What is one of the big things that holds us back? Normally it’s us caring too much, caring about what we do, how we look, what others think and more.

Last week, while writing the article The Magic of Frames I was talking to PIT_FACE about it and she mentioned to me how she wanted to also get into making frames like how I do mine and asked me about it, I pretty much said that I just stopped caring and I just went for it, and then the lovely PIT_FACE suggested I should make an article about this, so here I am.

At the end of the day, your webcomic is for you, unless you’re getting paid the big bucks by someone, it is safe to say this is your project, your story and you’re sharing it with the world, so, you get to call the shots. You get to experiment and do what YOU want and you should stop caring about what other people want.

How did this come up with frames? Basically, I used to nervous about doing anything crazy, frames just happens to be one of the many things, I used to be nervous about changing my art style or even my characters and adjusting them along the way and I thought I would lose readers over it because they’d give a glance and think it’s crazy or an ugly transition… at least those were my thoughts with my first webcomic, Scarred Eden. With Scorned I wanted things to be different this time. I decided I was going to do what I want and not what the general public want. I’m going to draw however I want to, I’m going to express myself and my characters how I think I should do it and I’m going to dive into topics that make me and other people uncomfortable. I’m going to tell the story how I want to tell it and I’m not going to care about who comes and who goes. At the end of the day, I’m doing this for me, this is my story and this is a learning experience for me.

So, that’s what I’m doing – I’m not caring and I feel like I’ve improved greatly during this. I give my characters basic anatomy but I make the final touches, do I want one man’s chest to be so wide that you could place Mount Olympus on top of it? I’ll do that. Do I want one character’s buttcheeks to look like maybe that’s where the lost city of Atlantis is? Oh boy, I do not care what you think, I’m going to do that. Why? Because I can and I want to and this is my fun. To put it as blunt as I can, I don’t care what you think. And I think it’s absolutely okay to not care about what other people think.

What are the pros about not caring what other people think? You’re chances of happiness have probably increased.
What are the cons? Honestly, there are no cons unless you naturally don’t care because you’re a dick.
It is absolutely one thing to not care because this is for you, it’s another thing to not care because you’re insensitive. Definitely two different kinds of caring here.

But in terms of art and being happy with what you make, no one should really hold you back. This does not mean you can’t accept advice or ask for critique, it’s always nice to have an extra pair of eyes helping you out, but if someone comes up to you and is a dick about what you make, saying “this isn’t right” or “this is gonna make you lose readers” pft, SOD OFF. I DO WHAT I WANT.

No story is perfect, and no one should pretend that there is a “perfect” story out there. You may find a story out there to be perfect but not everyone shares the same opinion and that’s what makes it not perfect. I’ve met a lot of people who love Harry Potter and I’ve met the same amount who dislike Harry Potter.
This is all a matter of opinion and this is why you should do what makes you happy because no matter what, you can’t please everyone BUT you can please yourself. In a very SFW way. Or maybe you’re a NSFW artist and writer and in that case, please, please yourself in a NSFW way too. I don’t judge. Why? Because I don’t care. I like seeing people be happy with what they make and the ONLY time I’ll share my opinion is if they ask for it.

A long time ago, when I was working on Scarred Eden I got a comment on webtoon on the EARLY pages of it saying that I should study anatomy so my characters can look more realistic.
Baby, oh sweet dear child of mine, realism is a style I do not seek. I actually like cartoony/exaggerated looks and features.
Like this:

and maybe I have a weird obsession for green, but this is what I go for with a little bit of Tim Burton mixed into it because my girls normally have unnaturally small waists compared to everything else, and I love my art and I can only hope to improve the look of it so it can be visually more appealing to myself. I didn’t even bother responding to this comment because… I just didn’t care and I wasn’t going to explain what I like or what I am going for or hoping to achieve when this is on WEBTOON, webtoon is a place filled with characters that are totally unrealistic looking, from the typical anime/manga look to the very cute and simple art styles of a strip comic.
I once received unsolicited feedback on a male character of mine from an artist because the eyes were “girly” and by girly I imagine they meant big because the image they gave back to me had my character’s eyes redrawn to be 2 beads. Literally beady little fucks. Like what? Why? I was polite and I said I wasn’t interested because… it’s not my style, I draw big eyes because I like to express the colors in the eyes. They didn’t like it and snapped at me by TRYING TO INSULT MY CHARACTER SAYING HE HAD GIRLY EYES and my attitude at this point was “I don’t care bro.” it’s my art, my character, I like drawing big eyes, I like adding colors and life into my eyes, aaaand if you’re unhappy with that, that’s your problem and I don’t care.

I don’t have much to say on this topic besides what I’ve already said, my only advice is for you to draw what you want and stop caring about what other people think and say. If I listened to every single unsolicited advice someone gave me, I’d be a miserable comic wretch. Actually when I worked on my very first webcomic which shall not be named or even discussed, listening to people’s advice and changing my story and my art to suit them is what ruined it for me and made me take a HUGE hiatus from comics. I didn’t work on anything for quite a bit. I stopped working on comics when I was 18 and only got back into it around the age of 21.

I’d like to think that I’ve grown into basically not giving a

now I do what I want, I draw my frames, characters, layouts, all however I want them to be because it makes me happy.

Take unsolicited advice/opinions with a grain of salt and do what you wanna do bby.

See you all next Sunday :)