In other words... how do YOU do comics? I don't mean, like, technical stuff, like "oh, I just use a tablet and then color in Flash". I mean, what kind of environment do you like to work in? Is there any specific way you like to "set the mood" for working on your comics?

What I like to do is settle in at the desk in my room (where I have a portable mini Zen garden and a statue of a samurai), and fire up my heavy metal/Japanese-themed playlist on the computer. Then I hunch over a page, look at my scripts, and get to work with the rough drafting and filling in everything, scan, and add final touches on the computer.

So what about you guys?

I need to be relaxed, and I need to be alone, or at very least, if other people are in the room, I can't draw if they're directly watching me draw/looking over my shoulder. Mostly I draw sitting on the floor, or sometimes I put my drawing board on my lap while I'm chatting online. I draw with my paper clipped to a plastic drawing board, about 50x35cm, so I can draw wherever I like. Outside if the weather permits (this summer has been particularly bad weather even for England though) on my bed, in the living room... Mostly I draw on my bedroom floor though. I've heard that lying down increases bloodflow to the brain, so maybe I'm doing it right, drawing lying on my front!
My room is decorated in a Final Fantasy inspired style, particularly FFVIII, a sort of mixture of classic and modern, and it's full of awesome geek stuff, like a Force FX lightsaber, a tonberry plushie, cosplays of conventions past... It's a nice place to chill.
Mostly my playlists are Indie rock, britpop and Jpop/rock, but I also find that video game music or game music remixes from 'overclocked remix' and 'VGmix' work well because they don't have any lyrics. Lyrics can be quite distracting, especially nowadays 'cause I understand more than enough Japanese now to get distracted by the lyrics of my Jpop and Jrock, unlike the old days when it was just pleasant-sounding gobbledegook with very occasional words I'd heard in anime and recognised.

I do it everywhere and anytime. That's my thing - I don't take myself too seriously.

I prefer instrumental music (not too loud), though sometimes death metal and hiphop works too :P

Usually tough I draw in front of my computer; there's the scanner, older drawings as clean finished files, references if needed, colouring tutorials, random things found from Google (it's quite relaxing to google stuff)...

I'm not as creative with audience, but I do draw a hell-of-a-lot better under pressure. Normally I'm a lazy ass Ton-Ton -_-;

I gotta have sitcoms on TV that I've seen a million times and sit sideways on a couch or my bed with the pillows piled up as a backrest. I use a lap desk. Um, I also need a good light source. The more light, the better it turns out.

I usually print out or quickly sketch references from my computer to take with me to where I'm drawing.

( I used to draw in the graduate student offices at college. I was required to keep long, mind-numbing office hours that not a single one of my students ever made use of. )

Penciling I can do anywhere: school, outside, in the basement while my brothers play videogames, ect. Anywhere except my room. That is because I have to spend the rest of my drawing time in my room. With inking I use a lightbox to avoid pencil lines or ruining the paper with and eraser, so I have to be at a desk in my room. And all my colouring and text and such is done by computer, so I have to be at my computer. No matter what, there has to be sound. I cannot stand scilence. Thus, the first thing I do, even before locking my door to keep out my brothers, is plug my ipod into my dancing penguin. Mostly I play soundtracks, right now RENT and Wicked. And lately I have been into Linkin Park, Sum 41, and Lostprophets. And I always have reference on hand, mainly Antarctic Press how to draw books.

I'm always working on my stuff. I write notes down and sketch new stuff out waaaaay before it ever comes out or even if. I got a million ideas that Iw'm not using for one reason or another right now.

Really the best mood to make comics is when I'm pissed off at somebody. I tend to be funnier when theres anger involved.

I can draw in just about any environment, because with drawing I tend to block out some things. Since I've started on my comic, I'm usually on the phone with the gf(long distance relationship). and doing that at the same time. I can multi-task when it comes to that. I'm either in the basement on the couch or in my room, bristol pad in hand. My laptop where I keep all my scripts and story is next to me as I start blocking out the next page. I pretty much do the penciling and inking that day...and take time on the coloring since I'm still learning.

I sit down at my desk and draw. I can't draw "anywhere," because I need all of my tools on hand, and they're too troublesome to carry around all over the place. Also, I need access to my PC because my script is online, and I can google for refs on anything I want at any time.

I don't have a laptop. I hate portables of any type because I'm one of those ppl who drop everything.

Problem with sitting in front of my PC is I'm sooooo easily distracted by the internet.

Edit: Like right now.

I like to open up ITunes, load up Photoshop, and start sketching. This is the main step, as it's just brainstorming, nothing more. I usually listen to soundtracks, as they're much more ambient, but if I'm in a certain mood, or want to portray a certain mood on the page, I'll load up music that fits the situation.

I'll do anywhere from five minutes, to two hours, of rough sketching and doodling in Photoshop. If I find something that I really like, I'll stick with it. I'm stubborn, so I'll make it work on the page. :P

I always work in the same place, as it eases my nerves. Every once and a while, I won't be able to get into the zone, so I'll play some PC games, read a novel, something to get my mind off of art.

I usually work at night 'cause it's when I have time. I sit at my desk with tablet pen in hand and also open up iTunes to have music on at all times.

I open my last pages first for reference, this help me with the flow of the panels and also to get a consistent look. The I lay down a reference for the panels and start drawing panel by panel. I work in Flash using many layers (usually around 30 for the average page) because I like to move things around individually.

I don't work exclusively on my comic, but I'm browsing forums and reading other comics while I do, this helps me get inspired :)

i either recline back in front of my chair in front of the tv in my underwear, or have thrash metal playing which realy gets the wheels pumping...and alchohol...sometimes.
but thrash metal is my biggest insperation.
GO GET MEGADETH, KILLING IS MY BUSSINESS RIGHT NOW YOU SCHMUCKS!

Oo, I have this nasty habit of only wanting to do a page once... I put a lot into workin' on 'em, so I hate having to do it again. Sometimes I end up just fudging it and taking out panels at the last minute or something, though, so that just goes to show how much good that does.

...I think I just wasted everyone's time.

I read the news, and read blogs. These days, doing a political cartoon means there's *lots* of topics. Stuff just hits me, and sometimes its so weird, I just have to put it up. It all makes me happy, I guess, which is all I really ask for.

Also, I think a lot of the really good comics on DD inspires me to try new stuff -- effects, model positioning, lighting effects.

I lay on my bed to sketch my characters out. I consider it a break... I usually like to put some music on, too. Rock 'n Roll. Rocks your soul.

I have to be in the zone. I'm a lot like Darth Mongoose - I have to be alone otherwise my nerves cause me to shake and my mind to fray and it makes it harder to get what I want to paper.

I have a room just for my work since I run a business as well and I've tried to make it as user friendly as possible for comicking. Depending on what scene I'm working on, or if I'm scripting versus drawing I pull up different playlists and turn on different lights.

It's a complicated process that probably takes more time than the drawing itself does. *smirk*

I've been a big fan of podcasts for a few years now. They're great background noise for doing work. I listen to Wrestlecrap Radio , the BenHeck.com Podcast , and Sidescrollers . Oh.... and the Gigcast, too. Heh-heh...

When they're not on, I try to find a nice long-winded documentary on TV that I can leave playing in the background. Or sometimes, a DVD commentary does the trick too. Also, I have these old vinyl records of Animal Stories, this radio show that used to air in Chicago when I was kid. Great stuff, but they're totally worn out. I'll have to get the CD versions one of these days.

Stand-up comedy is good, too.

I used to listen to music while drawing, but I've found that just hearing someone else talk is much more effective in making me want to draw. The problem with music is that it inspires me to do other things. For example, heavy metal just makes me want to get up and move about, but if I'm listening to something softer, I just want to go lay down and take a nap.

Of course, the most satisfying atmosphere to have is to actually have other people with whom I can converse while doing my comic. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a struggle to assemble my buddies just so I can draw, not to mention keeping them from leaving when they get bored.

It's too bad I don't know any other webcomic artists in my area. I'd totally take my computer over to someone else's house and just set them up side-by-side so as to not only keep my mind off the tedium but to also feed off of each other's ideas.

In fact, that's really the one thing I miss about being in an art class. Pooling ideas.

I have a drawing table set up at home, and while I can sketch and doodle pretty much anywhere, I have to be at my table to produce anything finished. I need all my inking tools, I need a large tilted surface, I need my layout sketches, my character reference sheets, the computer to google for reference, my rulers and French curves and, well, you get the idea. I usually either have music playing (something mellow and not too distracting) or the TV on, but sometimes I work in silence too. Depends how much concentration what I'm doing requires.

Writing happens whenever the ideas hit me, which is a problem sometimes as I'll just grab the nearest piece of paper and scrawl some notes on it, then forget where I put it. And I find I often have ideas for characters in the last ten minutes before I fall asleep in bed, which is very strange to me. And what's even stranger is that I'm 99% sure that I've always remembered each and every one of these ideas in the morning so far.

Basically, coming up with ideas happens when it happens and often in strange ways, and the grunt work needs to take place in a very organized environment.

I draw at the dining table in my apartment or the table in the meeting room at this collective studio space I volunteer at. I also have this neat drawing board with a slot for its own T-square that I use sometimes. I like having music to draw to, I'm not particular as to what kind. Classic Rock, Indie, Punk, Classical, even a book on tape. I think anything other than absolute silence works.

I guess because I do political cartooning my creative methods are different from most peoples'. I listen to the news and jot down ideas on a note pad and do the same when reading articles, editorials, reports, whatever. Then I sit down and fire up a word processor.

I decide which of my two main characters are most likely to be saying such a thing or expressing a certain perspective and I rough out a script for them accordingly. My work area is actually my home office and so it is rather junky with paper and mugs and books and magazines scattered all over the place. But I seem to be just as creative and productive in tidy surroundings. Weird, eh?

The same goes for noise levels. I really prefer peace and quiet, but within limits I can get work done in a noisy environment. The only thing that just shuts down the scripting process altogether is having someone talking to me or having a news segment arrive on the radio or television. Everything else, I just tune out.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. As for the art work itself, well, my stuff is very basic and so, too, are my requirements. As long as I can actually find a clean sheet of white paper on which to draw the character then it's golden. After sketching I just go over the lines with opaque black markers of different thickness and then scan it, dialog it, double check the spelling, and then upload it. Ta-da!