Some webcomics have been running for a long time, but new ones are always popping up with fresh and unseen ideas. This series called “Colmscomics” is exactly that – a fresh breath of air. The artist behind the comics likes to keep his humor dark at times and the cartoons often have unexpected endings with twists.
The artist’s bio on Instagram says, “I’m just a man with a pen, a dream, and a very questionable sense of humor.”
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“Colmscomics” has nearly 7k followers on Instagram and continues to grow significantly fast, given how funny and creative their comics are! The artist also has a Patreon account where his fans can support him with three different stages called “The Supporter,” “The Fan,” and “The Enjoyer.” All three tiers come with different benefits and give access to different types of content the artist puts out.
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Art, in any kind of form, takes a lot of time not only to practice but also to produce, therefore we asked the artist how long it takes him to fully finish his comics.
“Start to finish, one of my comics takes roughly 6 hours. Usually, I will spend a lot of time on the sketch, as that’s when I am trying to nail my thoughts down on paper (or screen). Once that’s done it’s simply a matter of doing the final line art and adding color. The coloring can take some time if I’m trying something new for the first time, or trying to nail the lighting. I try to toe the line between selling a convincing scene while also not putting in too much work and often fail at both haha.”
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Being a cartoonist is not easy, one can easily encounter a lack of inspiration, burnout, etc, so we wanted to ask Colm about his ideas for the comics.
” My whole life I’ve had a love for comedy. I tend to watch a lot of funny movies, TV shows and read lots of funny manga and books. Along the way, you pick up the little structures that form the jokes, and the little nuances that make a situation funny. When comedy is such a big part of your life you can’t help but look at something, anything at all, and see what could make it funny. I will sometimes come up with my jokes during my day-to-day or sometimes sit down with the intention to think up something funny and just let my mind wander. Sometimes when I am really struggling I will change gears and read or watch something funny, to help get myself into the right mindset.”
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As we mentioned before, sometimes creative work can cause quite a burnout, therefore we asked the artist how he dealt with that as well.
“Short answer, yes. Long answer, yeeeessss. As you might expect your creativity is not a simple switch you can flip when you need it. Sometimes the creative thoughts or funny ideas simply stop because you’re tired or stressed. At times you put a lot of work into a comic and get very little response and that can be a bit disheartening too. However, in those moments you just need to wash your hands of the last thing and move on to the next. Whenever I get burnt out for whatever reason, I sometimes take a break from the comic stuff and just draw things for fun – even if it’s just a bunch of random doodles.”
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We also asked the comic artist about how people reacted to his work.
“Usually when I show someone a comic I’ve done or one I’m working on, they usually laugh or tell me they think it’s good. Whether that’s genuine or simple politeness I don’t know, and I prefer not to know haha. However, on the internet, you get a much more honest reaction. A lot of the time I get good feedback, people either laugh or tell me they like the art. Some of the time someone will simply not get the joke and angrily ask why their time has been wasted and imply that you should take a long walk off a short pier, but hey, that’s the internet for ya!”
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The creative process is not easy, but there are many enjoyable parts to it as shared by the artist.
“I definitely enjoy the sketching part the most. I’ve heard others prefer the line art and color as the hard work is already done with the sketch, but I really enjoy the freedom that comes from sketching. I find you don’t have to worry if a line is perfect or if the colors complement each other, rather that you can just let your hand run free and see what comes. Normally I like to do my sketch one day and finish the comic the next, just to get rid of any pressure of feeling like I need to have the sketch done within a certain amount of time.”
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We also asked about the inspiration behind the artist’s Instagram account.
“Well as I mentioned before, my two big influences, in the beginning, were Adamtots and Randowis, both of which I came across on Instagram. Instagram was a really handy place to find webcomics as a lot of artists try and help each other out by working with or sharing the work of other artists. The art community on Instagram just came across to me as a very helpful and welcoming place so it made the most sense for me to join Instagram and share my work there, as I really wanted to be part of that community.”
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Digital art and art, in general, is not easy and requires a lot of patience, time, resources, and in most cases even money, therefore we wanted to know how the talented comic artist started his own career in digital art.
“My first experience with digital art was in art class back in school. I immediately fell in love with digital art because of how forgiving it can be. On paper, if you make a mistake you need to use an eraser and hope you don’t leave behind a smudge on the paper, but with digital, it’s a simple click of the undo hotkey. It was also around the time when I was seeing a lot of really cool art online, from people like Sinix Design, who would make the most incredible art and it was all done digitally. In my life, I have dabbled in a lot of different kinds of art. In the beginning, it was traditional, just paper and pencil. Then I went on to do a bit of 3D modeling/animation using Maya and even a bit of stop motion. However, Digital artwork is the home I keep returning to.”
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Artists tend to get motivated by a lot of things such as curiosity, beauty, or even meaning. We couldn’t help but ask Colm about his personal motivation as an artist too.
“Truthfully, I am not entirely sure. On the one hand, I really want to create really cool art, the stuff that makes you stop and say wow. While on the other hand, I want someone to look at it and belly laugh against their will. Both of which require two very different kinds of art. I sometimes worry I am chasing two hares. I suppose you could say what truly motivates me is an improvement. I always want to be better and whatever I do will never satisfy me for long, but that also makes me happy as it gives me the motivation to keep going.”
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