I’m very happy to read you’ve found the blog helpful! ^_^ I’m with you about the winter thing, yes, it’s so much harder when it’s pitch black outside. I find turning all the lights on and jumping up and down a bit to get my heart rate up generally gets me to the point where it doesn’t matter, but those first moments are a bit depressing.

About wondering what to draw: perhaps you can set yourself a standard exercise you can do when there’s nothing else you feel like doing? I’ve got a stack of pictures of naked people somewhere (no, not porn) and when I don’t have anything else I’m working on I just grab some of those and copy them as a figure drawing exercise. It’s not very exciting but at least I still feel like I’m doing something useful.

I just wanted to say, thanks for this, I only recently discovered your blog when searching google for self-publishing tips, but so far everything you’ve written about has been HUGELY helpful!

Getting up early… Yeah, when I used to get up at 6am, I felt fresher and tended to get more out of my drawing, and then the winter came. I feel worse when I have to drag myself out of bed in the dark…

But if I planned to do something for an hour every evening, what happens when I’m caught out one evening, and end up spending an hour wondering what to draw? This seems to happen alot. >,<

I think prioritising works well, altho its difficult to know what to prioritise when there are a lot of things that mean a lot to you to get done (i.e. should I sacrifice my gym time to do more artwork?). Personally, I used to do my Daily Draw most days right after lunch before starting on my afternoon’s work. However, I just cannot get it done in 30 mins (drawn and posted), therefore it tended to take about an hour out of my afternoon, which I can’t afford to lose for 3D work.

My daily priorities go like this I think:
- 3D work 9am-6pm (or as close as I can get)
- Exercise (often I’ll start 3D at 9.30 after walking to work with Lee, or finish at just before 5 to go to the gym with my sister)
- Daily Draw (which I am now pushing out to evenings or weekends only)
- Commitments to family / friends (well, these probably come higher, but they tend not to clash with the 9-6 work day too often, but they do take out a large number of my weekends)
- Personal side projects: comics, Comic Mole Investigates
- Housework
- Rest / games / reading

Heh – the housework usually gets done in big monster sessions every few weeks rather than every day ^^; (except clothes washing, which I do as mini-breaks from 3D during the day). Plus, if I’m too tired to do any of the things above it, rest then goes to the top of the list (I do take rest breaks most days ^_^ )

Sometimes I calculate it tho and I’ve only done like 5.5 hours of 3D in an entire day ~sigh~ there just isn’t enough time ;_;