This might be a little strange to say but I just wanted to drop a message saying how relieving it is to hear that even you get the perfectionist brainworms.
I'm by no means a great or technical artist but I do draw (never learned the basics, mainly I just do it to see my silly little guys). I look at your art and think "wow, that's what I'd love to be someday" ... Idk seeing that you also have the same thoughts about sharing your work is very reassuring?? It's just Part Of It not a sign that I'm actually terrible at art and am not making anything worthwhile lol
I hope this makes sense & isn't crazy out of line to say !! I just really appreciate it
It’s not a strange thing to say at all! I think it’s difficult to see how much reworking and overthinking that I, or any other artist, does on a piece because all we ever really post is the final product! Or WIPs, but even then, the WIPs I choose to post are ones that I actually kinda like, and not the ones I toss out.
If it’s helpful, I looked through my playback of the last comic I made (thank you procreate) and I grabbed shots from ONE panel i redrafted over and over again until I got what made it into the final.
^I tossed this one pretty quick. Didn’t even get to writing the dialogue or cleaning the lineart. I said “no, actually, I wanna try again”. Looking back, I actually really like the expression and I think I just didn’t wanna draw that arm going into the background .
^So I did this- and I got as far as dialogue, but I didn’t love the framing of it. Gertrude’s head would have been that circle down there and I dunno, it felt wonky. So it got tossed too!
^ I had finally settled on THIS- but you don’t see this in the original at all, this panel just got tossed completely. I actually started working on this comic last year and it’s been on the back burner, and when I came back, I didn’t love how it was gonna fit in. I rewrote it so that Michael actually starts to get angrier and more manic instead of this moment being the thing to calm him down. I actually added and extra page to start the spiraling before we get what’s next below:
^This came afterward that rewrite, going the more “I’m spiraling” route (haha). I wanted Michael’s expression to look less angry and accusatory like the last 3 drawings had, and add a smile instead. As if he’s baffled by the situation, like it’s so crazy that you need to laugh. But I went back and rewrote some of the dialogue so this ended up changing too, and inspiring the last bit-
^ Now he’s more mad, actively spiraling, having just a downright bad time. I brought back the anger and less sadness. I add a pointing finger later on at the top right so that the panel has a whole adds more pressure towards the bottom left, where Gertrude will end up. His jaw extending out like that was actually a happy accident from drafting it out and I ran with it!
^and these two are a panel from the next page- and you can see how rough the page is from the start where I haven’t even given him his hair or his hand- Sasha doesn’t even have a face, it’s just the implication of her is there in the back. And then I really get in there when I clean it up, I change his eye to start morphing and changing, and I add the hand in so that, from Sasha’s perspective, she wouldn’t see what you guys are seeing. I think I redrew that had 4 times cause it was NOT happening hahaha!
Anon, you’re not terrible at art. The little voice in your head that goes “this could be better,” CAN be a negative little voice. It’s hard to put something down and have that voice pop up after so much hard work.
But it can be used to help push yourself too! To rework something enough that it’s better than before. You just need to know when to call it for the day. Look at the voice and say “I’m stopping for now because this is good enough and I can do more tomorrow.” (Sometimes tomorrow is 4 months later oops!!!)
If you’re making things that make you happy, that’s awesome, and that’s enough! I’m doing all of this for me, but it’s definitely more fun when other people also get enjoyment from the things I make. And the more I do it, the better I get at it, because I keep doing it. Keep doing your thing anon, because making yourself happy is worthwhile :)
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