How to Draw Month: Exploring the Artist's Workspace

For How to Draw month, PREVIEWSworld takes an in depth look at artist Matthew Dow Smith's workspace! Matthew is a writer and artist who has most recently worked on IDW's The X-Files (DEC150468) and is currently working on his creator-owned series The October Girl.

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My ‘office’. I’m set up in a corner of the living room. Normally, I like to have a separate room, but when my partner and I moved to DC for her job, I had to sacrifice a dedicated office. Still, it’s comfortable set up.

My workspace. I like to keep my desk free of distractions, which means I should probably set the computer on fire, but that would make working digitally a little tricky.

And the framed music on the wall is a bagpipe piece my friend Steve Knox wrote called, “Matt Smith’s Revenge”.

My drawing setup. Wacom Cintiq, Mac Mini Server, Clip Studio Paint EX, with some external hard drives for extra storage and backup. I’ve had enough computers crash on me that I’m pretty obsessive about keeping everything backed up.

I have an iPad next to my desk to keep me company while I’m working. I also use it as a sketch/notebook when I’m away from the desk. And I like to keep my writing work separate from my drawing work, so I do all my writing on  yet another computer — a laptop I can drag with me whenever I travel.

I don’t keep many comics around, but I do like to have a few favorites nearby for inspiration when I get stuck, along with a couple of art instruction books I refer to often. Lots of Mignola, Charles Addams, Sean Phillips, Michael Gaydos, and Dave McKean.

My writing reference shelf and more inspiration for both writing and drawing, along with the notebooks I use while I’m starting to work out a story and some rough scripting. One of those notebooks actually holds all of the scripts for the rest of The October Girl.

I keep a portable drawing board next to the computer for the handful of things where I still draw or ink traditionally, along with the Cintiq Companion I drag along whenever I’m traveling. There’s no such things as vacations when you’re a freelance artist, just new and different places to work from.

One last shot of my computer setup, which is only fitting since I spend so much time sitting in front of it.

Read the PREVIEWSworld How to Draw month interview with Matthew.

You can find Matthew on Twitter and at his website.