well these days i find myself listening to podcast, audio books or people talking about my areas of interest.
I try to fit music to the mood I'm drawing, BUT sometimes I say screw it and put it all on shuffle. When not doing that, I throw something from Youtube or a movie on for just background noise to keep from sitting in silence. (I hate silence.) Generally the type of music I listen to is instrumental, or OST's from games and movies. At the moment, I'm really digging Two Steps From Hell, and a lot of Dubstep.
ALL THE PODCASTS.
Like, seriously. I am a podcast junkie. I need silence or instrumental music when working on thumbnails and writing dialogue (I can't write words and listen to words at the same time), but the rest of the time, it's all podcasts all of the time. It helps me focus for longer chunks of time, since the podcasts I listen to are at least 20 minutes long - I'm able to focus on drawing for the duration of the episode. If I were listening to music instead, there would be a little gap between each song every 3 minutes or so, and my brain would take that opportunity to lose focus.
Recommendation-list!
History podcasts:
The British History Podcast - everything you ever wanted to know about British history. They're 200 episodes in (!), and they've only just reached the bit about the Vikings. Also, battle-cattle.
History of Rome1 - exactly what it says on the tin. The history of Rome, from the rise of the Republic to the final fall of the Western Empire. One of the rarest things in the world - a finished history podcast.
The History of Byzantium - a sort of spiritual sequel to History of Rome, though with a different host. The Western Roman Empire fell, but the Eastern Roman Empire kept on trucking for another 1000 years. This podcast follows the slow, impressive decline of Byzantium! Also known as "The infinite number of ways you can disagree about Jesus."
History of the Crusades - sets out to tell the story of the Crusades. All of them. From the first ill-considered venture to the Middle East all the way through to (right now) the crusade against the Cathars in Southern France. Should really be subtitled "Wow, Latin Christians are the worst people."
The Egyptian History podcast - hosted by a real live Egyptologist! Tells the story of the rise of the Egyptian cultures, all the way through from pottery sherds to magnificent pyramids and the Romans and everything in between.
Revolutions - hosted by Mike Duncan, the same guy who did the History of Rome-podcast. Tells the story of the various political revolutions in human history. Revolutions covered so far: the English Civil War, the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution. Next up - Simon Bolivar!
You Must Remember This - the secret, obscure or forgotten histories of classical Hollywood. Everything from silent movie era scandals to Charles Manson, and every glittering movie star and dictatorial studio executive in-between.
Lore - straddles the line between folklore and weird history, exploring the odd and the unexpected, from the New England Vampire Panic to mysterious murders in 1940s England.
Non-history based podcasts:
Welcome to Night Vale - the voice of community radio in the weirdest place in the world, where hooded figures roam, the baseball diamond is haunted, and mountains may or may not be real (?). [NOTICE: Listening to this podcast will automatically put your name on a list at the Sheriff's Secret Police's office. What kind of list? That is classified information. Remember, citizens, if you see something, say "something." The Sheriff's Secret Police will hear you.]
The Black Tapes - a faux-documentary style podcast about paranormal investigation. I haven't listened since the end of season 1, because I am a scaredy cat and it freaks me out so badly.
Friends at the Table - an actual-play podcast of a bunch of friends playing tabletop roleplaying games with each other. Season one is all about fun adventures with boats and snowy places, with a wonderful holiday special two-parter which is all about warm, fuzzy feelings and contains absolutely no heartbreak whatsoever. Season two is a scifi game about political intrigue and cool robot fights and neon and - oh who am I kidding. This podcast will break your heart and you will love it for doing so. Get past the spotty audio in the first couple of episodes, and it turns into one of the best narratives I've ever listened to. NOTE: long episodes. Like, super-long. Like, the shortest ones are about an hour long, and the longest one is over three hours.
I either sit here in silence, or have my trusty playlists.
A different one for different genre of comic I'm working on. It ranges from electronic music for my sci-fi based series, to indie rock for slices of life, grunge rock/heavy metal for my dark/action series and instrumental/cinematic for my fantasy ones, and so on.
So like... just picking the right mood, and the creativity juices are flowing.
I dislike background noise, like someone talking or vehicles vrooming under my window, I can't concentrate.
Rock music n rap
Its always the best combo for me
THE LAST SAMURAI
Pandora is my friend. I usually have it set on "Thumbprint" or "Shuffle" so I get a wide variety of music
here's one song that I've really enjoyed lately: Time For Tea
Something that fits with what I'm doing really, which can be more difficult to find then doing the actual work itself.
Depends of the day work and mood, from country to opera passing for the metal path in the same time.
I'm totally out of the loop when it comes to today's music. I listen to a Dutch Indie webstation, PinguinRadio, and they have a 24/7 alternative rock channel. The best thing about this, they don't do commercials, have no news and no DJ's with their incessant chatter where they think they are funny.
24 hours a day of rock, ranging from Black Sabbath to Slayer, and everything in between. Heaven.
What I listen to depends on the type of mood i'm in at a given time. If I need to really concentrate on my comic and if i'm pressed for time, I listen to music only. I don't really have a favorite music genre so I have a pretty big music selection ranging from reggae, jpop/jrock, kpop, video game music, metal, classical, 90s R&B, 80s etc. Too many to list xD!
If i'm in a laid back mood and not pressed for time, I'll listen to a combination of music and youtube scary stories and podcasts. I like the scary podcasts the most! I've recently become very addicted to the NoSleep Podcast and Black Tapes Podcast.
Korean music, anywhere from Krock to adult contemporary. (I have one cd) but I think it's based on what I'm drawing at the time.
I don't really know any American artist and I live in the US! x.x" aside from lindsey stirling.
It's either youtube or BBC Radio 2 for me depending on mood/if I'm awake. Love a bit of Ken Bruce in the morning :B
OH almost forgot, Started getting into podcasts, so The Adventure Zone and Welcome to Nightvale when available.
My extensive iTunes library, and sometimes random music on youtube. I like singing along if the lyrics are ingrained in my mind. Can't listen to any audiobooks or podcasts because then I have to pay attention to what they're saying.
I usually listen to music on spotify but now I've made a movie soundtrack playlist with like 800+ songs, it's great because the worse thing is when playlists starts repeating themselves
It's still a mix of electronic and downtempo for me but for the past few weeks, all soundtracks from NES, SNES, Game Boy, and Genesis consoles. Those classic chiptunes, the lively polyphonic flow from the 90's soundcards are incredible for helping me focus. I still pop onto the NESGuide online station (you can tune in to just NES or just SNES music as well as a mix of both!)
It's music engineered to accompany problem-solving, and YO, what is comics creation but a massive equation you work on to the end?? X]
