Super Secret Way to get off your Ass

[karmiclychee]

Man, I just go back from a 24-hour comic jam, my first one ever, and I must say this:

It has completely transformed how I think about how I work. Completely and utterly.

Rather than hemming and hawing over "I can't get it, boo hoo" like I (and many others out there, I know) tend to do, you're all like "AAAAH MUTHERFUCKER, FINISH FINISH FINISH IT'S FOUR AM AND MY ARM IS BROKEN"

*ahem*

So. TLDR; 24-hour comics undid my thinking in an awesome way. I suggest, if you haven't done one, to do it yourself.

[Psychotime]

One day.

One day.

[Dave_]

You could also try to just simply stand up?

[sanya]

I've always wanted to try one of those. Isn't there a specific 24 hour comic day?

[karmiclychee]

I think it's more of a season, than a day. I'm sure there's a national day, but I did one last night and I think there's another one somewhere in Massachusetts in two weeks and another one in Burlington, VT next week. That's what's going on in my area, anyways.

[Reutte]

That sounds really fun but really hard! I doubt I could come with 24 pages of material in 24 hours unless I was working with stick figures or something. XD

[QueenGwenevere]

Man, I've always been tempted to do that... Probably not officially, but unofficially on the side would be fun. Past couple of times it happened I was already immersed in some other crazy project, though. (Last time I think I was in the middle of an OCT.) (Which actually is another great way to get off your ass... nothin' like competition and deadlines to give you a shot of motivation!)

Soooomeday. Maybe.

[karmiclychee]

I keep forgetting about the CA contests... I far prefer the collective guilt of working around or with other people in person, but I should give those a shot.

Since graduating, I find that I actually miss deadlines.

[Jie Kageshinzo]

I don't think I can do that (yet). Especially since I tend to do tight pencils. >_<x

[vineris]

I did 24-hour Comic Day for Lazy People a few years ago. I made a 24-page comic on index cards.

There's also 12-hour Comic Day for people who like sleep, and Hourly Comic Day for people who like journal comics.

[Ilaekae]

There are people in Japan and Korea who do this as a matter of course, at least some of the time in their professional lives. It's almost a requirement for mangakas.

Try to convince yourself to do SOMETHING--anything--at least once a day if you can, that MUST be done in one hour, no matter what. It helps you learn to concentrate on what's important and to ignore the shit that causes you to drag out everything into weeks "...because...."

The Challenge areas are great for this kind of thing. Most have a one week deadline, and POW! has a 3-week deadline most of the time, and participating gets you jump-started in picking up speed, both in the planning process and the execution.

So...why the hell are you still here reading this?

[InvisibleQuail]

I want to do something similar next week. It will be great practice! :-)
(Next week starts my vecation, yay)

[Falchion]

I'd do this if there weren't a limiting factor called "I really want to pass my classes so I can graduate."

[Asatira]

I love the timed challenges (and really need to participate in more of them). They make you get off your butt and work on them without sweating the details. You are more interested in making something than making sure it's "nice." And this helps to reinforce that you CAN create something. I missed this year's 24-hour comic day because I didn't know it was happening until a couple days before and I had other things to do, but I did participate in Dragon*Con's Comic Quick Sketch Contest, where you have an hour to come up with either a sequential page or a finished illustration. And it wasn't all that bad.

[Sarc]

24h Comics are awesom. My former university made one last year and I attended along with a students a a few other former students like me. It was really challenging and fun. I think I was the only one that finished though.

[karmiclychee]

I'd do this if there weren't a limiting factor called "I really want to pass my classes so I can graduate."

Werd - I salivated every year when the challenge season rolled around, but I was just too busy until I finished school.

And lo, now that I've finished school, I can do ANYTHING I WANT

(which, apparently, appears to be "go back to school")

[velderia]

Sorry, but pretty much all of the "comics" I've seen from the blog look like child-drawing shit.

There are better ways of getting off of your ass, like getting off your ass.

[Mock]

I hear bashing obviously hard-working artists on the internet and demeaning their effort just because their work doesn't meet some personal standard is a good way to get off of your ass.

Oh, wait... that would be incredibly pointless. Nevermind.

On a more serious note: Challenges ARE a great way to get up and going. Not only here on CA, but also on the Art Order blog (artorder.blogspot.com). Not only do they have fun, creative challenges, but many of them are judged by a panel of professionals. There's a pretty serious community of hard-working challenge participants who give each other frequent critiques over there as well. They are usually a few weeks long, too, so even working folk and students should be able to squeeze an entry in. So if you're really looking for something to dive into, I definitely recommend that.

[karmiclychee]

Sorry, but pretty much all of the "comics" I've seen from the blog look like child-drawing shit.

There are better ways of getting off of your ass, like getting off your ass.

The point of the 24 hour comic challenge is not to create beautiful works of art - merely to create. To challenge your usual workflow, work ethic, your physical stamina, mental stamina, etc etc.

It's not supposed to look pretty at the end (if it does, bonus points). You basically aim for coherence (if it makes sense, more bonus points). The product of the process is the point.

[velderia]

I hear bashing obviously hard-working artists on the internet and demeaning their effort just because their work doesn't meet some personal standard is a good way to get off of your ass.

Oh, wait... that would be incredibly pointless. Nevermind.

Okay. I have a feeling this is probably the last post I'll make on ConceptArt.org.

I'm not saying that all timed challenges are bad. I've participated in my share. I won Nanowrimo 2009. That was sensible because you had 30 days to write 50,000 words (approx. at least 100 pages depending on print/font size). That's relatively 1-2 pages a day if you write at a standard pace. Sometimes you can do 12, maybe 50 if you're pumped up enough. That's more sensible because you can spend an hour or two thinking about what to write before you write those 1-2 pages a day. You can breathe.

The thing that bugged me about this 24 comics in 24 hours is there's no time to breathe. You're cranking out a page an hour, maybe more, like Reutte said, if you were drawing stick figures, or at best wobbly, heavily-stylized linework. There's not really much time to expand on it, which comics really need right now, and it just seems like a speed-contest, at least at first glance.

I'm not asking anyone to stop doing what they were doing, I was just saying my 2 cents.

[Jie Kageshinzo]

Okay. I have a feeling this is probably the last post I'll make on ConceptArt.org.

I'm not saying that all timed challenges are bad. I've participated in my share. I won Nanowrimo 2009. That was sensible because you had 30 days to write 50,000 words (approx. at least 100 pages depending on print/font size). That's relatively 1-2 pages a day if you write at a standard pace. Sometimes you can do 12, maybe 50 if you're pumped up enough. That's more sensible because you can spend an hour or two thinking about what to write before you write those 1-2 pages a day. You can breathe.

The thing that bugged me about this 24 comics in 24 hours is there's no time to breathe. You're cranking out a page an hour, maybe more, like Reutte said, if you were drawing stick figures, or at best wobbly, heavily-stylized linework. There's not really much time to expand on it, which comics really need right now, and it just seems like a speed-contest, at least at first glance.

I'm not asking anyone to stop doing what they were doing, I was just saying my 2 cents.

You do know that there is more to drawing comics than just drawing the figures, right? More importantly, you have to be able to do a sequential story that conveys what's happening across even without word balloons. Sure, anyone can draw stick /highly-stylized figures, but to make a coherent, interesting 24-page comic in 24 hours is no simple task, quality of the artwork be damned.

[karmiclychee]

Indeed, comics are a full package.

[Nezumi Works]

You do know that there is more to drawing comics than just drawing the figures, right? More importantly, you have to be able to do a sequential story that conveys what's happening across even without word balloons. Sure, anyone can draw stick /highly-stylized figures, but to make a coherent, interesting 24-page comic in 24 hours is no simple task, quality of the artwork be damned.

I'm reminded of Larry Marder's Beanworld, which was notable for incredibly simple but incredibly appealing characters, and deceptively simple writing. It's hard to do well, but if you can pull it off there's incredible potential for good stories with the simplest of visuals. Other notables are Matt Feazel's Cynicalman or Patrick Shaughnessy's Triangle and Robert, both of which grew way past what you'd expect from the art alone. And yet, none of them would be worth reading without the art, simple as it is.

[QueenGwenevere]

The whole point of timed challenges is to try to push yourself, It's not about ending up with the most brilliant and super-polished piece you've ever done. Challenges are also a great way to learn to plan and pace yourself so you can deal with pressure and short deadlines. It's quite possible to produce a decent short comic in 24 hours if you plan it right and don't bite off more than you can chew. And if you don't end up with something good, or can't even finish - well, hopefully you've learned where your shortcomings are, at least. Which is the first step to fixing them.

In the challenges I've done, (both CA challenges and OCTs on DA,) I've learned a LOT about planning and pacing myself, and forced myself to learn new techniques in an effort to finish faster, and learned more efficient ways of doing things - so even when the results were dodgy, I'd say it was worth it. Heck, before I started doing challenges, I'd been working on a 100-page backlog for a long-running webcomic which kept stalling and getting delayed as I puttered around with it at my own pace... After doing a few grueling challenges, I was able to finish the last 50 pages of my backlog in a few months where it would previously have taken me a few years just to "get around to it."

And if you think the CA challenges are unreasonable, let me tell you, in the real world a week to do one picture is an ENORMOUS amount of time! In my paying gigs I'm usually given 2 - 4 weeks to produce whole Flash games, soup-to-nuts, including all the art, animation, design, code, etc. One week for one picture would be a piece of cake compared to that.

[vineris]

The thing that bugged me about this 24 comics in 24 hours is there's no time to breathe. You're cranking out a page an hour, maybe more, like Reutte said, if you were drawing stick figures, or at best wobbly, heavily-stylized linework. There's not really much time to expand on it, which comics really need right now, and it just seems like a speed-contest, at least at first glance.

There's no rules about page size. Like I said, I did a 24-page finished comic on index cards. It took me maybe 8-9 hours. I wrote up the script, sewed up the pages, sketched it out, had dinner, played videogames, went to sleep, woke up, inked it, scanned it and posted it online.

Any challenge is what you make of it.

One of these years I'm planning to do 24-hour comic day in sidewalk chalk. I bet that'll be fun too.

[Jazz]

Heh, I did a 24-hour comic one year. That...was amazing! O_O I think it was called Raynn and Lost Boy. Best buddy noted that my characters looked similar to some anime characters we were role-playing at the time, but I didn't care! >_< (This was after the fact...I actually cared after awhile)

Anyway, I happened to be sitting down, but what the challenge did was test my...is it stamina? Whatever it was to keep me awake and alert enough to do the comic. I didn't even take 24 hours because I needed to sleep in-between, but I did 100 online panels in less than 24 hours. I think I put that I failed though, because the time seemed a little longer. Even so, I did that, and then I went crazy the next morning when someone abruptly woke me up.

THAT was hard, and I spent some of the 24 hours making a short outline. No, the pics weren't grand beautiful pics, but I thought of 100 and that made me proud! XD The story probably didn't make sense, but someone looked at it from then on. XD

I think it's still online somewhere, I might have left it there.

PS: Velderia, I hope you stick around. Even with people disagreeing with you, it doesn't mean anyone wants you to leave.

PPS: I didn't really get up. I sat there and listened to seven songs repeatedly throughout. That shows committment! And seven songs that I didn't want to hear again for a long time. >_<

[kait]

On a more serious note: Challenges ARE a great way to get up and going. Not only here on CA, but also on the Art Order blog (artorder.blogspot.com). Not only do they have fun, creative challenges, but many of them are judged by a panel of professionals. There's a pretty serious community of hard-working challenge participants who give each other frequent critiques over there as well. They are usually a few weeks long, too, so even working folk and students should be able to squeeze an entry in. So if you're really looking for something to dive into, I definitely recommend that.

..i tried some head to head challenges. but the opponents won, simply because they were more popular. so instead of motivation, i was damn angry and frustrated. so, ye...look for hones judges not just some fanboys.

[manlybrian]

My friend and I have done a few 24-hour Lego stop motion contests. Ironically, some of our best work was because of them. It makes us less focused on a story that has 'all the loose ends tied up' and stuff and more on a story that's just plain fun.

These are the ones we finished in the 24 hours.
1st one ever (not as good obviously):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoSmfuAoq-8
2nd one ever (improving!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2LKY3Q8MJM
4th one ever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWNOf8qTYWI

This one we didn't finish in time for the 24 hours but we did finish it afterward.
3rd one ever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WapMtzKStww

[Mirana]

Okay. I have a feeling this is probably the last post I'll make on ConceptArt.org.

I'm confused. You said something I think you have to admit was pretty harsh, got called on it, and now you want to take your toys and leave? Other than that, your follow-up response was much clearer on your opinion.

I tend to think of 24/12 hr comics much like figure drawing. It's not about producing the most beautiful, portfolio-worthy art. It's about practice, pushing yourself, and training your brain. If you share some of those "child-drawing shit" comics, it's about inspiring people about what you can produce when you're given limited time. If some awesome art/storytelling comes out of it, much the better.

That being said, the last 12 hr comics I participated in, one of my buds did THE most jaw-dropping art with a fucking ink pen and gel pen (no sketches). It was print-worthy, even in story, and he did it all off the top of his head. It helped that he often sketched straight to ink, and random comics all the time though.

..i tried some head to head challenges. but the opponents won, simply because they were more popular. so instead of motivation, i was damn angry and frustrated. so, ye...look for hones judges not just some fanboys.

Are you talking about the Concept Art challenges or ArtOrder? All the AO challenges I've seen were judged by the AD of Wizards of the Coast, and/or other pros, and as a group. If it's CA pop-vote ones that make you frustrated, try the AO ones. However, pop-vote tends to go hand-in-hand with ability...so try to take it as a challenge to do better, not a limit.

[QueenGwenevere]

Are you talking about the Concept Art challenges or ArtOrder? All the AO challenges I've seen were judged by the AD of Wizards of the Coast, and/or other pros, and as a group. If it's CA pop-vote ones that make you frustrated, try the AO ones. However, pop-vote tends to go hand-in-hand with ability...so try to take it as a challenge to do better, not a limit.

Eh, pop-vote is unpredictable... Ability is often a factor, but in cases where there's a bunch of people of comparable ability, so is who-pimped-the-poll-on-FaceBook-and-DA-versus-who-didn't... So if you really care about winning a pop-vote contest, you just gotta get out there and market yourself.

HOWEVER - unless there's a huge cash prize involved, the one and only point of challenges should be to challenge YOURSELF. It's not about who wins. If you're focusing more on "winning" than on doing the coolest piece you can do, trying new things, and pushing yourself, then you're doing it wrong. (Especially with things like the CA challenges... good lord. Sometimes people really need to take the polls a bit less seriously. It's about getting practice, people, not about racking up votes!)

And if someone is going to give up after losing once or twice... well... they ain't never gonna win.