As a person who occasionally does doodles of her own, I have a healthy respect for those who can produce work, good work, consistently. I think that is part of the reason I love webcomics. The more of them I collect and follow, the more I realize, why not me?
Add on the ability to follow your favorite webcomic artists on twitter and it is as though I can get a glimpse into their lives. They don't know me, but I sometimes feel like I can identify with them and see how they move past their bad days and keep going. This process of doing fan art helps me try to look harder at what I look at every week. And maybe I can find my own passion and ideas in the process.
"Do what only you can do best..."- Neil Gaiman
But what can I do best?
So, last weekend at A-kon, I had the opportunity to meet an artist, who's comic I follow, in person. I have to admit that I went a bit fan-girl. Not even sure I remember what all I said to her, but I got a new piece of art, that she signed, got to shake her hand, and look at some finished and unfinished work. Might have taken all of 5 minutes, but I was giddy the rest of the day. Why? She's just a person, like me, doing what she loves to do. She's taken that step that I have not, though. She has put herself out there, with style.
That's a crutch word I use... someone has a "style". That is the big thing I am searching for in my own work; that I envy in others. The ability to have something be recognizable as yours, even if the subject isn't of your own creation.
I don't know what it is like to simply be a reader, to not want to be able to create something like I read. I desperately want to be able to create something unique, that can draw others in and have an effect on their lives. But maybe by studying what others have done and continue to do, by consuming so much good stuff every day, and by trying in my own way to get there... maybe I can become that cool.
