How do you think indie comic artists with full time jobs get work done? Often slowly, often in pieces, very often in bursts.
I had a good burst while working full time on the Netflix comedy – coming to a netflix login near you. I would get home from work, fire up the Surface Pro and munch on dinner intermittently while trying to pick up where I left off the night before.
I spent every night – with one exception – working on as many panels as possible, writing an re-writing in the two or 2.5 hours before going to sleep. I never wanted to let the sleep thing get out of hand.
I am actually more than week behind my realy ambitious schedule but considering it took me the better part of a year for the last issue of Pages of Eight, I think I am so far ahead of the page count that I can’t help but celebrate a little.
For me, that means I can grab a burger or some pancakes … then get back to it.
And that’s a half truth – let me explain … to the three of you that give a shit.
I don’t tend to draw for long periods of time. I can burst through certain tasks, for about two hours and then need a break. Often I spend that break doing anything but drawing – looking over copy, checking the next tasks on the upcoming pages, thinking about light and lines (spoken lines, not just drawn ones).
It’s a nice way to manage the demands of being your own editor – whiile I am primarily an artist, I write this book as well so I have to give a lot more time to that side of the process which I feel is the far less labor intensive part of it all.
Even so, I manage to write myself into corners – the crowd shots, the weird angles, lots of times. But I know what it’s worth to me, I know what the way it works.
Off to the drawing board (or Surface in this case).
