The Duck Webcomics

Casual Comicking

HippieVan at 12:00AM, May 27, 2016

6 likes!

For the last few years I’ve been focusing almost exclusively on university. I’ve been working on some stuff off and on (see my lonely little title page here), but I haven’t finished an entire issue of a comic since the year I graduated high school. Basically, you are all better at time management than I am and I'm very ashamed.

But (digital) ink runs through my veins, gosh darn it! I’ve never been able to completely set aside art and comics so I’ve contented myself with finding a space for art wherever I can fit it in, even if that’s just the margins of my notebooks.

One of my favourite things to do is to make dumb, off-the-cuff cartoons to amuse my friends. The comic above is part of my “Broody Guy in undeniably happy situations” series – see the other two here and here - that I drew while my friend and I were watching And Then There Were None. (Which I highly recommend, especially if you’re into handsome dark-haired brooding men.) The one below was done while my friend was torturing herself by reading the entirety of a truly awful One Direction fanfic.

I really can’t do anything with most of these comics. They’re usually drawn in whatever notebook happens to be nearest to me, and generally they’re either based on an overly specific joke with my friends or just dumb things that most people won’t find funny. But they make my friends laugh and they give me a chance to keep drawing, which is what’s important!

Does anyone else like to make dumb daily comics to amuse themselves? How else do you find time for art when your life is too busy for a regularly-updating comic?

—

Have a comic milestone, a community project or some comic-related news that you'd like to see here? Do you have original art for our newspost image database? Send it to me via PQ or at hippievannews(at)gmail.com, or leave a comment below!
For more info on News, please check out this DD Help Site article: https://sites.google.com/site/theduckhelp/getting-started/news-and-getting-your-news-in-it

PaulEberhardt at 2:52AM, May 28, 2016

@HippieVan: Exactly my point. Only, I feel I keep getting better at not feeling guilty. Still, graduating... It eats up time like nobody's business - I'm graduating, too, and it's the same with me. I just hope I'll be able to take some time off after I'm done. Prolonged exposure to these academic dabblings just can't be healthy, that's all I'm saying.

HippieVan at 8:58AM, May 27, 2016

@PaulEberhartd: I hear you on not *actually* being able to keep up with everything! The problem is allowing leisure to be a priority, I think. I'm graduating now so I'll be able to prioritize creativity again (until I start grad school I guess, haha), which will be awesome. But while I'm in school I tend to feel pretty guilty when I sit down to do something for an extended period of time that's not reading/researching/writing something for class.

HippieVan at 8:54AM, May 27, 2016

Interesting that some of you guys write rather than draw! I've never been much of a "for-fun" writer - I don't dislike writing, but I mostly do it so I have something to draw.

usedbooks at 8:36AM, May 27, 2016

I did a lot of that in high school. A decade later, I turned it into a webcomic (because my mom was disappointed that I was drawing but not drawing my weird little science jokes).

Banes at 6:59AM, May 27, 2016

Ah, time! I hear you, Hip; there's never enough. I do some doodles; lately its either designing new characters or just practising drawing heads. Like some of youse, I "write" in my head a lot, either coming up with big, moving endings or cool/funny/scary/sad moments. Eventually some of that stuff appears in future stories or comics. Or that's the way it's worked before at least...

KimLuster at 6:27AM, May 27, 2016

Ha, wait till you have children (should you plan on doing that...) - you'll learn Time (and Money) Management!! Concerning casual comicing... I have to say I've never done that. Never been a doodler, or little short snippets-creator. When I do something, it's usually a long project that takes weeks, months or years. Now, I may be doing several of those at once! But, like Scarf and Nihil, ohhhh the stories I constantly create in my head!! Some epic, some stupid and inane beyond comprehension!! I wish we had the technology to just transfer thoughts to media!!

PaulEberhardt at 5:10AM, May 27, 2016

With a few exceptions we're not better at time management than anyone else; most people are only better at appearing so. It's something university forces you to practice, since actually keeping up thoroughly with everything is often both impossible and a waste of time. It might sound a bit harsh, but they're the reason why I haven't been updating my comic for a year, so you won't catch me treating them with kid gloves at the moment. But I'm always doodling. It's how I started, as a matter of fact. And writing silly song lyrics slash poems. Hardly any of it turns out to be something I'd ever want to upload, but in a scholarly environment it's an important means of self-defence against your brain turning into a pulp. ;)

Bruno Harm at 5:03AM, May 27, 2016

I used to scribble in my free time. Now I don't really have any. What little free time I have is poured into Bruno Harm. I do end up with some extra goofy stuff once in a while that doesn't make it into the comic (although you might not think so by reading it).

Ironscarf at 3:18AM, May 27, 2016

Same as Abt_Nihil, but it's usually lengthy story ideas and if I don't have time, I'll resort to writing them on scraps of paper, with diagrams and tiny little sketches - anything to stop them from slipping away. If I'm lucky, some of them even get used later.

Abt_Nihil at 2:37AM, May 27, 2016

I write scripts for dumb, off-the-cuff cartoons in my head... and never draw them either T_T

Gunwallace at 2:28AM, May 27, 2016

Awesome post. And a question I have no answer to currently.