We spend a good chunk of time in one spot, drawing and writing our webcomics, so it makes a lot of sense to think about where that physically happens. Having a good space to make your webcomic is one of many things that can set you up for a healthy comic making habit, and if you haven’t thought about it before, we hope we can get you to start!

In this Episode:




• What’s your space look like, and how has it evolved with your needs?
• What are your must-haves in a desk/office arrangement, for tool organization, ergonomics, or maybe Inspiration?
• What is your advice to someone who maybe feels like their physical drawing space (if they have one) is holding them back?

----

Episode Release Date: May 13, 2026

Episode Credits:

Christina Major (@delphina2k) - she/her, sombulus.com

Kristen Lee (Krispy) - she/they, https://ghostjunksickness.com https://www.lunarblight.com

Bob Appavu - any, https://intothesmokecomic.com https://www.demonoftheunderground.com

----

The Intro "DO IT (feat. Shia LaBeouf)", and the Outro "It's Good To See You Again!!", both by Adrianwave, have been used and modified in good faith under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Licensed. Edits include: Fade IN/OUT, and a repeat added to the beginning of "It's Good To See You Again!!". For more information on this creative commons use, please reference https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.

Transcription

This transcript is auto generated by our recording software.

00:00.06

Krispy

Ikea shit! Okay.

00:02.65

Delphina

I pushed record right when you said Ikea shit.

00:03.02

Krispy

Oh Okay, I'll be saying it in this episode regardless.

00:12.82

Krispy

Hello, and welcome to Screen Tones, we talk anything and everything webcomics. Today, we're going to be talking about desk and office setups for making your webcomics.

00:26.29

Krispy

I'm Krispy, I use she-they pronouns, and I make the webcomics Ghost Junk Sickness and Lunar Blight.

00:32.78

Bob

I'm Bob, I use any pronouns, and I make the webcomics Into the Smoke and Demon of the Underground.

00:38.79

Delphina

And I'm Delphina. I use she, her pronouns, and I make the webcomic Sombulous.

00:44.30

Krispy

Okie dokie, artichokie. So we spend a good chunk of time in one spot drawing and writing our webcomics. So it makes a lot of sense to think about where that physically happens. Having a good space to make your webcomic is one of the many things that you could do to set up a healthy comic making habit. And if you haven't thought about it before, today is the day.

01:04.91

Krispy

It's now or never. So we're just going to kind of dive right into this. This topic is extremely important. I'm so passionate about this topic. Because as a person who used to just kind of draw in weird positions, weird places, just on my side, wherever I kind of could, it really messed up my relationship with professionally working, making a schedule and stuff like that. And it's weird to think about that stuff, but it does actually add up into like a headspace. It's really good to kind of help separate creating art for you in your free time as opposed to creating art professionally and even just keeping a schedule. And I find a physical space has extremely helped with that and the organization itself.

02:14.97

Krispy

So let's kind of dive in. I'm going to be throwing these questions at Bob and Delphi, and we're just going to be chatting about it. So first question is, what does your space look like and how has it evolved for your needs? So talk to me, Bob, all about that.

02:32.63

Bob

Well, it's funny because I first started, you know, when I was a kid drawing, it was a lot like what you were talking about. I would just, my standard drawing position was just sitting cross-legged on the sofa with my sketchbook in my lap, just drawing. And of course that evolved when I, you know, went to art school and graduated. And then, you know, for a while after art school, I lived at home and my office was in my bedroom and it was just like a little desk off to the side I had very little freedom in you know my ability to really craft the space into something that worked for me and at this time I was already you know for the first few years I was working out of the house or outside of the house but then I went back to doing freelance on a professional basis and I still had this very kind of

03:24.35

Bob

unprofessional workspace and it was very difficult. The hardest part being just that you don't realize how much stress a space carries until you stay out of that space for a few days and when your work space is your stress space is your bed space then you're really stewing in it you know and I just you know I didn't have the setup to, you know, have like my scanner was on the floor if I needed to cut things my cutting mat went on the floor it was just a mess. And so I'm very lucky now that I do have a dedicated office in my house and it is a small room and i have my setup like my desk is kind of two desks stuck together in an L shape.

04:14.78

Bob

And half of the office is mine and the other half is Pokebirds and Pokebird is my parrot. And so, you know, I'm always in her site and she is in my sight while I work and she keeps me company. But, you know, I have, my...

04:30.49

Bob

my iMac, which is the center of my workspace, my Cintiq, and then my peripherals on my right, and you know my tea on my left, and my bookshelves, and everything I need within reach.

04:43.29

Bob

And it's just a much better space. And I also even have a window with light that comes in, and it's very nice.

04:52.27

Krispy

The natural lighting thing is something I want…Lighting in general is something I'm going to definitely go on a tangent about when it comes to spaces and stuff like that.

05:03.42

Krispy

Also, shaking your hand at the amount of similarities, it sounds like our spaces have.

05:08.09

Bob

Yeah.

05:11.02

Bob

Definitely.

05:12.55

Krispy

And it's like, I like the sound of the upgrade that we've had to make this a better experience. And it's… a lot of it helps like mentally and even physically, like we're going to be talking about like a lot of ergonomic kind of things a little bit later. But this helps kind of put you in the zone, but taking you apart from other places that you do want for rest. Because again, that was something that I used to do, like laying on my side and drawing and the worst posture ever hurting my back, you know, to kind of get things done. And it was just, it was chaos. And I do want to say, as an aside, like, obviously, this is not going to be the case for everyone. There are people who do have disabilities that do have to stay in certain positions, certain like recline stuff that, you know, this is not specifically for and you know you have to put yourself in a place that is comfortable for you and makes sense so that that is going to be staying kind of in mind as we talk about stuff like this but as far as office spaces go and kind of getting yourself a desk area i think there's there's a lot of benefits that we could have so Delphie talk about talk about your little zone

06:34.87

Delphina

So I started making comics before the digital age and it was just basically me and my sketchbook, wherever, mostly at school. So I would be at my desk and I would just be drawing during classes or over lunch periods or whatever. So I think that was kind of an advantage to physical media that I could kind of do it anywhere. But once I switched to digital media, I did have to really start thinking about where to optimize my space. And I got a drawing tablet. I like the ones that are not like screens.

07:18.55

Delphina

So it's just it's blank and you're looking up at your monitor while you're moving your hand lower. I think that's easier for me. So that's always the kind of space that I've optimized for, which means I've always wanted a desk that has a lot of space in front of the monitor. I like to have a keyboard tray ah for my keyboard and my monitor. So that's not fighting for the same space. um

07:51.19

Delphina

My first desk came out of dumpster diving when I was a poor college student. It had a little hutch and it was kind of bad. Eventually I upgraded. I got an L desk.

08:09.11

Delphina

And I, for a very short period of time, had a dedicated office, one of the bedrooms we were able to turn into an office for me. And that was magical. I could just I loved having a door. i And to Bob's point, too, I liked having a place that wasn't where I was sleeping. And just being able to to turn that off at the end of the day when I'm like, OK, I'm out of the office. I am physically out of the office because I'm not working anymore.

08:40.32

Delphina

So that was great. I've also experimented a lot because I would travel a lot for conventions. And so I got kind of a laptop setup that I like with a little crate thing that I put under the laptop to elevate the the monitor part and just kind of try to recreate that experience of monitor up and drawing surface down keyboard below in whatever space I had sometimes that was a kitchen table sometimes that was something else and i really didn't have a lot of… you know i tried to be flexible about it but there were some times where that dedicated space was not available to me because of my living situation so i made due with what i could. But now it's pretty good I have my L desk. It's not an L right now. I had to kind of separate it because of the specific space that we have in our apartment. So, so it's there. I've got two monitors. I've got my…my drawing tablet space and yeah, it's, it's in a pretty good spot right now. I also have a big wall that I switch up every once in a while when I get prints from different conventions that have, you know, just kind of inspiration for me or or nice things. I've got a little bucket where I keep printouts of my previous Sombulus pages that I've done in a big portfolio folder. So anytime I want to reference something that I've done in the plot, or I've forgotten what I've done , like those books are right next to me, right by my left hand. And then all of my art supply tools have their little shelf. So. yeah

10:37.60

Krispy

I love how cozy that sounds. I love how cozy both of your spaces sound. Like everything is there and ready and it's just, it's go time. I think that's the biggest thing is having that go time when you're doing kind of like space setups. And again, I'll get into this a little after about having enough and not everything too, because that could be overwhelming depending on what kind of artist you are, because I know that we have the disease of getting all of the art supplies and just kind of hoarding it. So we'll talk about that in a little bit.

11:14.09

Krispy

Talking about my own space. I am also in the L desk community. I have two desks to do that. I have the one desk that has my computer. It's on a little riser. I think risers are just so important. I don't think I can have my computer without a riser.

11:33.22

Krispy

i have that. And then on my other desk, which is a drafting table, it does have my bigger tablet. And ah it has all of my inking supplies that I need for my comic. And then, of course, I have pegboards. that have like all of my paints or other supplies, all of my white inks, my black inks. And then I've actually invested in a console table behind my desk. So like maybe actually I have elevated past the L desk community. I'm in a little C.

12:07.45

Krispy

I'm in a little nook. So I'm cozy. I have a little moment behind myself that now has my markers because one of my goals in the past couple of years is that I wanted to get back into doing more traditional pieces. So having this accessible to me has been such a boon. And so that is in my little area and of course then i have my nice little footstool because i need to cross my legs i will die if i can't cross my legs so footstool is a must for me and then my headphone stands it's like again the bookshelf kind of moment and and things just look cozy comfortable and accessible and i think you know that's just that's important to me and again with the nice natural lighting ambience yeah it's It's a cozy little spot. And it's taken time to get to this point too, because I think like as you are creating your stuff, you're going to kind of see what you need and what adjustments you need to make. And again, it's the having everything available being like, i okay, I don't need...

13:14.59

Krispy

my sculpting supplies right next to me i'm not sculpting every day that's like a once in a while kind of thing and the same with like storage for our comic pages because they're done traditionally that's not near me specifically. that's in a different part of my space uh for just storage and whatnot but yeah i think i'm i'm I love my little space. I'm quite proud of it. And it makes me cozy. It gets me locked into work mode. And I think that's our key takeaway from this episode is locking in with a good space for that.

13:56.74

Krispy

From that, now we're going to be talking about some must-haves. Now we're going to get into the deep... deep lore of a good desk organization. So Bob, I'm going to take your hand on this one. I want to talk to you about your must haves in a desk office arrangement for tool organization, ergonomics, inspiration. Just give it to me. Give me the lore.

14:20.47

Bob

Okay, I'll give you all the lore. I'm gonna start with exactly where I'm sitting, which is my chair. I actually have two chairs… Okay, first thing, this is very embarrassing. When we were talking about this episode before recording, I told the other cast members that I am four foot nine. I was i had i was so starved that day, I hadn't eaten. I forgot that I'm actually four foot ten .

14:48.63

Bob

So I was wrong about my own height, but I'm still very short.

14:49.12

Krispy

my god

14:54.62

Bob

I was four foot nine for a good long time in my early years. So that's why. But at one point I was four foot nine.

15:01.75

Krispy

At one point, you were four foot nine.

15:05.78

Delphina

Then you got platforms.

15:07.16

Bob

Yeah. So basically, the thing about being four foot ten is that just like nothing in furniture is actually made for you. So you have to do a lot of work around. So I have a footstool for when I sit in my regular office chair so that my feet aren't dangling like a little child. So because that's hard on your knees is having dangling legs kills your knees.

15:28.31

Bob

And then when I'm working on my Intuos or when I'm just working straight on my screen, I'm in my office chair. And then if I'm working at my Cintiq, I switch over to a stool because it's the right height for me to actually get high enough above my Cintiq to be able to see it and work on it and not have to hunch over too much And yeah, so what there was a moment when I realized, oh wait, I actually can have more than one chair for more than one type of work. So that's one thing, chair. Second thing, I mentioned my Cintiq, having a screen, the appropriate size for the type of work you do is important. I personally work on very large screens, except when I'm sketching. I sketch on an iPad because it's easier for me to map things out on a small size, but I find it really important to ink

16:19.86

Bob

as large as possible so that I can use my entire arm. It helped me avoid repetitive stress injuries. Then moving to my right, I mentioned, you know, we're all in the, well, I know Krispy's elevated to the C desk, but I have a vertical climber behind me to get a little bit of workout in every once in a while. So I do not have the nice C desk, although that would be very nice. I kind of wish I had that. But on the L, other side of my L desk, it started out as just my writing desk because I also do prose and stuff. But now it's also my 3D desk and it's also my cutting mat desk. It's basically my whatever isn't the main task desk. So I can just kind of switch over to that side. I have to keep it relatively clean so that that way it's actually open for me when I need to use it.

17:15.09

Bob

So that's a must have is an alternate space for alternate types of work. And then right behind that is my reference wall. I have images. Right now I have Demon of the Underground stuff up on my wall. I probably should switch it out for the projects I'm working on more heavily at the moment. But it's basically...

17:34.36

Bob

Just I've got a map of the world. I've got chara cter designs. I've got lots and lots of portraits. I've got some illustrations, some sketches ah so that it's all stuff that I can look at, just glance at at any time to remind myself, oh, right, that's what's going on in the North sphere. So.

17:54.04

Bob

So that's that wall. My next must have is my down to my side. I've got a little shelf for my sketching, traditional sketching goods. So my pencils and stuff. And right below that is some ah crates with graphic novels for quick reference, ah you know, graphic novels that I like. And then my must haves on my left.

18:22.01

Bob

I got one. This is a really big one. This is my full length mirror. And it's it's kind of torture. It sits right next to me at all times. It keeps me accountable for, you know, cleaning myself up a little, but that's not the main purpose. The main purpose is just so I can do a quick pose in the mirror. If I need a quick reference, I also have a gooseneck mount ah phone holder so that I can grab a quick photo if I need to. And that is, for me, a really big must have. I even had it in my previous workspace, just being able to grab those quick references without having to jump on a computer or pose a 3D model or anything like that. Very handy.

19:01.33

Bob

And then... I have a printer. It's too evil to call it a must have, but I guess it is. And then my bookshelf must have. And then other than that, let me see. I mean, I'm not going to go into all my peripherals, but but, you know, other side of my desk, my must have is the little the little hangout space for Pokebird. And, you know, back when I had my last gang of ferrets, you know, my bookshelf, the Ikea shelf, has has the little... um

19:32.95

Bob

cat bed insert. So the ferrets used to come in and hang out there and have a little space. If you've got pets, having a little space in your office where they can hang out with you is just very nice.

19:43.73

Bob

And for me, that's a must have.

19:44.34

Krispy

That's so cute. I love that. Oh my god.

19:47.35

Bob

Yeah.

19:50.65

Krispy

I think that's that that is important to kind of like… really tailor it to what makes you happy and gets you in the zone for that. But also like have a sharing space with your little furries, like your little furry loved ones. I think that's such a cute idea. And, you know, it…again, it helps with the organization. It helps kind of keep everything in its own place. The other thing that I definitely am high-fiving you with is Keeping that secondary workspace always clean because it's always susceptible to the doom piles. And that's something I hear a lot at work when trying to organize it is ah getting away from doom piles where people are like, oh, there's a flat surface.

20:36.20

Krispy

I'm going to put something on that. It's a constant battle I'm having specifically with one room or one table in the laundry room where I keep cleaning it. But because it's clean, it's like, oh, well, I'm just going to put a thing on there and it becomes the doom pile.

20:52.60

Delphina

Okay, so we made a rule when we moved into this apartment about Doom Piles. There's a little counter, like a breakfast bar area when you first walk in.

21:03.77

Delphina

And like that is the ideal place to like throw whatever you're doing like as you're closing the door.

21:06.78

Krispy

Mm-hmm.

21:10.29

Delphina

like If you've got the mail, if you've got any kind of... your keys or whatever. we singled that out as like, yeah, that's going to be the place that's going to collect a lot of stuff unless we do something.

21:20.93

Delphina

So we got a little piece of tape and we declared it Temporarylandia. And it's it's a zone where you can put things temporarily if you're like refilling your water glass or you're just setting things down for a while but like you can't leave anything in that zone like that's kind of the rule and I don't know if that would necessarily work for for a lot of things but like as a shared space especially if you're you're sharing and cohabitating with other people And maybe you're using a kitchen table or or something where like, okay, you can put some stuff on here, but not everything. You can't monopolize this space. that was our solution. And it's actually working pretty well.

22:08.98

Krispy

I love that.

22:10.36

Bob

Yeah, that's genius.

22:20.25

Krispy

D oom piles be real. And I think that as soon as there's like a flat surface, it's so easy to just throw things there. And like, even like the floor, doom piles become the floor. I know that like, you know, it's a common thing for people to be like, oh, my laundry's done. I'll just throw on the floor kind of thing. And, you know, I'm not going to be your mom. I'm not going to be like, pick it up and, you know, fold it. But. But I will say,

22:47.80

Krispy

That helps with my mental health. Putting that stuff away.

22:52.86

Bob

Yeah, and you know, one of the things i was like the, you know, whatever nonbinary ruler.. king, queen, whatever you call it, of of ah doom piles at my old home,

23:03.93

Delphina

Monarch.

23:00.50

Krispy

Monarch!

Bob

The monarch! I'm the monarch of doom piles, which is a very honorable title.

23:11.45

Bob

And ah what I found, because why it was such a big problem at my old space was because I didn't have enough storage space to put things away.

23:23.36

Bob

And when I first moved into my own space, the first thing I invested in was closet organizers and boxes and crates and stuff because having the ability to put things away is a big step toward keeping the doom piles low.

23:40.22

Bob

I mean, you still have to like sort and organize sometimes and that's where I get caught up now. But the fact that they even have a home they can go to now is a big upgrade from what I had before.

23:50.52

Krispy

Well that's that's the thing. It's..It's finding what works. And I don't think that it's going to be an immediate solution for all of this stuff. Like, you're not going to listen to this episode and be like, okay, but presto, it's all done. It took a few years to get to, you know, my kingdom that I work in right now. And, and also to kind of train yourself because this is also a habit to keeping the space ah the way that you want it to. And so building those habits to keep it the way that you want is, is also part of it. Before we get into those weeds, I did want to hear Delphie's must haves, the deep Delphie desk lore, you know, drop it like it's hot. Let's, let's hear about it.

24:32.95

Delphina

God, don't know. I feel like I'm a little more flexible. I don't really have a lot of posture issues. I don't really have carpal tunnel issues. I've never had that kind of pain . So ergonomically, I'm probably not too bad. But one of the things I did hear at a work training course that always stuck with me is that the top of your monitor should be aligned with your eyes. So whatever you have to do to raise up your monitor or lower your monitors so that it is level with your eyes and your feet are on the floor and they're not dangling, like Bob said, like that's like the proper ergonomics. So that's what I always try to do. Right now I have a monitor arm sort of attachment thingy. It's a big vice that attaches to my desk. And you can lower that or raise it up depending on the space. And that's a really handy thing that makes it just a lot easier to manage that level of where the monitor is hovering at any given time. I also keep my phone pretty close to me so I can take those reference pictures. I think that's pretty important when I remember to do it. And I've got one of those little hand model posable things that's also very easy to just grab from not too far away and pose when I'm having trouble with hand poses.

26:06.10

Delphina

Like I was mentioning before, one of my must haves is my book of thumbnails for all of my pages because I know we're talking about physical space right now, but my digital space isn't always the way I want it to be i've rebuilt my computer a couple times or i've gotten things where ‘oh my hard drive is full i'll get a second hard drive’ but then i never really organize stuff between them so it's just a lot of like duplicative things and sometimes it's hard to just find things especially 14 years into this comic when i'm trying to like oh

26:43.38

Delphina

What what did I draw a thousand pages ago? I don't, oh gosh, what was that? So having something, if you're working digitally, having something physical that's just very easy to flip through and just reference back and forth makes the writing process easier for me. And I always try to keep that printout book updated. So that's important to me.

27:09.27

Delphina

Everything else I feel like is kind of flexible to the space. But like I said, I do have my drawing tablet, so I need a desk space for that. I need to keep that clear at all times. It's not okay to pile stuff on the drawing tablet space because like... As soon as I get a couple papers or something on there, like it just becomes infinitely harder.

27:33.63

Delphina

And like, I don't know what it is psychologically because it's only a couple of papers. We can move those. We can put those away. But as soon as you start doing that, then it's just another little

27:45.28

Delphina

bump in like trying to get back into your productive zone. And so I think the must have situation that comes out of that is make sure everything is frictionless, make sure that you have a reset state.

28:00.89

Delphina

So you know, okay, this is what the desk looks like when it's clean, when everything is in its place, when everything is optimized. And that's going to take some experimentation too, because I also collect so many art tools, so many art supplies and stuff that I use on an infrequent basis and trying to figure out where, you know, how often am I going to use this thing when you first buy it? You don't know. You're going to have to figure that out. But revisiting your space you know every couple months or something like that and saying, you know what?

28:38.35

Delphina

I used that a lot this month. What if I put that a little bit closer and I didn't use this thing at all? What if I move that a little further away? And giving yourself the space to do that, giving yourself like organization buckets or boxes or something where you can put the things that are kind of on the back burner.

28:57.91

Delphina

is also very important to me. I just kept some cardboard boxes from the last time I moved and I stuck sticky notes on them to say this is what's in here just so I know.

29:10.68

Delphina

But a lot of stuff still just lives in those boxes because I know If I'm pulling that out, it's going to be for a dedicated period of time. And I don't need an on-everyday basis so it can have a lower shelf, a lower priority versus the things that I use all the time are within arm's reach, are within eye level, just kind of keeping those things all organized like that.

29:39.56

Krispy

I think that's absolute key when it's trying to prevent the doom piles and making your desk space accessible. Because, I think, ah you know, at the end of the day, that's what we're kind of going for is how accessible... this stuff is and how it helps put you in that productive kind of mindset too and helps with your mental health. Cause I feel that a lot. I feel like me personally, I have a lot of anxiety when it comes to clutter, disorganized things like I cannot focus when things are on my floor specifically. And it just, it adds to the brain noise that is hard to work through. So when I can organize these things and find out what is the most optimal way to use my space, that has helped with production. It's really helped me just, like I said, get into the zone and feel kind of excited to get into work done all the time. It's not going to be like, okay, yeah, it's going to be working all the time just because, you know, your desk rocks. But You know, it is helpful for that.

30:48.76

Krispy

As far as my own must-haves in a desk space, now we've talked about, you know, the stool, talking about the monitor being at eye level. I think that is that is such a good point because I see people have setups in which they have to, like, look up to their their computer Or look down in just awkward positions and you don't realize how much that's contributing to like hurting your posture or, you know, cranking kind of like areas, your neck, your shoulders or anything like that and really hurting yourself in the long run. So, you know, trying to do things that really help with your stature and whatnot and to make it more comfortable drawing, like Bob said, drawing inking really large to move your whole arm as opposed to just your wrist. You know, it's just little things like that actually do really, really add up. And again, it just takes a while to kind of understand yourself and how you work.

31:44.60

Krispy

For me personally, this is something that I've always held very close to myself as far as making a good space is lighting is lighting is so important.

31:55.70

Krispy

And I will just come in being a hater. I hate fluorescent light overhead lights. I hate them. They are the absolute worst.

32:03.26

Delphina

Yes. Oh my God.

32:04.64

Krispy

I am not going to be drawing in a school, middle school setting. I just, it makes me angry. I could just feel the migraines happening already.

32:15.64

Krispy

It's just negative... negative points it's it's the worst so for me i do a lot of small pieces of lighting that help me uh have more natural light it is important natural light is very important to me but also how like i have an led light which has like more of a natural kind of look that helps get good for focus on the eyeballs because you know as someone who has

32:46.55

Krispy

Vision problems, I have to account for like a small, these little extra pieces. So having this light, I have a nice little LED light. I have a nice little incandescent warm light. And that stuff helps me get cozy. But also just actually focus on my stuff. I don't know what it is. I feel like there's probably some science behind it.

33:10.30

Krispy

I cannot focus with an overhead fluorescent light I think it's just so invasive it doesn't help with lighting i don't like it with my traditional work was bad

33:20.66

Delphina

It's so bad. like And the problem here in California is that we have a lot of ceiling fixtures with the ceiling fans because some places here were not built with air conditioning.

33:33.10

Delphina

So you want to have that airflow because it gets pretty hot in the summer. And if you have one of those overhead lights and the fan going and it's modulating the light because it's reflecting off of the fan, that's the worst.

33:48.25

Krispy

oh

33:49.82

Delphina

And so, as soon as I enter a room, my mom will get after me about this. If I'm at home and I'm, I'm drawing on the kitchen table or whatever, like she's like, did don't you want some light?

34:01.78

Delphina

And she'll like flip that switch.

34:03.03

Krispy

Yes.

34:03.82

Delphina

Nope, nope, nope.

34:05.22

Krispy

Nope.

34:05.20

Delphina

We're doing torchier. We're doing anything else. Not that.

34:07.67

Krispy

Yep. Yeah. and it it ah It takes me right out of focus. I cannot understand … it does not help with focus when I think of like the the lighting…

34:39.11

Krispy

It's something I learned in high school, actually, about proper lighting. So when I went into art class in one of my high school adventures, I absolutely appreciated every single desk had their own clip lamp to draw with. And it was the best. There was no overhead lighting. Everybody had their own desk lamp. And that moment, it was so small, but it was so huge for me ever since I had that. I was like, I will never draw in stupid lighting ever again. I'm going to be a cozy little bean. And this is going to help with my headaches, my focus and all of that. So I think ambient light, ah however you make it really, really helps. So again,

35:24.11

Krispy

you know, trial and error, seeing what works, seeing what spaces work. And you know what? Those people are out there. Those people who like fluorescent overhead lighting, you're out there. I'm seeing you.

35:35.21

Krispy

I won't say much, but I'm seeing you. You're out there. The other things that I will say are must haves ah that you can get. for stuff is I have this cool toolbox. That's a little cute Mastercraft toolbox that they came up with different colors because of course, we'll get into it later, but I love pink.

35:57.46

Krispy

So as soon as I saw that I had a pink one, I was like, we are purchasing that. And a lot of the inks that I have actually have to be stored horizontally. It cannot be stored vertically because everything gets clogged. So it is,

36:10.88

Krispy

It's my Optimus Prime of art. I love it so, so much. It keeps everything nice and organized. I have a lot of little pen places to keep everything organized to where it's like, these are specifically my pencils. These are specifically my inks at this size that will help with these details. My rulers, my whatever, my nibs, blah blah, blah, blah, blah. So everything has their own little compartment because once you kind of get into the groove, you're like, wachoo cachoo and you're going through everything kind of is just muscle memory at this point being like, oh, it's over here. Oh, it's over here. And it's, it's awesome. It's kind of like, you know, when you're working digitally and you know the key, the shortcuts, when you organize your space specifically, it feels like that.

36:52.69

Krispy

It's awesome to have toolboxes. You can use makeup boxes too, like little makeup drawers. I have to actually use another makeup moment for my other pens and paint pens because again, they have to be stored horizontally. So that is another must have for that. Aside from my ambient lighting and my little places for my inks, the other thing that I want to talk about is desk easels.

37:24.09

Krispy

I specifically use a desk easel for my tablet and it's a nice, you know, was a nice priced one, a nice little wood desk easel that helps me kind of adjust my tablet to whatever size. I know that there's like drawing arms. I cannot use that for the space that I have. I have a glass table. It it will not, it can't be affixed to that. But this one is really awesome. I can slide it wherever I want, because the desk is big enough to allow for that. And I like the adjustment levels for it. It could go like right straight flat, which is kind of neat. Just like, I mean, it's an easel, so it could do that. And it can hold a lot of weight, which is also, you know, very important when you're drawing on stuff like that.

38:07.01

Krispy

So it doesn't actually have to be just the accessories that come with your tablet or like are supposed to be with your tablet. You can get creative. You can find other things that work for that. Because I think one of the things about figuring out your space is also, you know, budgeting and finding things that work for what you want.

38:27.92

Krispy

And yeah, that was just kind of like going around, getting that desk easel and those little compartments. Before I continue to just go on about everything that is organization, Bonito.

38:40.26

Krispy

but I'm going to go on to the kind of last question that we're going to just talk about advice in general when doing that, just because it's a great segue to go in there. So, Bob, come come hither.

38:54.17

Krispy

um i would love to hear your advice to folks who feel like their drawing space, their physical drawing space is holding them back. like what what What would you tell this young chap?

39:07.48

Bob

Well, the first thing I would say is approach your workspace with the mindset that you can change anything. Now that may or may not actually be true. There are obviously some things you can't change. Like when I was working, when I was living in a place where I had to work out of my bedroom, that was the reality of it. But I had it so ingrained in my head that I wasn't allowed to change anything.

39:35.64

Bob

that there were actually so many things I could have changed to improve the space to make it better that I didn't give myself permission to do. So if I had had the mindset of, well, I can change things, what can I change? Like I can't not work in my bedroom, but maybe I could put up a curtain or a partition wall or something to just divide up the space so that it feels less like I'm working two feet away from my bed.

40:03.51

Bob

And again, you don't have to be ah locked into whatever is commercially available for these particular tasks. You can get creative with it. Tthrifting is an option. Just, you know, using things for off-label purposes is always an option. And I would say...

40:24.47

Bob

get into those creative communities, either online or in person, and talk to other creators about what they did with their spaces. Like, say, like, you know, i I want to hang stuff up on my wall, but I'm not allowed to put holes in my wall. Like, you know, or like, and I don't want to use those little sticky tabs. Do you have any suggestions? You know, people probably will have suggestions. This is something that you can ask around and get outside feedback for.

40:52.50

Bob

And, you know, budget is always going to be a a concern, but that's where, you know, kind of thinking outside the box and getting creative comes in. I mean, it it is what we do for a living is being creative. So your workspace is an extension of that. And I would say just as a final thing,

41:16.28

Bob

um have something in your workspace that makes you genuinely happy, whatever that may be. Like if that is your pets, even if they are wreaking havoc, you know, I have a little gate that prevents them from getting behind my desk, but but, you know, whatever the little happy thing is, like I i have a dedicated space next next to my Cintiq for my tea so that I can comfortably drink tea. And it's just, you know, whatever it is,

41:48.41

Bob

that makes it a comfortable and happy space, have something in that for yourself. And that's what I would say.

41:58.78

Krispy

That is so important. I love the idea of like little tea moments too. And just also you can unwind at your desk. You can just relax and feel comfortable. And like, that's, I think that's the key.

42:14.36

Krispy

to doing this stuff is feeling you know like you can kind of tackle your tasks but also enjoy it at the same time and I think you know going back to sharing the spaces with your little furry friends or making little spots to have tea I have a little you know cup warmer for my tea because you know when you forget about your tea it's a thing it happens it affects us all.

42:38.84

Bob

Oh yeah.

Krispy

But, you know, I think it is important to kind of embrace that and seeing what works because like there's a lot of things that do, ah you know, kind of come together and make the space.

42:50.90

Krispy

you know, comfortable for you. Are you hearing him?

42:59.16

Delphina

Yes, we are.

42:59.92

Krispy

Oh my God.

43:00.02

Bob

Yes, but I admit I am loving it.

43:02.48

Krispy

Okay. And also I will say, I'm sorry, editor. I will say as soon as you said, your pets making havoc, yeah as soon as you said that he tipped the papasan right over.

43:13.73

Krispy

and I was like, okay.

43:14.56

Bob

I love it.

43:17.51

Krispy

ah but Yes.

43:19.86

Krispy

Having a space that is just really, really comfortable for you is definitely the goal. ah Delphi talk about your tips, tips and tricks that you would help with people.

43:30.52

Delphina

Okay, so I've definitely lived that life where I'm sharing a space I don't really have a lot of room to work with. And to Bob's point, approaching things with the idea that you can change them is important. And sometimes that also means talking with the people that you live with and saying, hey, I'd like to do XYZ. I'd like to try XYZ. And you never know because if you have a roommate or something, they're like, actually, yeah, I've been having problems too. I'd like to switch things up. And I did that in college a lot with my roommate. We shared a bedroom and it was a little weird, but we would like...

44:15.48

Delphina

put our beds on different walls or, or rearrange things just to see what would happen, just to see if we liked it. I always, I always advocate that. And especially if you're living with someone else, talk to them first, if it's going to affect them. But if it's your own space, do whatever you want. And one thing that actually really helps me if I'm stuck in a rut and I can't really pinpoint why is just removing everything from the room. Just take everything out. And that gives you an opportunity to like deep clean things and get on all the crevices that you don't normally get to anyway. So that's probably good. But take everything out and then put it back in a different place. And really think about, OK, I'm picking up this thing. And it's going to go back somewhere. And the somewhere is going to be where it lives. What's the ideal place for this thing to be? And just being very intentional about examining every single piece of of your setup

45:22.74

Delphina

can really help you if you have that kind of blindness where you put something there and it's there forever and it's part of the background noise and you don't really think about it anymore. That's an exercise that helps you get around that to like actually see and like maybe sometimes there's stuff that like you don't even want anymore you're like wow i got pastels i hated it and now you can like put that instead of like on a shelf somewhere gathering dust you could put it in a box to like give to a friend or charity or whatever.

46:00.25

Delphina

Being intentional about that, making sure that everything has a reset state, like we said before, where you know where things will go in an ideal state and trying to get to that, you know, end of the day or the end of the week or or something like that just becomes a very good practice so that it doesn't seem like you're getting to a place where you're overwhelmed by your space because that's the thing you really want to avoid. Once you're in that state of I hate sitting here and i hate working here then how are you going to approach your comic in a healthy way you're not it's going to be harder than it needs to be so keeping an eye on that keeping an eye on really what you psychologically need and also those overhead lights oh my god I don't. But yeah, I think sometimes things come with your space that you're like, well, I have to use this. I have to like that’s light in the room. And if I don't want to be sitting here in a dark, creepy room, that's the light I need to use. It's not.

47:11.29

Delphina

There are other options. Go to Ikea, something like, there's so many different kinds of things that you can experiment with. I have before, some of them work out, some of them don't, but that's the way you're going to find out what works for you in your space, in your situation.

47:30.67

Krispy

We are haters of fluorescent overhead lights.

47:34.78

Delphina

I didn't even, it wasn't on my list until you said that.

47:37.10

Delphina

I'm like, oh my gosh, I have so many opinions about lights.

47:35.32

Krispy

And you don't realize it until you get a nice space and then you're like, oh, oh, I've been missing out.

47:49.61

Krispy

um So lighting. yeah absolutely important. As far as, you know, I think, know, yeah it's hitting it on the head with all of the pieces of advice, ah you know, for making that comfortable space and also like helping feed into that mentality of making web comics, making your comic. And it's like, you're not going to have a good time if you're just like, Oh man, I would prefer to just sit in this weird little spot in a different place because, you know, I can't focus. And it is all about focusing for, you know, creating comics.

48:24.11

Krispy

So for me ah specifically I wanted to kind of go in a little bit of a tangent with designing a desk space or an office space and thinking about you know trying to make it pretty because I know that a lot of people being like I have an idea or a dream desk space that I would like. Here's some tips that I take a lot when I do a lot of interior design or decorating, helping people making their spaces is always thinking of the texture,

49:05.51

Krispy

the color and the accents when you design these spaces. So when I talk about that, when I talk about texture, I'm talking about, you know, what are we using for the base of the furniture that we have? So, you know, is it wood? What kind of wood? Is it bamboo? Is it, you know, oak? Is it, you know, anything? What's the colors? Or is it metal? Like, you know, are we going for that? So are textures in the room could all be the same. So for me specifically, I decided, okay, my texture is going to be bamboo. I'm sticking with that, the light, nice light color, or it can be really nice light wood that can kind of like, you know, ah

49:45.13

Krispy

pretend that is also in the bamboo kind of area, but going for that, going for the bamboo specifically, I kind of coordinate with my pen holders that are bamboo and like the legs of this piece of furniture that have bamboo. And it all just looks nice and cohesive. The color that I have can be the color of the furniture and also the color of the walls. So the color of the furniture I went for the texture of bamboo and..

50:17.90

Krispy

I chose white for the kind of color I have, like, white pieces of furniture with, like, you know, bamboo legs, white shelves. I have a white bookcase. And then I also have ah kind of these like blue kind of aqua walls and to accent with that. So the texture color accent is pink because I love pink. Kirby is my favorite. I have Kirby all over my office and I'm like, OK, like pink looks great with the white, the bamboo.

50:49.86

Krispy

And then that kind of like blue kind of sea, sea foamy kind of color. So I have a lot of pink. I have pink riser for my computer. My computer is also an iMac that is completely pink. And yes, I got it because it was pink.

51:04.17

Krispy

And I have the pink toolbox. I have, you know, just pink kind of throws a pink chair and like just the accent things. So you can put pink pillows, you can put pink throws, small pink things, these are the colors when you're thinking of the accent color, it's not going to be something that just takes over everything. It's just going to be something that complements, ah you know, the color of the room, the color of the furniture that you have. So it's not going to take over everything. But, you know, it's still a feature. And just having those kind of things in mind when you're thinking of designing a space really helps decide what you're kind of going to go for and helps keep it cohesive to the ideas or the dreams that you have for making it a nice and lovely space. So they're just like small tips, small things to consider when doing that stuff. But I know like a lot of people have the dream and ideas of that. And that's just things that I consider when I'm doing spaces. The other thing that I want to talk about is I love Ikea.

52:03.48

Krispy

And there are other places just like Ikea, we have Yisk here in Canada, which is basically another kind of Ikea too. But they have a lot of organization and things. One of the things specifically from Ikea that I'm going to be talking about is the Skadis, which is the pegboard series that they have. They come in a bunch of different sizes. They're easy to hang. And I love them for office kind of organization, especially when you don't have a lot of floor space for furniture. This stuff is really, really nice for walls. You can actually put

52:36.11

Krispy

shelves in them they hang really well they hold enough like and you're not going to put bowling balls on them and like they look nice they come in a bunch of different colors too so they can go with the space that you're designing the other thing that i want to talk about is the Alex series from Ikea too which comes with drawers They have desks and stuff like that. You can actually create that space that you want. We specifically use Alex drawers for storing all of our pages of our comic because again, they are in traditional. So they need that physical space, but I enjoy them. They're a nice kind of, sleek design and they're not too expensive. Again, thrifting could definitely lead you down that path too because I mean, you know, it's not like this furniture is unique either. And also, I love painting furniture. There's lots of furnitures that I have to paint and make it look like it matches my space too because that's one of the big things for me is that not only is it going to be functional, but I want it to look nice. So I think the finishing ten touches and like, you know, those comfortable ideas,

53:42.71

Krispy

come a little later you know during the design phase of making your space you but they're nice little touches. They're nice little touches that add to that and they make me happy like you know having nice light having peg boards, having places for things, thinking of the accent colors that I want and it's just cozy. It really gets me excited to work on my comics and yeah I enjoy it. I enjoy designing spaces and whatnot

54:17.85

Delphina

Ikea is amazing. And I will also want to give a shout out. I think it's a little more West Coast because it's Asian. It's a Japanese chain of stores. But Daiso is my best friend because they have so many cute little decorative boxes. And ah especially for small spaces, I think... You can get very inexpensive things that are also very cute. I i feel like I just love every time I go there, I never know what I'm looking for, but I always find something. They also had wall panel things because I'm always really nervous about painting my walls if I'm renting or whatever. And they had these little like they were foam, but they looked like wooden panels.

55:08.62

Delphina

And I thought they were really cool and and you could put them on your wall just to get that texture like you're talking about. They're switching out their inventory stuff all the time. It's a little less steady than Ikea. But if you have a Daiso, look them up, browse around. it's it’s such a cute store. I love it so much.

55:29.78

Krispy

i I am jealous. I'm just going to say that. I'm just jealous.

55:33.98

Bob

Yeah, that sounds amazing.

55:35.79

Delphina

It's so good.

55:44.28

Krispy

I hope that, you know, a lot of our conversations on, you know, the desk space, you know, what we showed in this episode with our desk little setups kind of inspires people to, you know, get creative and see what works for them and find a nice, comfortable place to get their comics done. And I think with that, it has been a chicken salad Caesar wrap.

56:15.51

Krispy

I'm Krispy and you can find my works at ghostjunksickness.com and lunar blight.com.

56:23.03

Bob

And I'm Bob, and you can find my comics at intothesmokecomic.com and demonoftheunderground.com.

56:31.00

Delphina

And I'm Delphina, and you can find my comic, Sombulus, at Sombulus.com.

56:36.40

Krispy

So, road trip to Ikea. Let's go. Let's go.

56:40.85

Bob

Yes.

56:42.54

Delphina

It's like Disneyland, isn't it? It's just, it's so beautiful.

56:45.33

Bob

Don't lose me.

56:45.42

Krispy

Yes!

56:46.25

Bob

I'm scared of getting lost.

56:49.14

Delphina

You go through the little shortcut areas like, where am I now?

56:52.03

Krispy

ah Oh my gosh, it's so real though.

56:52.41

Bob

Yeah.

56:54.90

Delphina

yeah

56:55.67

Bob

ah