A Question about the planning stage of your comic. How long does it really take?

[KiabIce]

OK So I realized the planning stage and prep work for a comic takes very long! My friend told me it takes 3 to 4 months and that's with a team of people. I'm doing it all by myself though!

I'm on a 3rd character sheet in less than a week and I'm getting burned out. I realized I need to space out myself so I don't get burnt out and lose my passion.

My planning stage consists of character reference sheets, BG concepts, thumbnails, then actual finished comic pages.

My question to you is, how long was your pre-production phase or planning stage? And did you lose any passion during those planning stage? Because 3 months is a long time.

Thank you! I just want to know if other comic artists actually spent 3 months planning their comic.

Thanks!

[river121693]

I took around 3 months on my planning stage lol. This includes :
Writing the complete outline, main character background, and setting descriptions. This in total was over 100 pages (though much of it is bullet points, and my comic is a fantasy epic).
Character turn-around sheets for 6 important characters
Some practice sketches of panels and scenes to figure out my style.

It really depends on your preference tho. I place a lot of importance in a cohesive narrative thread that ties everything together at the end, and I really love background visual worldbuilding, so I can’t skim on outline. Having an outline motivates me a lot because I can see my progress, and have a milestone at the end of each chapter. It also means I don’t have to redraw a bunch of pages if I’m unhappy with my story, which is the most demoralizing thing.
Character sheets are important for me too, since it helps me be on model and create more unique characters.

If planning is demotivating you, then maybe you can start in your comic and work on them on the side? I highly encourage having at least a loose outline tho

[TheLemmaLlama]

I plan and produce comic at the same time. The planning stage is over when the comic is over. And I suspect thinking of planning as a "stage" where you finish it and then move on to the comic itself and have to commit to your plans because they are "complete", is why some people are afraid to plan and outline, and why other people never start their comic because they're not "done" with their planning

[migxmeg]

None really - as soon as my writer had any story ready I just started drawing panels. I had made a couple "maybe this could be a character" sketches but nothing formal.

We literally had no clue what we were doing and I will 100% do things differently for the next project and am not necessarily recommending this approach - it sure wasn't ideal and I have a way better understanding of my own needs and workflow now - but it's nice to keep in mind that you don't actually have to do things that you don't want to do/are burning you out/keeping you from starting your project.

[doitlikeomar69]

Pretty long I like to take my time and make sure it makes sense story wise,cause the art may look trashy but the story shouldn't

[nayrnixon]

I'm RamenTheKid, creator of Jacob's Journal, Taproot, and Toil & Trouble. I've got a bit of experience I guess, but am certainly no expert yet.

That said, pre-production is one of my favorite parts. This is mostly because I love screenwriting a lot, and have worked to outsource the art.

Taproot is still being posted weekly, its probably (spoilers) going to be 36-44 episodes long. I've gotten patches of burnout and had to take breaks, but for the most part I've posted every week. It's ran from June of 2021 and is currently at episode 24 I think. So about half way, should be done in June if I keep posting at a weekly basis.

If you aren't too attached to working on the art, I'd recommend expanding your team. It's hard to do all of this alone. That said, It is fun and very personal. Taproot and Jacob's Journal are both done entirely by me.

If you want to see my webcomic Taproot, here's a link!

Taproot

[smokesalty]

took me around a year.

I like to have my entire outline and script written out beforehand, all my character sheets and for my current comic I 3D modelled all my backgrounds because most of my story occurs in one location and it would save me a lot of time in the long run.

While writing took a while because I wanted to figure out my entire story, modelling took me forever because I ended up having to make so many backgrounds (over 18 rooms, plus exteriors for a few scenes)

I think it was worth it, now I can finish pages faster because I don't need to line/colour my backgrounds and I know 99% of the story.

[Legendofgenii]

For me it’s a continuous thing. I have my story (which I’m adapting to a comic), but I make changes along the way and work by chapter or episode.

I’d imagine for a project involving lots of people, things need to be planned out and finalised, so everyone knows what’s happening.

As it’s just myself working on my comic, I don’t feel like I need things completely set in stone. I’m almost 100 pages in and still working on character designs and lore etc.

I do get overwhelmed thinking of my project as a whole, and how much work it’ll be. It’s better if I break things down, and if I do burn out - I sketch. Future scenes, backgrounds, anatomy and gesture practice. It’s not always drawings that’ll be featured in the comic, but it’s all practice and more importantly it’s fun.

I wouldn’t worry about how long the process is taking. It’s more important that you’re enjoying working on it.

[SagaHolmgaard]

Ah, I don't remember exactly, but I would guess maybe six months. I set a deadline in January 2019 to start posting Reclaim in July 2019, and in that time I had to do all the things you mentioned, but also reworking the script at the same time + get another round of script feedback and tweak from that.

But I didn't work solely on my references and my planning during that time! I phased it out, I probably worked on school projects and drew other personal stuff as well. I don't really like to draw turnarounds and make super thought-out concepts for environments and stuff, so I prioritized the places and characters that would show up most commonly in the comic.
(You can see that in chapter 1, which actually... isn't a location with a lot of future scenes in it, so I didn't design it as thouroughly as I should have. and now I think chapter 1 has pretty subpar backgrounds... )

As for how to not lose passion/motivation. A LOT comes down to practice. That's why people say you should start with smaller projects, and not your big magnum opus that's going to take 10 years to finish. Every time you DO manage to complete a project, you grow more confident, more capable to see things through to the end, and more experienced in your own creation process. I think passion fading over time is very normal, but you can teach yourself how to keep working even when you're not burning that the same passion that you had when you first fell in love with your project idea.

How long are you planning to work on the comic itself? If three months of preproduction is too long, how does that compare to the rest of your expected work time? Will you complete your comic in another three months? In a year? Several years into the future? How will your keep your motivation up for that time? It's not impossible! But it's important to think of your limits and if your scope matches what you're realistically able to do.

Finally, don't feel like you need to be 100% done with planning before starting your comic. I have characters that haven't shown up yet, and so I haven't made their reference sheets yet. It would have been a waste of time, because I'm a better artist now than I was in 2019, and so I will be able to make better design choices (and references) for them now when they're about to show up, than I would have been back then. Same with future locations and other stuff.

[Zino]

I barely did any planning :''D well i had doodled the main cast beforehand and put down some stuff i wanted to happen in the future and how the cast relationships were gonna be, but then i just... started drawing right away. Even today, i can't even write the script beforehand T_T. I just put down a general idea for the chapter, how it starts and how it ends and then start paneling and writing the script at the same time... Why am I like this OTL usually planning stage is the one thing i enjoy, i don't know why it isn't happening with this comic.

[artistnoir]

It’s been about a year plus for me! I’m still currently planning and writing the story! I don’t have the energy to draw my OC’s so for the time being I’ll focus on the story writing! I’ve been working on this comic since I was 13 but in September 2020 is when I decided to revamp the character designs and everything! So now I’m 23 trying to make it the best it can be!

[Caro]

Honestly sometimes I just go in blind because its hard for me to want to start a comic unless I just start doing it. But when I do plan I don’t spend too much time planning but I also tend to do self-contained graphic novels so I don’t think I’ve ever spent more than a year n a half on one of those total from conception to completion.

[rajillustration]

I spent like a year on my script, becuase I didn't have a deadline so I wasn't always working on it (and it was a Nanowrimo project initially) and then spent maybe a few months during that time working out character designs and locations. Most of it is kind of in my head so I don't need to get super detailed with my character sheets...so I've never actually made any turn arounds or background concepts or anything like that. I only just now made a 3d model for a building that I've already drawn 2 or 3 times without it. So overall...I did the prep I knew I needed to do, but it's not perfect, I kinda just wing it as I go because sometimes you don't realize you need something until you get there, and sometimes you realize as you go that your character design is too complicated and you have to scale it back. You can only know that as you do it.

[system]

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.