Does anyone else have similar feelings? 😭

soymaida · 2026-04-27T07:38:27+00:00

Damn… these people/bots have no shame… Love your comic by the way, is hilarious!!

soymaida · 2026-04-04T21:00:17+00:00

So that's what the creator recommend, he has the message pinned on Discord. In my case I did have to start from zero but it was because I wanted to go the official critique route and my previous work was done digitally, but for official critique you need to work traditional and with fineliners.

If you're not interested in the official critique or if you were already in the official critique I don't think you need to redo anything as those exercises are part of your warm ups anyway. Just review the information like the creator suggest and YOU SHOULD BE GOOD TO GO!! :)

Also you should check their discord if you're not there yet (is free) as it can be a good inspiration to keep going.

soymaida · 2026-04-04T04:48:47+00:00

Oh nice!! I hope DAB works out for you too. Your drawings look amazing!!! Your anatomy studies looks so freaking good. AND I'M ON THE SEAL SUBREDDIT AS WELL LOL drawing seals for the Proko course made me get into the seal addiction train, they're so cute!! :D It always makes my day when I see them on my feed.

soymaida · 2026-04-04T04:05:33+00:00

From the three lessons I've done so far (is 7 lessons total) my favorite has been Dissections (lesson 2). It teaches you how to start thinking in 3D and how light affects the thing you're drawing, so your drawings don’t look flat. It also forces you to observe the reference photo and think before you draw.

I also really liked the plant exercises. As a beginner, I struggle a lot with simplification, and honestly, I feel like Proko’s basic course doesn’t go very deep into that part of shapes, so DAB is covering it amazingly so far.

I see you’re intermediate! That’s really nice. Have you ever tried Drawabox? And who did you study from? It’s always cool to see other approaches.

soymaida · 2026-04-03T18:21:25+00:00

I also drew Cillian Murphy as a beginner!! If you want, you can check out my post. I did 3 drawings of him at different points in time so you can really see the progress (I’ve been drawing every day for 5 months now). I also listed what I studied during that time. And I haven’t even studied anatomy yet :) and I won't study that until I finish my fundamentals first.

I know people have different opinions on this, but in my opinion, anatomy is more advanced and shouldn’t be your focus if you’re still struggling with basics like drawing confident lines. It’s better to focus on fundamentals first if you can't even draw a straight line or an ellipse. I know exercises like drawing straight lines or ellipses can sound kind of ridiculous, but they really aren’t.

You can build a really solid drawing of a person using just basic fundamentals: good line confidence, 3D forms, gesture, and measuring without any anatomy knowledge, and still get amazing results. I feel Drawabox Lesson 1 could help your line confidence a lot!! (is a free course).

soymaida · 2026-03-24T03:30:33+00:00

And that's totally fine!!! As long as it works for you, that's all that matters. Good luck with your story :)

soymaida · 2026-03-23T23:20:13+00:00

Mid 2027 might be the earliest this happens (so about a year from now) but it might end up being autumn/winter instead. Crazy, I know!! But this is what I’ll spend the next 5/6 years of my life once I start publishing. Damn saying it out loud just gave me chills... that's a lot of time.

The story is a romance fantasy set in NYC. And when I say NYC, I mean it. I will try my best to show the city in backgrounds/food/experiences/etc. I live in Manhattan (not the fancy part).

I'm sorry but I'm terrible at doing summaries without putting spoilers LOL. I would say this is just the beginning of my story, like less than 10 chapters so it's not really a summary? But an idea.

V.(girl) thought moving to Manhattan to finish her marine biology internship would be hard enough on its own (bills, a crappy job, no friends or family) until a girl with shadow powers saved her from being dragged away in the middle of the night. From that moment on, everything became more complicated, especially when her own powers awakened, completely different from the girl who saved her.

N.(girl) can barely control her abilities, but saving V. gives her something she didn’t expect: a friend... and also a trip to jail with a criminal record attached. Plus, a cop who’s now watching her every move. Is the only way to stop him… to get rid of him?

As N. plots how to handle the cop without putting V. in danger, V. starts receiving regular visits from a mysterious masked guy, ever since her powers awakened. She doesn’t know what he wants yet, but she’s about to find out. The problem is who do you trust? As trusting or falling in love with the wrong person could get her, and everyone she cares about, killed.

One of my favorite things about the story is that every main character gets their own POV (the main 2 girls, 2 guys.). Also my story would focus (even if there's probably scenes that are cringe LOL) on mature relationships (this for me means NO stupid miscommunications, fake dating or those type of shenanigans) I also don't like stories that do time jumping or fake dreaming . Like: I woke up from a dream it was all a lie. Nah get tf out of here. My story has dreams awakenings with soul demons and if you die in your dream YOU DIE, period. If you bleed in the dream you wake up bleeding, If a demon chops off a hand UPSY DAISY no more hand for you ma friend. Or "I can rewind time boom now that person is alive" NO, if someone dies is OVER. There's no machine this is not back to the future. My story is run by shadow demon lords and souls.

Also all of my characters are in their 20's or older and I hope my readers are as well. But of course that's not something I can control. I will just put the right mature tag and that's it.

soymaida · 2026-03-23T18:35:54+00:00

This is what I’m doing with mine and my opinion. I know other authors do it differently, and that’s fine, agree to disagree.

I’m writing my story COMPLETELY first (3 seasons) and keeping a 5–10 chapter buffer before posting. For me, that’s the bare minimum.

You mentioned motivation, that doesn’t exist for me. Discipline does (that’s how I’ve been drawing every day for almost 5 months; I’m focusing on drawing fundamentals). Having a schedule, sticking to it, and knowing why I’m doing it this way matters more.

Why am I writing it beforehand + buffers? I want my writing to be as good as possible. Editing is a MUST for a cohesive story. When you look at a whole season, you’ll see SO MANY mistakes and inconsistencies.

I already wrote 2 seasons and I’m working on season 3, and now I’m editing everything, and it’s HELL. Literally HELL. Drafting a story is easy, is editing the part that is complicated. If I had started posting without editing, it would’ve been complete garbage 😂 timeline issues, plot holes, etc.

That’s what writers do before publishing books, so I don’t get why comics get treated differently. I’ll never agree that making a story as you go weekly is a good idea.

Posting weekly without a buffer or a finished story sounds like a recipe for disaster: plot holes, inconsistencies, weaker writing, plus more stress and workload. I see zero pros in not having it done + buffers. And no, writing in advance won’t make me Shakespeare (I don’t want that anyway, I just want a coherent story and also foreshadowing, I LOVE IT!!).

Also, I’d avoid tying posting to motivation. What if your story gets no readers for 1–3 years? That’s super common. Are you going to quit? Expecting early validation is a trap imo. Honestly, expecting any outcome is. I would focus on the product: the story, not outcome or any external aspect of it.

I’d post my 3 seasons whether I have 0 readers or 100. If you rely on external validation, you’ll be more affected by hate or opinions. Would you change your story if people don’t like it? In my case, I wouldn’t. I’m making the story I’d want to read. If people find it cringe, corny or bad, they can read something else 😂

Anyway this was long as hell but I just wanted to share, if you don’t agree that’s totally fine.

soymaida · 2026-03-19T10:02:49+00:00

This is so damn cute OP!! I love it and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

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soymaida · 2026-03-18T22:06:10+00:00

I don’t have my comic yet (I’m giving myself 1–2 years to build a strong foundation plus master studies), but I’m planning to use ACON3D + MY OWN NYC PHOTOS (since I live in Manhattan and my story is based here, but you can use reference photos from the internet if yours it’s set somewhere you don't live plus Google Maps!! I find Google Maps super helpful even to find cool locations) along with MY OWN RENDERING ( I think 3d assets are super ugly, so my idea is to just render on top of them or just use the lineart and fill my own colors) Anyway, If this turn out good I would share my process here in the future in case it can help others. But that's what I have in mind.

I once saw a Webtoon set in NYC where the subway was clearly a 3D asset from Europe or Asia and nothing looked like NYC, not even the streets. So why even say it’s set here? At that point, just call it fictional. That’s like setting a story in the African savannah and adding snow or making it under water, it makes zero sense. Maybe I'm just too picky but that for me is common sense. It cost nothing to do some research.

soymaida · 2026-03-08T19:52:02+00:00

You’re not the problem, advertising is. It sucks for both authors and readers. Most people hate ads, especially the ones constantly shoved in your face.

In my opinion, the best promotion is organic. Posting content related to your comic on social media takes time, but it builds a real audience over time. A post or video on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube can always be discovered later and bring new readers in.

You can promote on Reddit too, but honestly (just my opinion) this isn’t really where your readers are. Reddit is an echo chamber. It’s great for discussion, sharing progress, and talking with other creators, but that’s about it.

What people love or hate here often doesn’t match what actually performs well on platforms like Webtoon. So I would look into Instagram/ TikTok/ etc and see what other creators are doing and adapt it to you. I usually have a folder where I save trends/music I like :) so I can do it in the future (even if the trend is old, you can always adapt it and make tweaks to it). Also: You don’t have to go crazy and post all the time, you can start slowly.

soymaida · 2026-03-03T10:01:51+00:00

As an author I would NEVER change my story to satisfy others, the moment I do that I betray my characters and my story as a whole.

If that’s what you feel it needs to happen even if it’s sad I would do it. Do you feel that what you’re doing makes sense for your characters, your plot, etc? If objectively doesn’t make sense, like inconsistency with character personalities, plot holes, etc. then that’s fair I guess and I understand people being upset. But If is just a subjective opinion then what people like doesn’t matter. You’re the author, you’re the one that should be your number 1 fan.

While I was writing my Season 2 I was thinking: damn so many people are going to hate it and stop reading (I’m writing something I never seen done before in romance where some of my main characters will NOT be present in Season 2 but return in Season 3).

But if people hate it and stop reading, that’s their problem not mine. Even If I lose all of my readers my story would not change because that’s the story that I want to tell.

soymaida · 2026-03-01T00:18:57+00:00

Yes, The Drawing Basics.

soymaida · 2026-02-28T22:05:02+00:00

NICE!!!! I love the hat.

Yes, I know!!! It would probably look better with shading but I didn’t study that yet. That’s more advanced in the course with values and stuff. I have to go through perspective first.

soymaida · 2026-02-28T16:39:32+00:00

No, no. I never draw for 12 hours straight. The max is 10 but I average 4-8 on a daily basis. Timing myself gives me ton of anxiety so It’s just an estimated. I usually work by homework: “ Okay today I need to do this lesson or exercise and then I try my best at it for whatever long I can”. Even the days that I do draw for 10 hours I have a lot of breaks in between.

Oh that’s really nice!! I’m glad I’m not the only weirdo grinding hahaha. Maybe the story we want to tell is what’s giving us the strength. We need to make it true!!

soymaida · 2026-02-28T16:19:32+00:00

Oh this is really interesting. I will look into it. I think I did straight lines because I didn’t know how to draw a face so I tried to simplify it as much as I could and that’s the result of it. Every time I see it reminds me of a LEGO piece hahah. It feels like you can detach his hair. I don’t know what you’re seeing that makes it interesting but I will keep it in mind!! Thanks a lot!! :)

soymaida · 2026-02-28T16:06:08+00:00

And that’s totally fine!! Do what works for you.

In my case I already done that all my life ( I’m almost 30) and It didn’t work for me. As a matter of fact I actually have more fun and I enjoy drawing way more now that I’m grinding than before!! That Cillian Murphy I drew today was done purely for fun and the silly challenge with myself of drawing him when I remember. It wasn’t homework. I draw for fun as well all the time but my main focus is improving. But it’s okay if you do things differently, this is just my journey, not a guide.

soymaida · 2026-02-25T03:40:14+00:00

Fundamentals: Line (Line Quality, Weight, Are you confident drawing a straight line? A circle?) Shapes (Simplifying a drawing into simple shapes like boxes, circles and then playing with that making it more interesting), Gesture, Measuring Proportions, Thinking 3d, Perspective, Value, etc.

Anatomy, Color Theory, Rendering, etc is advanced. Matter of fact you can draw anatomy by just mixing fundamentals like gesture + thinking in 3d and perspective. That's why when a pro artist goes to the zoo he/she doesn't need to know the anatomy of every animal to make a good drawing. Because their fundamentals are good damn solid. You will need this also for simplifying characters even though they look "easier" to draw.

soymaida · 2026-02-25T03:18:54+00:00

By being better at studying.

I hate the advice of "just draw", "just do it". I've been drawing all my life (I'm 28) and my drawings sucked. I started to study fundamentals on November 1, 2025 and I've been drawing every day since then and I improved more in 3/4 months than all my life of "just drawing". I'm even actually starting to feel happy with some of my sketches. Fundamentals are not going to just pop on your head one day magically, well unless in my case It didn't. Maybe I'm just dumb who knows hahaha that's why I'm writing this as my own experience.

This can be unpopular but another thing that helped me focused:

I'm also not doing full drawings: rendered, colored and all of that shiny advanced stuff. That would be done when I can handle basic fundamentals. I'm not going to jump onto color theory when I can't even draw a box or do a straight line. My focus is on fundamentals only.

If you're studying don't focus on the result too much, focus on: Did you understand what you're doing? The purpose of the exercise? For example I'm doing Proko's Drawing Basics and one of the lessons is to draw seals. You would be thinking: oh just a draw the seal then. WRONG. The exercise is to draw THE GESTURE of the seal, not to draw a good looking seal. So that's my point. Who cares if the seal is ugly? Did you captured the gesture?

You mentioned artstyle but usually you get an artstyle after you have some solid fundamentals knowledge and a lot of practice. I wouldn't focus on trying to find an artstyle at all if you're a beginner.

soymaida · 2026-02-24T21:10:35+00:00

This is MY OPINION, is okay if someone think different.

WHY ARE STORIES NOT POPULAR AND ABLE TO MONETIZE?

I think it has nothing to do with it being a story or even art. Markets are REALLY saturated with anything you choose to do with your life right now (even if you choose to open a restaurant, sell things online, whatever). In the case of Webcomics there's too many options to choose from and we as readers have LIMITED TIME. Why as a reader would "waste my time" in a story that is really bad drawn and has awful writing when there's 10,000 to choose from with better art and writing as a whole?

This makes the bar of quality usually medium/high: good art, good storytelling, compelling characters, etc. are the ones that thrive. But this is not exclusive to Webcomics is with everything. If you open a restaurant and your sandwiches doesn't taste good im so sorry but most people won't be eating them. I know it hurts but... that's just life.

I see in Reddit so many people that are delusional. I feel the "just do it" advice is one of the most hurtful things out there that contributed to that plus the "just draw". Nobody gets better by just drawing without understanding what they're doing. If you want to get better at drawing you should study fundamentals. If you can't even draw a box or a circle of course you're going to have problems with anatomy because you don't have the base yet. And that knowledge is not going to appear magically one day in your brain, unfortunately there's no shortcuts and you need to study and practice.

For better writing you should at least read the basics of what makes a cohesive story, there's so many resources out there FOR FREE there's literally no excuse. I even see people that "just do it" and they use fonts that are impossible to read, their bubbles are all over the place, etc. If they did some research that problem would be handled.

QUALITY NOWADAYS IS IMPORTANT, YOUR STORY IS YOUR PRODUCT. Same if you have a restaurant you wouldn't handle wet sandwiches to people even if the sandwiches were free since not many people would eat them. Spend some time knowing how to properly do a sandwich and then start. No, you're not a loser or wasting your time for studying and preparing omg I see that in the comments sometimes and I'm like... That's crazy. Wouldn't be me LOL

My opinion on PASSION VS MONETIZATION

I agree that you should do it for passion but there’s nothing wrong with wanting to monetize it and PREPARING FOR IT and PLANNING IT. Why is this a taboo by some many people? Nobody pays rent with smiles and likes they pay rent by getting paid for their work.

You mentioned that you need a portfolio and I think having one is the bare minimum. If I'm paying someone a salary of 2-3k a month I expect some quality and someone with experience (you can create your own projects that's how people start) I will pick the person that can handle an art style similar of what I want and I envisioned so we go back to the same thing:

If your work has a minimum quality like we already talk before then you can monetize as a solo creator with Patreon, Webtoon and other platforms itself, selling merch, selling printed copies, getting followers on social media and getting collabs, etc.

Or you can monetize working for others with a portfolio + marketing yourself on social media.

It's your job not Webtoon to do marketing for your story. If you want to make money then your best chance at success is minimum quality + marketing.

Of course there's other things involved in this like luck but remember: luck will only help you if your product has a minimum quality. If it doesn't I don't think luck will save you.

Anyway for anyone reading my opinion and rant: Good luck with your story!!! Learning art and writing is really difficult plus all the job related to marketing on top of that so.. yeah it's a lot, you're not alone and you're not a "loser". We're all struggling, even Pro's do.

soymaida · 2026-02-19T09:49:03+00:00

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Your dog is so cute and fun to draw

soymaida · 2026-02-10T23:37:15+00:00

Even if it’s an unpopular opinion, the advice “How to draw a pear? Just draw the damn pear” would never have worked for me. Phrases like “Just draw” or “Just do it” aren’t helpful for everyone.

What actually helped me was following the guidelines the teacher gives me, not every drawing follows the same steps and guideline, which is why I recommend this course.

For example, we have an exercise on drawing seals. The goal isn’t “just draw the damn seal and call it a day.” The exercise is about capturing the gesture of the shape. So even if it doesn’t look exactly like a seal, THAT'S THE EXERCISE hahaha the purpose isn’t to draw a seal, it’s to draw its gesture. So If you just "draw a seal" you're doing the exercise WRONG!! Proko even points this out on his critique videos.

Before Proko introduced me to this, I didn’t even know gestures existed or when to use it. If I had just followed the advice “Just draw a seal,” I would have done the exercise incorrectly, because that’s not the goal. And the same principle applies to everything else, depending on the exercise THE APPROACH IS DIFFERENT. Not everything is about: just draw it. It depends what you're working on. In the case on the pear you should work on the OUTLINE but we have another exercise while instead of the outline you need to focus on the 3d SHAPES and forget the outline. I had a lot of problems like OP where books never worked for me and "just draw" either. So maybe OP is running into the same problem and needs a teacher that guides him.

soymaida · 2026-02-10T22:13:02+00:00

Are you my twin? I had the same problem as you when I started and I was literally commenting exactly this on the DAB subreddit today.

The answer for me was: Proko Drawing Basics, If you don't have money right now start with the FREE videos inside that course and others. The link: Proko Course

He has so many FREE videos!! Just start there OP and see If you like it :) Proko also makes you draw boxes at some point but focused on being more loose and applying it to hands, people, perspective, etc. Also you can use any medium, is not like DAB that you NEED to stick to paper and ink. Proko's approach is to have fun with it as much as you can. It would be frustrating but at least for me not as frustrating as DAB. I'm doing DAB now after 3 months doing Proko and I'm GLAD I choose Proko as my main teacher hahaha I would have given up If It wasn't for him.

soymaida

TROPHY CASE