The Comparison Trap - or How to Look at other artists webcomics as inspiration rather than damnation.

Image from webcomic Jim Reel Paranormal Investigator 

Picture this.

You’ve opened your web browser and gone to Google or Pinterest for inspiration for your next illustration.

You eagerly type into the search: pictures of cats riding surfboards, to find references for your next idea.

Suddenly, you see something that catches your eye.  It’s a drawing of a cat riding a surf board shooting a pistol at fish.

Very similar to your own idea.  But executed to perfection by some random 12 year old artist who only uses coloured salt on animal hide. 

The cat’s fur looks so realistic you want to pet it.

The chrome reflecting the sunshine off the pistol, bathes you in a warm glow that reminds you of your childhood summers.

And those eyes, those beautiful green cat eyes.  So, sooooo cute.

You wonder “how can I possibly create something better than this?”

Immediately you close the laptop and walk away to forget any idea of drawing that day and proceed to binge watch The Mandalorian (again).

You’ve just entered The Comparison Trap!

*****

Does this ever happen to you?  I’ve done it.  And a few other artists I know have done it too.

Comparing ourselves to other artists is the first thing we do when we see their work.

And that is absolutely normal.

It is good to compare our artwork to others because, sometimes, we instinctively will try to better our work to reach the same level.  Especially those of us who are highly competitive.

But, sometimes we can become so overwhelmed by the skill of another artist that we think we’re never going to be that good.

Instead of admiring the hard work, the stage of their career or their unique raw talent we can get a bit green eyed monstery about someone else having more skill, success or attention.

It’s also really difficult to not compare our work to others.  I do it all the time and I just have to remind myself that I’m not them and they’re not me.

Their work comes from their imagination, their experiences and environment.  Even the way they’ll apply their choice of medium will be unique to them even if we’re using the exact same brush.

As my career has moved on through the years I try to look more and more to others work as inspiration of what is possible to achieve rather than a lack of my skill.

I also can look back at my own work and see just how far I’ve come.

When we compare ourselves to others we are only seeing a snapshot of their art journey.

But if we look back at our own work we can see the whole retrospective and can appreciate more how far we’ve progressed.

And we can also predict that we’ll only get better and better based on our own body of work.

This is another reason why it is so great to develop your own illustrative story such as a webcomic.

No matter how long or short the project may be, the natural progression of working on a project over a period of time will bring results that you can look back on.

We should actually take comfort in the fact that our work will never be exactly the same as someone else’s.

Your unique style and methods will become synonymous with you and what you will become known for in your art career.

Until next time

Dion

READ MY WEBCOMIC - Jim Reel Paranormal Investigator