#263 – Pressure
Monday, July 27th, 2009Still on holiday with my kids. The days are really just packed! We’re doing so much! I’m considering taking all of next week off because I am not getting any time to work until way past every normal person’s bedtime.
I owe you 2 more comics for this week though! I’ll try get them done before Monday!
EDIT 2009-08-03: I am not going to get 2 comics done from last week that I owe you. There just isn’t enough time when I have so much to do. I really don’t want to rush these comics either. I want to put a lot of time and effort into these pages when Anders meets Maria. So I will be on holiday until the 17th of August when I will be at work again full-time.
August 1st, 2009 at 3:25 am
wow wow wow!!! I so love how you did this! that look on her face and her avante-garde pose is so epic <3 I looove it!!! thank you for making my day brighter!
August 1st, 2009 at 3:48 am
Ohh, I’ve felt like that so many times.
August 1st, 2009 at 3:49 am
making the first mark is the hardest part sometimes. ah, Maria, good luck!
August 1st, 2009 at 4:23 am
Maria is the cutest girl ever!
August 1st, 2009 at 4:48 am
She is so adorable! Especially in the first panel! I love the way she is drawn there! Her posture and everything is sublime!
August 1st, 2009 at 5:48 am
Take that Lena!
August 1st, 2009 at 5:57 am
“Take that Lena!” ?
Lena supports Maria, wants to give her a second chance, and the only thing she didn’t like in her portfolio is what Bjorn did.
It seems like Lena’s the best one here.
August 1st, 2009 at 6:19 am
The third panel is amazing. as always I find it striking the way you can pull a reader into your story, I could practically feel my body shaking with nervous energy!
August 1st, 2009 at 8:25 am
maria is perfect. so is lena.
August 1st, 2009 at 11:01 am
Enjoy your holidays, Rene! We can take a little delay
August 1st, 2009 at 3:42 pm
That’s just how I feel when I write the first line of a poem.
August 1st, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Wonderful comic, as usual! One nitpick though: In the fifth panel, shouldn’t the light source be coming from the front instead of the back, since the ‘camera’ is coming from the other side of Maria?
August 1st, 2009 at 11:26 pm
@shosa wouldn’t the lightsource be coming from the window behind her, not the camera?
August 2nd, 2009 at 2:46 am
@Sophie I think Shosa meant that the window should be on the other side (i.e. behind where the ‘camera’ is) and not the light source, although technically in this case the window IS the light source…
Because unless there’s another set of windows like that parallel to the ones in the first panels, those windows shouldn’t be visible from the angle of the second-to-last panel.
August 2nd, 2009 at 4:00 am
I usually feel bad for Lena. I almost see her as pathetic because she’ll probably never have Anders…but with his hormones, I wouldn’t be shocked by a mother-daughter threesome with Anders.
And of course I agree with everyone: Maria is so adorable I want to squee.
August 2nd, 2009 at 5:56 am
@Junodog & Shosa; It’s actually likely that there are windows running parallel. I’m not sure if that’s what was intended or if it just happened by accident in this case, but I know all the art classrooms at my college tried to get as much natural light as physically possible into every room. They had floor to ceiling windows on every wall that met the outside.
Lighting would still be off though, as Shosa said, because there would be a predominant light on the side which had already shown dominance in the first four panels. (Sun rotation and all.)
I know exactly how Maria feels in this comic, I can sympathize with her pressure completely. Many people appear to feel the same way!
August 2nd, 2009 at 7:14 am
The blank whiteness can be quite intimidating, in particular when you want your painting to be wonderful so very much.
Maria is trying to make it in a sophisticated world that is hyper-critical and has more than its share of obsessed “experts” who will be happy to tell her what she is doing “wrong”.
She’s worried about the critique: What if they all just laugh at her stupid picture?
Artists, even the really good and intelligent ones, don’t always get it right the first time, and they must be prepared to struggle and persist. The really great artists have a belief in themselves that transcends all negativity, but if you’re alone and scared and not really convinced that you have any talent its pretty hard to connect with that.
If this was any worse, there would be gallery seating for an audience to watch her work and make snide comments!
August 2nd, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Beyond that, this is her extra special second chance. Being in the midst of one of those for school (making up work for classes I’ve failed), the pressure is palpable. Your last chance or you’re back to working at the gas station for the rest of your life.
August 2nd, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Enjoy yourself Rene. You deserve it.
Also, thanks for the link to Chester 500 XYV.
August 3rd, 2009 at 5:55 am
oh man, yeah. i’ve never had to make up a failed class, but i have handed in papers over a month a later, and the pressure to make them perfect is awful. and they wind up being even later, because the first ten drafts are never good enough.
August 3rd, 2009 at 9:53 am
*Snerk*! I love the look on her face in panel 3. Such concentration, as if she’s about to preform surgery! If she’s using acrylic paints, she might as well be! They dry to damn fast for my liking. Acrylics be such a harsh mistress…:D
August 3rd, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Dominique,
QFT
August 4th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Personally, I love acrylics! With them, as opposed to oil, I don’t have to wait for the paint to dry to cover all my mistakes.
August 4th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Eden, I agree….so to me, acrylics are much more forgiving! And if you REALLY botch it up, put the white on and start over.
August 5th, 2009 at 5:54 am
Is that -the- gray painter’s shirt?
August 6th, 2009 at 1:20 am
Maria is absolutely beautiful in the last couple comics. I find myself cheering for her to have a little girl instead of a boy
besides, anders should have to deal with having a daughter, all of the hearts he’s broken, lol
August 6th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Hey Rene! Loving the flashback, but really my life is back in Dunka Dunka Dunka. Help me out with an update!
Love the comic! Keep it up!
August 7th, 2009 at 1:16 am
I’m going to art college for the first time, and this captures everything I feel. Ah!
August 7th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
so… i’ve just sat here and read every single comic and most of the comments and i loved them! i’m a QC fan and somehow stumbled to you earlier this morning. you are amazingly talented, rene and the story is great. i’ll definitely be back on the 17th!
August 8th, 2009 at 2:15 am
Just a thought, maybe you should take a bit of time off from posting comics, so you can build a buffer between postings in case you find yourself in this situation again. If you have a backlog of one month’s worth of comics you will have more time and less pressure in the future (this is what professional syndicated comic writers do).
Just a thought
August 16th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
id like to make a suggestion to make it easier, why not draw/paint/w.e the comics during this holiday wit no pressure? just sit back relax and, well just draw it or however u do it, that way u could idk, put more comics up all at once on your free time
August 17th, 2009 at 4:26 am
Ahhh tomorrow can’t come fast enough!
August 17th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
So, I’m not sure when the 17th begins/ends your time, but I’m waiting for the next comic after reading the entire archives about a week back (also from QC). I love your work and cannot wait for the next one!
August 17th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
IS TODAY IS TODAY IS TODAY WHEEERRRRRRRE!? AHH, AHH, AHH, AHH!
August 17th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
*crushing disappointment* I was expecting a new one.
Guess I’ll check back tomorrow.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
/sigh. Another day without Anders Loves Maria…
August 17th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
twitter says it’ll arrive today!
and be nsfw :-O
August 18th, 2009 at 12:16 am
From twitter –
reneengstrom: Comic is finished. I… just can’t put it up because the schools proxies are fucking with my ftp. :S I’ll go home now. (about 2 hours ago from web)
patience, peeps…