What are the weirdest habits you noticed doing comics?

[indagold]

Ever notice a pattern of weird habits or eccentricities that happen with your work? Things you keep doing and have no explanation for? Especially given you practice a lot?

This is for people who have been drawing and doing comics for years cause i've noticed weird stuff. For instance I noticed I could draw a character over and over again for years and yet find it harder to keep on model than other characters, especially background characters that only appear maybe 3 times.

[VibrantFox]

Typically during the thumbnailing or rough sketch process I'll make the face I want a character to make or when it comes to certain poses I'll just kind of act it out in front of my computer to get a feel for how it ought to look. It is effective though especially when it comes to exaggerated facial expressions.

Also fully agree on having trouble staying on model for characters you're constantly drawing versus those one offs who only appear a few times here of there. I always chalked it up to changes in my artsyle but sometimes I fully forget how a main character looks and there's just nothing to be done about it

[Macarenaoftime]

My whole comic-making process was just a bunch of weird habits, to be honest.

[Lady_T_Musings]

Kind of a reversal here, but I have a terrible habit of biting my nails. The only time I can actively ignore the urge is when I'm working hard on my comic or drawing in general. But only when I started before the urge hit and haven't had a break to contemplate biting them.

sigh...

[nathanKmcwilliams]

I have a habit of drawing characters in a slight leaning position. Also I tend to do some sort of legs wide pose like they're bracing for impact. I do it without thinking, it's kind of annoying, because I want to present a variety of poses while making the comic.

[darthmongoose]

It doesn't matter how many sketches I've done of a character beforehand, I never truly feel like I've nailed how I draw that character until they've been in a few pages of a comic. Their first couple of pages I always feel like they look a bit awkward and not quite "like them". It's like... somehow drawing illustrations of a character and drawing them performing dialogue and expressions are two different beasts.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

I get that actually. That's one of the reasons I don't like making character bios. Drawing/writing them in the comic helps me to understand them way more than just illustrations and blurbs about their likes and physical stats.

[darthmongoose]

Yeah, that's definitely a thing. If I can leave off doing character illos for after I've drawn them for a few pages, I always feel like the drawing of the character will come out more accurate to how they look and their bodylanguage in terms of how they tend to stand, hold their head and shoulders etc. It often bleeds over into things about their character you just get a sense for from how they behave, so I can totally agree with leaving off bios for a while.

[skicoak]

While I don't have anything like it in real life, I definitely have some kind of artistic OCD.

Like, I just did some underwater panels...HAD to have thousands of bubbles. I get obsessive about drawing wood grain, rubble, falling leaves and so on.

I use to think it was a style thing but it's much more compulsory and complicated now. Lol.

[Puck]

I don´t know if this is something weird or something that a lot of people do,
when I´m drawing an expression I´m doing the same expression myself when I draw it.
Can look weird when I´m sitting in a café sketching

[malwdark]

I would bet 9 of 10 artists do this

[WhiskeyMadDog]

I never do thumbnails or storyboards, I draw exactly what's in my head onto paper. I dunno why I do this. Storyboards have never worked for me. I do write a script, but I never describe what goes on in each panel because I'm always changing things. Whatever daydreams I dream about go directly onto the page. No revisions. I think about the story and dialogue a couple times in my head, but I never do thumbnail sketches. Surprisingly, working this way doesn't turn out disasterous for me. I usually get the results I want. All those times in the art museums have paid off

[indagold]

I just make brushes outta details lol found its pretty fun when making things like lace.

[skicoak]

I wanna learn to make brushes...has just been hard to wedge into my schedule. I have scheduled some time in April to try and streamline my processes... Maybe then.

[PaulDevers]

Layer names end up being complete nonsense to me.
Things like 'extra bits' and 'comp lines for the unnessary stuff'
and of course my personal favorite: 'diaglog'.

[KrazySparrow]

redrawing stuff a looot >: I always end up hating it when I take a second look...and then a 3th.... and so on

[irene_addler]

I have a very specific way I set up each page and panel, as far as layers and folders and etc go, and if they're not in that specific order, it drives me nuts

[AnonymousHouseCat]

Yes! I have done this in class XD

[indagold]

I've done that at professional jobs and no one has gotten angry with me yet so maybe they don't notice

[malwdark]

Sorry to say this but, thats all bad practice. If you want to get better, making the effort to study, practice, organize and don't skip work phases is a must.