Artist Mixes Optimism With Pessimism In His Unexpected-Yet-Relatable Comics (30 New Pics)

When asked how long it takes him to finish one of his comics, Krystian said: “Total working time to make one of my comics is usually about 3-4 hours but often spread throughout an entire day or even several days. I like being able to let an almost finished comic sit for a while so I can look at it with fresh eyes and make some final adjustments. But most of the time I don’t have the opportunity to do so and I keep seeing things I’d change if I just look at the comic the next day.”

“My workflow is usually split between my iPad and Wacom tablet, and I tend to do most of the sketching on my iPad before moving on to the Wacom tablet. But I’ve made plenty of comics entirely on my iPad, usually because I would be too lazy to get off the couch,” the artist says about his work process. “I work almost exclusively in Clip Studio Paint, but occasionally I use Photoshop or Procreate. Actually, for the longest time, I sketched in Procreate, inked in Clip Studio, and colored in Photoshop. Luckily Clip Studio in recent years has expanded its feature set to fill almost all of my needs.”

When talking about inspiration, Krystian explains: “Ideally I want comic ideas to just appear 'naturally' by reading or seeing something unrelated and having it trigger the idea perfectly formed as a comic in my head. This does not happen often, so my most used technique is to brainstorm ideas in my Notes app on my iPad. If I am truly stuck I will sometimes put my music library on shuffle and make myself come up with a comic based on the band or song name before the song is over. This doesn’t always work, but at least there is another song coming in a few minutes.”

As for his future aspirations, the artist told us: “I’ve been at this for so long that I can’t really see myself stopping any time soon. Every time I take an extended break I eventually start to feel anxious about not getting anything done, so I’d rather start making something instead. But recent life events have slowed me down lately, so for the coming months, I just hope to find a more consistent release schedule. Hopefully, more things will fall into place after that!”