Have you felt the slump?

Clairebright · Post by **Clairebright** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 8:58 am

I'm new as hell around here, but i have been drawing for 15 years. 14 years of poorly and about a year of decent. i've had slumps where I just grew tired of drawing and writting. I'd get tired of drawing the same crap I felt I had been drawing. so, i think its natural to feelthat way. in order to notget tired of working on one, I work on several at a time. Which is stupid, I don't recommend it.

I first started writting and drawing All I a couple of years ago. But it just wasn't what I wanted, and couldn't figure out what is was that I did really want. So, I let the story rest until I knw what i wanted.

I hope you get over you're slump though. you're a very skilled artiist.

claire

Keffria · Post by **Keffria** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 9:30 am

You need to find yourself some fanboys. There's nothing like having people mercilessly poke you with virtual sticks until you update. And if you have fans in the real world who like your comic, they can poke you for real.

Seriously, though, I go through a lot of slumps -- often, it'll take me so many tries to draw what I want, my floor will fill up with eraser shavings and crumpled-up paper. I'll wonder why the hell I got into this in the first place ... but then, usually late at night when I have to be at work early the next morning, something will click, and I always come crawling back.

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 11:41 pm

Alaina wrote:
Dutch! wrote:Don't take it seriously though...I play brass...it's my job to put the strings in their place
The flute's a string? Wow, and I always reckoned it was a wind instrument!

As a flute player, it's my duty to pick on the brass players

As a flute player, your opinion doesn't count, so kindly stop cluttering up our forum!

Christwriter · Post by **Christwriter** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 12:53 pm

I have discovered the cure for the slump.

Take care of something that is not yourself. It is better if it cannot take care of itself, and it's even better if it is utterly dependant on you for everything.

Somehow, being depressed over weak artwork and silent fans seems a whole lot smaller when you have something soft, furry and desprete to take care of.

CW

JPSloan · Post by **JPSloan** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 1:50 pm

christwriter wrote:I have discovered the cure for the slump.

Take care of something that is not yourself. It is better if it cannot take care of itself, and it's even better if it is utterly dependant on you for everything.

CW

Well, this is also a good way to cure depression... doing good for others. Really breaks one out of the old tunnel vision.

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 1:50 pm

Tending your mould garden again, eh?

Warren · Post by **Warren** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 2:57 pm

Mmmmm..... mold......

Kensou X · Post by **Kensou X** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 3:36 pm

I'm kinda at this point too but I'm not sure if it's so much "me hitting a slump" as it is "my life getting so much in the way that I can't find the humor in things anymore". Yeah, I'm having personal issues.

I don't think this helped your situation though. I am so bad at these things.

Toxic · Post by **Toxic** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 6:59 pm

Hmm...no slumps here.

My entire comic is prescripted monthes in advance, which helps.

Joel Fagin · Post by **Joel Fagin** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 7:30 pm

TOXIC AVENGER! wrote:My entire comic is prescripted monthes in advance, which helps.

For most people, I think it hinders. If you plan and script in advance, by the time you get around to putting the comic up, you've been living with that comic for weeks. It's old news and nothing to get excited about.

- Joel Fagin

Underbelly · Post by **Underbelly** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 8:05 pm

I've got the entire chronology of Hard Underbelly roughly planned out. So whenever I can't think of what to draw next I just look at my notes and see where the plot has to go, then I draw that. I don't see it as constricting, I see it as empowering. I never don't know what to draw.

Joel Fagin · Post by **Joel Fagin** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 8:18 pm

underbelly wrote:I've got the entire chronology of Hard Underbelly roughly planned out. So whenever I can't think of what to draw next I just look at my notes and see where the plot has to go, then I draw that. I don't see it as constricting, I see it as empowering. I never don't know what to draw.

I find there's a line there somewhere. You can't help planning ahead. Your mind keeps the story ideas simmering in the background all the time, but I find if you do too much work on it before you start, by the time you get around to actually doing it, there's no invention left to do, no creativity. It turns into drudge work, doing something according to instructions.

- Joel Fagin

Alun Clewe · Post by **Alun Clewe** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 9:17 pm

Joel Fagin wrote:For most people, I think it hinders. If you plan and script in advance, by the time you get around to putting the comic up, you've been living with that comic for weeks. It's old news and nothing to get excited about.

Quite honestly, in my case, had I not had my comic planned out way in advance, I quite possibly would have quit it entirely long ago. There have been times when I felt short enough on time or been frustrated enough about my update schedule that I have almost been tempted to just call it quits--but I haven't, because I have all these things planned out for the future of the comic (I've got the overall plot for my comic planned out waaaaay in advance) that I haven't gotten to yet, and I don't want to just throw all that away... So the fact that I have so much planned and scripted in advance is probably responsible for the fact that my comic is still going (albeit more slowly than I'd like).

TheBladeRoden2 · Post by **TheBladeRoden2** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 9:22 pm

I've been in a 3 month slump

Resolve · Post by **Resolve** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 11:21 pm

I kind of wing it... I know how it'll end and i just fill in the rest with whatever i feel like. For right now my comics just equal me having fun. Comics that I plan out in every detail are ussually pretty short and take me forever to complete maybe four-five times as long per page.

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 11:56 pm

Planning? Yeah, I've found that cuts down your production at times...We had so many ideas and stuff to start with we were having them before we got the others worked out properly.

The first 12 or so cartoons I was losing interest and not really wanting to draw them because there were other cool places I wanted to go.

Once I got through that bit the comic has updated on time each time. Now I sort of have a plan where it's going to go eventually, but as it's a gag comic, it doesn't have to get there straight away. If I think I've got a funny little bit to add in at a certain point then I can slip it in without worrying about plot.

At the same time, if there's something cool I'd like to quickly do with it which doesn't follow where we want it to move next, we can still slightly alter the plot to make room for it.

You can do that in a gag comic...you can't really in a story-comic...

I like gag comics

Lintjinks · Post by **Lintjinks** » Tue Aug 24, 2004 7:35 am

Dutch! wrote:
Alaina wrote:
Dutch! wrote:
Don't take it seriously though...I play brass...it's my job to put the strings in their place

The flute's a string? Wow, and I always reckoned it was a wind instrument!

As a flute player, it's my duty to pick on the brass players

As a flute player, your opinion doesn't count, so kindly stop cluttering up our forum!

Mwahahahahahahahaha!

Anyhoo, I plan way in advance, and write the script of each chapter before I start drawing it, but I leave some things open so there is a little spontenaiety here and there. It's a balance.

Phalanx · Post by **Phalanx** » Tue Aug 24, 2004 7:42 am

lintjinks wrote:Anyhoo, I plan way in advance, and write the script of each chapter before I start drawing it, but I leave some things open so there is a little spontenaiety here and there. It's a balance.

Same. Even though the script is written far in advance, I never stop tweaking it. Maybe it's the pacing, or I decide to add an idea last-minute... but nothing is ever set in stone, because you know the best ideas come when you're not looking for them.

Bekka · Post by **Bekka** » Tue Aug 24, 2004 7:57 am

Sometimes I have a terrible slump for specific ideas, because they don't conform to either of my requirements:

1. To fit in 4, or max 6 scenes on a page.
2. Have some kind of punch line.

It's a real bummer, because sometimes I have an idea that I really like, but I need to steer the characters towards it and it seems impossible to do in one or two scenes, I'd really require a page just for the steering... only that I have no punch line for it. When I get frustrated, I just put that idea on the backburner and think of other ideas, and sometimes I get a solution out of the blue.

It would be really cool if I could occasionally have just a "story" page, that ends up with maybe something like a cliffhanger, rather than some kind of gag, but I am afraid of going against the expectations that I set for my comic.

Anyway, sorry for the useless tirade... I think that the only advice that I can give is that if some project is frustrating you, you put it on the backburner and do other stuff - somehow the mind will keep working on it while you aren't looking and ta-dah, surprise you with some cool idea

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Tue Aug 24, 2004 8:19 am

When I'm in the slump from drawing comics I take a rest by studying for college, which is kind of a hobby of mine.