I’ve done a “no excuses” before on how many of you use the excuse “I’m not good enough” to justify the fact that you don’t make comics. If you haven’t read that one before, go read it now.
Today’s post isn’t exactly about that. It’s not going to be about yelling at you to suck it up and do it anyways. This post will be telling you that I know how you feel.
When I was at HeroesCon a couple weeks ago I felt so out of my league. Sure, I had done really well a couple weeks earlier at Animazement, but this was the big time. Some of the biggest names in main stream, and indie comics were sitting in Heroes Con’s artist alley, and here I was at my table in the last row facing a wall feeling horrifically inadequate compared to them.
In those moments it’s easy to feel like your not good enough. Because it’s a fact that you’re not as good as a enormous chunk of artists in the room. But it’s important to realize (as I realized at the end of the con) that there is a difference between not being as good as those seasoned veterans, and just not being good enough.
I know I lecture you about not making excuses, and I stand by my statements. But I want you to also know I’m human, and even though I’ve had some very mild and limited success in my comics I still struggle with the same things you do. Sometimes I think my art stinks and that I’m not good enough. Sometimes I wonder if I’m wasting my time. Or if it’s be better if i gave up and just started a different career path. These are natural feelings to have when your a developing artist. It’s just really important to understand that everyone feels this way in many points in their career. You just can’t let it stop you. You can’t use it as your excuse. You have to try.
And Just to prove to you that my “No Excuses” philosophy is right. Despite feeling inadequate I had many commissions this convention. One person commissioned me at the con and was so happy with the art, he came back later with a friend who then commissioned me. Then came back a third time to commission me again. That doesn’t happen if your art is inadequate. Another person liked my art so much they’re interested in buying all my original pages from a series I did. I also sold many copies of Shadows of Oblivion and ever since the con my “likes” on facebook has been growing and I’ve been receiving emails from people who loved the book.
Despite my feelings this is not the experiences of someone who’s inadequate. If I gave into that excuse and gave up, or maybe used my excuse to not even go to the convention then none of those great things would of happened to me.
I want you to learn from my experiences too. Its easy to feel like your not good enough. Everyone feels that way. But you have to put your self out there. I can’t guarantee that you’ll be successful the first time you try, but failure is guaranteed if you never do.
So you are good enough! At least good enough to try! If you’re not good enough to succeed, I have good news, you can get better! You just need to try try again!
So stop making excuses and start making comics!
… I haven’t decided yet what I’m going to post tomorrow… so while I think about it check me out around the web:
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