Comics for Beginners

How to Write & Draw Comics

productivity

The Art of Being an Artist

by Leave a Comment

Your first year or two as a creative freelancer the focus should be to build your boat and get in the water. When you’re afloat and not taking in water, you can start to think about your destination. Where would you like to go?

To many people, art is a hobby. But it’s when you really start to take it seriously and treat it as your job that you really pivot. William Faulkner is quoted of saying: “I only write when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes at nine every morning.”

Showing up at your desk is when things start to happen. The more you show up, the more likely it is that you’ll create something of value. You have to put in the hours, consistently. Painting a couple of times a month won’t make you a great painter. You have to build momentum and consistency and daily routines is key.

You can have a somewhat mediocre talent and still have a great artistic career. Just as you can be insanely talented and still struggle making it work. It’s not about talent as much as it is about courage, persistence and resilience.

Keeping your ego in check is another important aspect. You need some ego to find the belief the song you wrote is so great that everybody needs to hear it. But that ego can just as easily trip you up, if you start to think people don’t appreciate your genius enough. Or you strive for perfection in your work, feeling like it’s never as good on the paper as it was in your head (hint: It isn’t. This feeling never goes away, believe me!).

As an artist you expose yourself a lot and have to be willing to take criticism. You have to push yourself, and not hold back out of fear of what people might say. You have to be okay with shipping something you’re not a hundred percent satisfied with – chances are you never will be.

In 2011 I sat for a few weeks at Dean Haspiel’s Hang Dai Studios in Brooklyn. One of the guys at the studio asked for Dean’s advice on whether to take on a particular storyboarding job. He was worried he would fall short and botch the job somehow. Dean replied: “You need the money? Then you take the job. And you fail. HARD. And you learn from that”. That attitude was truly inspiring; expecting to fail and being okay with it. I certainly learned a lot from my brief spell at Hang Dai but also from taking on tasks I wasn’t entirely ready for. 

One of the things I hear tossed around a lot, is the idea that you’re only as good as your last work. I disagree. You are the sum of all your creative outputs, good or bad. And you’re not always the best judge of quality – in fact you’re likely the worst. You just have to do the best you can at that moment and get it out there. You don’t end up back at square one because some project didn’t turned out the way you wanted it. In fact you learn more from a project like that than you do from a smooth success.

When the process is grueling, frustrating and hard, it’s likely because you’re evolving and growing as an artist. When you reach that plateau and it feels like you’re never going to get better, when you feel like quitting – that’s exactly when you need to push through.

If you want to learn to swim, you have to go in the deep end of the pool.

This post is an excerpt from my book SOLO – Survival Guide for Creative Freelancers – Order now on Amazon.

Eating a Whale

by 2 Comments

When you set out to write a novel, record an album or draw a graphic novel, it can feel like having to eat a whale. You don’t know where to start, you don’t see how it can ever be done, you wonder why you ever said yes.

I felt this every time I started on a longer comic. I felt like it would be impossible, I felt like I didn’t know how. So I had to look at my book shelf and the pages pinned to my wall to remind myself that I did it before. I sat down with a cup of coffee calmed myself down and opened up my calendar. I looked at the deadline and the number of pages I had to do, then divided that number with the number of weeks available to work on it. It’s stupendously simple when you think about it.

Large projects can be harrowing to tackle, even the ones you yourself set in motion, even the ones that don’t have a clear deadline (especially those!). You need to break it down into manageable chunks. Make a plan but be open for the deviations that will undoubtedly arise. Start with the end goal in mind and work backwards. Plant some goal posts along the way, cross every little task off on a list if that makes sense to you, time yourself if you can.

For my graphic novel STILETTO I decided the book would be 120 pages long. So I created a large sketchbook with 120 blank pages in it and started rough sketching. I had a script, mind you, and I had already broken it down into pages so I sort of knew what I was doing. Still having that sketchbook made it painfully concrete, very easy to oversee the entire book and see how far I was.

As I’m translating this book (which was originally published in Danish in 2017) I just started somewhere one fine morning, and then looked at the word count at the end of the work day. I’d managed to bang out roughly 3000 words so that became my standard. As long as I keep at it, and manage to swat away the swarming thoughts of inadequacy, I’m able to hit that word count almost every day.

I find that when I’m writing a book, it helps me to set the goal of creating a shitty first draft. It can always be edited later. If I set out to write a great book, I’ll never finish anything. In the words of Elizabeth Gilbert: 

“A good enough novel violently written now is better than a perfect novel meticulously written never.” 

For your own projects it’s equally important to set goals and deadlines or you’ll see it constantly get moved back when other, seemingly more important things come up. If you have all the time in the world, that’s exactly how long it will take. You need to make a decision. Saying to yourself: “I’ll do it when I get the time,” is basically the same as saying you’ll never do it.

Time is not something you get. It is something you take.

This post is an excerpt from my book SOLO – Survival Guide for Creative Freelancers – Order now on Amazon.

Working from Home versus Getting a Studio

by Leave a Comment

As I’ve mentioned before, I wouldn’t have had the career I have today, if it wasn’t for my time at Gimle Studios. This is where I learned from the best, grew my network and got the jobs that laid the foundation for my business. Most importantly, being surrounded by other hard working professionals was how I built my work ethic and self-confidence as an artist.

Later on I got a spot at the larger co-op Republikken, which was as far from what Gimle was as I could get. I needed to shake things up a bit and sitting with designers, photographers and other types of creatives as well as entrepreneurs certainly helped me get a new perspective. This is where I came up with ComicsForBeginners.com and where I started to really focus on my own projects. 

After working out of my house for a year while I studied at Film School (yet another way I started to think outside the box) I’m not back at a studio space. I have my own room which is perfect for when I’m writing and need to concentrate, when I have people over for podcast interviews or I’m doing videos. In hindsight, I would probably have benefitted from isolating like this sooner, as I tend to get involved in conversations if I’m in an open office environment. I love having an office in town as it helps my focus to have a dedicated workspace and just a good reason to get out of the house every morning.

If you want to work from your house, an office space or the local coffee shop is up to you. Of course it depends on what you do, what area you live in and what your economic options are  – and what kind of set-up your work requires. I’m sure an opera singer will have a harder time working from a café than a blogger.

Pros and cons

To help you decide where to work from, here’s a list of some of the advantages and disadvantages.

Home office pros:

  • A pretty quiet work environment, no office chatter or ringing phones besides your own
  • No extra rent (and maybe even a tax deduction – check with your relevant authorities)
  • You always have all your tools and files at hand and can work anytime – even after the kids are put to bed
  • Speaking of kids, you may find it convenient to be able to take care of your young ones at home, while you’re running your business
  • Speaking of kids, you may find it convenient to be able to take care of your young ones at home, while you’re running your business

Home office cons:

  • Lonely lunch hours and probably nothing interesting in the fridge
  • Work habits can be hard to maintain and things can start to slide
  • Working alone no one will notice your procrastination

Office space pros:

  • Getting away from your house chores can do wonders for your productivity
  • You can take longer days and not be interrupted when the kids come home
  • Your friends tend to leave you alone and not lure you out for drinks if you’re in an office
  • No obligation to do dishes or laundry, you can focus on the work
  • Procrastination is harder to fall into when everyone around you is working
  • You have a support group of peers handy if you get stuck creatively or run out of work

Office space cons:

  • Commute
  • Rent
  • Other freelancers can be noisy and/or lazy too
  • Water cooler chatter can eat up your days

Alternative working spaces

More and more business hotels and co-ops are popping up, where you don’t have to have a desk but rather just plop down where ever is available. A lot of freelancers take their laptops to the local library or set up office at the Starbucks. Some people find it hard to work with a noisy espresso machine going on in the background, others find the buzz of people inspiring and appreciate the constant supply of coffee availabe. The coffee isn’t free though. You could end up spending more money on lattes than you would on an office space – and gain twenty pounds!

If getting a spot at a studio or a co-op is out of reach, try finding a peer group online that you can check in with on a regular basis. Committing to a weekly hangout or uploading new art every Wednesday can help you stay on track and keep you motivated. Accountability and moral support is solid gold for a struggling, self-doubting creative.

This post is an excerpt from my book SOLO – Survival Guide for Creative Freelancers – Pre-order now on Amazon.

Tiny Habits and Baby Steps

by 1 Comment

Hey, it’s a new year! Maybe you made a resolution that has to do with your creative craft, like write the script for your graphic novel or draw a page a day. A big goal, something to strive for! That’s the way to go, right?

Turns out 80% of new years resolutions fail by February.
There’s a better way to achieve your goals: Little habits, that can build skill and confidence over time. Small steps towards your big goal, instead of the big goal itself.
Making things a habit is a great way to get things done. Because a habit means it’s something you do without thinking about it. The more you rely on inspiration for your creativity, the less likely you are to be creative.
Being more creative is no different than trying to eat more healthy or getting fit. You need to make it super easy for yourself. Set the bar for success really low. Like “sit down at my desk and look at my comic every day for ten minutes.” You can do that, right? You don’t even have to work on it, just sit there. But I’ll bet you can’t helping doodling a little once you plant yourself in front of it. Maybe those ten minutes will turn into a good productive hour. Maybe not. The point is to set yourself up for success by lowering your expectations.
You also need to make it hard to fall into whatever traps you tend to fall into. I had a TV addiction once. I had this tiny little TV that fit inside my cupboard, so I coiled the antenna cable around it and put it in there. Every time I wanted to watch TV I had to pull it out from the cupboard, unwrangle the cable and plug it in. Bit of a hassle but totally doable. Here’s the thing; just making it a little harder to watch TV and putting the damn thing out of sight made me forget I had the option.
The same goes for Facebook. I deleted the app from my phone, so now I have to open the browser to check my feed. Again, totally doable. But you bet I go on Facebook a lot less since the app is no longer right there reminding me of it’s existence every time I look at my phone.
There are several apps for monitoring iPhone usage, I never tried any of them. I know the result would make me feel ashamed and miserable, even though my notifications are off and it’s always on silent. But we all check our phones more than we need to and it’s stealing precious time from us. Time we could spend flexing our creative muscles, even if just for a few minutes.
Waiting at the bus stop?
Instead of checking your phone, how about pulling out a small sketchbook and just draw what you see. Pick some small detail, like the window in the house across the street, the telephone pole or the old lady on the bench. Just look and notice the lines, understand the three dimensional object. Try to copy it on your notepad with as few lines as possible.
Bored on the train?
Draw one of your fellow passengers. Don’t judge your drawing, just make it. Then do another.
Standing in line at the post office?
Try to think of the main character in your story. What would he or she be thinking about right now, what would their posture be like, their look on the world around them.
There are many small things you can do that over time will move you towards your big goal. Try listing 3 things you can easily do, maybe a daily or a weekly thing. And then list 3 things you can easily stop doing, something that’s really taking you away from your goal. Commit to doing or not doing ONE of those things for a month, see if it sticks. If not, then maybe that strategy wasn’t built for you. You still have 5 other things to try out.

Three Books All Creatives Should Read

by 2 Comments

In this video I give three book recommendations that might seem kind of left field. Nevertheless all three have had a huge impact on me and how I see myself as an artist – and as a human!

Here are direct affiliate links to all three books on Amazon:

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles, by Steven Pressfield

The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick), by Seth Godin

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life, by Mark Manson

Steal With Intention

by Leave a Comment

In his great book Steal like an artist Austin Kleon recommends stealing from various sources in order to create your own unique artistic expression. I wholly endorse this message! But how do I practically implement this advice?

I recently tried out another form of stealing. I’m writing a YA novel in between other gigs and interruptions and often find it hard to get back in the groove, when I finally have the time to work on my story. It’s easy to feel stuck or disconnected from the story.

So I started stealing with intention.

Every time I watch a movie, read a comic or a chapter in the kids book I’m reading aloud to my daughter, I look for one thing I can lift for my own story. It could be anything; a particular conflict (mom vs. daughter), piece of clothing (someone wearing a Nirvana t-shirt), an activity (building a treehouse or playing cards), a tic or a trait. I’ll ask myself what this could be in my story. And like the kids in the story building a tree house out of old planks, something new will start to take shape in my story, even though some of the raw materials is from somewhere else. It also keeps my mind sharp and awake, not just consuming a tv-show or a museum exhibition. I’m looking for something to steal.

You too can try setting this as a sort of dogma rule for yourself, to always look for one thing that you can implement. Treat it like a game! If you can find just one thing to steal from a movie, it can be a bad movie and you still win.

—

Found this article inspiring or helpful? Why not steal share it with a friend?