When you draw is it effortless or do you strain yourself?

[shazzbaa]

For me, "effortless" is the kind of fluffy drawing I do when I'm trying to pay attention in church so my hands need to be moving to keep me focused without distracting my brain. Angry wolf muzzles, a lot of very detailed eyes with attached noses, disembodied long, thin hands in various poses and occasionally long, thin people -- I'll draw these things without thinking, but it doesn't do much for me; it's just artistic junk food.

When I'm REALLY drawing something, especially for my comic, there's absolutely effort in it! It's more like a really challenging and exciting puzzle that, on a good day, I feel very capable and pumped to solve as the pieces come together, and on a bad day, I feel like I've been erasing numbers out of this sudoku block all day and it's still not lining up. I wouldn't even describe the good days as "effortless," for me -- it's more like the feeling of playing a video game and realising you're winning and you know what you have to do to win.

[Vikiro_Hop]

Eh a bit of both. There are definitely certain parts I draw over and over again, but for the most part I'm not spending hours on one panel to get it just right. That might change when I move on to other comics but for now it is what it is.

Perspective poses are the bane of my life I swear.

yep!

[Mharz]

I seriously strain myself much when I'm drawing a different drawing style aside from what I usually do especially some commissioned works that demand a different style.

[Stronas]

I pretty much always have to push myself. A simple panel can take several hours, whitout ending nearly up as good as i hoped for. I erease and re-draw faces/poses at least 10 times at average. Because of this, my comic suffers from an hopelessly slow development pace, but i still draw every day, and i'll keep it that way. I belive that i'll be able to draw quicker/with less restrain in time if I improve xD

[mccjohn295]

A bit of both really. Sometimes I mess up and that causes hassle, or I'm tackling something different it can cause a decent amount of frustration, and sometimes things just flow effortlessly onto the page, but mostly it's a happy medium between both ends of the spectrum

[OgonoArtFamily]

Yes! Playing a video game is an interesting way to put it

[OgonoArtFamily]

Keep at it Stronas! Even then, when people each that point of improvement, people will notice a whole another level is waiting for them. For me, I see as a challenge to myself to push myself into the less restrain state when drawing...and even then there's even more obstacles.

[mjmassey]

Well, sometimes it's easy, and sometimes I just CANNOT bring myself to get through a page. I put a lot of pressure on myself, because I know I'm putting a lot of work into it and I always want it to turn out good, since I'll be showing it to the internet. I'll force myself to push, push, push--harder angles, grander backgrounds, bigger shots, more action! But all of this was really starting to put a drain on me, on top of just feeling very discouraged at this point in time. I'm currently taking a little break until December.

[DeadAccount]

Some pages are a pain to draw, but usually it's good, as I feel like a challenge helps me learn. Whenever there's environments and perspective involved, I know it's gonna give me trouble, but it's also good in the long run. Though, occasionally I have pages which are fairly easy but still end up taking forever :/

[twjalkh]

It often takes more then one try to draw a good composition, for me atleast. Especially when 2-point perspective is involved and I need to decide on the distance between the vanishing points.

[samuraiotaku]

The last page I drew took my 8 hours to ink on the computer, not including the 4 hours to layout the composition. What used to be something I did to kill time and to relax turned into a burning passion for self improvement to make the next page even better than the last. Thus the source of my torture when drawing. The satisfaction I get from the hard work and effort, seeing my art improve brings me so much joy versus when I used to draw without much thought/

[JenThym]

I draw slowly, so it never seems entirely effortless. Especially digital drawing, where I can erase lines over and over and over and not wreck the paper. Drawing on paper makes me more decisive! I'm hoping drawing gets easier with more practice.

Now coloring... that's easier!! Almost zen-like at times.

http://tapastic.com/series/PAWS-50-Ways-to-Kill-a-Zombie

[igneriss]

It depends, but usually it's hard to START drawing, and after 15 minutes becomes more or less effortless. For about an hour, because if I do one thing for more than an hour, I begin to fall asleep haha

[brunoharm3]

Charles Dickens write "The Christmas Carol" in three weeks because he needed the money. Edgar Allen Poe worked on "The Raven" for over 10 years. Honestly, I think most of it is dumb luck. I did a strip in three days that I thought would be very challenging, and it just fell together. the next one I did, I re-drew six times. I think Having that perfect view of what you want in your head can be a blessing or a curse.
Bruno Harm.

[WhatAHero]

wing it.
every.
day.
son.

seriously though sometimes when i eat, listen to music, or walk around i get an idea for how a page or a piece of concept art will look like for my comic and then I'll go home and sketch out the basic template and everything.
thinking of this shit on the spot is how i handle drawing, which is not smart. at all. but that's just how it goes.

[OgonoArtFamily]

Yeah, that's a case for me sometimes...I'm not in the flow or zone when I'm starting but as time passes I start to remember that "flow" or "zone" feeling and let it take over me. I can't have any distractions!!! or else I get out of it again xD

[OgonoArtFamily]

I can understand what you mean by not having an expectation of the perfect image to layout on paper. Usually, not all the time, when I drop the perfect image. it becomes better than what I thought it would be in my mind. But when I try to maintain that perfect image I'm stuck in a never-ending trap because I keep redoing. From my own view, I feel that you just need to let the flow or zone take control. However, it can be a blessing too cause there's cases in which it does pay-off. I feel, there needs to be a perfect balance between the two.

[OgonoArtFamily]

Yeah, i get what you mean some ideas just have to come to you, instead of it seeking it out(in some cases). I'd sometimes get the most amazing mind-blowing idea by looking at something that's completely unrelated to what I was doing. There's cases where my intuition would tell me to go to "central park and look around" Idea of character design(for example) that's been hindering me for a while would just pop-up out of nowhere. But at the same time when you're making a finalized piece it is good to plan xD.

[CSJones]

Link?

(Filler text for the 20-character limit.)

[CSJones]

It's fucking hard, and very time-consuming - someone mentioned spending 8 hours on a page, the FASTEST one I've ever done took longer than that - and it's often not fun.