Discovering Your Purpose and Motivation as a Webcomic Artist

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Webcomic Artistry… What Motivates Your Art?

When you define success in terms of being a webcomic artist, what do you define it as? Having a million readers swarming your comment board? Making enough money in donations to supplement your income once webhosting costs are paid? Working through a long term project that allows you to develop a much loved character and your artistic skills? Having the opportunity to share your world and story with other people in hopes that someone out there “gets it”?

Your definition of success will play a big part in what makes or breaks your webcomic. Yes, there are a few lucky-dog artists out there that make it to the top slots and earn a bit of money selling their cafepress books, wowios and earning donations. But that’s honestly so few and far in-between compared to the sheer number of comics that are out there on the net. And there’s little doubt that the folks that make it to the top work their butts off to stay where they are – all my respect to you guys! It takes a lot of time and hard work to build up a consistent reader base. I’ll go into the details about this at a later time… but just know that earning fame in the webcomic world does not happen overnight.

The bottom line is, if your motivation is to go out there and become a famous webcomic artist and make a lot of money… well, I won’t tell you not to try. But the odds are, you’ll end up getting disappointed real fast — unless you make a fluke breakthrough or you just know how to network the comic community well.

If you need outside approval to keep you drawing that next page, you may get discouraged and quit. Because there’s going to be days, maybe even weeks, when comments are silent and it’s hard to tell if anyone’s paying attention to your hard work or not. Those are the times you’re going to be tempted to put down the pencil and throw the word “Hiatus!” up on the screen. Sometimes taking a break is a good thing… but just keep in mind that if you never draw another page… it’s certain you’ll never hear another comment or gain another reader.

You have to reach down inside you and find that motivation within yourself during these times. Because it’s you and you alone — your love of your craft, your world, your characters and your story — that will get you through. I’ve learned that if I focus on getting good, consistent-updated material out there and stop worrying so much about how many hits or comments I have, somehow, miraculously, it gets noticed. But you have to hang in there and get through those lull times to find the light at the end of the artblock tunnel.

Summary: Striving for extrinsic motivations will only discourage you. Intrinsic motivations will give you what you need to keep you working. And if you keep working, eventually, you will see results.

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Posted by User Image Aywren