Work life balance.(Comics is life.)
The 9-5 for any artist, or anyone learning or trying to make a living from a craft, can be soul crushing. The reality of the situation is that a lot of us are going to need to apply time elsewhere in order to make rent; at least for a little while.
And that’s nothing new. That’s how it’s always been.
In fact, some would say it’s easier these days with more remote jobs and work-from-home options, which I thankfully have. Before mid-2021 though, I had a retail job for 11 years whose employment strategies attracted artists and the like. I was always amazed at how dedicated they were to their crafts outside of work, while I couldn’t be bothered to pick up a camera or write a paragraph.
After finishing issue 1, I tried to set stricter deadlines so that I could release issues sooner rather than later while keeping in mind that I also need to be attentive of the job signing the checks. There have been moments of heavy frustration where it has been hard for me to maintain composure, all under the judging glare of the dog—nobody wants to break concentration while in the zone.
This week was one of the rougher ones. Rough enough that I really didn’t produce anything page wise; mostly out of fear that I was going to be called into another emergency meeting and have to give more people bad news. The worst part is that the week isn’t even over and i’m calling it a wash art wise. I’m like, scared of inking over my pencils, scared of messing up here so I can’t bare to think about messing up at work. But being hard on yourself is part of the creative process, at least this early in it.
And that’s nothing new. That’s how it’s always been.
Achieving balance in one part of life will be a different experience than achieving balance in another; and I would argue that balancing your JOB with your CRAFT is literally a dream. I think i’m going to take a minute tomorrow morning and kind of gauge what’s bothering me in both aspects and address them accordingly. I definitely need to stop being afraid of the 9-5. What happened happened and I can move on, and I can’t have that apply to what I’m creating. Inking is a task I gave myself, and the more I learn, the more confident I should be; not the other way around. Everything can be fixed.
I need to put that ego in check. One day I’ll need to choose to focus on the desk job or to fjust go hard on comics but I don’t need to do that now, especially since one of the pillars of balance is being present in the moment.