In a quite frankly alarming turn of events, I forgot to write a commentary for this page, with only 30 minutes left until it posts! So, I frantically dug back through my Twitter drafts folder and grabbed a not-especially-relevant tweetstorm about drawing to slap in here. So, er, enjoy...?

Recently, I was reminded of an old convention anecdote, in which my late friend Toren Smith gave his advice for aspiring comics artists: 

"Just draw. Draw all the time. Draw so much that when your friends introduce you, the first thing they say is, 'This is the guy who draws.'"

The artist friend who reminded me of Toren's quote said that, to this day, he still motivates himself by thinking, "Be the guy who draws."

Obviously, the phrase "be the guy who draws" lacks much-needed inclusivity. "Be the person who draws" seems a tad wimpy, though.

Or perhaps the more gender-neutral, "Be the geek who draws?" "The dumbass who draws?" "The introverted, social-phobic shut-in who draws?"

I prefer "Be the one who draws," for its echo of Breaking Bad's "the one who knocks." Cut to Walter White seething at the drawing table! (The resemblance to yrs truly seething at the drawing table is uncanny.)

True, Breaking Bad's Walter White does possess the male comic artist's defining trait, as Faith Erin Hicks once noted: Facial hair.

Also, Walter White is often irascible, irrational, and prone to ill-considered business decisions, which makes him a natural comics artist.

BTW, yrs truly is NOT "the guy who draws." While I do indeed spend endless hours drawing, I only draw when working; I rarely draw when not.

Not that I recommend my own approach by any means, which involved no practice, no sketching, no warm-ups; nothing but finished comic pages.

Spending all one's drawing time on paying jobs only is a nice way to get work done—but not necessarily a recipe for improving as an artist.

On the other hand, just being "the one who draws" isn't necessarily enough. You must draw mindfully and with a purpose, my young padawans.

Merely drawing all the time can be a dead end if you're repeating yourself and drawing the same crap outta your head over and over again.

I've met artists who do indeed draw all the time, but never seem to improve. The more they draw, the more their skill level stays the same.

Instead of "ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY," try, "UNTHINKING REPETITION MAKES JACK A DULL ARTIST AND A SERIOUS ONE-TRICK PONY."

As a jaded, seen-it-all art student, I once opined re: an older, repetitive artist, "That dillweed's so deep in a rut he can't even see the sky."

Well, one rarely drives into an artistic rut. You dig it yourself by spinning your wheels until you finally notice you're going nowhere.

If you're drawing in your spare time, make it count. Try to import new info to your skill set, instead of regurgitating the same old crap.  

For your "warmup sketches," life-draw from photoref or image searches. Draw something new every day: people, animals, objects, environments.

One of my Kubert School teachers was (entirely too) fond of saying, "Every drawing you do is another penny in the piggy bank."

But who wants a piggy bank full of pennies? Make sure that every drawing you do amounts to a nickel, a dime, a quarter in that pig's belly.

Now, there ARE some virtues to repetition. You can refine your approach, see what techniques work and which don't.  

You WANT to be able to perceive that your work is flawed. If you believe for very long that your art is utterly flawless, you're screwed.

Nice to be temporarily enthused—even wildly so—over a well-done piece of artwork, but eventually, it'll be TIME TO GET OVER YOURSELF.

I've met unskilled artists who seem inexplicably, even frighteningly certain that they're God's gift to bristol board (or Manga Studio).

I've perused wildly confident artists' portfolios and thought, "Man, I'd love to see whatever the hell YOU see when you look at this crap."

If you can't see any flaws in your artwork, then A), you are stuck in an artistic rut; or B), you are deeply deluded; or C), you are Jo Chen.

And lo, thus does this old Twitter rant lurch to an abrupt conclusion! Well, this was better than no commentary at all, don't you think? (Anyhoo, we return to our regularly scheduled, vaguely page-relevant commentaries next time, folks.)

-Adam Warren