Sunday Mailbag- Multiple Projects?

Q: You have always several projects/commissions on the drawing table. How is your Time Management for them? Do you Work One hour on each Project every day? Or Monday on Project 1, Tuesday on project 2, etc.? Or do you finish Project 1 First, than Project 2, etc.?

A: Everything I do is deadline driven, so I work on jobs based on when they are due. Therefore if I get a call Monday job to do a job that is due Friday I will start that job, but if I get a call Tuesday with a job due Thursday I will but aside the Friday job and start the Thursday one, at least for a while. Most jobs also have stages, where I need to get a pencil sketch done to show a client for approvals, so that creates another deadline amid the final art deadline. So maybe that first job needs pencils by Wednesday. I’ll have to put aside the second job and get back to the first one sometime Tuesday in order to get those pencils done for the first job.

I always find getting started on a job to be the hardest part. Once I “get into it” things start moving moving, but that first few hours are tough to get through. So I often force myself to at least get some sketches started on a job right away no matter when it’s due, so I have something to “go back to” later. The blank page is always the hardest thing to tackle.

Thanks to Dominick Zeillinger for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!