Creating Comics: Don’t Start Cold – Limber Up!

By downthetubes Guests on April 7, 2015

Deadlines can become quite overbearing, if you let them. It is entirely possible to be left, feeling like Hercules, duped by Atlas to hold the heavens aloft… but storyboard artist and illustrator Darren Taylor has some tips…

The closer one gets to a deadline, the more magnified everything around it becomes. An unexpected video conference, near the beginning or a project may prove a little inconvenient but easily juggled. The same call the day before you are handing in work, well, that becomes much more stressful.

With that in mind, I personally try to combat this negative state of mind with ‘warm-ups’ before work. The nature of the ‘warm-ups’ subject is neither here nor there. So long as you have fun doing them and you loosen your ‘line’ up.

I tend to try and kill several birds at once and use them to ‘study’ or investigate something of interest to me.

Doing these might drop an hour from your morning, but I personally find that my work benefits from extra ‘bounce’ and ‘life’ if I am less stressed. Doing ‘warm-ups’ is a great way to reduce the stress and try out new things.

The image above is one such ‘warm-up’. Done before work, for fun and to loosen my line up, however, I took it as an opportunity to study motion on a cape. The one below, also a motion study.

If you find yourself feeling a little lacklustre, take an hour-sized-bite out of your day and do something quick and fun, with no pressure. Then carry that fun with you into your work.

Darren Taylor is a storyboard artist and illustrator whose client list include Nelvana, CBeebies, Hasbro and Creative Assembly. Check out his work at www.darrentaylor.co.uk

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