Burnout is the accumulation of unchecked and built up chronic stress over a period of time. And it takes some interesting forms that you might not expect, it can come from other places in your life OR from the making of your comic itself. But preventing it from creeping up on you in the great marathon of webcomics is critical to keeping healthy and happy, so let’s talk about our experiences!

Listen as we discuss the difference between being tired and true burnout, talk about our experiences with burnout, and share some advice for anyone dealing with artistic burnout.

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Episode Release Date: July 10, 2024

Episode Credits:

Christina Major (@delphina2k) - she/her, sombulus.com

Rae Baade (@overlordrae) - they/them, empyreancomic.com

Phineas Klier (@tentacledeity) - they/them, heirsoftheveil.fervorcraft.dea>

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The Intro "DO IT (feat. Shia LaBeouf)", and the Outro "It's Good To See You Again!!", both by Adrianwave, have been used and modified in good faith under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Licensed. Edits include: Fade IN/OUT, and a repeat added to the beginning of "It's Good To See You Again!!". For more information on this creative commons use, please reference https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.

Episode Promo

Shout out to the amazing pose reference team at Adorkastock.com! They are running the AdorkaStock & Friends Group Poses for Artists campaign over on Backerkit, to make some absolutely epic-looking group shots! Get JUST the right pose for your illustrations, webcomics, or just study and level up your drawing skills!

Transcription

This transcript is auto generated by our recording software.

00:01.65

Delphina

Hello and welcome to screen tones where we talk anything and everything web comics today. We're going to be talking about creative burnout what it is how to recognize it and maybe some advice about dealing with it and trying to prevent it. Um. I am Delphina I use she her pronouns and I make the web comic sombulous.

00:21.39

Phin

I I'm fin I use they them pronouns and I make the webcomic heirs of the veil. But.

00:28.56

Rae

and and I'm Ray I use they them pronouns and I do the web comics on imperial high and overlord of ravenfel.

00:41.10

Delphina

So Awesome! Thanks for joining us. So um Burnout is is kind of the accumulation of unchecked and built up chronic stress over a period of time and it takes some interesting forms that you might not expect. It can come from other places in your life or from the making of the comic itself but preventing it from creeping up on you and the great marathon of web comics is pretty critical to keeping healthy and Happy. So Let's talk about our experiences. Um I just wanted to kind of go into like what's the. Difference between Burnout and just being like tired or stressed in your experience.

01:24.00

Phin

And well in my experience I would say first thing burnout is literally like a medical condition. So it is something that you cannot easily come back from like when you're just tired. You can take some time off, you can just. Um, recover somewhat and if you're actually experiencing burnout taking time off even taking time off won't often be enough to actually go into like a recovered state. And if you're like hitting it really bad. You probably have to take like more measures to get better again. So it's something that's way more severe and will probably stick with you way way longer than just the occasional tired. Period.

02:21.35

Delphina

I yeah absolutely I feel like um, it's stress is temporary like it's you have like ah a you can take a little break or you could take a heyos or something like that and and kind of feel better after like a stressful day or period of your life. Um, but yeah burnout is a little more long term. Um, what do you think Ray is.

02:47.86

Rae

And for me I'll still get ideas. Even if I'm tired and too tired or too tired to even work on them for Burnout. It's also like a lack of inspiration and even will to do to work on art. I Find that it often stems from for me ah from a accumulation of stressors both long term and short term. Ah sometimes it's often something that you can't really do anything about for the stressors. Ah, so it's really hard to deal with because you can't often see a way out.

03:33.00

Delphina

And yeah I think that's pretty critical that like that there's low engagement low emotions. You're just not feeling anything because you're you've kind of taught your body over the course of time that. Something that requires creative or emotional energy is bad for it. So your your body is kind of reriring like all your brain waves and stuff it's disengaging for you like preemptively and saying nope you don't have access to that brain power right now. Um is what I see. From people. Um, and I also feel like sometimes it can be hard to tell apart from like clinical depression because it has a lot of those same feelings of helplessness and there's no end in sight. Why should I bother um, depression is something that you can actually like get. Medication for and professional medical help. Um, so like Finn was saying 1 way to tell is that if you were burnt out um like you'd you'd feel. Okay, maybe. When you you pull yourself out of that environment. But when you put yourself back into the conditions of what's causing you stress like it all comes right back. So I feel like that's kind of ah like ah in a depressive state. Maybe like it. It would just be a constant. Um.

05:05.60

Delphina

Yeah, it doesn't matter where you are. You're still going to feel like crap because the chemical imbalance in your brain is still there but like they kind of run parallel but there is a ah small difference and yeah, it's it's tricky um, especially trying to figure out. What the cause of it is sometimes I mean it can be weird, but.

05:29.90

Phin

Yeah I think it would also be important to note that if you're suffering burnout and you're not doing anything about it or you can't do anything about it. That's also something that can lead to depression. So Ah Burnout is something that. If you don't have the ability to actually um I don't know counteract it in any way you can do lasting damage to your own psyche to yourself I mean we're all not like medical professionals. But um I think all of us have. Dealt with or fair share of um these troubles and I feel when I'm like going into artistic Burnout the point where I feel that I've like hit that break and I have to change something. And I might need to go into like a longer phase of rest maybe get some professional help is when like the mere thought of like taking up a pencil and drawing is like it feels so exhausting to. The point that it paralyzes you and that you can't even do anything anymore and then you like go down the spiral where it's like okay I shouldn't be that exhausted actually.

06:52.73

Phin

I Don't have a right to be that exhausted. Why can't I do that and maybe you try to push yourself even harder and you go like into the spiral where just making it worse because um, you're not allowing yourself to. Take that step back and maybe take that prolonged break.

07:14.12

Delphina

And absolutely um and I feel like it can require a little reflection because ah like sometimes it's related to your comic. Sometimes it's not related to your comic at all and this is where to your point professional help like a therapist could actually really help you? um. Because you know if it's related to your friends and family that you know it's It's nice to be able to talk to your friends and family but a lot of situations where they might be contributing to your burnout and it's going to cause drama if you bring it up. Um, or you know you're caring for children or your parents. So You have a relationship dynamic that is causing burnout or work or school um and having that neutral professional with experience and navigating those long term life conditions in a healthy constructive way. That's a massively helpful tool because obviously if you have a kid. For example, you can't just get rid of your kids say my burnout is gone but you have to you know, figure out you know, probably how to get more help in more breaks long term. Um, but that's also something that a professional will have a lot more experience navigating than me. Um, yeah, but sometimes. Actually related to art or making comics. We put a lot of stress on ourselves. A lot of pressure sometimes to your point that yeah, it can just spiral. It can you can start thinking about all the ways that you're yeah, you're not doing what you used to be able to do and that sucks and.

08:47.37

Delphina

Um, but but there are ways to kind of be kinder kinder to yourself and kind of reframe the work that I think are important to explore and.

08:59.31

Phin

I Yeah um absolutely I Also think that right now. Um, we also need to consider um like the environment in and comics that we are in like a comics environment where. We are kind of pushed to like work harder put out more because there's so much competition and like such a big call for professionalism. Even if you're just a hobbyist but I think that this also like ties into our next question. Which is do you have dealt with artistic burnout before and if yes, what are maybe some things that helped you realize that you are dealing with burnout and also how did you get through. It were things that helped you. In that process and.

10:00.37

Delphina

Oh I'll jump in um because I have a problem with pacing and sometimes running out of buffer and if I'm running like rushing rushroom gushing to get a page out. Um every week or like twice a week. To meet my schedule which is is the schedule that I like to do that pace can wear out like can wear me out so fast because you know you just don't have a buffer. You don't have any kind of time and when you as soon as you finish a page you're like having to work on the next one right away. And you can't keep pushing yourself like that. That's just not sustainable and whenever I find myself in that pattern and it's happened quite a bit in the you know 14 years that I've been doing comics. It's just like I need to take a step back I need to. You know, maybe work more breaks into my schedule reduce my schedule sometimes I cut it in half and I only do one page a week but you could even go lighter than that. Um I schedule hiatuses in between chapters and I just try to keep. Keep that buffer and keep it going. Um last year I actually I think it was the worst because I wore myself down a lot trying to keep up my buffer. Um and I cut my schedule in half for pretty much six months and took December off completely to rebuild my buffer. Um.

11:34.94

Delphina

And that was a good balance because sometimes I feel like if I just stop cold turkey then I'm letting people down and the guilt starts building up. So at least I could say well I am still making progress. It's not exactly the speed I want but it's still happening. Um, and this year I'm back to my normal schedule and back to 2 pages a week um but I'm taking one update a month off every month whether I need it or not and just knowing that I have a little break every month kind of counteracts that feeling of there's no end in sight I can't. I'm never going to catch up. Um, because yeah, that's going to wear me down. Um I think the other one that gets me and I hear about a lot from some of my friends is the financial anxiety like if you're trying to desperately make money with your web comic. And maybe you've got a Patreon and you're trying to like figure out what? What do my patrons want what am I going to get more patrons. Um, you're watching your subscription numbers fluctuate that financial stress can wear on you over time too and it's a lot of energy trying to put out things that people might not react to because. Um, especially in the context of Patreon people are a lot of times they're not for the rewards. Um, and that's hard. That's like well how do I get more people if I don't offer them something new. Um, if they're just treating it as a chip.

13:06.76

Delphina

Tip jar maybe like the people I have there. That's all I'm ever going to get and like that's just all contingent on whether they can afford to continue putting dollars in my chip tip jar this month or something. It's a big trap and again it just wears on you over time. Um. And I think the thing for financial anxiety is just don't put yourself in a position where one platform is your only or primary source of income. Um, because as we've seen and we will continue to see. Platforms are tools that can get really unusable, really fast and 1 weird ceo can ruin algorithms and visibility for you like that? Um, so keep your eyes open for other things so you don't get stuck in a rut. Um, and and I just try to experiment I treat it as a big experiment and I experiment at conventions and I do crowdfunding on kickstarter and then I've done itchio bundles with other groups and all those kind of lead to little new avenues. So even if. Each one is only making a little bit of money. All of my eggs aren't in 1 basket and that kind of eases the stress for me from staring at my patriot numbers if that makes sense.

14:33.84

Phin

I Yeah um, totally I Also think like um I like your point about not quitting cold turkey when you have to take a break because I feel that if you just stop. It can get even harder to then take up the pencil again and continue with the Comic. So I think it's like a good idea if you can rest but still be able to draw occasionally and keep going like maybe in a way slower pace or maybe while you don't have like. Constant updates looming in the back? Yeah, Ah what about ura.

15:20.33

Rae

Um, for me my burnout I think the first time I had like really intense spur now it was because of my comic because it was a ah collaboration with some of. Ah, these other people and we ended up having a falling out and it got really hard to work on that comic. Um I did end up shelving that one just because I knew that it probably wasn't going to go away ah because I had actually tried to reboot it and that didn't go the way I planned but so sometimes you do need to consider if it's. Even something that you are interested in doing or if it was something that you have outgrown. Um, the second time though was ah also due to external factors but mostly. I was pretty much overworking myself I was working over time every ah every week and also going to school full time. So what wasn't spent on my homework I tried to do a comic and that was not working out.

16:40.61

Rae

At all. Um, but I have found that some strategies have worked for me like um I'll change up where I'm working or clean up my art space. I'll often look at both the things that inspired me ah to make my comics in the first place as well as going out of my way to find new inspirations new arts um in the form of books video games, comics shows. Or even just going out ah out of my way to find new artists that I admire. Um I'll also try to go back to the basics and look at new to tutorials and books on techniques. Or experiment with new tools can often give me like the motivation to work on my art even if it's in a different way because web comics are constantly evolving art and that's one of the charms of the medium. But. If you feel like you still need to work on your comic rather than taking a hiatus I also try to work more on the less creative aspects of my comic to still even get some things done and trying to like.

18:11.33

Rae

Turn into piecemeal and like a production line can help me continue working on my comic. Ah, even if I don't necessarily feel like it like ah I'll often just lay out all the panels all at once. If I don't have the brain space to do anything more and then I will find that I have 20 pages where I just need to draw on the panels and that can sometimes help me ah get that push to actually get those pages done.

18:48.11

Rae

But ultimately I do find the best thing is if it's an external stressor. It's best to try to eliminate that source of birth source as soon as possible.

19:02.86

Delphina

Yeah, absolutely I feel like too. Um, like when you work in batches like that and you maybe get all your your sketches done or something like that. Um you might like knock out the jobs that are causing you the most stress all at once. So. It's done for a while and you have time to kind of focus and recover with the parts that you actually do enjoy or you know when you come back to It. You're not staring at a completely blank page. That's always nice Too. So.

19:32.36

Rae

And I also feel that it takes away a bit of the stress of um up of like getting something done by update day because while that can get you a kick in the rear sometimes a bit. To get things done. Ah sometimes it can just be a stressor in and of itself and.

20:02.18

Delphina

Yeah I also feel like um when you there's sometimes there's tasks that you could just eliminate altogether. Um I feel like we have this you know anxiety about like maybe having the perfects. Art or or doing things that is like illustration quality. Um, but taking the time to do messier or looser styles. Um, and like maybe work on some time speed drawing exercises to. Be more gestural or or kind of like skip some of the steps because we're all doing this for free. We're all doing these comics and like there's no, ah, there's no standard that we necessarily have to meet and sometimes it's it's good to remember that like even if you're comparing yourself to other people that. Um, you know everything you do is is still good and.

20:59.57

Phin

And yeah I think for a lot of us. It can be like hard to give ourselves that kindness and to actually be like okay I need to take this break now I need to maybe step back from the comic and it's like. It depends. Ah what you want to do how you feel the best but in the end I feel. There's always this like looming dread to fall out of relevancy to not update the comic enough and if you don't update the comic enough then your readers. Might not return when you eventually return because there's so much else out there and I think that um for me personally a lot that has led me to feel burned out on my work or burnout in general ah with art is. Kind of the expectation to constantly provide and do art and be um, kind of just be there in these spaces and act in these spaces and connect with people and. While I think that this is something that has become more severe especially with how younger artists are now introduced into like comic spaces especially webcomic spaces I think it's something that has been like going on for a long Time. Um.

22:30.30

Phin

So something that I remembered when we were preparing for this episode was actually um, like the first book for drawing manga that I ever owned. Um and it was actually like a japanese book. Um, and I don't know when it was published but I was probably like. 13 or 14 when I when I got it. So um, it was ages ago and the book basically started with how hard it is to be a manga car and that if you want to like. Breakthrough in the industry in the comic industry in the manga industry that you have to deal with exerting yourself that you have to deal with ah pulling all-nighters that you have to deal with just um, throwing your own health away for the art that you're doing. And like a lot of stuff. Yeah, yeah, basically but the figures like a lot of stuff kind of was like that and like I've been reading how many pages like my favorite manga artists were doing and nobody was talking about assistance.

23:26.55

Delphina

That's terrible.

23:43.40

Phin

Ah, so I didn't even know that that that was a thing um but also like in the german manga industry a lot of like pretty young people. Um I think the youngest person I know of that got their her work published. She was like 16 at the time and. They were basically doing the same and all the spaces that I've interacted with when I was a kid were basically like yeah this is how you have to do it because if you don't work constantly. You probably won't going. Yeah, you won't you won't be making it and. Also I think for me, there's this thing um transitioning from like childhood to adulthood like when you were a teen. You had a lot more time to constantly draw and then you're an adult and you have adult responsibilities.

24:38.55

Phin

You will have less time. There will be less like brain focus that you have to actually go to your art so there will be like um you you won't be You won't be as productive as you've used to be. And I think this is also something that can contribute to you feeling like you're failing and then you're trying to work even harder to be as productive again because like when I was a teen I like Drew 20 pages a night sometimes

25:14.28

Delphina

Me too. No.

25:17.10

Phin

Very yeah, they weren't very good but it was still super productive and now like I'm happy if I can maybe sketch 3 pages a night um and that's that's already a lot for me. So.

25:29.81

Rae

And yeah, you also have to realize that I mean you also grow as an artist and sometimes unfortunately that also means that you're taking a hit on time. And taking longer on each page and.

25:51.11

Delphina

Yeah, you could go ahead.

25:51.15

Phin

I Yeah yeah I mean. Okay, yeah I mean Absolutely and I think that sometimes we don't really realize that. Because um I think in the beginning delphi mentioned that when you deal with Burnout an important thing thing is also that you reflect on yourself on your own behaviors on what you're doing what is leading to that and I think a lot of people. They just don't reflect So There's like. This one image that they had of themselves when they were younger like tinted in nostalgia or whatever and then the artists they are now and they cannot compete with their teen self. But.. It's also like the art scene is just getting more and more competitive so you kind of feel like you have to perform you have to put things Out. You have to network and I think that's also like an important thing that. Artistic Burnout doesn't necessarily just have to be about like the art and your art process. But also maybe about not being able to feel connected to your peers and to feel like you're failing at um, networking with them getting into the spaces that might get you ahead?? um.

27:13.83

Phin

And stuff like that. So I think there's like so much for webcomic artists that basically like ball together and lead eventually to this absolute exhaustion that.

27:30.47

Delphina

And that's such a good point too about the ah exhaustion because I feel like there's a lot of people who are putting in a lot of work and not feeling like they're getting like the audience or the growth or the fan response and they're not connecting to their artist Peers eater. Either. So like they're not kind of getting any kind of recognition for their work and you shouldn't necessarily have to work for recognition from you know, external validation and stuff like that there. There should be a story that you want to tell no matter what but we all kind of. Do want to post our stuff and and make like have a difference. Yeah make make sure it's like making a difference to somebody So I feel like just reaching out to the extent that you can joining communities or. Small friend groups depending on what you have the energy for and engaging with others work and cross promoting um or you know maybe just joining co-working groups. Um, can be a really big way to be seen be be felt feel like you're like there and and being.

28:45.80

Delphina

Observed in some way Even if other peers aren't your readers I think that can be pretty critical and.

28:53.81

Rae

And it also gives you a sense that you're kind of all in it together too. I think is an important aspect of artists groups. So It's like even if they aren't reading your work and only Like. Kind of adjacently see it that they are still that sort of solidarity there to know that you're not alone and you don't have like you're not the only one that's ah going through this either and.

29:27.62

Phin

I Yeah, that's like such a good point because that's solidarity I think is so important because like as artists we kind of we're We're kind of islands like we take a lot of time like working for ourselves and just being in our own heads and. Being able to like kind of get out and connect to others and see okay I'm not the only one struggling with this because like when you're on your own.. It's so easy to just like look at social media and be like okay this artist is so Successful. Everyone is so Successful. Why can't I do it. Why am I The only one who struggles and I think that can um, enhance these negative feelings that can ultimately culminate and like working towards um, a burnout. So. Maybe like recognizing. Okay maybe I should look for spaces. Maybe I should look for like support and I mean like it. It kind of it's kind of like like group therapy in in a very like um I don't know I mean not really, but But. Kind of is because you connect to other people who have like the same struggles as you and like carrying these things together and connecting connecting with them over these struggles makes it easier to deal with it yourself. So I think like avoiding burnout.

31:01.69

Phin

In like the artistic feel getting a field getting out of this isolation is like a very important point and.

31:13.35

Delphina

Yeah I Definitely agree that like the the group thing because the grass is greener on the other side when you compare yourself to more popular comics. Um, but um, and I know people who like. They get nice comments or they get you know some people some likes or whatever but it's not as many likes as that guy and so it can feel very competitive until you get in another space with another artist and you just like realize that you're on the same side. You're you're all. You know in this together and other artists. Um, you know we we look at art and we do art all the time. So I think we're also just a little better at like recognizing what each other's strengths are so it it can be good to have. You know people who appreciate the good qualities of of what you're doing um and just you know, just appreciate what you have because there's always going to be somebody who has more likes than you. There's always going to be somebody who has more followers than you. Um, you can't let that get to you. Um, and it doesn't mean that your stuff is bad or not worthy or or whatever because chances are there's there's people who like it. There's people who are are appreciating it and um, keeping those experiences at the forefront of your mind and yeah, doing whatever you can maybe.

32:42.32

Delphina

Copying them into a journal or or just enjoying you know what? you've done and and how much your art has grown since you started those can all be really fulfilling things that keep you going.

32:55.81

Phin

Yeah, oh sorry Ray you go ahead.

32:59.86

Rae

I Do Also think that a lot of people when they're scrolling so through social media. They're the outside looking in. They're only seeing the polished work that other people are. Doing and they don't see the struggles that that individual artist might be going through so you also have to keep in that in mind is you're seeing the finished product. You're not seeing the blood sweat tears and. Maybe even they're going through burnout themselves type of thing. So um, joining the artist spaces. It can also put that a bit into perspective. Especially if you get an artist that you might see as one of those. Oh My God they're so much but better than me, they're probably making all this money and then you find out. Oh hey, they're not actually making any money on this even with all the comments that they're getting or something like that. So.

34:07.24

Delphina

I can't pay for groceries with comments. What is this?!

34:14.78

Rae

Ah I wish comments would pay my bills but it doesn't.

34:24.16

Phin

I Yeah um I think I'm going to be like ah super honest here like I've I've been in that place when I looked at like I don't know social media. My artist peers and been like super disgruntled because I've been in a bad hat space and. Was like yeah, why are they doing so much better than I Why can't I have what they have and it's basically like it's so easy to get in that spiral and to make everything worse and so hard to basically just go to them and recognize that. They struggle to like you're not the only one who's Tired. You're probably not the only one who's dealing with like feelings of burnout and maybe having a support group can be helpful also in like calling you out and telling you hey maybe if you're like. Doing so badly. Maybe if you have if you like hate everything like right now like you hate drawing you hate your comic. You hate your peers maybe take a step back. Take a break do something else and then come back when your feelings have cleared up and you are. Like you're doing better and you're not like clouded by that exhaustion and these like Misanthropic feelings that can just like swallow you when you're in that space or.

35:51.54

Delphina

So yeah, someone to reel you in and tell you to eat a sandwich sandwiches are healthy.

36:01.28

Rae

And yeah, it's always good to make sure you're fed and hydrated I think I saw something where it's like if you hate everyone eat something if you hate yourself drink something? Um, so you might need to do both. Ah, but overall I Do think that to avoid Burnout. It's really good to have a healthy um respect for other people's art too and also study it and see if there's anything you want to take from it. Because I find I've always found that experimentation is a really good way to get me out of Burnout or even prevent it. So It's really good to both analyze yourself and others and see if there's anything in your process that. You can change to maybe make things easier on you especially if you find yourself hating drawing you really need to find ways to make yourself. Um, enjoy it and keep enjoying what you're doing.

37:13.11

Delphina

And yeah, the preventing of Burnout is definitely what you want to try to aim for instead of like actually falling into it because because once it's there like it does rewire your brain. It does rewire chemicals and you kind of have to take your time.. It's like physical Therapy. You have to. Do your exercises to to rebuild what you had and you don't want to get there. Um, so I think the good news is. That we do actually have quite a bit of control over the conditions in which we work more so than a manga cob more. So so that you might have a job with you know, a boss or customers. Um, you can control how often you work you can control what you work on and what like influences you. Nobody's going to fire you for going too slow. Um, if people get mad at you. They're you know they don't really matter. But most people won't I think that most people who read free comics on the internet see and appreciate. And understand there's a human behind the scenes. So just having that in mind can help you deal with the guilt of well I got to keep going or else. It's going to everything's going to drop off the face of the earth.

38:35.33

Phin

I Yeah I think especially for younger artists. Especially when you're just starting out. It's so important to maybe not treat it like a drop to be like okay this this is my hobby This is I do this because it's fun. Because it's fulfilling to me and not because I have to do it not because I have to be popular not because I have to make it my living because like that's kind of the trap that I fell into and that led to me like suffering from like. Consequences of my own actions basically being like um I have to work so hard I have to basically treat it like it would like it is a drop and not like a hobby this has to be my job even even if it's not paid I have to work so hard. Because if I don't do it. It won't be my drop I won't get anywhere with it if I don't do that and the thing is sometimes you still won't get anywhere. No matter how hard you work and that's just the reality. So I Think. It is just better to from the beginning just be like okay I'm just doing it because it's fun I'm trying to do my best with it. But if I notice that it gets too much that it's like affecting me in bad ways that it's affecting my mental health.

40:11.48

Phin

Should be able to take a step back. Maybe also be able to be like okay I have to take a prolonged break from drawing I have to retreat a little bit from social media because sometimes you also you just need to like rejuvenate your juices. Um I think. Ray made some really good points about like doing something completely different art voice making studies not drawing the comic but like doing studies trying out a new medium or whatever and that can actually help you while you like try to recover or. While you try to avoid burnout because I think like it's healthy for all of us to take prolonged breaks if we can. Yeah.

40:56.54

Delphina

And yeah, just give yourself permission. Give yourself permission to like meet yourself at like the energy level that you are because I feel like it can get really out of hand especially to you know our previous points about like yeah we we did have a lot of energy. As kids. We did have a lot of focus because we had a lot fewer responsibilities. Um, but you don't have to necessarily you're going to be changing like year after year your life is going to have all kinds of things happen to it. So It's kind of silly to think that. Will always be the same artistically either. So just meet yourself where you're at and just experiment with what you have the energy to do. Um, we like to talk about hats here if you're a solo creator wearing a million hats. The energy of writing and inking and coloring and promoting long term that can be a lot and that expenditure of energy can wear on you over Time. So Just don't um, don't put so much pressure on yourself. Um, to. Yeah, maybe do some brainstorming about like what? how do we make this easier for ourselves or.

42:17.30

Phin

And yeah, and also like um, don't fall in the trap of this won't happen to me because I know so many people that are basically like oh no, this won't happen to me. Everyone is saying that if I keep doing this this will happen to me but it won't happen because I'm different because I'm special. And I think we've all have felt this way before like we're like special and this can never happen to Us. We're going to be okay, but in the end please like listen to your web comic elders when they say ah, don't strain your hand and don't strain your but brain take breaks because. It will happen to you if you don't look after yourself. Well.

42:56.22

Rae

And yeah, we always do need to remember that making web comics Thanks to Web Comic time is a marathon and not a sprint so you need to maintain. Your energy and maybe eliminate things from your processes that you don't actually enjoy because once you don't enjoy something that is pretty much the path to burnout right? there.

43:30.84

Delphina

Yep, that is the important thing listening to your web comic elders because we've been there and um, yeah, you don't want to be there. Um, so stay happy. Stay healthy. Ok that wraps it up for today. Thank you so much for listening, I've been your host Delphina and you can check out my comic sombulus at sombulous dot com.

44:13.30

Phin

I've been Phin and you can check out my comic at airsofthewale.com

44:18.97

Rae

I and I am Ray and you can check out on imperial high atpycomic dot com and overlord of ravenfel on webtu.

44:30.28

Delphina

And I'm gonna go get some water and snacks because I don't want to burn out.

44:36.63

Phin

Yeah, hydration is important and also I think we made it the ah point clear Everyone should listen to us the Vap Comic elders.

44:42.71

Delphina

Yes, listen to the elders all right?

44:46.46

Rae

Are you calling me old.

44:52.30

Phin

Um, never.