Well, how did it go yesterday? How many of your thumbnail index cards were you able to convert into finished comics panels? As you no doubt discovered, comics take a long time to draw! Being a cartoonist is a marathon, not a sprint, so it's crucial to think about time management to make sure that your cartooning can become a sustainable practice.
Create a drawing habit. Try to commit to drawing comics every day, with a minimum of 15 minutes a day. It doesn't sound like much, but it adds up! That's almost two hours a week, or about 8 hours a month. Draw at least 15 minutes a day until your 24-panel anecdote comic is complete. Once you finish that, see how long you can keep this going! Can you draw comics every day for a week? A month? A year? A DECADE??? Go for it!
In this modern age, there is a temptation to constantly multitask. Instead, see if you can "monotask" while you are drawing comics. Don't check social media, silence your phone and see if you can focus solely on your comics for at least 15 minutes. You'll be surprised how much you can get done! Need help unplugging? Try an Internet blocking app like Freedom.
Take a break! If you have the luxury of drawing for an hour or more, you'll find that your focus begins to fade after awhile. Take a break and get up from your desk. Stretch your back and your drawing arm. Take a walk around the block, call a friend, eat a snack. When you come back to your comics you will feel refreshed and ready to tackle another stint of drawing!
CCS faculty member Alec Longstreth's lecture notes Your Comics Will Love You Back has lots of tips for managing your time and staying motivated, such as documenting your progress or creating a work/break schedule.
The writer Mason Currey studied the working habits of dozens of artists and compiled them into the book Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. You'll be shocked to find out that most of your favorite painters, poets and writers had day jobs that they had to work around to create their art!
And here is a cartoonist's guide for 22 ways to combat writer's block by CCS co-founder James Sturm.
Gene Luen Yang drew his graphic novel American Born Chinese by waking up at the crack of dawn and working on it 15 minutes a day, before his wife and kids got up and he had to go to work, teaching at a high school. American Born Chinese went on to win the American Library Association's prestigious Michael L. Printz award (the first graphic novel to do so!) and the Eisner award for best new graphic album. Yang now works as a cartoonist and was recently named the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.
"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein."
If you post your work from this week online, make sure to use the hashtag
#CCS1WeekWorkout so that other workout students can check out your work!
