Work, college, comics...how do you guys do it?

[Garneta]

I think up the storyline whenever I can, usually script on a lunch break at work, and draw/ink comics on any offtime I might get at work, which isn't much. Then I spend a lot of my "free" time at home coloring and finishing the strips, trying to get a decent buffer (I usually have anywhere from a week to a month in buffer strips).

I don't know what I'll do if I ever get up the money to go back to school too, though. I guess if I was that rich, I could hire a chauffeur, get a laptop, and color the comics on the ride there!

[Prettysenshi]

I work on my comic during *any* free time I have.

Same here.

However, if I'm swamped with work, my comic always takes a backseat. I don't know how it would be if I had to balance the comic, my school, and a job, but I think I'd find a way to manage.

[Kris X]

It's simple. I have no life.

Ooh.. That is sad, huh?

[Ryuko]

I also work during my free time, and when I should be working, but I work nights in security so it's the odd night I have to actually work. Also, and this is a sad truth, since my comic has started regular updates, my grades have been suffering a bit for it, because without thinking about it I put my comic first.

Probably if I didn't have the comic something else would go first...

[BrownEyedCat]

My comic is pretty simple and sketchy, so I usually break it down like this.

I work on a comic over a course of two days. The first day, I simply sketch out the panels, characters, layout . . . very rough and simple. This takes more time than it seems like it should, because in doing this I also do the totality of my scripting. That's the lengthy part.

The second day (usually the night before the day I update) I clean up the drawing, shade it, scan it, and add in text in photoshop. This is considerably more than I do the first day, but because I started using this method after about two years of doing the entire comic in one night, it seems like a lot less, and also keeps me from getting burnt out on the comic during the shading process.

When I know I'm going to have a lot to do for a stretch of time, I'll try and do as many roughs as I can on the weekend. Usually I get distracted after three or so, say 'meh, that's an entire week of comics, that's fine' and do something else. After that, I usually never get any further work done until the day before the comic has to go up. This method worked well for me during NaNoWriMo . . . you know, in the year I actually won.

The best times are when I do something similar, not because I'm afraid I'll lose time, but because I'm inspired and want to sketch out the next few comics before I forget. Those times are great.

I spent the last week trying a new, even more productive thing: Drawing the week's roughs on the weekend, working on completing one everynight, and then picking up on more roughs once I finished those in order to build up a grind buffer. This failed miserably, not because I slacked off, but because a family emergency cropped up and kinda drained my time. But my forethought allowed me to go a week without missing an update in spite of it.

Eerily enough, there was another time something similar happened. I drew myself a week-long buffer for no particular reason, uploaded them all, and found the next morning that my internet had been shut off. My comic continued to update normally until my internet was restored . . .

Edit: I have the most long-winded post ever.

[Dotty]

I finished College in 2002, and I draw while at work.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

I barely sleep, barely excercise, and neglect all my friends. I still eat food though.

[Moder]

I have no discipline, so I end up doing lots of days worth of comics whenever I have time/inspiration/patience.

And no sleep too.

[McDuffies]

I draw fast.

[ChaosBurnFlame]

I did it, barely, back when I did 7 a week. I'm sorry to say, it's stressful and horrible, and overall it was several cases of stress that forced me to scale down to 5 a week.

I wish I had advice on how I pulled it off, but honestly, the quality of art back then was so quick, so substandard for me that the only reason I did pull it off was because I could do nearly a whole week of comics on a saturday shift at work when that retail store was nearly dead.

[EvilChihuahua]

One book I read once said, about school, "There's good grades, sleep, and a social life. Pick two."

Now, add a comic to that list. That pretty much sums it up.

[Ian Moulding]

I barely sleep, barely excercise, and neglect all my friends. I still eat food though.

Weakling. Real men sacrifice sleep, exercise, friends, and food.

Either that, or I'm just an idiot. Which is what the clinic doctor just called me today. Did you know that stress, a poor diet, and neglecting to exercise can lead to blood pressure and intestinal problems? Did you know that high blood pressure plus a three AM case of indigestion feels an awful lot like a heart attack?

Back on topic - There are a lot of different ways of managing art + school/work. In CW's case I recommend an office out of the house. Check around at art supply stores or the bulletin board at local art schools, and see if you can join some sort of artist resource group or collective. Fees are usually minimal, and at the very least the group will have a space where members can work free of arguments about leaky tubs. Some groups also have co-op equipment that individual members can register to use. A good example in Calgary is the Quickdraw Animation Society, and there's probably a few similar groups in Houston.

[Princess]

Prozac and Valium

[Christwriter]

Prozac and Valium

...oddly enough, that's close to the advice my mother has been giving me the last few days.



CW

[Princess]

I saw a herbalist recently for stress and she hooked me up with a super mixture of winter cherry, liquorice (the root, not the candy), siberian ginseng, korean ginseng and tyrosine.

I also have to take licorice tea and magnesium twice a day.

Another thing I find that helps is making small goals for each day- ie during work I will think of one idea for a comic, and I will get one page of notes for my assignment

[Keffria]

I find that I actually have a fair amount of spare time right now -- I spend 15 hours in lectures, compared to the 40+ hours I spent at work over the summer. It's just that for the most part, I can't draw comics every time I sit down with a pen in hand (or even very often at all). I have to be in the right mood, something has to "click", etc. I could churn out a lot more if I could figure out how to just draw.

[Cortland]

You know, I managed to update my comic every weekday for over two years, and I'm still trying to figure out how, exactly, I managed to do that. In the beginning I didn't spent very much time on my comics. I could get five or six pencilled out while watching two episodes of Whose Line on Friday, ink them up Saturday morning, add balloons, and be done by afternoon. Then, as I started trying to improve it started taking longer and longer to finish them. Toward the end I was spending a minimum of two hours on each daily comic. That meant ten hours of my weekend would get soaked up with comics. Before long, I was spending all day Saturday working on pencils and ink, and then Sunday afternoon I would wrap up with dialog balloons. Any time I spent watching movies with my bro, going out with friends, or doing freelance work only meant more time I'd have to spend on other days wrapping up comics. As I eventually started to have a social life I realized that there were more important things than doing a daily comic and I eventually broke down and just gave it up back in June when my family came to visit. Last Christmas I had to spend time alone in my apartment as my parents watched a movie at my brother's because I had to add dialog balloons to my next update. That was WRONG. I'm never doing that again.

I think the real trick is to separate your tasks and priorities. Doing comics TAKES TIME. Measure out how much time it takes and set it aside just for comics. Eliminate all other distractions and focus on the task at hand like a laser. Then move on to your other activities when you're done.

And be ready to doodle and write down ideas at any given moment, because you never know when your muse will speak. ^_^

[Laemkral]

Well, if I hadn't gone on hiatus recently, I'm quite sure my schedule would have driven me mad. The only reason I'm even able to post right now is because I'll be eating while I do some of my homework and I REALLY need to unwind cause I didn't have a weekend.

For starters, free time is a lie. If you aren't doing something you're scheduled to do, find something that will need doing and do it now. Every little short cut and time saver you can take advantage of, do so. I find that preparing bigger meals and then storing them (stews, pasta, making extra) means you cut down on cooking time overall. Also, make sure to get 4 hours of sleep. It won't be much but it can mean the difference between slogging through the day sleep deprived and falling asleep and getting further behind. Pump up with caffeine to stay awake, and keep moving when you can.

Schedule out your time so it all gets written down and you can see the work disappear. Everything I need to do and by when is written down so I can prioritize. Maybe that work CAN wait for you to knock out a comic really fast. Don't go overboard on pushing things back, but don't try and get it ALL done RIGHT NOW. That's been my biggest thing.

Most importantly, relax and breathe. You can do this, you can get through this.

[MixedMyth]

The secret for me is not to sleep. T_T Seriously, I don't get much sleep. I'm a night owl who has to get up early. It really, really sucks.

But yes, I have full Graduate classes and a 20 hour a week job. I...don't know how I do it. In undergrad, I would draw during class. Particularly during lectures. I still do, but not my comic. I don't think I could sneak a 9 x 12 sheet of bristol board in without anyone noticing, and graduate courses are MUCH more requiring of participation than undergrad ones, generally.

I seriously don't know how I do it. Thank goodness for green tea.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

I barely sleep, barely excercise, and neglect all my friends. I still eat food though.

Weakling. Real men sacrifice sleep, exercise, friends, and food.

If it makes you feel better, I barely eat anyway. Sometimes I have an onion for dinner.