What are the weirdest habits you noticed doing comics?

[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.

[allenT]

Staring on the half-drawn page for extended period, sometimes standing up head tilted. Sometimes i do it for minutes, got myself into trance mode (as if i was wake-dreaming).

[WhiskeyMadDog]

Actually, I've tried storyboards and they have never worked or made me more organized. I'm not saying people shouldn't do them, I'm saying for me I have tried them a bunch of times and they didn't do it for me. I do have a script and from time to time I'll do storyboards, but only when it is necessary for complex stuff like pop-up books (I do my comic in my Sketchbook) fight scenes, shape shifting scenes, dream/drug scenes, etc. Concepts that are abstract. The other time, I'll just do what my brain wants to do as I daydream constantly, I talk to my characters and live in their world. So with storyboarding it just depends how complex the project is, and what I want. This is why so many of my drawings are dreamlike and experimental because I draw exactly what's in my head at that moment. I also use references and books and my script to guide me as well as character references. In other words, they are all automatic drawings. I don't think about color or composition as it's already there on the page, in my unconscious mind. Ernest Hemingway never did a script, he just wrote for that hour in the morning. Also, artists go through phases. Picasso went through his Blue period and never thought about yellow once. Maybe, I'll go through my yellow period and visually incorporate that into my comic as it is semi autobiographical. I don't see my comic as a comic, I see it more of a journal even if none of these characters are me. The script is loose for a reason and that's because the elements in the room and my emotions change things ever so slightly. My emotions might change a color scheme, or a poster that I really liked, I might sample some of it and somehow put it on the page, in clothes or in people's hair.

So, don't worry. I am not going up a river with one paddle. I see your concern and I do storyboard but only when it is needed. Because I see my comic as a journal, my storytelling works differently than most people's and I am aware others are going to criticize me for my bizarre methods. That's okay. I totally understand where you're coming from and I might pick up storyboarding again when I'm older.

[rajillustration]

I zoom in a lot so I don't have to do backgrounds (sorry not sorry)

[nauko]

I've done this a few times but sometimes I overstuff my pages with more panels than I should in my thumbnail phase and don't realize until I'm ready to transfer it on the official page. I'll look at the thumbnail and think "there's hardly any breathing space " and then I end up splitting the panels onto two pages instead of one on my final draft.

And of course, I'm too lazy to make the adjustment on my thumbnails so my official pages for the comic and my heading for the thumbnails indicating the page # no longer line up lol.