ArtSpots Forum Topic - How Productive are You?

Lizardbeth

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:58:36 -0000

Since I started my webcomic (www.brokenplotdevice.com, *pimp pimp*) I've been forced into a much more productive schedule than I ever have been, and I love it. I do at least 2 comics a week, though my goal is 3-4 a week. I want to have a bit of a buffer, and I eventually want to post on a M-W-F schedule instead of just M-Th. On top of that, it really depends on what my commission pile is like. I try to complete an additional 2-3 pieces per week, though it can change depending on what types of commissions I have. For instance, I can bang out 2 or 3 badges in a single day, versus a full-color real media commission with a lot of complexity could take me a week for just that. It also helps that my part-time steady job is very minimally invasive, as far as my art time. I maybe have to go in 2-3 nights a week, on a BUSY week. I can't remember the last time I worked more than 25 hours in a week at that job...

Pariah Kittie

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:22:17 -0000

The time I take to complete anything can fluctuate a lot. For warm up or figure drawings anywhere from 20 seconds to a minute. If I like it I might spend an extra 20 minutes shading and defining lines. For a complete sketch anywhere from 10 min to a couple hours. I can complete several inked drawings in a day if I'm really focused and have the time. To color it depends on detail and what I'm trying to achieve. I could do a simple color in an hour, but a complex color could take 20-60 hours. I usually take a bit longer with traditional mediums to plan colors. Digital stuff isn't as long since changing color is a snap. Wow I'm kinda late at this eh? -_-;

Fru

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:48:19 -0000

I am forever sketching things, but I never actually get around to 'finishing' most of them (as in, adding backgrounds and colour and whatnot). You'd think my sketchbook thread would be fuller but I'm also too lazy to sit down and actually scan stuff!! ;) I have somewhere between 7 and 10 sketchbooks that I've filled up over a period of about 5-ish years ... that's not bad right? ^^ I find I am a lot more productive when I am taking art classes, because then I have more motivation to actually sketch and draw different things and bring them up to completion.

vantid

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 21:26:52 -0000

I'm slow at everything, with the exception of the rare once a year piece that seems to make itself.

Thornwolf

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 20:05:55 -0000

Depends on what it is really. An LJ icon can take me as little as 30 minutes. A sketch, less than 5. Anything bigger than that can be anywhere between one hour and several days. But I don't work straight through all the time. On smaller things, yes, but on larger things, no. ACEO cards take me about an hour, hour and a half to complete. I finish about one a day on a good week but with a full time job now its hard. Sketches, oh I can do about 10 commissioned sketches in a day.

Egypt Urnash

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 16:33:39 -0000

It varies. Sometimes I'll sit there and fill up half a sketchbook with roughs in an evening. Sometimes I'll take two pieces from sketch to finished Illustrator file in a single day. Sometimes I'll start working a piece from sketch to AI, fool with it for a bit, then leave it. Usually I never finish it if that happens. Sometimes I'll pick it up again and finish it - maybe in a few days, maybe later in the year. There are also times where I'm distracted, busy, or depressed, and barely draw a damn thing for weeks on end. My sketchbooks are full of drawings I'd like to develop further but never will. There are several boards fitting around with unfinished paintings. My hard drive has a lot of abandoned Illustrator files. By the measure of how many finished images I generate in a year, I've become a lot more productive over the past few years. I'm more confident with my tools and methods, I'm happy and get cuddled regularly. Even without counting the unreleased comic book I spent a lot of time doing last year, I put more art out onto the net this year than ever before. But there are still fallow periods. There will always be fallow periods. As I get better, I get more productive. I don't have to worry about every line feeling wrong any more; I've done and abandoned so many "really good" drawings that I don't waste time fretting about screwing up the one I'm working on at the moment. I've probably already fought with 90% of the problems that might come up in any piece of art I do, and can remember how I solved them, instead of struggling to solve them for the first time. The process of making art takes less time and effort, so my productivity rises, even as I constantly raise my standards for what I find acceptable from myself.

Vizon

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 17:02:41 -0000

I'm not as productive as I used to be in my personal work, as I paint all day at work. But I guess that's still technically being productive. For some reason though, I feel it doesn't count, because I'm not honing my skills...no life sketching, experimenting with lighting, lots of colors, blending...though I guess I am learning more about what prints well and what sells well and ways of creating new textures. And deer anatomy. Lots of deer and marlin anatomy. I now know the difference between a blue marlin, a white marlin, a black marlin, a swordfish, a sailfish, and a striped marlin. And between muleys and white tails. I used to tell them apart by their tails, but their antlers I found are completely different too. Takes me about two or three days to finish a detailed scenic print like this, and my boss always has me make changes before it's finished too ("finished" meaning ready to send to the factory).

WolfReign05

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:36:17 -0000

I don't know you guys must be feeling a lot better then me, cause I draw more when I feel good, I can draw when feeling down too though, but not too far down.blockquote> I draw more off of inspiration of the emotion I was feeling at the time. If I was upset then I draw something with that emphasis on it and it kinda helps clearing your head too. :D But I agree, it is easier to draw when your happy.

Katrkoriza

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 05:04:03 -0000
... I'd say it goes up and down for me, I haven't sketched something new in 5 months... yet I have painted in little bits on one digital painting. I thought there was some rule I broke about working on something right away or I will loose my initial inspiration or something. I don't know you guys must be feeling a lot better then me, cause I draw more when I feel good, I can draw when feeling down too though, but not too far down. I'd say if I am well enough I can sit around all day sketching and hardly get anything done still... that and I have to be having fun. I sit around thinking more then I get anything down on paper on the other hand too.. Bad kitty I am >: Sul, try putting tracing paper over your tablet, and if it does have gouges, you may wanna get a new cover, tablet pens can pick up the print on newspaper, I'm not sure what a gouge would do lol.

Sulacoyote

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 18:04:14 -0000
I've been drawing so much the past month that I've already gouged some of the plastic for my tablet's cover sheet. And I just got it three months ago. And I have my tablet settings set to high pressure sensitivity.

Amara Fox

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:55:41 -0000
I rarely sketch for myself, but over the past 3 weeks I've done 100 sketch cards, some fully coloured, mostly pencil. When i draw for myself I rarely finish anything.

Whisper Panthress

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:08:36 -0000
Scraffic, I'm bookmarking the figure drawing link. Thank you for sharing that, it will be a huge help as I need to improve my figure drawing. As for art, uhm... productivity depends on what you mean. if you mean productive as in i spend most of my free time drawing, yes I do that now :) If you mean productive as in i get a piece down super ninja fast, no. I don't think my brain is wired that way but I make an effort to.

WolfReign05

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 03:56:03 -0000
Really like the cat thats smiling. :D

Sidney Eileen

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 00:18:18 -0000
Scribbles, those are absolutely adorable... Cute enough to melt any heart. ;)

WolfReign05

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:03:50 -0000

Scribbles said: You will never meet someone who sketches messier and less coherent than I.
I think I have you beat on that. Here's one of mine. xD

Scribbles

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:45:01 -0000
I am at a point where I am working on a piece that is to eventually be completed every day. Typically it takes more than that one day to finish it, but yeah. Also bare in mind that a lot of that stuff is for school, which tends to be more of a time-waster than anything most of the time, getting in the way of much more interesting/profitable artistic ventures. I do a lot of doodles. I do sketch figures quickly a lot, but I'm much more prone to just coming up with some goofy idea and spitting it out. I do lots of thumbnails for fleshing. You will never meet someone who sketches messier and less coherent than I. :P Attached is an example of idea-doodling stuff, for the curious.

Sidney Eileen

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:21:21 -0000
One of the funny things about my art is that my fully detailed lineart tends to take about the same amount of time as my realism work. I think a lot of that is due to lack of practice, since the lineart pieces are far less frequent and thus far I have not been able to finish one without re-inking at least once. Even once I achieve a good speed, though, I still think they will probably take me about as much time as a simple realism piece.

Tigress

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:04:00 -0000
Wow, so many responses, thanks you guys! It's very interesting to hear about what it's like for all of you and it's also extremely refreshing and encouraging to here that I'm not alone in how my inspiration comes and goes. There are times where I get into an artist's block of sorts and for the life of me NOTHING comes out, or if something does manage to find it's way onto paper, it doesn't come out right.
KoOkY! said: Before I start drawing on either something I'm going to finish or practice some anatomy stuff, I do a few quick 15-second sketches of random figures or my dog or something as a warm up.
KoOky, that's an absolutely wonderful idea. I used to do that all the time at the campus by drawing people who were wandering by. I don't know why I've drifted away from it, but I keep getting hints that I should be getting back to it. Thanks!
Seth Desmoen said: I'm extremely unproductive. I work in spurts that come every few weeks, and I'll do a few sketches I like, then start two or three digital paintings and finish just one or two. It probably averages out to 2 pieces a week when I'm at my most productive. I really need to get better about that though
I'm exactly that way. I'll have at any given time 10 to an infinite number of "Works-in-Progress--hey, it really seems that way to me. I'm always starting something new and it's such a bear for me to get myself to "complete" a project. I almost get depressed when I get towards the end, not to mention anxious because completion means it's show time, the most nerve wracking part of the process for me, PLUS each time I finish a piece I look at it and worry over whether or not I can do better next time...
Sidney Eileen said:At present, I have three detailed pieces I am working on, and have been taking stabs at two others. The piece I'm the furthest with has about 10 hours of work in it so far, and I think I have nearly that many to go. The other two have about four hours each, and I expect them each to take 20-30 hours total. I've been working on a knotwork commission, but knotwork is one of those strange things that comes when it wants to, and this piece has been slow to come. So far, I think I've put somewhere between 20 and 30 hours into it, but it's hard to say since the progress has been so halting.
Ok, now this is VERY interesting for me to see. I have always felt that the time it takes for me to do the majority of the work I do if far, far too much. I've found myself spending over 10 hours on just a line drawing alone. So I feel a little less alone on that aspect of it. I still think I' far far too slow. And...
Scraffic said: http://www.posemaniacs.com/pose/thirtysecond.html
That is freaking awesome! Thank you! Thank you everyone for the responses, lots of awesome food for thought and a bit of a pick-me-up in perspective as well. =)

Sidney Eileen

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 06:06:45 -0000

Scraffic said: http://www.posemaniacs.com/pose/thirtysecond.html
Awesome!!!! :D Glee!!!

KoOkY!

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 03:00:24 -0000

Scraffic said: http://www.posemaniacs.com/pose/thirtysecond.html
Wow!! Thanks for the link! That's going to save me a LOT of time and trouble.