Make Comics Not Excuses

Now I’ve heard the excuse plenty of times:  “I’d like to, but i just don’t have time to do it.”  And I’d like to discount this as a cut and dry excuse like I have in the past with other excuses, but its not that simple here.  Where inadequate software, and “I’m not good enough” could easily be overcome with some discipline and dedication, “Not enough time” has some merit to it.

The problem is, not matter what you do you’re still limited to 24 hours a day.  And no matter what, there are still several things in the day that take up your time and there is no way around it.  Some of those things are obvious like sleeping and eating.  Most of you (if not all of you) have full time jobs, or go to school full time.  Or maybe go to school part time, and work the other part time.  There are even things that take up your time that you don’t even think about, like chores, exercise, family obligations.  All of these cut into your limited 24 hours a day.  So I can see how it could be so easy to say “I don’t have enough time to work on comics.”

This could be true… but lets make sure you’re not using it as an excuse…

A few years ago, right when I graduated from college I worked in insurance.  I had gone to school for Illustration, and my dream was to be a comic book artist, but with student loans hanging over my head I still needed to make money, so I got a job working for an insurance company. I was in the office for 9 hours a day (that included my lunch break), and I had to commute an hour to work, and an hour home from work.  And if you counted the hour I took to get ready for work every day, thats a grand total of 12 hours just dedicated to this full time job.  Thats half my day!  Now if I slept 8 hours a night, combined with work I now had 20 hours a day occupied. Now count the little odds and ends like eating, cleaning up, etc.  I was left with only 2-3 hours every day i could work on my art.  Thats not alot of time, especially when it took me 8-12 hours to draw a comic book page.  But I did it.  I drew pages and submitted art.  And it took nearly 5 years, but it paid off and I started getting some gigs for small indy publishers.

Now if i could do it with only 2-3 hours a day of working on art, why can’t you?

If you claim to not have enough time ask yourself the following questions:

1. How much time do I spend watching tv?

2. How much time do I spend playing games?

3. How much time do I spend on the internet?

4. Do I sleep more than 8 hours a day?

5. How much time do I spend “hanging out” with friends?

If you want to be a comic artist, and you claim to “not have enough time” to pursue your dreams, you should have answered “none” or “no” to all these questions.  If you did, then yes, you don’t have any time.  I’m so sorry to hear that you’re life is so insanely busy you don’t even have time to pursue your dreams, and I sincerely hope things change for you very soon.

But for those of you who had any other answer; you’re making excuses, and you know know how I feel about excuses.  If you have time to watch tv, play games, surf the internet, sleep in, or hang out with your friends, then you have time to draw, and you should be doing that instead.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t ever hang out with friends, or watch tv, or enjoy the internet.  Of course, no TV and no beer makes Homer something something….

If you spend an hour watching tv, and an hour surfing the net, and an hour playing games EVERY DAY, and then claim to never have time for drawing, then you’re just making excuses.

You can’t make time, but you can use it efficiently.  To be a pro, you need to have dedication, motivation, and discipline. Which means maybe only sleeping 7 hours a day so you can have an extra hour to draw, or passing on a party one weekend so you can concentrate on a page. Find out where you’re wasting time and cut it out, fill it with your art!  You’re going to need that dedication once you have to start hitting deadlines!

So be efficient and make comics, not excuses!