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Assortment 22 - 05 - HD
🕑 Added 2022-03-31 03:01:00 +0000 UTCSandwich
Commentary
This is just something that occurred to me recently, and have wanted to talk about.
The surface level of the distinction between making something for yourself, and something for someone else, is obvious. I want to write a story about hamsters. Someone says I should write about gerbils. I stick to doing what I want to write about, and write about hamsters.
Success.
But that's only part of what it means to make something for an audience. As the comic says, if you're just expressing yourself, it's okay to be really hit or miss on whether other people get it.
In some ways, it can be like throwing a kindred spirit test out into the world. If someone actually does get it, that's sorta neat, but a lot of people won't because of how much of a personal expression it is.
And even someone who is a kindred might not realize it based on a still life of a really good sandwich you had one day.
No, if you're making something for an audience, you need to contextualize that art. It has to go through a process that isn't just expressing yourself. It's expressing yourself in a way that a wider audience can understand. How on the nose it has to be can vary, but you're making something for others to understand.
Even without commentary, in a way, you're explaining your art to the audience. It was specifically designed for broad communication. It can still be an expression of something deeply personal, and the way it's expressed can also still be personal, but the key thing here is that there are requirements for communication that can make something less personal. There will be compromises.
What's more, if you're making something for an audience, there may be points that have to be made delicately, or not at all, if you want to keep that audience. You have to worry about offense, and making sure people won't think one thing is another thing.
If the art you're expressing is effectively your job, these are all things that need to be accounted for, and you can't simply do whatever you want. It has to be tailored for the audience, even if all that means is being tactical about how exactly you put things. You know what you mean already, but they don't. You have to be clear.
I don't think all of this is the end of the world or anything, but I do think it's important to go beyond the surface level, and to realize just how much you're compromising for the sake of an audience. With awareness of this, you can better understand what's happening, and choose your battles in terms of personal expression, and satisfying an audience.
Clearly determine what are things that need to be clear, what's there to make your audience happy, and what can be truly personal bits that only kindred spirits might understand.
Comments
Crissa Kentavr
Thank you for including us in your project ^-^
Changer
I feel like what you are describing is akin to a dream journal. You'd write down "Pirates stole the cheese. Don't trust the fox." and anyone but you would look at it and say "what does this even mean?" but you look at it and remember the whole dream in vivid detail because its just enough to unlock that memory within you. In this example, the sandwich is not a reflection of what you experienced; it's a trigger that brings you back to that moment and reminds you of exactly what you felt. It means something more to you than what anyone else could possibly see in it, because it acts as a key which unlocks an entire experience.
Val Salia
Haha, maaaaan is that ever the double edged sword of webcomicing. This dynamic can also sometimes work in a weird inverse sort of way too, in certain circumstances, at least in my experience! I'd tried starting 2 comics before the one(s) I'm working on now, and were designed largely to have a mass appeal factor, and I never made it past 10 pages or so. And then I was about to start #3, and thought to myself, "You know... in order to keep MYSELF interested in it in the long term, I should throw in at least an element or two that *I'm* personally interested in." And so I moved some stuff around, where the protagonist gets transformed into a female of a weird little bird-rat-goblin race. And it TOOK. OFF. Because *I* was so into it, I had a lot of content to share on a much deeper level, and that seems to be why most people seem to enjoy it. Annnnnd now I'm actually making a living from it, which is something I absolutely never expected. So yeah; somewhere between "mass-appeal" and "totally personal work that only a tiny amount of people will ever understand or get interested in," is that golden range where both the audience and the creator is having a Good Time with it. It really feels like even though you've hit a really strong balance in this regard, it's clear you're digging deeper to figure out exactly where and how you want to straddle this line. So all the best to you in figuring this out! You've really refined this comic and your artstyle over the years into something wonderful; it's been great to see. So by all means, keep it up man! >: D
John Trauger
And at least one embarrassing story from his life would have come to mind.
AstroChaos
Well... Arthur Dent would have gotten the complex emotions represented by your painting of a sandwich at least.
Stephen Gilberg
I always felt like you were making this comic for yourself first and foremost. It's too weird for pandering.
Ardent Slacker
... Well, now I want a sandwich.
Circe
I think this explains a lot about why you feel the need to have so much exposition in the comics. Like a lot of artists you want to make sure that people understand everything as you meant it. Art, though, should be open to interpretation. If you paint a sandwich in a way that pleases you, it should reflect your positive feelings. Other people viewing it will hopefully pick up on those feelings in the way you intended, others will not. Everyone brings their own experiences and world view into how they experience art. You cannot control that, so don't try. Most will probably get what you were trying to express and that's great. It's also perfectly ok that someone in the audience will think it's a stinging social commentary on dieting (or something). That doesn't subtract from what you've done. All of which is a long winded way of saying: do the art the way it makes sense to you and let the world interpret it however they want.
Brooks Moses
And then there's the glass of milk that my ex poured for herself once, after an emotional day like that where there were a lot of not-good things in the world, and at the end of the day, she just wanted to have a glass of milk before going to bed. And the milk had gone bad. So, yeah. Because I know the story, she can just reference it for me (or vice versa) and we know what the glass of spoiled milk means. But anyone listening in would be wondering why a glass of spoiled milk is our touchstone referent for "everything is horrible".
Applestone
Imagine someone seeing the sandwich and being like "I completely understand. My friend choked to death on a sandwich, so it's obvious why you don't want to give more context than just showing the image." And as far as offending someone goes, it's not always easy to distinguish between genuine offense and SJWs. I think you should be safe though, because you have good representation of everything I can think of, but you still managed to write great stories, which can be surprising to anyone new to the world of independent artists, because mainstream woke stuff often sucks.
Thisguy
That’s the great thing about art. Critics, experts and art history students now get to spend hours and hours trying to interpret what the artist meant. And you can watch them and laugh. In the example given, you could provide one word to describe what the sandwich means to you… for example “Accomplishment”. Which will help guide people to understanding what the sandwich means to you. For me… some art is just art for the sake or art. Others are just to make you think for the sake of thinking.
Ash The Kitsune
It's a question of what you're trying to convey. Obviously it's different between the artforms. It's easier and harder to get some concepts across in words. I can spin you a romance between two who have known each other their whole lives, one who's circumstances finally changed enough to realize exactly what they've felt. I can also turn that starcrossed romance into a dying scream into the void, that love unrequited and dying on the vine before it could even blossom. Both are art, and both are loved and scorned by the audience who reads it, based on their whims, mood, and personal experiences in life. In the end, as a writer, I'm writing the story I want to tell. It's not up to me if the audience enjoys it.
Warren (Stephen) Rose
I'm glad some of your trying days have had good moments. Sending parasocial virtual hugs your way.
Prof Sai
I guess there is a balance needed then. Art that is wholly for yourself, or wholly for others will not succeed?
Ash The Kitsune
As a writer, this was the hardest lesson that I needed to learn. I have always been a 'gifted' writer, capable of reading and writing far beyond my peers from a young age, and always praised for my 'effortless' storytelling ability. Somewhere along that road I got blinded to the important part of what made all of that so effortless. I was telling -my- story, not a story that I wanted praise for. I was seeking praise, wanting to have people praise me for telling the story they wanted to hear. I forgot that to tell a good story you need to enjoy it yourself first. You can't please everyone, but if you can thrill an audience with -your- story, there's no better feeling. Many years later, I've finally started writing for myself again, and it feels great. I get a decent amount of acclaim and love from the people I share my stories with, and that's all I need, because I'm writing stories I -want- to tell. And that's the most important part.
