I Draw Sometimes
My dayjob is concept artist for the Sims 4. But at night I yell about D&D and draw shipping artwork nobody asked for.
So I wanted to answer this one, and I wanted to post it publically because I think a lot of people run into this issue, especially right when they break into the industry. I redacted anything that could remotely hint at what you’re working on. Like some sort of super NDA.
In any case! Like what I mentioned earlier–actually a lot of people go through this. Psychologically, it sounds similar to something I and a couple of my friends went through called Imposter Syndrome. It's this nagging feeling that you’re a complete and utter fake and you got hired for the task by complete accident, and that it’s only a matter of time before they “find out” and kick you to the curb. Like I mentioned, my first actual art-career job, I suffered from this A LOT and was constantly terrified at work.
Thing is, you will run into tricky stuff during the project, and it will be terrifying, at parts. But at the same time–keep in mind that they hired you for a reason. Generally people don’t just hire SOLELY for your skill (although they do sometimes)–oftentimes you’re hired for your creativity, your problem-solving skills, your charisma. They hired you (or contracted you) because they have faith that you, specifically, could iron out the difficulties and make something awesome. Try to show yourself the same faith.
That’s not the greatest advice in the world though (“hey you’re feeling scared stop being so scared and you’ll feel better”) so here’s some more practical stuff that helped me while I was freaking out:
Remember – you are an artist. You don’t just have a preset group of skills, you’re not a one-trick pony–you can draw, goddammit! Never drawn a horse before? Fuck it, you’ll learn, grab some reference and do that shit. Never drawn an action sequence? Look at some other comics, try a few practice rounds, then go for it. Feed off of your accomplishments. And remember – you were hired for a reason.