2 updates per week, how do you do it? (Getting faster)

[lizkreates]

Hello! I'm very curious, many webcomics I follow update twice a week, and I'm wondering how do you manage it?

I just launched my comic Threader and I have around 300 pages planned. At one page a week my estimated completion date is nearly 6-7 years from now. I love my characters (I've had some for over a decade), and I'm pretty committed to the long haul, but yikes that is LONG. 2 pages/updates per week seems ideal for many reasons.

How do you divide up your work throughout the week?

I guess I'm looking for hours spent per day and or per pages here, or what days you get done the most. Most of my work is done typically on the weekends collecting reference, sketching concepts, thumbnails, scripting/editing, and sketching pages. During the week I usually use 3-4hrs total for drawing, 2-4 hrs for inking, 30min-1hr to flat, and 3-5 hours to color a page. So roughly about 8-15hrs per page. If I stick my nose to the grindstone I can work 4-5 hours a day after work, but realistically put in about 2-3 hours.

Any tips to get faster?

I've been thinking about dropping backgrounds when it's not needed and simplifying up my crazy coloring method. Doing bulk pages seems to help too. I'm pretty good with shortcuts, and am setting up an actions to create all my typical coloring layers to cut down time.

[hushicho]

I think you're on the right path: streamlining your creative process and workflow. I also recommend having a good program that can really simplify things; I use Clip Studio Paint because it's all I need to make myself operate at optimum efficiency, personally, but I recommend you use whatever program or programs that you're most comfortable doing.

I always suggest at least a couple of chapters worth of buffer before you start an endeavour, and try to keep yourself at least even with the buffer so you can have time off in case of emergency or need.

The best way I've found to schedule my days is to take time at the start of each day and decide what I need to get done by the end of the day, what I'd like to get done, and what would be nice if I got done, but which I probably won't do. It's important to know your limits so you don't overload yourself or place something into the wrong priority bracket, but as long as you take it slow and careful, you should be fine!

[TonyEsp]

well my comic is a comedy which doesn't involve a lot of details a comic usually take me from 2 hours to 20 hours and i post 2 episode per week and one short when I fell like it, what I do is I usually draw the sketch one day on the next the cleaning and so on, and on is tedious but with time you'll get faster and faster, so take your time and is okay if you can't publish 2 episode per week as long as you don't give up
ps. sorry for my bad grammar english is not my first language

[UzukiCheverie]

Personally, once I got Clip Studio Paint and finished college, my schedule opened right up. Currently, I'm doing between 10-15 pages a week (15 pages if we're in the middle of a chapter, 10 if we're introducing the next chapter, because we do a chapter cover for its own update). I only work at Starbucks about 30 hours a week and Clip Studio Paint has streamlined the hell out of the process.

But Time Gate definitely isn't as fleshed out artistically as other comics. It's black and white, very little background, most of the work is in the lineart, character art, action scenes, and toning. Not saying that's a bad thing but it does make it sort of an unfair comparison. It's pretty much required though - we're currently on book one out of 10, this is a long series and if I made it a color series, it would never be completed (I don't even know if I'll be able to complete it in black and white before I die lol).

Even then, I'm not as fast as I would like to be lol If I ever get to the point where I can rely on Time Gate more financially and spend more time on it, I'd love, LOVE to be able to do a chapter a week (so on average, 20 pages a week). Maybe some day lol <3

[lizkreates]

Oh yeah I love Clip! XD Good point. Maybe consolidating all my work to one program would help since I'm bouncing between like 3 right now for each step. Def could be saving some time there.

Oh yes buffer! A whole chapter worth of buffer is a good idea, I only have about 6 pages at the moment.

That's a great point, setting a goal each day, I think that'll really help sort things out once I find a schedule that works.

Thank so much for the tips! :3

[Vanesalisa]

advance it's always good if you're in advance my mom told always told me about

[lizkreates]

Oh wow, that's so fast! TAT Dang I really do need to look into Clip Studio Paint more. I use it only for drawing and inking right now, I recently heard that you can set up actions like PS so I think I'll have to take some time and explore.

I have considered going to black and white after the first few pages like traditional manga, that'd cut a lot of time. If I can get good enough where I can just use flats and gradients as my colors with minimal rendering, that'd be a HUGE time saver.

Thanks for the tips!

[Mharz]

The trick into getting faster is really just getting used to the methods your using. Drawing everyday really helps.

I normally can get a page done at around 2-3 hours but that's because I'm doing them black and white with little to no shading and I use sketchup for backgrounds most of the time. Also I trained in animation so that helped me draw really fast.

and cough.. BUFFERS cough.. Buffer really helps... Having a one-year buffer really helps. /shots

[hushicho]

CSP can totally do actions easily, and I agree that going to black and white or screentone after the first few pages will drastically cut your production time down.

I also want to be sure to mention: don't forget to reward yourself, even if it's just in a simple, easy way. Like if you do what you need, plus what you want to accomplish in a day...let yourself kick back and watch a favorite movie or something! Giving yourself an incentive to reach goals, even small rewards help!

[spadesart]

I update with 2 pages every friday, I divide it into days instead. friday-sunday for page A and monday-wednesday for page B. if i'm lucky thursday is a break day.

[DMBrigman]

I only get one page done per week, but that page is full color. I have a full-time job and try to make time for my dog and other obligations like housework.

I have set myself up with a strict schedule of half hour of drawing at lunch and at least one hour of drawing each evening. I do my layout one week in advance, then try to get rough pencils done on Monday. My pencils are pretty rough, I do most of my detail work and clean up during inking. Then by Wednesday I try to have my inks completed, which leaves me Thursday and Friday for flats and colors. I try not to work over the weekend, but I will if I have to depending on the complexity of the page.

As others have mentioned Clip Studio has helped with productivity. Having a less complex coloring style, doing detail work at the inking stage, knowing where bubbles are so I can skip background details, gradient backgrounds, have all helped, even reusing backgrounds when necessary.

I sadly ran out of buffer pages quite some time ago and haven't been able to build them back up, so definitely do as many as you can beforehand!

[kyupol]

Be on a schedule. Set aside at least 30 mins a day to do comic.

But then again, my wife helps me with inking so that helps a lot as well.

[revisionstudios]

So, this is something that I also struggle with, but I think I can help.

• I like to work in bulk, because some days I just want to sketch, some days I just want to do effects, and other days I just want to shade. Because of that I have about 3-5 pages at some level of completion at all times, or I'll "tier" them so that one has the sketch completed, one has toning/shading completed, and one just needs last minute revisions.

• Lists help me a LOT to keep on track. I'll usually plot out my week ahead of time, and give myself around 3 tasks each day (1 big one and 2 small ones). Break it down as much as you need and don't overwhelm yourself. Just make sure to give yourself breaks and one full day off from everything. Unwinding is very important to keep yourself from burning out.

• Don't be afraid to copy/paste sketches or lineart to new panels--smartly. I do this a lot when I'm zooming in to a character or when they're shown in a similar pose/angle. It means I just have to redraw an expression or an arm instead of the whole image. It helps, and it's not noticeable when done right.

• My last, big tip is to get rid of your sketch stage if you can and just draw lineart. I've found that it's SO much more time efficient to clean up lines rather than redraw them. A 2 hr lineart process gets dropped down to a half an hour. I sketch out my character poses, but that's it. I'll go straight into detail afterwards. (I mean, sometimes I do Nox's hair if it's giving me trouble, but that's it)

As you can see, not a whole lot of difference between the right two stages. I made the lines black and cleaned up a few small things.

[60Six]

I get about two pages done per week, but considering they're fully colored and shading, I'm pretty satisfied with that output.
The key thing I try to do is set goals for each work night. Night one: sketch, paneling, speech bubbles, dialogue. Night two: line art, flats and lighting. Night three: Shading. If I can start one of the steps a night early, fantastic.
I also look for little short cuts everywhere. There's no shame in pasting a pattern for plaid scarf instead of drawing every individual line to make a plaid pattern. Nobody has ever noticed that I paste the buckles onto all my characters and then just warp them to fit, instead of drawing each individual buckle.
Also, hot keys! I know those seem minimal, but in the long run, they save a lot of time. I use hot keys for EVERYTHING in photoshop, and if there isn't a hot key for it, I make one (which photoshop lets you do). Especially stuff like expanding your selection... I do that so often that if I wasn't using a hot key for it, I probably would have spent hours by now going through the whole fucking menu probably 100+ times per page. If you find yourself frequently having to actually go through a menu to do an action, I highly recommend just taking the 2 minutes to make a hot key for it (or using the one it has).

[justinkrever]

Wish I could do that but my illustrator has a job so it slows everything down.

[lizkreates]

I've sort of tried bulk out with my last few pages, it's going a little faster I think but I can't tell yet. Sounds like lists are a must! If I make some parts interchangeable between days I think that'll allow me some flexibility without feeling overwhelmed. I should def have a break somewhere too haha. X'D

Oh wow, that's a great tip! I could def cut time going straight to ink after my first rough. I usually have 2 sketch layers, one for the base structure and one to refine details. I'm still learning and struggle with things, so maybe later in time. I should work on being more loose too, the perfectionist in me gets caught up in accuracy way too much.

Your pages are so clean! Nox's hair is too fabulous to be contained. ;D Thank you so much for the insight on your work process!

[lizkreates]

That's awesome! Thank so much for your process insight~

I'm totally going to jump on the copy pasta train! I should utilize that more, so far I have a medallion design for my main in my library and that's it. :'D Building a resource library for things I use frequently would cut down research time A LOT.

Dude you blew my mind a little, like I realized how many time I've gone to Gaussian blur and I just??? So much wasted time. OTL It really does add up page after page. Thanks for the great tips!