Any tips to draw faster?

[Nullyish]

I am such a slow updater. It can take me even more than one month to update, in which it has around 5 pages. I get frustrated myself because I feel like I let my readers down. Here is my comic > Not A Yaoi Story

Do you guys have any tips for drawing quicker? Or do you have any tips for my comic? Like what can I do to make it updated quicker?

Thanks in advance T___T

[Evan]

Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V.
And If you find yourself drawing something a lot, make a copy that you can paste in.
But I'm not a typical artist, so I don't have any other tips.

[Kirstin]

I've found that "drawing in bulk" helps me speed up a little bit. For example, I thumbnail 3-4 pages at once, pencil those pages, ink all of those pages, color all of those pages. It helps a lot with consistency as well.

[Shanny8]

Doing thumbnails can help things up- especially if you use the thumbnails as guidelines to follow. Truthfully, the only way to produce work faster is to develop shortcuts/techniques to help you draw/ink/color faster. For me, I tend to do all my definitive finishes in my inking stage, so I tend to skimp on pencils. It's taken months of me training myself to do that, because I needed to produce faster- it helps coz coloring for me, is the stage that takes extra time; so it really helps me to be able to scribble out my pencils and tighten everything up with my inks in less time.

[peekahcosmos]

Yehh it's hard to make a comic

Find a lots of drawing reference maybe can help i hope

[thomasfallaeriksen]

Only advice I can think of right now is simply just to keep drawing and get better at drawing. As skills improve it gets easier to draw certain things, and everything goes quicker.
At leats it works in theory, but it may not always work in practice. In many cases I spend the same amount of time on each page now as I did a few years ago. I just manage do make something better within the same timeframe.

[Nullyish]

@evan @Kirstin @peekahcosmos @Shanny8 @thomasfallaeriksen Okay guys thank you so much for your replies. I am thinking to do some copy-paste for panels that have similar art and tweak them. Looking for reference can also save more time so I won't get frustrated with drawing wrong lines. And PRACTICE! Thanks for your suggestions that I can formulate my own tips for my self hehehehe :3

[punkarsenic]

well, you could upload two pages a week instead of the... four? five? (its hard to tell w webcomics) youre uploading now. thats a standard weekly update size, id say.

do you have a buffer? get a buffer. when you can, put your comic on hiatus and develop a month of buffer pages. then, even if you fall behind, your updates will be regular.

drawing quicker is ultimately a question of practice - a nice practice on speed is draw people in public; theyre only gonna be in that pose for a couple of seconds or minutes, so you have to get down the essentials fast. this practice tool also helps me a lot.

[WakaXO]

Learn the ins and outs of the program you use. A lot of programs have 'shortcuts' build into them, know how to use them can really speed up your work.

For example clip studio paint has a feature that greatly speeds up laying down flat colors. This feature alone can cut 1/2hr-1hr off a page. (Depending on how long it usually takes you, and if your comic is in color.)

[PotooGryphon]

A nifty trick I've found is to set realistic time goals for each panel. For example, if I'm working on a panel with one character in it I'll give myself 15 minutes to draw it. With that time goal inmind I start to accept pen strokes that are fine but without a time goal I'd probably ctrl+z 20x's and redraw.

I also don't beat myself up if I go over the time goal. I assign myself 5 more minutes or so and try to make it within that goal.

Another helpful trick is to look into the Pomodoro Technique. Work 15 minutes and then take a 5 minute break cycle. With designated break times planned out, it's less likely random distractions and mind wondering happens. There's also helpful Pomodoro apps that'll set alarms for your breaks and such.

[Mharz]

Like most people said just keep drawing and use every trick in the book you know and yahh timing yourself really helps. I normally create weekday sketches where I set my timer to 25 minutes and just sketch a random prompt I think of.

Another helpful trick is to look into the Pomodoro Technique. Work 15 minutes and then take a 5 minute break cycle. With designated break times planned out, it's less likely random distractions and mind wondering happens. There's also helpful Pomodoro apps that'll set alarms for your breaks and such.

Definitely recommending this. My setting is usually 25mins work and 5 minutes break and then take a longer break on the 4th pass. But you can set it on whatever works for you.

[NickRowler]

Rotate you pages while you are drawing. Traditionally, this is easy to do. Digitally, there are options to do this. In Photoshop, press r, then enter, then type a number (like 90), then press enter.

Having "gaps" in your lines helps you draw faster however, they sort of change the look of your comic.

Drawing all the time can also help. If you are good at drawing something, you will sometimes be able to draw it faster then usual.

[DoubleAA]

I'm not very good at being quick with my art, but an alternative is to post meaningful content instead. Its better to wait for a better comic than to get a rushed, not-very-good comic.

I still struggle with what i post because I have a dry sense of humor. My schedule is already filled as well. Not only that but i dont believe it's right to Cliche everyone else's comic for your own benefit, no matter how much i want too ;__;

[indagold]

Do 2-4 pages all at once and instead of finishing one and moving to the next, just finish everything at the same time on each, roughs, lines, color, shading etc. I found that speeds up the comic process by a tenfold.

[Nullyish]

@punkarsenic Yea I did break the initial chapters down to two parts, I am thinking to break into two pages again like you suggest but I think it will be too uneventful. well maybe it just me overthink it but that definitely worth a try. Maybe I can re-sketch the thumbnails and make the two pages update become more eventful. Thanks for your reply btw!

@WakaXO now you mention it yes I will look the shortcuts up the internet -___- thanks!

@CyndiFoster and @avimHarZ So yes practice! And that pomodoro technique is great! I will try that, maybe i can focus more with that. Thanks!

@NickRowler Oh well I never try rotating the pages I am working on. I'll try it then and thanks!

@AbbieGaming My thought exactly and I think that what slows me down. I tend to prioritize content in thinking that at least my readers feel that the story moved with each update. Thank you! and I feel better with your reply :3

@indagold I never think to do that because I like to finish one page and see the result before starting a new page. Maybe I can try that. Thanks!

[hannahapatten]

I found out I could skip the sketch phase and go right into the lineart. It saves me so much time! Also CTRL-Z will be your best friend to quickly undo lines you don't like.