Faster, Lazycat! Draw! Draw!
I really need to learn how to draw faster.
My art style has always been sort of cramped and fussy and sort of timid-looking, which I kind of like (the whole world’s a little to BOLD for me, thanks), but it’s not so good for getting stuff done, and getting it done quick. And being a really fabulous artist isn’t just about how well you can draw, but how quickly you can draw well. I mean, any half-decent artist can make something wonderful if they spend eighteen years on it. It’s the ones who spend eighteen minutes who really make an impression, get all the good jobs, etc., etc.
I’m bringing this up because I just spent most of November working on three little book pitches. I got most of the writing part done, but I only managed to draw ONE measly little bit of finished concept art. When I realized I was in danger of falling behind on the Serenity stuff, I had to put all the rest of it aside for a while. This is simply unacceptable.
Now, I worked in animation for a little while. I know how to scribble things out pretty quick if I have to. In fact, that’s the FUN part. Rough drawings are what I like. I can get four or five Serenity pages done in a day if I’m just scribbling out some rough layouts only I’m meant to see. It’s doing those finished, final, ready-to-present-to-the-public-and/or-potential-publishers artwork that’s like pulling teeth for me. I hate whittling things down to one solid line. I hate having to carefully figure out tones and perspective and three-dimensional rendering. Don’t even talk to me about color.
I find no joy in Photoshop.
It’s sort of like I’m addicted to that initial flare-up of beautiful, scribbley creativity, but then my brain quickly glazes over to the point where I’d rather just ditch it all and go refresh CHUD.com for the twentieth time that day.
I WILL PROVIDE AN EXAMPLE.
This is the extra-sketchy version of page 21 from Goodbye Crestfallen (final here):
At this point I have completely lost interest in the drawing process, and am quite possibly staring at my cat or thinking about John Carpenter’s The Thing. Maybe I’m eating a cookie.
This is indicative of a dangerous lack of what professionals call “followthrough.”
And I have the same problem with writing. I love making plot outlines and scene descriptions and little bits of dialogue and whatnot, but once I’ve come face to face with that vast expanse of horrible, soul-devouring blankness in MS Word… Hey, maybe I should check and see if Matt Yglesias has updated his blog!
Anybody else have this followthrough problem? Does EVERYone have this followthrough problem? How do you get over it? Or more importantly, how do you get over it without an employer breathing fire down the back of your neck to get things done faster?
You know I was just thinking, looking at the most recent panel of Serenity Rose, that your technique as an artist has grown leaps and bounds since the original SR book, and that book is one of my all-time favorites. It sits on my shelf in-between The Watchmen and a regular novel named “Echo” by Francesca Lia Block. (I think you’d like her, by the way. You and I seem to have similar tastes in such things, from what I’ve read of you on the blog and seen through your work.)
I think I digressed.
Anyway, the best advice I ever got for finishing things faster is that every large task can be broken down into smaller ones. As an example, I’m an animator programming for 3D software pays my bills right now. In both sets of tasks, I tend to make little checklists of things I need to do and break tasks apart into perceivably achievable bits. I know it sounds silly, but I find I accomplish more when I do this for two reasons:
1) A bunch of little tasks are less daunting to my cowardly brain, and
2) When I check off things I get that little endorphin rush that says, “Yes Katt, you did good. *pat pat*”
It also helps me stay focused; if I have no list then I tend to meander or watch old eps of Buffy. If I have a task list, I have this overwhelming desire to check things off. It’s like collecting a set of cards, or getting MewTwo in Pokemon.
If any of the above was helpful, yay! If not, ninja-toss a sheep at me. I’m scrappy. I can take it.
BTW, I also really enjoyed Kimmie, so I hope that whatever you’re pitching right now gets picked up so I can go to the comic shop and indirectly send you more money.
I’m not much of an artist, but as far as writing goes, I’m constantly getting ideas for short stories or poems. However, as one glance at my desktop will reveal, I always have multiple pieces left unfinished at any given period. Followthrough is really the bane of my existence. When something has to get finished though, I have a couple tips about how I personally get myself motivated and creative.
Firstly, I always find that free-writing helps, you probably know this technique already, but basically you just set a period of time, say 15-30 minutes and you start writing your plot, or your dialogue, or whatever else, and you CANNOT stop. Your pen should never stop moving for the entire period, even though the things you come up with are disjointed or abysmal. The whole point of the exercise is really just to get your mind moving and put some ideas on paper.
Afterwords, it’s usually easier for me to get started on my real and serious writing, sometimes even utilizing the ideas you developed during the freewrite itself.
If that doesn’t work, I usually just read the authors who inspire me for a while and try it again.
Currently I have a full time time job painting textures for 3D models. 40-50 hours a week of painting buildings or electronics or plants can get boring, especially when each building can take up to five days. There are so many times I want to stop, but I’ve learned a few ways to keep myself going.
1. Focus on the simple parts. This is my version of sketching. I throw stuff on the picture as quickly as I can.
2. Focus on the similar parts. For me this is any part of the picture that has the same kind of texture or is the same object. I focus only on the similar parts and ignore all other pieces, so that way when I am finished with it a good portion of the piece will be done.
2. Switching between different paintings. Whenever I feel like I can’t look at the current one anymore I switched to a different one to keep from burning out. The newness of a different project helps renew me a little.
Also taking little breaks helps as long as I don’t stop for too long, but I find it easier to do artwork in general if I don’t stop at all or have something I have to do by the time I’m supposed to be done because then I just get so soaked into it that I don’t notice anything else that’s going on, but the problem with having to do things with Photoshop is that the internet is a click away.
…I have the same problem and I don’t know how to fix it either, hahahaaaa D:
I am terrible at following through. I’ve dozens of half-finished stories, many no more than a couple of pages of fancy introductions to a world that sprung up in my mind, and sketches of so many characters that never saw fruition. I also have 3-4 Dwarf Fortress savegames going at once, including a Kobold Camp game mod, each with some grand plan or another that I never quite get around to.
I write for a living at work… nothing exciting, just corresponding with customers re: enquiries, complaints, praise, etc, and I find the best way to actually get a written piece finished is to divide it up into its composite parts. All of my half finished letters start out looking like this…
I am writing further to our letter dated [DATE]. Thank you for your patience whilst I completed my enquiries.
[INTRO OUTLINING CUSTOMER ISSUES]
[ISSUE ONE]
[ISSUE TWO]
[COMP OFFER RE: ISSUE 2]
[ISSUE 3]
[COMP REFUSAL ISSUE 3]
[ISSUE 4]
[SUMMARY OF ISSUES]
[SUMMARY OF COMP]
This way I can fill out the bits I feel ready to and come back to the letter later without losing anything, and work on 2-3 things at once if need be.
I’m trying to work on a plot for a story this way, and so far it’s going well. I write out a very basic plot outline like above based on whatever came into my head, then break each section down into chapters, work out beginning, middle and end of each chapter basically, each time breaking a section into smaller clusters of square brackets and fleshing out each bracket as I come to it, in whatever order I feel like.
Within a couple of hours I’ll end up with about half of some chapter from the middle of my story, fleshed out fully and just needing fluffing and editing, interspersed amongst a few square brackets where I’m struggling to get 2 parts to meet smoothly, but I can come back to that later. Then it’s just a matter of FORCING myself to go back to the same story the following day.
i may be totally off here, but when i read this lament what i hear whispering in my mind is, “i need an inker!”
which you much deserve of course, and which service lots of talented people i could mention would be happy to offer for minimal compensation, plus geek bennies.
(keep in mind this is coming from the very worst follower-througher in the universe, and therefore should be consumed with greater than the ususal recommended daily allowance of salt.)
As far as I know, you don’t.
But I’m just a teenager.
ha.
I’m no expert artist, nor am I an expert writer, though I do both exceptionally well. I’m only fifteen and I cannot spell. Oh, jeez that ryhmed… Oh well.
All I can say is to try and do a little self searching and try to figure out what works for you from all these wonderful answers to your question. I have several unfinished storys/works of art I have laying around in my computer and sketch book and back pack.
Here’s what I do when I do my homework: I get my music thing (I use a tape recorder or MP3.) I put on my awesome guitar headphones that block out all sound around you when you listen to music. Same with drawing or writing. Music is my everything.
That’s pretty much what I do. The music chases away all the daydreams I have and whatever such-such is bothering me.
This is kinda nerve racking, writing this, because you’re one of the artists I look up to in comic drawing (along with Yun Koyga and Jhonen Vasquez) and you must imagine how neat/strange this is! Alright.
Drawing takes time, which everyone knows that. Due dates suck, and so does the fact that you have people breathing down your neck, which is common knowlege. You like the rough look of sketching. But then there’s the whole single lining it out and yada-yada for the final product. I love the look of the rough edges too. Your drawings, to me, have that kind of look to them. I keep telling people how realistic they look even though they’re still cartoon.
Honestly, what you have above looks wonderful if that’s your quick sketching. Sure, there’s no shadowing, but you already have the dimention down.
For me, I draw and write for myself and my things just so happen to be what people like. If they don’t, then they don’t know what they’re missing. I think it comes down to yourself, Aaron. You do good with what you put up on your website and with the other things that are on display. All I can tell you is try to figure out what works for you and kind of experement.
If my little comment is a waste of your time, don’t be afraid to tell me. If it helps, please let me know. I know you probably won’t be able to.
Or put it up on your blog that we, the veiwers, helped! I bet everyone would like to know.
Okay, I’m going to quit buzzing now.
I have that problem ALOT! its actually quites imple what i do, i either listen to some intensley inspirational music whic reflects the style i trying to portray in the drawing or story or if i have an art block, i leaf through my large assortment of comics and art books until a genius idea comes across.
Dragon’s comment about the headphones struck a chord here, music helps me block out distractions too. but based on how often Sera is seen ‘phoned, i’m guessing you’ve noticed that too 😉
I have this problem all to often. I’m ready and set to do some drawing, then after a while I get stuck thinking on whether I should ink the pciture, or if I should upload it to a computer program and color it in there.
As for stories, I could never make one up, that’s why my comic idea never really took off. 🙁
Music sometimes helps, but other times I feel I need complete silence in order to draw something.
I have alot of followthrough problems, when I’m in a rut and feel a story or drawing I really am fond of planing out is not going as well…planed, I go back to what inspired the idea or what generally inspires me(for me, its local art gallerys) that ussaly gets me back on track.
or I make a day that I HAVE to sit down and finish projects, I unplug the T.V, turn off my internet,which is a big distraction for me, and turn on some music. And just tell yourself you got to get it done, it works for me at least.
This isn’t as good advice as some here (Actually, I’m going to try some myself), in fact it’s probably not good advice at all.
I find myself hating the final ‘render’ part of any piece, not only in the execution (Which bores me silly), but the result is often too polished and lacks whatever energy and flair I put into it at the rough stage. What have I done about this? Refined my overall style into a very rough one that needs very little polish to ruin the solid fundamentals.
Of course, unless the popular consensus changes regarding art and design, I’m unlikely to get taken seriously professionally (And I don’t look forward to struggling to pay the bills post-university).
I think it might be worth asking yourself what exactly it is that you find unpleasant about followthrough which prohibits you from doing so.
I draw stick figures lopsided, so I can’t relate to the whole drawing part. But as a writer, I get so excited to write my story, but once I realize what the ending is going to be, I lose interest and start working on another story. It’s a desperate struggle to ever FINISH anything.
I don’t really have a solution. Except for maybe watching something totally awful show or some really horrible made-for-TV movie on Lifetime. Then you’ll be like, man I’d rather do ANYTHING than sit here and watch this. Then forcing yourself to write/draw won’t be as awful.
Yeah. Probably not the best idea.
Yeah, I tend to not follow through with things. I have no idea how to fix it (but might once I come back to this page and actually read the other comments instead of just skimming them).
Which is bad, since I always talk about the novels and comics that could be. One of these days I’ll get something finished >>;;
Well, I’m a failed artist, but my friend Nee-Chan (found here http://vanglat.deviantart.com/ ) uses a tablet. She was already good and pretty quick as well,but buying (recieving as a gift) the tablet actually helped her improve. Hers was $99, but you can find one on eBay for less. It’s really been a big help to her! I can attest to that!
I think it well help you out alot! and Good Luck!!!!
I have the opposite problem, where I throw myself in a hundred percent to the finished draft of a comic and then realize I’ve overworked it to death, there’s no LIFE in the drawing anymore. Right now I have 8 roughed pages of a comic I eventually want to publish and one finished page, and I look at it now (taking a short breather) and cringe. There’s a panel in it that doesn’t look right, or is visually confusing. It looks much better in the roughs, in which only I can tell what the heck is going on, and it’s comforting to flip thorough the mocked-up roughs and envision that I’ve done far more work than I really have. I’ve also discovered that doing roughs for comics is the fun part, and that getting down to the nitty-gritty of background vs. detectable characters is the back-breaking work, and frankly, I’m not very fond of it either.
It’s good to know I’ll have to work a lot quicker, as I seem to have slowed down quite a bit when drawing this year.
One tactic I’ve tried, and while it works, it’s rather torturous: not letting myself sleep until it’s done. This has got me through 4 papers and about 10 paintings, but it does play merry hell with your schedule and awareness the next day. That, and having a pill of Adderol seems to help, but if you’re not perscribed, then that may actually be a step backwards. Another thing I do is (though this may be incompatible with neck-breathing bosses) is put a project aside for several months and work on another or several at once or possibly the same project on multiple layers (storywriting, researching, roughing, character sketching, backgrounds, scribbling down ideas for the next project) and then come back to it when I feel that tug. It means I don’t spend any time idling or getting out of the habit of working, and therefore produce 150% more and better work than if I’d done only one thing and suffered through a crippling block.
🙂 good luck.
Preaching to the choir. Often when i sketch something up and start working on it, I’ll get to some point, put it down/save it/go do something else and never come back to finish it. That being said, if i can get into a “zen state” of just doing it, i can find my self suddenly at 3 am and still working on whatever it was. (music helps a lot, blocking out the rest of the world/distractions/martian invaders/what have you)
This original post is old, but I’ll reply anyway since I just came across this site today:
I think its a matter of stepping back from it when you get worn out. It’s like running, you need to take a breather every once in a while. The hard part is, how many breaks can you afford to take when you’re on a deadline?
Standing back and taking a look at the larger scope of the whole project gives you orientation of what you’ve completed and what you have left to accomplish. So if you’re halfway through the pencils and getting exhausted, you stand up and sort through the pages and realize “wow I already did half of them!”
Also coffee or red bull helps a lot.