Publish? No, I Can't Draw Well Enough

So you've got your ideas, you've got your story, you've got your characters, but what's this thing going to look like? I think if you're an artist, this is where a lot of people get hung up on perfection--I know I did. If drawing is what you do, that's going to be the part you inevitably pay the most attention to, and why not? The drawings are the visual representation of your idea, and will be what grabs a reader's attention at a split second glance, or what makes them say "meh," and walk away. This is a HUGE amount of pressure to be under.

Personally, this alone was probably the main thing that was stopping me from moving forward and creating Dead Meat as a fully realized comic for a long while (well that and money, but that's a topic for a different time!). It was what I spent the most time slaving over, refining, re-working, and mostly I think this was out of fear. My feelings about the whole thing are best summed up in a quote from a hero of mine, Marty Mcfly:

"What if I take the [comic] in and they don't like it, what if they say I'm no good, what if they say 'Get out of here kid. You've got no future.' I just don't think I can handle that kind of rejection."

This is a real easy state of mind to wallow in, and it wasn't until I really took a look around me at other people who were out there producing content. The internet is filled with all sorts of comic strips of vary degrees of art levels from stick figures to fully finished comics from industry professionals, and the only difference between you and them is the fact that they're actually DOING it.

Now that's all well and good, but how do you get that nagging quest for perfectionism that constantly says "it's not good enough. It's not good enough" to shut the hell up? Well I'll tell you: you have to realize that you are going to get better. Even when you've reached "perfection" you're still going to have things to learn and ways to improve, so why wait?

My example for the day is the greatest cartoon show in the history of television: The Simpsons.

If you've ever seen the shorts from The Tracy Ullman Show you're well aware that The Simpsons, in its original incarnation was pretty terrible! The drawings were crude, as was the animation, and everything was just generally unrefined. However, as the show continued, the writing, the drawing and all the other aspects like the world and the peripheral characters grew and tightened up, and even now, 20 years later, production of the show continues to evolve as techniques and tools change with technology.

So here I am, gearing up for the first issue of my comic because I fretted over perfection, instead of being 10 years into my story, with art that continues to evolve and change. This is why the subtitle of this blog says "Just Do It." In the age of the internet which we live in, the only thing that's really stopping you from doing this is yourself. Or, as my hero Marty McFly also said:

"If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything."