Counterarguments for speed

[jurinova]

I've noticed a trend, especially on Twitter comic circles, where people push speed above everything else in the comic making process. I also recently had a comic teacher talking about the importance of working fast and not good, which really bothered me.

I understand the desire and need to get a story out as fast as possible and making sure it progresses constantly. It makes it easier to get new readers and also to keep them invested long-term. I believe working fast can be beneficial and works well for many comic creators. Comics are already a slow process, so cutting corners is often a must.

However I want to talk about the benefits of slow pace.

First of all I have to say, I enjoy a slow pace. I feel like I can properly spend time on each page to make it something I can look at even years later. Would the pages work even if they were less detailed? Yes! Nonetheless that's not the point for me: I want to make comics I can feel proud of and even more so I absolutely enjoy the process itself. Not to mention I can control stress better when I work slow.

The other thing I noticed about slow speed is that it allowed me to spend a lot of time thinking about the story. I've changed many scenes from its original script because it took longer to get to it than I had imagined. Time allowed me to actually solve several plot problems I had in the beginning because I wasn't in a hurry to get the story out. This is something I am so happy about because now the story feels better than it did at the start.

So, I wanted to open a discussion about this because I feel like the competition for readers pushes for certain ideas to become a standard. This is not to start an argument for "which way is better" but rather to open a discussion about how there are many ways to create comics.

Has anyone else noticed a push for getting more pages done faster? Have you noticed any benefits for when you work slower? Or is speed the answer for you?

[JWZagst]

I mostly write now instead of draw, but back when I did, my initial plan was for the story to come in two phases -- the first release would be black and white and produced fairly rapidly, while more detailed, fully-colored versions of the pages would release later as a sort of remastered edition. The second release would also include more story and be of a much higher quality overall.

My plan was to use that first speedy run to get people to fall in love with the characters and the stories, and then once I'd established myself well enough to hire a team of assistants, switch to the remastered version full time. The black and white release would have been about ten pages every week, while the remastered version would be a single page every week. The goal would have been to eventually retire the black and white one and continue the story exclusively through the colored version, which would eventually adopt the same ten-page-a-week model once I was able to hire a team to help (ink, color, shading, lettering, etc.).

[arbiterswake]

I actually feel a little relieved after reading this since I work terribly slow at the moment, and it's not because I'm pain stakingly making everything perfect or working on every little detail.

It's for one reason.

I am extremely unfamiliar with using Photoshop and a tablet.

I can tell you however, even in just one chapter I've noticed a dramatic improvement in workspeed, I've gone from almost a month down to 3 weeks, and I'm hoping to bump that down to two weeks. BUT that's only because I REALLY want to release on a twice a month basis.

To get back to your topic:

I think the push for speed can be a natural process that comes with gaining better proficiency at what you are doing and that's perfectly cool. It's like watching Bob Ross pumping out beautiful paintings in no time at all kind of vibe.

As for people seeming to pressure about speed.. I think it's a proximity thing and something MANY artists have anxiety about.

I've seen a few threads on tapas already related to work speed, and a lot of people who produce longer paneled webcomics (30+ panels) said that they generally spend a few weeks to a month or more on each episode which was also really nice to see.

I think it's also okay to set goals for yourself as far as maintaining a workflow. Once you become proficient enough, why not increase your output, after all? It'll just get your story out there to the public faster without sacrifice and that's just a sign of your mastery of what it is you're doing.

[Eiranyx]

When I first joined here I thought it will take time for me to gain a stable growth in views and subs because
1. My chapter release is quite slow compared to those who regularly updates at least once a week. I, on the other hand release my chapter between 10-15 days (it means I have lesser chance to appear in the 'fresh' section
2. I don't have a really strong following base on social media which means less people knows the existence of my comic.
However I was proven wrong in the first two months, and the reason is, as my readers comment on my work:
- the story is intriguing
- The quality of art style

Now when I say its intriguing, its precisely because I took advantage of that intrigue to buy myself more time -- more time to polish my work before actually releasing it. And in every release, I always aim to make them want to read more. -- And it wouldn't be possible if I didn't planned slowly and carefully.
When I say the quality of the art style, I didn't mean to say you need a good art style , its more like because, It's the result of the bonus time that I gained from intriguing, and rousing the curiosity of my readers on what will happen next. And to reward them for waiting my work's update for quite a long time, I give them the best quality that my skill level, and time allows in every update.
Working slow is actually best when you're starting to master your time management skills (like you can figure out the things that can be done fast like draft layout of panels and sketches things like that )and mastering time management gives you extra free time to organize the things you need to do, (like spotting spelling mistakes, dialogue mistakes etc.) and as a result, I became much faster over time, to the point that I can work on other things and still stay on schedule on my comic releases ^^

[Crusoe]

Honestly, the need to create fast is just an industry practice that is dripping into the practices of hobby artists, because for hobby artists the push towards high statistics and success is becoming more and more of a thing. There's no need to create fast if you're just doing it for fun.

However, if you want to go professional somehow, being fast IS A MUST. I once joined a panel by comic creators and they stress that producers will choose a decent creator over an amazing, godlike one if the former works faster.

[Puck]

There are steps in the comic making process which have to be fast, which you have to train
to be fast in. Gesture. There is no way to draw gesture in slow motion.
It´s really easy to train that, 10x30 seconds gesture drawing every day is just 5 minutes
of your day. Do that every morning and your figures will look less stiff.
You can also draw background fast and then refine them later with proper perspective.
This is not about finishing the page as quickly as possible.
Take your time placing the speech bubbles, refining the backgrounds, coloring, inking
etc. Speed up the penciling stage to avoid stiffness, overthinking, drawing things
unnessary complicated and too much construction while sketching

Sorry, this is not a contra argument. The contra argument is to speed the whole page
just to get it done. It doesn´t make sense to rush through coloring without thinking
etc

[Kay_Raa]

Hello, I've been making webtoon for 4 years now. Both officials and not.
The industry forces us to make comics fast, faster update = more episode = more money. Also, in reality, readers won't spend even a quarter of the time we put on each panel (at least in my experience).

But as a growing artist, I think it's important to make our comics slowly and steadily. Make sure each panel has good and balanced composition, consistent light source, nice flow and pacing etc. This will give us at least 2 benefits.

1. This is a good training to find our workflow, studying as we build our competence, and I'm sure we'll improve along the way! 2. Great comics with great panels will be a great portfolio! If we're looking to work in this industry (like, serious work, not just hobby anymore) this is a great chance to showcase what we can do. Take it slow and give our future self something to look back and be proud of!

Also it's not working "fast" that's important, it's the "efficiency" that we wanted. With great efficiency, we will work faster too ^w^) For example, we'll get used to 3D assets for backgrounds or even character posing, so we'll no longer need to draw sketches and will be able to jump directly into lining and coloring! It saves lots of time and make the work easier too! <3

It's all just my opinions from my experience though, also sorry for bad English ;;;;

[jurinova]

Honestly, the need to create fast is just an industry practice that is dripping into the practices of hobby artists, because for hobby artists the push towards high statistics and success is becoming more and more of a thing. There's no need to create fast if you're just doing it for fun.

That is my suspicion as well! Ever since webcomics became profitable there has been an increase in demand which has resulted in higher expectations from everyone - including hobby artists. This is what worries me because a lot of younger creators may not even know that it's okay to be slow and just do it for fun. Not to mention that readers start to expect the same amount of updates from hobby artists as they do from paid artists, which can of course cause problems and stress.

[ble]

The difference is if is only a hobby, or a job aspiration.

If you are doing it as a hobby only for yourself, and don't care about subs or other stuff, then do it at whatever pace you want.

But if it's your job, then yeah, speed is a must. Traditional publishers like Shonen Jump, Marvel, DC, etc, need to release a comic on a schedule, and it's also important if you work for websites/apps like Webtoons Originals/Featured, that you need to post a certain amount of panels per week/month. All that needs speed. And if you don't work for a publisher, but instead make a living with Patreon or merchandise, when you stop or go on hiatus, some people may stop supporting you.

Same with something like graphic design, or working in an office doing a formulary, things need to be done fast.

[jurinova]

However I was proven wrong in the first two months, and the reason is, as my readers comment on my work:- the story is intriguing - The quality of art style

That's really a good example of how much the story and art matter. Readers are willing to overlook a slower pace for a good story. And with time, the process will get faster with practise and it will become more easier to finish a page. It's really rewarding to notice how things that used to take a long time are suddenly done in a flash.

[elyss]

My Twitter is currently filled with artists who've pushing new comic creators to consider whats necessary. It not a matter of speedy updates for them but rather making sure you're not working on a 200 page comic for 10 years.

I recently started spend a long time with my scripts to try to avoid the need to sit on plots and ideas. Once that's done, I batch do alot of things which allows for a quick turnaround in the end.

I admire people who churn them out without getting burned out, but that's not most people. I think many artists share your sentiment but also have th contradiction of comic sites demanding they rush anyway.

[jurinova]

Hello, I've been making webtoon for 4 years now. Both officials and not.The industry forces us to make comics fast, faster update = more episode = more money. Also, in reality, readers won't spend even a quarter of the time we put on each panel (at least in my experience).

No need to apologise, your English is great!

I completely understand that the industry requires efficiency and a fast pace and I respect artists who can do it. It is a job after all and with every job there are expectations.

I absolutely do not judge people who work fast and update often, I just wish there were less expectations for it to be the standard for everyone. Different paces work for different people but I feel like there's been a shift in recent years where comics are expected to be updated more often and they are expected to be in full colour with more panels etc. It works well for some, but I fear it may drive some people away from creating comics or even cause burnout in some artists.

[DiegoPalacios]

I actually trained my speed in drawing so i can take more time planning and plotting episodes.

Quality and speed are both important, but it's important to reach the optimal point for your story.

Some works need more detailed visuals due to how visual is their storytelling. Others don't need that much. What works depends a lot of the kind of story you are telling.

Some of my project ideas are in stand-by until i either reach the skill neccesary to give that work a visual style i consider fitting, or to hire an artist to pull off what i need for said story.

[LCT_m_a_d]

The software industry fell victim to a similar bubble "fail fast, get things out the door" mindset. Which lead to "burnout culture" in the tech industry.

Working slower helped me validate myself as an artist. It's allowed me to become more content and focused on things I can control and value (incorporating ideas, learning a technique). I also don't feel the need to punish myself for not being equally productive each day. Accepting that good things can take time to develop lets me look at the process from different perspective and embrace my highs and low.

[therosesword]

I also recently had a comic teacher talking about the importance of working fast and not good, which really bothered me.

This got a great big "WTF!!!: from me. I scared the cat even.

Okay, I'm not a comic person, novels here, but long time career writer and the fact that a teacher would say this blows my mind.

No! no no no no. When you do something you do it right. Maybe that teacher would like a brain surgeon to put her (him?) on the fast track and see what happens.

Wow.

But I'm seeing that with writers, too. Lack of research so their information is correct. Word quantity count over quality. Not taking the time for punctuation and cohesive thoughts, because, (as one writer recently put it) no one will notice and probably not care.

etc.

I notice the competition in both fields and this is how I deal with it as a writer. I don't put up anything until the story is done and I can schedule chapters one day after another. It takes the pressure off of me and satisfies that "I want it now" response from the audience.

Also, and this is just my opinion but... by working slower you're putting out better product and in the long run, that's going to put you out on top. People do appreciate quality.

Write hard, write true.

[Rhonder]

I definitely agree that pressuring others to work faster as the default option isn't ideal. It should be up to each creator to decide upon their own priorities that best align with their creative goals.

For example, I'm personally team speed/efficiency. I never rush my comics, per se, but I'm always always always looking for ways to speed up my process and get content finished faster. For me it's not even so much about meeting industry standards or anything (I'm very comfortably a hobbyist) but more so about keeping projects short enough to finish. A goal of mine is to write and draw some longer stories, but i also don't want to work on something for like 10 years. So I try to work on my speed to get to the point where I can comfortably make a project like that I find if I want to spend a bunch of time making something really pretty, I prefer to make illustrations instead.

Again agreeing with the OP tho, these are just my preferences/goals. There are many valid ones for working slower as well

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I really think it's a matter of what aspect of comic work you enjoy the most, and finding strategies to cater to that. If you most enjoy the drawing and composition, then all this speed talk is going to go against your nature: it's essentially telling you to rush through the fun. Of course you're not gonna be satisfied...

On the flipside, it can be a godsend for people like me who enjoy the storytelling aspect more. Just last night I finished drawing a rather scenic comic page and went to mark the relevant lines in the script, as I do: I could only highlight three short lines (about 10-ish words total).

My disappointment at the utter lack of progress was palpable. ^^;

I was proud of the drawings I did for those panels, but much more than making pretty art in little boxes I just want to tell this story. So yeah, I'll take all the hints I can get for working faster, because for me the fun part (the writing) is already over. ^^;

[rajillustration]

I have comics I do fast, and comics I do so slowly that I make like...one update a year. So I think it...depends on what the comic is for. If it's really just for me, and something more personal to me, I'll spend as long as I want detailing the pages and painting it fully. If it's because I need to make some money off of comics eventually, then I have to start thinking of how to get faster to compete with the crowd. I don't really have much of a choice since our promotion relies on that algorithm and I don't have a huge following in other places.

But--it's like learning those super fast runs on the piano, I don't think you can get faster unless you know how to do it slow. There will always be someone else faster than you, so you have to know where your limit of efficiency is and just...not push that limit or you will lose more quality than what you gain from speed. You have to know where you're comfortable and allow it to be slower than someone else because...that's just how life works. As you work, you'll get faster eventually through practice.

So I agree that twitter puts way too much pressure on speed. They're doing it mostly for algorithms, and even then speed is hardly the only factor. I spent a year where I did and posted art every day, and it got me 30 twitter followers and that was it (meanwhile, on tumblr, I got 500). So the algorithm is busted. We don't need to worship it, it's just a goal we can work towards, and even if you're fast--if you're not hitting that sweet spot and getting it in front of the right people who really want your content, speed won't help. When I realized that, it was like a burden off my shoulders. I post to twitter when I feel like it--it's no longer this horrible obligation.

But especially for webcomics, it used to be standard to do like...a page a week--maybe in color. Nowadays it's almost mandatory to do full color to get attention, and those episodes are the equivalent of 5-6 pages if they're at least 30 panels. And those panels, because they take up the entire width of the phone or page--they're huge! When you do a page format comic you have some panels that are like half an inch wide--phone comics though? No. They're massive, because you have to upload it at like 940 px wide (or 800 px if it's on webtoons) So...we're doing way more work a lot faster than even 10 years ago.

At some point we will have to cap what we can physically do and put our foot down. I don't know when that will be, if it will ever happen, but it does concern me that this push for content has gotten so extreme that it's given artists serious injuries and serious burn out (me included, I have really bad carpal tunnel flares and had to stop drawing for an entire year in physical therapy.)

[drawnbyyannan]

I think speed often gets conflated with "efficiency" - drawing efficiently often means getting faster, but not necessarily. It might just mean it takes you the same amount of time but you can produce better results. But doing the exact same thing without learning new techniques just doing it "faster" is not helpful.

[Pandastrophic]

I don't think there should be a debate about drawing fast vs drawing slow. It's more about drawing efficiently and using the time you have well.
Things like prioritizing the parts you enjoy in your comic process.
Finding shortcuts that speed up your work process, there are so many things that the reader wouldn't necessarily notice that you took a shortcut on.
Knowing which panels to put more time and effort into and the panels that you don't have to.

I feel like even if I did have all the time in the world to perfect every panel I'm more likely to get bored of making the comic at some point, since comics are such long-term projects perfection can get boring and would cause a burn-out for me.