Hidden beliefs can ruin you
I’ve been sharing my art and stories on the internet now for about 13 years. For most of this time there’s one stupid belief I’ve carried with me without noticing it. Before I tell you what that belief is, let’s look at this comic page I drew in 2014.
It hit the sweet spot in every way for me. The character, the art, the setting, the tone and the story. It felt like bliss, like I was doing what I was supposed to be doing with my time. I made a few more comic pages, some were great, but they seemed to get gradually worse and then I felt like I had used up the character completely.
I couldn’t think of a single new thing to do with this character, anything I thought of felt too much like what I had already done with them, or completely pointless. I didn’t wanna get stuck in a groundhog day where I just keep drawing superficial and same-y comics without a point.
But as I ran away from and avoided this groundhog day I accidentally threw myself into another one.
Most days I’ve been waking up and wondering “what new thing could I make today?” I might’ve had around 100 ideas for different projects since I moved on from Space Deer, probably more. And what has come out of them? Hardly anything, maybe 2 or 3% of what I start resembles anything finished.
I’ve been stuck in this loop for at least 10 years now, for no good reason. Only out of fear for my own lack of imagination and quality of thinking. It’s easier to think up an idea for a whole new world of characters or a video game, then it is to commit to anything and do it well.
13 years of sharing my art online and I still have nothing substantial to point to, be proud of, and say this is what I’m doing, this is what I’ve made. And I think it all boils down to this one false belief I’ve carried with me all this time.
“Always make something new, never repeat yourself.”
I never realized that I believed this, until I heard someone tell me about it in a book or on a podcast. It was a hidden belief. It was probably on Creative Pep Talk or in one of Austin Kleon’s books. Anyway, whoever it was, they had seen this false belief in their own life and they had some great points about it.
Most people have no idea who you are and have never heard your idea anyway.
Your ideas belong to you, do whatever you want with them.
Good art and stories never expire.
When I heard this, I realized that I needed to change my relationship with my creative output. I decided to go back to my roots, repeat myself - but better, and then try to go beyond it.
So I redrew my first Space Deer comic. I’m basically saying the exact same thing, but with a slightly different tone. To me it emphasizes the message of the story much better (it’s might be much easier than you think to do something you’re thinking about). In the original comic Space Deer was much dumber, almost oblivious and not at all surprised that it worked, he just chuckled.
I thought the bliss I felt for my old Space Deer comic had been used up since I couldn’t think of anything more to say. Now I believe that back then I had just found some surface level specks of gold. If I keep digging with this deer as a shovel I might find real gold ore eventually.
Be cautious of what you believe.
Thanks for reading this one! If you would like to see more of the new Space Deer strips, the only way to do so is to subscribe to Indie Notebook and be patient. Either way I’ll post them all on social media some day. :-)
