To free lancers out here.

[Danioover9000]

   If your life purpose was becoming an artist, or a comic book writer/artist, is it the wrong timing?

   Any experienced in this field, how do I penetrate into the market of comics? In one market dealing with western comics, I heard it's now over politicalized and lost what really made western comics really good, so I don't see how I could get in and work traditionally in there. On the other side, dealing with manga/anime and the eastern manga industry, I heard it's getting more and more popular, but the barrier of entry is much more difficult, the competitive field higher.

    

[Windappreciator]

try staring your own shit

[Space]

14 hours ago, Danioover9000 said:

   If your life purpose was becoming an artist, or a comic book writer/artist, is it the wrong timing?

   Any experienced in this field, how do I penetrate into the market of comics? In one market dealing with western comics, I heard it's now over politicalized and lost what really made western comics really good, so I don't see how I could get in and work traditionally in there. On the other side, dealing with manga/anime and the eastern manga industry, I heard it's getting more and more popular, but the barrier of entry is much more difficult, the competitive field higher.

    

It's never the wrong timing. There is always a need for artists. Basically everything we own and consume has been designed by artist or designer so there is massive demand for it.

I don't have any experience with comic art, but I am a professional freelance illustrator now. 

Ultimately it comes down to 2 things if you want to be any kind of artist, illustrator or designer:

1) Having a really good portfolio of work that shows technical skill, creative thinking and a unique original style.

2) Being able to consistently produce good work. You want to be in a position where you a consistently good rather than occasionally great.

So if you don't have those 2 ticked off then get to work. 

Its totally possible to get into the comic industry, but i'm not sure it pays all that well and theres a shit ton of work, similar to animation. But if you're genuinely passionate about it, then absolutely go for it! Job satisfaction is more important than money tbh.

[Yarco]

You have to do something that nobody else has done before. The world doesn't need another XYZ-man, it's just a commodity.

First thing that comes to my mind is Spawn by Todd MacFarlane. But now the world is over-saturated with anti-heroes like Deadpool so you can't do that either. The point is not trying to copy anything that has already been done. You need a massively unique angle.

If you feel like you'd be equally fine doing Western or Anime style comics, then it feels like you haven't sufficiently nailed down your true calling yet.

Don't settle. Don't worry about politics or oversaturation. Make the art that's true to your heart, that's uniquely you. Learn how to make a website and then put up 10, 50, 100 comics for free without them getting any views. Even if it means having a shitty part-time or full-time job and then you have to come home and draw for 4 hours a night until you pass out, and repeat for a couple years. Keep grinding and sharing them on social media and Reddit and eventually a dedicated base of fans will realize your genius.

If your life purpose is to be a comic book artist, then I don't think your destiny is just drawing cels of someone else's animations. At that point you're basically just working in a factory. You need to succeed or fail alone.

[Danioover9000]

@Windappreciator

12 hours ago, Windappreciator said:

try staring your own shit

   Do you mean 'Try *starting* your own shit'? Out of the blue, original art style? I don't know, I struggle coming up with unique styles and designs, which nudged me into consuming other types of artwork, in this case manga and some western comics,  and other styles and disciplines, to the point I can imagine drawing that style and freezing and sustaining a mental image like that.

[Windappreciator]

10 minutes ago, Danioover9000 said:

@Windappreciator

   Do you mean 'Try *starting* your own shit'? Out of the blue, original art style? I don't know, I struggle coming up with unique styles and designs, which nudged me into consuming other types of artwork, in this case manga and some western comics,  and other styles and disciplines, to the point I can imagine drawing that style and freezing and sustaining a mental image like that.

doesn't need to be original.

just do what creativity says and you like bro

[Danioover9000]

@Space

2 hours ago, Space said:

It's never the wrong timing. There is always a need for artists. Basically everything we own and consume has been designed by artist or designer so there is massive demand for it.

I don't have any experience with comic art, but I am a professional freelance illustrator now. 

Ultimately it comes down to 2 things if you want to be any kind of artist, illustrator or designer:

1) Having a really good portfolio of work that shows technical skill, creative thinking and a unique original style.

2) Being able to consistently produce good work. You want to be in a position where you a consistently good rather than occasionally great.

So if you don't have those 2 ticked off then get to work. 

Its totally possible to get into the comic industry, but i'm not sure it pays all that well and theres a shit ton of work, similar to animation. But if you're genuinely passionate about it, then absolutely go for it! Job satisfaction is more important than money tbh.

   Ok, it's great to know artists and designers are still in demand for whichever market they are operating in.

   As a role of a professional illustrator, do you, from start to finish, only do digital art? Or is it mostly traditional, and then you convert whatever drawing you did to digital? What software do you use? What does a typical day of an illustrator like you look like?

   Ok, so in my portfolio, because  i want to be identified as, and be in the role of a comic book artist, for example, then my portfolio should contain part technical aspects of a comic style, and creative thinking, do you mean visual creative thinking? Also, when you say unique original style, is that like the sum of my consumption of a particular genre, or multiple genres of art?

   The consistency is where I'm more confident in,  as I mostly draw daily, sometimes, but I still have some questions about it. One, when you say consistency, do you mean like I spend a week/month using one medium, then nedt week/month I change to another medium? Or do you mean I practice one genre, or one specific topic, but I change my mediums for drawing? Like today I use pencil, next day inks, next day charcoal, and weekends I use digital, for say 3 months straight, drawing a specific genre like moe, for example?

   You mean if I took the traditional route to entering the comic/manga/anime industry, that the pay rate isn't like 6 figures a year? From what I've researched so far, as a comic book artist ( similarly applies to being a writer/scriptor, pencillor, inker I heard is much less popular because as a digital artist you can pencil and ink right away, a colourist, editor/proofreader, and cover illustrator) I get payed for x amount per page I make, with pay being higher if I do cover art. I have a feeling that I lean more to entering the field at a more creative angle, like say indie, instead of going straight to the big two, Marvels and DC comics, maybe Image?

[Danioover9000]

@Yarco

2 hours ago, Yarco said:

You have to do something that nobody else has done before. The world doesn't need another XYZ-man, it's just a commodity.

First thing that comes to my mind is Spawn by Todd MacFarlane. But now the world is over-saturated with anti-heroes like Deadpool so you can't do that either. The point is not trying to copy anything that has already been done. You need a massively unique angle.

If you feel like you'd be equally fine doing Western or Anime style comics, then it feels like you haven't sufficiently nailed down your true calling yet.

Don't settle. Don't worry about politics or oversaturation. Make the art that's true to your heart, that's uniquely you. Learn how to make a website and then put up 10, 50, 100 comics for free without them getting any views. Even if it means having a shitty part-time or full-time job and then you have to come home and draw for 4 hours a night until you pass out, and repeat for a couple years. Keep grinding and sharing them on social media and Reddit and eventually a dedicated base of fans will realize your genius.

If your life purpose is to be a comic book artist, then I don't think your destiny is just drawing cels of someone else's animations. At that point you're basically just working in a factory. You need to succeed or fail alone.

   Do you mean the western comic  world being oversaturated with superheroes, and anti heroes like Deadpool?  Is it okey to copy for the short term other genres, and other fields first for studying and to have something to fuel my creativity for my mind to generate new ideas from?

   Are you saying that if I'm just fine doing western style or manga style comics, that I haven't narrowed down my niche? I do consume a lot of anime/manga, from seinin to some shounin/shoujo, some moe genres like magical girls. I also consume some western comics, and I also read a ton of fiction books with various genres. Sometimes, my mind comes up with Frankenstein fusions of different stories, comics and anime coming together, along with some visual combinations as well, to tell some crazy stories and sometimes better re telling of some stories that bizarrely is much better than any one story, with original characters, and better ways of transferring themes and so on. For example, to me my mind is like a Yu-Gi-Oh database, qnd the more cards I collect, the more my mind wants to min-max the fusion of monster cards. But it doesn't stop there, the creativity wants to also see a fusion between spell cards and monster cards, or spell and trap cards, or fuse all three types of cards together, to see whats possible.

   A more recent example, I finished watching Puella magi Madoka magica, the tv series and the three movies,  and some magia records seasons 1 and 2 (spoiler alert, I might spoil some things here).  I enjoyed the madoka magica series and movies a bit more than magia records, but my mind went very intrigued, by some of the plot holes, and like product improvement, or brainstorming new ways of using a product/service, or improving a product, my mind identified that there are some potential storylines, with certain characters, that if it was explored would make the story, and character developments relationship dynamics more interesting, like what if the main character's mother was a witch herself? Why? Because, while the literal translation of 'Puella magi' in english Japanese, is 'magical girl', the latin translation is actually 'girl of the sorcerer'. As soon as I read that, my mind immediately went into outer space and explored this path, combined with the ideas that the author showed me jn the third madoka magica movie, rebellion, and further illustrating the potential of the witch's labyrinth, how a soul gem can create a labyrinth inside itself, and even extend that to the observable universe, I went 'yeah, a matured, powerful witch could easily do that if it's shown in cannon that a magical girl can do that. And my mind kept going, creating spin offs and combining other interesting stories and ideas to better tell a magical girl story, which typical has themes of hope, love conquers all, and coming of age,  which to me the last theme isn't well explored in western or eastern comics. Immediately, I'm like, make it an isekai, have some summoning mechanics, and include some themes from Lord of the rings, and enable the main character, the soon to be moe magical girl, carrying a soul gem of some other magical girl, that is like the ring which is evil but also can summon creatures of the night, but also can summon another main protag that's an anti hero, that represents the masculine side of growing up, that balances the feminine version of growing up in magical girl genres, and allow the world time travelling and multiple universes, and BOOM! Very interesting story.

[Fleetinglife]

If I can just provide my personal preference, input, and word of layman's (or rather history of a consumer) advice, with no personal experience and knowledge behind the craft, and idiosyncratic assessment on your dilemma regarding the possible future trajectory of the cultivation of your preferred style or genre you might dip your feet into as a comic book artist.

I would provide my personal assessment, as a relatively past and less current casual free time spender consumer, addict/fan, and time sinker reader of the anime/manga/manhwa/manhua, etc. genre Eastern comic book style, that comic book industry could you use more non-indigenous artists and creatives coming from different places in the world in their comic book output that could revitalize, innovate more in that industry providing new creative ideas and a paradigm shifts within in its styles and genres, since, I deemed it in consuming its content, of a large part of it commercially successful part of to be a lot of the times and still locked into standardizing self-repeating, imitating style within sometimes the only refrence and inspiration behind it being other works of art style within that same genre produced before with the intent to try to imitate their commercial success and informed by too much by being locked within the paradigms and rules of their own culture (let's provide a simplistic typification of calling it by generalizing term Far Eastern, or East Asian, be it Japanese, Korean, Chinese, etc.) of where those respective artists come from and get their inspiration and creative ideas from and it could maybe use artists from different parts of the world, from different cultures and inspired by different creative ideas and inspirations to revitalize, diversify, enrich and creatively inspire that comic book industry to put it simplistically, that might give them a competitve edge over the typified and generalized ''established art and artists'' within that field.

Especially given you shared and opened up a personal bio on this forum serving as an inspiration (with the ideas of Tulpas etc. being added into the fray) you might prove to create truly unique and inspirational works of arts within freelancing in that genre and style industry that pulls originality based on actual experiences from different parts of the world (not imagined ones within the paradigm locks within your own specific culture and or orientalist/occidentalist representations of different cultures of your own often stemming from being in that said imaginative lock without any experience or contacts with those other said cultures) linked together to create something truly original, creative and new within that genre and more appreciable, approachable and available for a universalized global consumer base.

But that's my past consumer of this specific genre take on it and hopefully to some extent useful and relevant suggestion and word of advice on this dilemma and topic, I don't know the actual empirical logistics, strategic approaches, and efforts that need to be taken into consideration when aiming to create within that industry, get into as a freelance artist and be successful and gain a competitive edge within it, apart from gaining straight from the start on the ideas and the merits of the uniqueness of your artistic and style inspirations and the background experiences that lay behind them as an inspiration within that industry over potentially more standardization and standardized mass cultural production and re-production that I mentioned is more present in it as one of it's, IMO, currently lacking backdrops.

Edited January 24, 2022 by Fleetinglife

[Yarco]

Copying others is a good way to learn when you're starting. When I was starting to learn how to draw, tracing cartoons on my window was the fastest way I learned to improve. If it's your life purpose, at some point you have to stop copying though.

I think your YuGiOh example is a great one. Lots of great original content could be seen as the fusion of multiple existing ideas. Spend some time focusing on creating art fusions. Take one of your favorite character's appearance, mix it with the personality of another favorite character, give it the backstory of another character, put them in different time periods or scenarios they've never been before. Take a western comic character and try to fuse it with the storyline of a manga, or vice versa.

Eventually you'll find one fusion that really sticks out and calls to you. Keep tweaking it a little bit more until it's totally original, then that's probably a life purpose-worthy story to tell.

[Danioover9000]

@Yarco

2 hours ago, Yarco said:

Copying others is a good way to learn when you're starting. When I was starting to learn how to draw, tracing cartoons on my window was the fastest way I learned to improve. If it's your life purpose, at some point you have to stop copying though.

I think your YuGiOh example is a great one. Lots of great original content could be seen as the fusion of multiple existing ideas. Spend some time focusing on creating art fusions. Take one of your favorite character's appearance, mix it with the personality of another favorite character, give it the backstory of another character, put them in different time periods or scenarios they've never been before. Take a western comic character and try to fuse it with the storyline of a manga, or vice versa.

Eventually you'll find one fusion that really sticks out and calls to you. Keep tweaking it a little bit more until it's totally original, then that's probably a life purpose-worthy story to tell.

   Ah, ok then. I'm in that brainstorming process, and it looks like the next big thing is somewhere in between a manga and a western comic, so off I go consuming and fusing again.

[Space]

3 hours ago, Danioover9000 said:

@Space

   Ok, it's great to know artists and designers are still in demand for whichever market they are operating in.

   As a role of a professional illustrator, do you, from start to finish, only do digital art? Or is it mostly traditional, and then you convert whatever drawing you did to digital? What software do you use? What does a typical day of an illustrator like you look like?

Well I usually do my preliminary sketches with pencil. But everything after that is digital, yes.

Mostly use Adobe Photoshop.

Typical day is fairly uneventful, in a good way. Usually start working at 7:30am or whenever I want, and work on my computer until lunchtime. Then a few hours after lunch. I just spend most of the time producing work on my computer or exchanging emails with clients.

3 hours ago, Danioover9000 said:

   Ok, so in my portfolio, because  i want to be identified as, and be in the role of a comic book artist, for example, then my portfolio should contain part technical aspects of a comic style, and creative thinking, do you mean visual creative thinking? Also, when you say unique original style, is that like the sum of my consumption of a particular genre, or multiple genres of art?

Basically, you just need a good amount of high quality work that shows you can do the job. You don't need to separate the portfolio into technical aspects and then creative thinking. It's all the same thing really. Decide how many pieces of work you need in your portfolio before you start reaching out to prospective clients/employers. 

Unique original style is the style that identifies your work to you. To be successful you need one style and you also need to show that you can produce that style consistently. Style is developed through lots of work and experimentation, and then more work.

3 hours ago, Danioover9000 said:

   The consistency is where I'm more confident in,  as I mostly draw daily, sometimes, but I still have some questions about it. One, when you say consistency, do you mean like I spend a week/month using one medium, then nedt week/month I change to another medium? Or do you mean I practice one genre, or one specific topic, but I change my mediums for drawing? Like today I use pencil, next day inks, next day charcoal, and weekends I use digital, for say 3 months straight, drawing a specific genre like moe, for example?

Its good to practise with different mediums but don't jump around too much. Find something that works and then stick to it.

3 hours ago, Danioover9000 said:

   You mean if I took the traditional route to entering the comic/manga/anime industry, that the pay rate isn't like 6 figures a year? From what I've researched so far, as a comic book artist ( similarly applies to being a writer/scriptor, pencillor, inker I heard is much less popular because as a digital artist you can pencil and ink right away, a colourist, editor/proofreader, and cover illustrator) I get payed for x amount per page I make, with pay being higher if I do cover art. I have a feeling that I lean more to entering the field at a more creative angle, like say indie, instead of going straight to the big two, Marvels and DC comics, maybe Image?

I don't know too much about the comic industry tbh. But the bottom line is, just focus on what you genuinely enjoy doing and get really really good at that one thing.

[Fleetinglife]

1 hour ago, Danioover9000 said:

looks like the next big thing is somewhere in between a manga and a western comic, so off I go consuming and fusing again.

Yeah that would be nice, to end the worshipping and fetishization of each one separately, and view each other and create stories about each other either to the limited, self culturally biased prism of orientalism or occidentalism (or the problem of isms in general for that matter), to sum up, my approximate current view on the existing issues regarding them 

[Danioover9000]

@Space

On 1/24/2022 at 9:23 PM, Space said:

Well I usually do my preliminary sketches with pencil. But everything after that is digital, yes.

Mostly use Adobe Photoshop.

Typical day is fairly uneventful, in a good way. Usually start working at 7:30am or whenever I want, and work on my computer until lunchtime. Then a few hours after lunch. I just spend most of the time producing work on my computer or exchanging emails with clients.

Basically, you just need a good amount of high quality work that shows you can do the job. You don't need to separate the portfolio into technical aspects and then creative thinking. It's all the same thing really. Decide how many pieces of work you need in your portfolio before you start reaching out to prospective clients/employers. 

Unique original style is the style that identifies your work to you. To be successful you need one style and you also need to show that you can produce that style consistently. Style is developed through lots of work and experimentation, and then more work.

Its good to practise with different mediums but don't jump around too much. Find something that works and then stick to it.

I don't know too much about the comic industry tbh. But the bottom line is, just focus on what you genuinely enjoy doing and get really really good at that one thing.

   I also do sketches using pencil, and sometimes charcoal if I'm brave enough.

   I have paint 3d that I often work in, sometimes photoshop.

   I have recently acquired a Wacom Intuos,  so that's where most of my time practicing will be at.

   Do you visit art conventions?

[Danioover9000]

@Fleetinglife

On 1/24/2022 at 6:46 PM, Fleetinglife said:

If I can just provide my personal preference, input, and word of layman's (or rather history of a consumer) advice, with no personal experience and knowledge behind the craft, and idiosyncratic assessment on your dilemma regarding the possible future trajectory of the cultivation of your preferred style or genre you might dip your feet into as a comic book artist.

I would provide my personal assessment, as a relatively past and less current casual free time spender consumer, addict/fan, and time sinker reader of the anime/manga/manhwa/manhua, etc. genre Eastern comic book style, that comic book industry could you use more non-indigenous artists and creatives coming from different places in the world in their comic book output that could revitalize, innovate more in that industry providing new creative ideas and a paradigm shifts within in its styles and genres, since, I deemed it in consuming its content, of a large part of it commercially successful part of to be a lot of the times and still locked into standardizing self-repeating, imitating style within sometimes the only refrence and inspiration behind it being other works of art style within that same genre produced before with the intent to try to imitate their commercial success and informed by too much by being locked within the paradigms and rules of their own culture (let's provide a simplistic typification of calling it by generalizing term Far Eastern, or East Asian, be it Japanese, Korean, Chinese, etc.) of where those respective artists come from and get their inspiration and creative ideas from and it could maybe use artists from different parts of the world, from different cultures and inspired by different creative ideas and inspirations to revitalize, diversify, enrich and creatively inspire that comic book industry to put it simplistically, that might give them a competitve edge over the typified and generalized ''established art and artists'' within that field.

Especially given you shared and opened up a personal bio on this forum serving as an inspiration (with the ideas of Tulpas etc. being added into the fray) you might prove to create truly unique and inspirational works of arts within freelancing in that genre and style industry that pulls originality based on actual experiences from different parts of the world (not imagined ones within the paradigm locks within your own specific culture and or orientalist/occidentalist representations of different cultures of your own often stemming from being in that said imaginative lock without any experience or contacts with those other said cultures) linked together to create something truly original, creative and new within that genre and more appreciable, approachable and available for a universalized global consumer base.

But that's my past consumer of this specific genre take on it and hopefully to some extent useful and relevant suggestion and word of advice on this dilemma and topic, I don't know the actual empirical logistics, strategic approaches, and efforts that need to be taken into consideration when aiming to create within that industry, get into as a freelance artist and be successful and gain a competitive edge within it, apart from gaining straight from the start on the ideas and the merits of the uniqueness of your artistic and style inspirations and the background experiences that lay behind them as an inspiration within that industry over potentially more standardization and standardized mass cultural production and re-production that I mentioned is more present in it as one of it's, IMO, currently lacking backdrops.

   I have no intention of flipping the comic book industry, western, European or Eastern, upside down. I'm more interested on becoming an indie comic artist freelancing maybe, and less about starting a small company dealing with comics.

    

[universe]

Well yes, it's the perfect timing!

The question is wether it is what you really want to do.

Then you will easily succeed.

That success could either mean you make tons of money and have a huge following.

OR

That success is just barely scraping by. Always doing sidejobs to stay afloat while you pump out those comics.

Either way you created what you wanted to create.

 

The question is, could you live without making any comics?

If yes you might go another route or do the life purpose course.

[flowboy]

@Danioover9000  Don't fill your head with other people's second hand limiting beliefs.

In fact, don't listen to anyone, and do what others say can't be done.

If you lack faith, use a powerful affirmation and write it down 15 times a day for a couple months.

Everything will fall into place.

 

See also Tim Ferriss's interview with Scott Adams

[Danioover9000]

@flowboy

9 hours ago, flowboy said:

@Danioover9000  Don't fill your head with other people's second hand limiting beliefs.

In fact, don't listen to anyone, and do what others say can't be done.

If you lack faith, use a powerful affirmation and write it down 15 times a day for a couple months.

Everything will fall into place.

 

See also Tim Ferriss's interview with Scott Adams

   But how do I know if I'm being a good artist, good illustrator, or good comic writer/artist, when I don't have second knowledge about the relevant fields? And I'm not the only one desiring to be a freelance/indie comic artist, there are others in this field too, so practices and practically speaking, if I don't know what my competitors are up too, how can I output more value than them, when I don't know what they're capable of? 

   Outside the context of this thread, and taking you're logic and intensifying it, it's like you're telling me "Don't listen to what others say about the sink hole. Do what others say can't be done, ie walk across the sink hole without sinking." If I don't know about the market I'm specializing into, the business format and the customer base and their demands, and the poll of information to study and practice from, I'm at a ridiculous disadvantage compared to those who are knowledgeable, have insider knowledge, have more experience and skills trained in much longer and with more effort than me, so in this case learning from secondary knowledge off of multiple perspectives, from people in the know, from clients/customers and what they like in their comics/illustrated works, and the marketing, might be helpful. Having a diversity of learned perspectives and broader knowledge can offset my disadvantages in regards to those who can out technical me, or out experience me in drawing.

   I do basic self help as well as subconscious training, and positive affirmations and visualization work. My visualization skills are almost matching to waking reality, ie I can see myself be an artist, see, hear and feel what I'm doing, what the tools do, from 1st person perspective to 3rd person perspective. In fact this is also part of my zone of genius, 3d thinking and modeling, which I used a lot to make sense of video games I used to play, and for some comics in figuring out the locations, events, and characters positions.

[Danioover9000]

@universe

16 hours ago, universe said:

Well yes, it's the perfect timing!

The question is wether it is what you really want to do.

Then you will easily succeed.

That success could either mean you make tons of money and have a huge following.

OR

That success is just barely scraping by. Always doing sidejobs to stay afloat while you pump out those comics.

Either way you created what you wanted to create.

 

The question is, could you live without making any comics?

If yes you might go another route or do the life purpose course.

   Great to know timing isn't a big issue.

   I mean, It's not like my passion for comics is my only passion. In fact in my life, in the past, I had other hobbies, other interests and passions besides drawing illustrations and doing a comic styles of art. Before my drawing comics passion, there was the passion of IT computing,  in order to create my own website, for a few years until I didn't want to. Before my passion for IT computing to build my own website, there was a passion for chess, board games, and video games, because I liked thinking in a big perspective, and liking the game design. Before that, there was a passion for writing stories, because I read a bit more then than now, fiction books and fanfiction. I wanted to be an author myself, and pictured myself signing off books that each of my readers wanted signing off, and giving lectures and talks about my books in front of an audience world wide. So, I was reading and creating stories and learning from writer blogs about their techniques to character developments and plot structures, for about 5 years straight, until my passion calmed down. Before that there was travelling to other countries, learning new things, and lots of day dreaming.

   Nowadays, I have a vision similar to being a writer, but instead it's about the comics I'm selling.

   When you say I can't live without, do you mean like an obsession?

[flowboy]

22 minutes ago, Danioover9000 said:

But how do I know if I'm being a good artist, good illustrator, or good comic writer/artist, when I don't have second knowledge about the relevant fields?

I didn't mean to say don't learn your craft from other people, I specifically meant don't let other people tell you what's possible and what's not possible, or even what's hard and what's easy! They are wildly inaccurate and what they say has no significance for your individual situation, vision and story.

You know you are good in your heart, and also from feedback from customers. No need to look at competition, in fact, I'd avoid it altogether because it will just stress you out needlessly.

22 minutes ago, Danioover9000 said:

And I'm not the only one desiring to be a freelance/indie comic artist, there are others in this field too, so practices and practically speaking, if I don't know what my competitors are up too, how can I output more value than them, when I don't know what they're capable of? 

You don't have to output "more" value than them, it just has to be YOUR unique value.

To a certain extent you can imitate people to learn the basics, but after that you should get out of imitation as soon as possible. When your work is uniquely yours, you don't really have any competition.

Get out of the mindset of competition altogether.

No one can provide what you can.

Unless all you do is imitate others.

Which I don't recommend, because it gets you in competition mode.

Stressful, isn't it?

I have no idea what my competitors are doing.

In fact, as far as I'm concerned, I have none.

I do my work for people who resonate with me, and it's perfect for them.

And I use their feedback to make it better!

Not looking sideways to what others are doing, that's terrible.

22 minutes ago, Danioover9000 said:

If I don't know about the market I'm specializing into, the business format and the customer base and their demands, and the poll of information to study and practice from, I'm at a ridiculous disadvantage compared to those who are knowledgeable, have insider knowledge, have more experience and skills trained in much longer and with more effort than me, so in this case learning from secondary knowledge off of multiple perspectives, from people in the know, from clients/customers and what they like in their comics/illustrated works, and the marketing, might be helpful.

You learn that stuff quickly enough by doing, trial and error.

And befriending and talking to people who are steps ahead of you. That's important.

None of this is a good excuse to start watching your "competition".

In order to win, you have to do the opposite of what most are doing.

22 minutes ago, Danioover9000 said:

I do basic self help as well as subconscious training, and positive affirmations and visualization work. My visualization skills are almost matching to waking reality, ie I can see myself be an artist, see, hear and feel what I'm doing, what the tools do, from 1st person perspective to 3rd person perspective. In fact this is also part of my zone of genius, 3d thinking and modeling, which I used a lot to make sense of video games I used to play, and for some comics in figuring out the locations, events, and characters positions.

What affirmations are you using?
 

It's good that you can see yourself being an artist, but can you see yourself being a wildly successful artist who doesn't have to compete, and can do work he loves in a relaxed way, for customers that love what he does, and happily pay so much that you can work in a relaxed way?

Or whatever your version of the ideal state is.

If you are visualizing and affirming that correctly so that you actually believe it, your intuition will start to give you clues on how to make that a reality. That will probably involve some scary steps to differentiate your work and which will set you apart.

All you need is courage to follow it.

Edited January 28, 2022 by flowboy