Have you ever faced burnout? Recently as I was finishing the last pages of our fourth comic and I was beginning to feel overwhelmed. My pen and drawings weren't what I wanted them to be, and what I was making looked like total garbage. I kept pushing myself but no matter what I created it wasn't coming out right. I was burnt out and had artist block.
If you realize it or not, I keep very strict goals for myself as an artist and when I don't meet those goals, I tend to beat myself up over it. IT'S SADLY MY NATURE. I had a deadline and I already didn't hit my deadline, which is a big no no and bills were piling up. I reached a breaking point and instead of beating myself up I decided to call someone. I called Jake and told him I was taking a week off from the comic and needed a breather. He of course was fully supportive and even took care of the blog for a month. It really did help. That was step 1 of fighting my burnout. "Take time for myself."
Step 2 was do things that make you happy. So I took time to focus on things that make me happy and bring joy to my stressed out self. I spent time with family, I read a bunch of comics, got caught up on some anime, and play a whole heck of a lot of videogames. I even did a puzzle with member of family! (This took up our kitchen table for over a week...)
Step 3 was to take care of something. Something that wasn't the comic. I sometimes let my creative endeavors consume my time and I lose focus on what it means to participate in the world around me. I decided to refocus my efforts on taking care of my family (who was going through a whole world of changes) and my home. I built things, did repairs, made dinner or breakfast, and decided to do things in my community.
Doing these three things brought me back and eventually I was able to finish issue 4 with the energy I needed to bring the quality to the comic. Have you ever faced burnout? What did you do about it? I'd love to hear about it.