"One thing I thought I would ask is, I tend to struggle with my speed as an artist. I get attached to making things look perfect, or I get caught up in perspective, etc. I have always wanted to draw comics for a living, but because of my issues with speed as an artist, I have settled with me more doing my own personal comics and going after something more like storyboarding. Your post about why you chose storyboarding as your bread-and-butter jobs really spoke to me, when you said that "it's the fastest way to make income and get back to your personal projects". I love that mindset, and it has inspired me to focus on storyboarding. I was going after vis dev for animation prior, but I am changing gears to go after storyboarding for animation or live action. The only thing is I know you have to be fast, especially for boarding.
Is there something that helped you increase your speed as an artist? How long does it typically take you to pencil and ink a comic page and when you are doing storyboards how many frames per hour do you usually hit to please a client?
Thanks Shane, I appreciate it! "
Hi Jeremy,
I'm glad you're getting something out of my posts.
SPEED...ah...this one is interesting. Without getting too metaphysical, I believe most people, and artists in particular have a natural speedometer that they clock to. Some people move slower while others move faster. I myself am an impatient person. I am constantly on the move, and it takes a lot for me to focus and slow down. This is especially important while doing more finished work, more illustrative work like comics.
Storyboarding I suppose is a good marriage of my natural rhythms and storytelling abilities. On average, depending on content, I can manage 15-20 boards a day. I've done 120 boards in 3 (very long) days. This also depends on degree of fidelity or level of finish.
Let's look at this pragmatically.
Have you ever noticed that when you know how to do something well, with confidence that it seems automatic? For instance, washing dishes or folding laundry. These things have become learned and almost instinctual. Your adaptive behavior now lends itself to speeding up this process if you want. They've become instinct and now the variable is how fast do you want to get these done. Now of course if you move to fast you could break dishes and do a sloppy job.
The thing about building speed is about building up your motor control and confidence. One way I did this was purely by accident: I sketched from life EVERYWHERE I WENT. I'd never wait in line without a sketchbook. Before a movie starts in a theater, I'm sketching. While the tv is on, I'm sketching from the tv, or memory or from my imagination. Understanding human anatomy and spatial relationships and logging them in your sketchbook is vital to building confidence and your own visual library. And this will help with your storyboarding more than anything.
Comics...that's a different animal, as you already know. Storyboards are the intermediary to the final product. Comics ARE the final product. It does require one to slow down...something that I spent a month doing recently.
Why haven't I done this before? It never occurred to me.
I thought speed was what editors wanted.
But in truth, they want art that sells books. Speed is the bonus that you have in your back pocket. It took me 30 years to figure that one out for some reason. So instead of penciling 2-4 pages a day and inking about the same amount, I've knocked it back to 1-2 a day for pencils and inks.
My initial fear with slowing down was something that haunted me from my past: Would I overwork the life out of my art and lose that spontaneity?
What I didn't account for was my growth as an artist. As I got better and more confident and studied animation and from life my gestural work got better, my discernment for finding the right energy and through-line for characters increased. Granted people still like the liveliness of my sketches better but they're not entirely turned off by the finished product.
Anyway...sorry to be long-winded.
=s=
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