Hello preacha_boy,
You should know that I still consider myself to be an "up and coming" artist, so please take this, and really, ANY advice, with a Lot's wife-sized grain of salt. Every artist is different, and will have different habits, but I think the following might be helpful if kept in mind:
Draw all the time. You probably have a dedicated space somewhere where you do the majority of your work. How often do you actually use it? If you're anything like me, your table/desk is always covered with piles of books and papers and Godzilla dolls. Try to keep your drawing space clear and get into some kind of schedule or routine where you set aside a certain amount of time each day to draw. You will begin to see improvement in your work (I call them "breakthroughs") and you will gain the discipline necessary to meet deadlines as a professional comic-book artist.
Carry a sketchbook. When I say "draw all the time," I mean it. Bring some kind of book with you everywhere you go and do your best to fill it up. Write down every crazy idea that pops into your head. Draw everything you see and everything you think. And don't tear out pages if you can help it. When you look back at your earlier volumes, you may cringe at some of the earliest drawings, but you will marvel at some of the things you did, not remembering that you did them, or even how.
Hang out with other artists. For me, the best part about going to an art school was being around other people who were interested in the same things I was. Nothing will light a fire under you like looking at another artist's sketchbook, seeing something there that makes you so angry with how good it is that you kill yourself to try and top it. You don't even have to go to an art school, just find and surround yourself with other artists. Online comics forums are a good way to go about this. It's also a good way to find a collaborator, whether it be an inker, writer, or colorist.
Make some comics already! Lots of artists dream about making it in comics, but they neglect to ever actually make a comic-book. Draw some finished, storytelling pages with a beginning middle and end. No confidence in your skills as a writer? If you haven't found a collaborator yet, most major comic-book publishers have sample scripts available on their Websites for artists to work from. Once you have at least 8-10 consecutive pages of finished artwork, you're ready to show them to editors, whether it's via E-mail or at a comic-book convention. Why not print up and staple some cheap, photocopied mini-comics? Join an Online comics forum or start a Website and put your comics on the Web.
I hope you find some of this useful, preacha_boy. Good luck.
McCarthy
