Too Afraid of Failure to Progress

I have come upon the exact same problem again. I research, take notes, procrastinate, become lazy... I do all of this to avoid the risky business of doing the work. To do the work, whether it be writing or drawing, is to make my statement and send it out into the cruel world, where it is vulnerable to criticism, discouragement, failure...

It comes with life. Why do I constantly have to go in a circle and suddenly re-realize this? No matter what I do, the answer is the same: do the damn work!

Put your art out there, reveal yourself, fail, get criticized, and then do better next time. I keep researching techniques and keep off working in order to gain "life experience." What I've been forgetting is that "experience" is not just (for lack of a better word) limited to life. In fact, for an artist of any sort, a crucial bit of experience needed is the experience of having created.

Here are a few rough sketches for two separate projects that I'll be putting more effort into each tomorrow. The procrastinating, though, must stop today...

This is a rough building sketch for an Avatar fan project I'm working on with another artist.

This is for a punk rock band manga project I'm working on with a friend at school.

Thank you, John Kricfalusi for inspiring this [recurring] epiphany. Your blog is much appreciated.