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.
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/
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.
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
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.2
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.
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
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.
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.
1 year later
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.
It varies. Drawing is maybe the one thing in the whole world that I can do properly, but sometimes everything is extremely hard. The hardest part of drawing is often the main composition. What to put in it and where. Anatomy can also be very hard. To aid with this I'm always collecting pictures of people in various poses. There is also a program called Designdoll that have helped me a lot.
And sometimes I just blast through it.
The only thing that usually stays the same way is the time that is spent on each page. Which is usually a lot.
For my part, I find that the quality of my work is directly related to the amount of effort, concentration and forethought I put into drawing. But I have zero natural talent for this, so it might be that.
there is an element of comic creation thats 'going with the flow' - i recently read about gerard way's experience with being a perfectionist and creating art, in which he said his comics are never finished when they come out, they just come out when they have to. sometimes you can only labour over something for so long.
that being said, theres also an element of 'straining' yourself - pushing, really. to create an interesting comic, you have to push yourself to develop creative images, pushing your abilities with perspective and posing and backgrounds.
personally, for me, it varies. sometimes im truly stuck on a pose ive challenged myself with, and its a struggle. other times it goes easy. it depends on what ive tasked myself with drawing, and what place im in. no matter what though, i just have to power on (even if powering on means not looking at it for 2 days)
If people look at my drawings, they will say I just go with the flow and whatever lol. But actually sometimes I like to see references so my characters don't look so much as mannequins. But I am not perfectionist because for me drawing comics is just a way of relaxing.
For example I like this page.
For me, it kind of depends on the day.
Most of the time, poses and expressions come pretty easy to me and I can bang out drawings really fast. Some days, though, I get really tired or something and the magic is just dead. I just have to rest a while or something until I get my mojo back and then it's business as usual.
If you're curious, my comic is My Friends in Distantand.
I draw things that look like this:
And here's my latest page:
DEF depends on the mood or zone I'm in versus the page(or work) that I need to tackle. I find even if I'm in a "I dont feel like drawing" mood, if I work on an action page I will get into it, coz I LOVE doing action pages; it's the quieter stuff that I struggle with.
I also struggle with poster/pin-ups and covers when I'm in the "dont feel like arting" zone.
It varies a lot for me. I push myself to draw every day, and some days I can easily draw for hours at a time, but other days it feels like a struggle. Where I feel like I have to push and strain myself the most are with some action scenes, group shots and elaborate backgrounds, more so if at a different perspective. I'm willing to push myself through them even if it feels like I'm straining myself, because it feels rewarding to get them finished.
