
No Excuses: Its more work than I expectedI Everyone! I know its been a while since I've done this, but let's just jump right in shall we?
"It's more work than I expected....I just want it to be done now."  Well then your left with two options at this point: quit, or work harder to get it done.  If you're answer is quit it isn't an excuse as much as a declaration that you're lazy and don't want to work hard to achieve your dreams. If your "excuse" for not making comics is "this is more work than i expected" You're saying you just want it to magically appear, or be handed to you.  I have bad news. Magic isn't real and if anyone had that success to hand to you, they're going to keep it for themselves because they worked their ass off for it.
And that's the point.  It's a shit ton of work to succeed at your dreams.  This goes for anything you want to do in life. There are no short cuts, there are no fast tracks. It's just you and continuous, endless work, and it's more work than you expect to do... way wa
Tutorial Tuesday: FacesOkay lets draw some faces!  Before we jump in let me just say that this tutorial is for the general guideline to draw faces.  Every human being is built a little different so even though I'm going to give you a guideline on how you should draw faces, know that these are the average proportions.  As in if you took every human being on the planet and averaged their proportions you'd get something like this.  But individuals will have eyes that might be slightly farther apart. or noses that are longer etc.  So use these as a starting point then exagerate certain features to create you're own unique looking character.
Also this tutorial is for those of you at the starting level, for those of you who have no idea how to draw a face properly and you've just been drawing features haphazardly and hoping for the best.
So lets start:
1. The Head
So i've talked about breaking down thing you want to draw into basic shapes in the past. In fact i di
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June 7, 2012
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No Excuses: "I never get feedback"

Thu Jun 7, 2012, 10:10 AM
i love art!
art art art

Hmmm This is a tough one.  I see the dilemma. You pour your heart into something and post it out there for the world to see, and you wait eagerly for feedback. Something....anything!  Even if you get a "You suck, go home" you'll know where you stand, but you get NOTHING?  How are you supposed to move forward from that? Why should you move forward, no ones paying attention or reading it?  That's the whole point isn't it? To create something and let the world read it and enjoy it.  If no one is doing that, then we might as well quit.  Right?

Why do you ask me these silly questions?  You know I'm going to say "no, never quit." But lets talk about this.

You can't take what people say, or don't say to you as an indicator of whether you should keep going. If that was the case I would have quit this blog a long time ago, because it NEVER EVER EVER gets comments on it. Honestly I only know of one person who reads this blog. (some of you might be reading this post via tumblr, or Deviant art, I do get comments on those sites, but on my main blog site, I'm yet to get a comment left here.)

But that doesn't mean NO ONE is reading.  In fact I have a little story to tell.  A few years ago I did blog post about a piece of software I was using at the time.  It was a rather silly post and I'd link you, but unfortunately I lost it when my blog accidently got erased a few months ago.  Anyways I just was being goofy talking about how much I liked this software thinking "no one reads this blog anyways, so what does it matter."  That same day the blog entry was posted I received an email from a PR rep of the company I just blogged about.  She was a reader of my blog and saw I posted about the software, and offered me a free copy of the newest version (a $300 value) if I did another blog post reviewing the new software.  I couldn't believe it .  Naturally I said yes, received some new software that I loved, and I realized how insignificant receiving feedback was. If I had quit blogging because no one left a comment, I would have never had such a wonderful opportunity.  (Also keep in mind that this was before tumblr, and before i even knew what Twitter was.  The only place I was blogging was this site, so I obviously had readers that never left feedback.)

Now I know what you're thinking. "Well if i don't receive any feed back, or no one says anything constructive, how am I supposed to get better?"

Well simply put: Ask for feedback.  But you have to ask a certain group of people.  If  you ask your fans, it's going to be all positive.  They're your fans, if they hated your work they wouldn't be your fans.  The danger in this is you'll easily grow complacent and stale and not grow.  However, if you listen to the people who constantly throw negativity your way, you'll end up with serious self confidence issues, and you'll give up because you'll think you suck.  The key is to get the opinion of your peers.  Ask other people who are doing the same thing as you, they'll have some good tips and pointers for you they'll offer honestly.  But you have to approach them and ask them. Your peers are too busy on their projects to just go around giving feedback to everyone else.  But if you kindly and politely ask them for an honest opinion, you'll get it and you can move forward from there.

One other thing you need to consider is how new is your comic?  If you just posted your first page last week, you're not going to get any constructive criticism because no one knows its there. If you're comic is brand new, you have to advertise.  Tell people about it on social networks and forums.  My comic has 3 issues out and most people don't know about it.  It'll take some time to build that fan base before you start getting comments on it.   But keep in mind, much like my blog, you never know who's silently reading it, and never leaving feedback.

So I know it can be frustrating not getting any feedback.  It gets lonely and you start to think your wasting your time.  But don't stop.  You never know who is reading and enjoying it.  So keep on writing, keep on drawing, keep on posting, and keep on advertising, and you're fan base will grow.  You might not get ANY feed back for a very very VERY long time.  But if you keep at it, keep working hard and the rewards will follow.  Trust me, there are better rewards out there for all this hard work than a simple comment left on your page.

So don't worry about feedback, the comics are what matters.  Thats why we make comics, and not excuses.

Tomorrow I'm going to post some more cover sketches but in the mean time follow me around the web:

Like me on Facebook

Follow me on Twitter

Re-blog me on tumblr

And if you love my artwork don't forget to pick up my comics!

See you tomorrow!

 

We're too lost
to lose hope
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:iconmosquito-86:
~Mosquito-86 Jun 7, 2012  Student Artist
that is kinda the reason I left DA for some time, I really start to think I would never get feedback (neither do now) but instead of cry about it I start working even harder to be sure that what I'll post will get some feedback....

It still dosent (basically because I do only pin-ups in black and withe, and there's an Army of people who's better than me at it) but every time i post something I get a look at the "view" and the number it's increasing, I get some request to submit the "art"work to some groups and it made me very happy.....

I dont know if what I say make any sense, but here's my point of view: I'm getting better; the more I work the better I get, if I stop now, I'll never know how good I could be, and maybe one day I'll get the feedback I deserve
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:iconshono:
*Shono Jun 8, 2012  Professional Digital Artist
Your exactly right. I didn't get any feedback when I first joined DA either. But 6 or 7 years later people enjoy my art and leave comments here.

And you're right, it all boils down to hard work. If you work hard success will come. if you give up easy, you get nothing.
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:iconerykkr:
*Erykkr Jun 7, 2012  Professional General Artist
"Ask for feedback. But you have to ask a certain group of people. If you ask your fans, it's going to be all positive. They're your fans, if they hated your work they wouldn't be your fans. The danger in this is you'll easily grow complacent and stale and not grow. However, if you listen to the people who constantly throw negativity your way, you'll end up with serious self confidence issues, and you'll give up because you'll think you suck. The key is to get the opinion of your peers. Ask other people who are doing the same thing as you, they'll have some good tips and pointers for you they'll offer honestly. But you have to approach them and ask them. Your peers are too busy on their projects to just go around giving feedback to everyone else. But if you kindly and politely ask them for an honest opinion, you'll get it and you can move forward from there."


I think this is one of the best reasons to go to an art school, or take classes. Don't get me wrong, it is by no means something that is an end all be all to an artists growth and life story, but I have found in my personal experience that it is a great help. This puts you in position to have critiques from your peers and your professors, as well as make contacts that will help you after you leave.

If you can't afford art school though, tickets to conventions are pretty inexpensive, and there are so many around the country that it's hard for me to imagine not being able to find one. Go there with a portfolio and walk around artists alley, talk with artists, and ask if they can see your work!

The internet can provide a valuable outlet and venue for getting feedback, but it is no replacement for face to face interaction with people you can respect.
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:iconshono:
*Shono Jun 8, 2012  Professional Digital Artist
I agree. If its within your means i urge people to go to art school. By no means does it guarantee you'll be a great artist, or successfull by the end of it but it gives you the foundation.

I went to a state school (UConn) and i had two friends go to Savanah. I'm the one of the three of us working in comics.... But boy I wasn't ready to work in comics off the bat. It took almost 5 years before i got my first gig for a super tiny company.

But there's no way i could of done it without school. That constant critique and feedback really jump starts you in a way you can't get anywhere else.
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:iconerykkr:
*Erykkr Jun 8, 2012  Professional General Artist
Yeah definitely!
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:iconzathraya:
~zathraya Jun 7, 2012  Student Digital Artist
Yeahhhhh sorry about not posting though I assure you I've been reading. I just get lazy.

Honestly this problem doesn't really hit me as hard as some people but this was still inspiring. I view it more as "Guess it's just not good enough.... Then I'll just have to work harder, I'll get there eventually!" It might help that I'm not too fond of my work yet either. The artist ego in me is somewhat small in those regards. But I suppose the issue does effect how many posts I put out. :shrug:

Thanks for these blogs though, even if I don't comment. Same goes for your art. Best wishes! :)
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:iconshono:
*Shono Jun 8, 2012  Professional Digital Artist
why thank you, but you don't need to comment (though like any artist with a fragil ego, I appreciate them haha). Alot of the comments I got on this post was "sorry for not commenting." I didn't do this to guilt people into commenting more on my stuff. It's just to help others know its okay If you don't get comments yourself. I told that true story so you realize that even if you don't get comments, people might still really read and enjoy your work. Comments aren't a true reflection of who's enjoying your work.
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:iconzathraya:
~zathraya Jun 8, 2012  Student Digital Artist
I see. I get that though. It's a good message for sure.
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:iconshono:
*Shono Jun 9, 2012  Professional Digital Artist
thanks, I'm glad you agree!
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:iconsoulslayer317:
~Soulslayer317 Jun 7, 2012
Your right there, you put all the hard work into the work you done and no matter how much you do there are no feedbacks, I only got a handful of comments and useful tips. This would lead to one of the downfalls of the progress if you don't have any critiques of what can be done or what shouldn't be there.

Besides I haven't sent comments on your work because of getting all the things wrapped up for the end of the college year.
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