I've lived in about six different places in the last five years and each time I've noticed a significant boost or drop in my art. Currently I'm in a stuffy, cluttered room with no sunshine and warm crappy lighting that's unorganized and I'm noticing that I can't work nearly like I could before I moved. My best work was actually done in a cottage on a balcony in Wisconsin, save on a bench in Riverfront Park in New Orleans.

So does your space affect you? If so, what do you do to help combat the ick that enters your zen?

In the end does anyone have tips for organization? Seriously. We're artists so being mostly right brained we're naturally disorganized messes. I have an L-shaped workstation, no shelves. I can't put up bookshelves because the ceilings come down so low. What do you do to keep yourself organized?

I do all my work with a tablet, and haven't tried anywhere else, so I don't really have any sort of frame of reference for this. But to be honest, I couldn't imagine doing art in a cramped room. An open desk would be the best place to draw, I think.

I've got to say that I built a dedicated art space when I started my comic, and it's really a wonderful thing. I don't have to pack up and move everything each time I'm done, and now that I have a desk easel, my back is much happier.

Art spaces are part of the problem an artist faces. The real one is in your head though...
I have to trick myself into the frame of mind. Environment is part of that, but music, radio and distractions help just as much. Drawing is fun, but just boring enough to make you want to quit unless your mind is engaged in just the right way :(
Reminds me of the beetle lyric: "I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in And stops my mind from wandering" :)

I keep all my creative work on the computer now. That means I need a mirror, plenty of desk space for work and reference books, two screens (can put distractions or reference on the other), a comfy chair, good lighting and a good sound system. And I use BBC7 [bbc.co.uk] to take care of the headspace.

Truth to tell, I don't use reference books much anymore now. I have good, readily available shelves for them, but Google image search is easier and I have a good memory for it generally.

-I have worked in crap studios though! Fluorescent lighting is a soul killer and silence is death. I'd rather work in 100% shadowy but natural light from the window than use ordinary long flouro lighting. Death can be other people too: some studio mates can be a trial, especially when they listen to the same 4 songs on endless repeat or smoke stinking tobacco!

It's perfect Sub

why two monitors?

well I have to say, sort of. I draw on my bed, and the other day I spilled ink on my bed and so it meant I couldn't sit on that spot, which meant I had to rearrange myself and draw awkwardly...
generally, as long as I can either be cross-legged or laying down I'm fine. (for some reason that's the only way my legs are comfy.)

I'm pretty used to just taking my sketch book out and drawing on the fly, so I don't really notice much influence the enrivonment has on my art....if you can call it art, it looks pretty awful anywhere its drawn

wow, yes to the 10th degree, I've been to atlanta, NYC, Philly, DC, Greensboro. Urban spaces has always influenced me to some degree. Dark streets, dirty ally ways, Ghetto hoods, underground scene bars and skateparks.

but I also lived out in the country in North Carolina (which is extreamly beautiful if you ever get a chance to go out there and look)

I mean, manga isn't my whole life, I really enjoy just drawing and painting from life.

if i have a cluttered space, i tend to get lazy b/c i cant spread my arms...like in school. but if i have an open table and some music, i'm good to go and my art gets better for that moment i'm drawin

yeah, my space is a cluttered hardly able to move around place. I don't get out much, I don't go places and maybe that is why I hardly update my comics and when I do it's hardly understandable. 0.o. DING.

Denfinately. My work at home, in an organized, quiet space, is way better than the work I do at school, where I have no room and books all over the place.

Kristen Gudsnuk
why two monitors?

well I have to say, sort of. I draw on my bed, and the other day I spilled ink on my bed and so it meant I couldn't sit on that spot, which meant I had to rearrange myself and draw awkwardly...
generally, as long as I can either be cross-legged or laying down I'm fine. (for some reason that's the only way my legs are comfy.)

so i can watch a video while i draw

I've noticed that I do some of my best drawings while at school. I think it's a mixture of the desk being just the right height for me to lean over and do my drawings and the fact that while I'm at school I want to do anything but pay attention to the lesson. So drawing comes naturally then.

I live in a cramped little hovel.
I love it!
But I don't think it affected my art in a negitive way at all.

I have a hard time drawing at home the way I can draw when I'm abroad. When I'm in Norway for a month I can just draw for anywhere from 4 to 8 hours a day, but at home, even though I'm in a more convenient environment I find it harder to draw. Probably because of the distraction of a computer. A whole month without a computer means much more time for drawing.

Now if only I had concentrated on bettering my art these past 2 years there instead of working on comic pages which basically stayed at the same level of quality...

I have to be in a wide open space with tons of noises and people around me in order to even draw a comic. >.>; Not sure why but the best place for me to draw at was in school. I hate home. :/ I can never get anything good out of it. XD

I've noticed though that I draw better in my bedroom, in the dead morning hours. My room is very messy... painfully messy. (Literally.) But some of the best artworks that's not comics have been drawn in there.

I find my apartment environment helps me immensely in creating my art.

First, there are the strange odours, which spark the imagination. Second, the floor is littered with free food to nourish the body. A veritable feast for the senses! Plus, I have discovered that my computing machine can be used in a way so as to procure pornography! All of these to invigorate the mind and body for my creative endeavours.

I don't know if my workspace affects me as much as the company I keep. I don't seem to mind drawing in a messy room, on a lawn somewhere or in a cafe as long as there's other people around. Friends work best, but it can be anybody. Or music if there's absolutely nobody around. Just something to distract me I guess. Anything.

I'm actually tempted to believe that a bit of chaos helps the creativity most of the time so nobody should be asking me for organizing-advice. Heh.

There's a lot of things influencing art, and what works well for one person is hell for another. I'll bet there's someone here who would die if they had to draw at the places I love to do so.

Space totally influences the art... every time for me.

hmmm yeah i draw better in a closed space with no one bothering me. i also draw well at work when we are not busy.