Creator with day job, how many panel can you draw a day?

[MGComics]

I think 6:30 AM is a good hour, If you go to bed late or something lol you also need to sleep well, of course!

To wake up early I have a process in which I try to think as little as possible so I don't go back to bed, so I would recommend you creating one If you need It.
I love that in this community we can understand each other <3 Wow, feels amazing that your life is similar

Yeah @ahkwardkat I agree a good motivator is when someone makes you do something. But I doubt we, creating a webcomic, nobody is making us do It. So all discipline relies on us, which does make It harder

btw can I have a link to your comics? Both yout thumbnails seem with such a pretty art

[MGComics]

Wow, this was extremely inspiring and helpful. I actually was starting to think to imitate your productivity and then I read how you hurt your hand... It's eye opening. Thanks for sharing. You seem to be very hard working and I hope you recover so you can draw your comic again <3

[MGComics]

@teagirlvn Do you post your process somewhere?

@vincentprendick I get what you mean, It's like life loses meaning If you stop doing what you love for a long time. And not even drawing... And then you sketch something and you feel such bliss and even peace. Be careful with your health but... I also understand why It isn't that much of a priority

[dawgofdawgness]

My plan is to work on my comics about 2 hours every day after school, finishing up over the weekends. But mostly what I do is procrastinate on my comic until Sunday, and I don't end up finishing it up until 2-3 weeks after. (this is mostly due to poor time management of my homework.. Eugh)

[MGComics]

Ok, absolutely love your work ethic. It seems that you chose quality because of what I'm seeing of your art (subbed) and you saying It takes you like 15 hours.

Also the story is not easy thing.

For me univeristy could be easy... as my education in the past, but.. I'm studying engineering. And, to be honest, I had never lived something as hard. It's amazing how can you spend 5 hours on a homework or project and make no progress at all D:

But yeah, I think It depends of each person and each career.

I will continue to support you as a reader! I definitely admire your dedication!

[ahkwardkat]

I studied Animation and Illustration in college so I was drawing constantly, but for homework. Possibly that is why it was easier to feel more productive? Over the course of 6 years I got 2 degrees amd freelanced to pay for my apartment. Now I feel so exhausted after work and I still gotta sit amd draw after standing at a till amd doijg paperwork for 10 hours. OTL

I love science but never studied it other than Core requirements (physics was my favorite class). So i can totally respect how hard it is. As an illustration major I could easily spend a lot of hours drawing each night, especially during thesis time! Lol nightmares. XD

Some people are capable to be high functioning in all aspects with little sleep. Some need more sleep. I usually do ok with 4 to 5 hours but lately it is getting harder lol. Do not mistreat your body. I always take a night off from art if I feel my body getting too weak or tired. So while you might like my ethic, it is a double edge sword. Be careful with yours too!

[akemikae]

I have a part time job, and draw most days when I'm at home. I try to take about 2 days off a week to do other things, like socialize or play a video game. I think my drawing speed is really random. Some days I can draw a full page in one sitting, others I take forever to get one panel done. So it really just depends. However, in an average week I can finish 2 pages.

[munazatoon]

Honestly, I don't really have schedules. I do what I can when I had time, if I had window in my work time, I use it to work at it a bit or if I'm not really tired, I will draw a bit before go to sleep, sometimes after I wake up at the morning.

My advice is to limit how much page/panels for an episode/upload so it wont stress you too much.

Because I do my Sang Kong in Webtoon Format, I limit myself, like for a week I must at least get 15-20 panels done more or less

please mind my English

[villainesayre]

The worst part about that exhaustion is that my parents always says "when we were your age we'd go back from work and do everything at home that needs to be done, sleep less etc" but they don't understand that I'm more psychologically tired than physically and that prevents me from sometimes even doing these basic chores. In my first job I was only dealing with graphic design for one art centre and I was in contact with only one person. Now when I have my own business and clients literally come from the street (I still do graphic design, printing stuff, photography (for ID, visas etc), old photo restoration and stuff like that) and I'm mostly tired of interactions with other people who are very demanding with getting stuff done preferably by hand. That's very stressful cause I do various multiple tasks everyday and sometimes I'm just not able to do everything till deadline (so I stay after working hours very often, I simply don't know when a big project will come up and it has to be done for a sole reason of earning ever needed money).

About constantly thinking about comics: it's not that I think about it every minute, I tend to think about it while doing tasks which don't involve my thinking process too much, like cleaning, vacuuming, lying in bed while I can't sleep, brushing teeth etc. At first it may seem forced but in no time you'll just start thinking about your comic like about a lover - constantly. I've read/heard somewhere that the best way to find a solution is to not work directly on a task but doing something else instead. Problem will most likely solve itself in our heads, then we get to execute the idea.

And I really do recommend to carry a notebook literally everywhere cause we don't know when the fun idea or a solution to the problem will appear!

[villainesayre]

Please don't do that to yourself. We all need some rest! And exercising hands before drawing is very important if you don't want to have problems like I do (and if you draw/write a looooooot). I never done that cause I was a dumbass thinking "who need to exercise hands?!" And now drawing or even writing (and holding stuff like cutlery, toothbrush etc) is somehow hard for me cause I tend to easily drop things, my hands are getting sore while drawing/having hand in that particular position.

Also I don't know if I'm that hard working, I'm just very busy and need to get the stuff done or else I'll lose my clients and won't earn money that I need to cover my basic expenses like paying rent, getting materials for work (TONS tons of paper, cause I own a small printing business) etc. I'm actually very lazy by nature! I wish I could just stay in bed everyday, read books and draw stuff ;n;

[teagirlvn]

Lol my first parttime job was at a studio exactly like your business, I swear the amount of work was a nightmare, they only have some really old actions download from internet and not really suitable for the workflow, thanks to that I learned how to make actions and even write photoshop scripts myself. You really should consider hiring someone to help you with work.

[genjiOtori]

"when we were your age we'd go back from work and do everything at home that needs to be done, sleep less etc"

Sleep less is probably the most horrible advice anyone can give. How are you supposed to function properly if you don't sleep enough? You get a proper meal when you're hungry. You take a break when you're weak from physical labor. Why shouldn't you give your brain a break when it's tired from being used?

Gets me angry every time I read something like this °^° You're actually more efficient and get more work done when you get 8 hours of sleep. Period.

[villainesayre]

@teagirlvn I've only opened this kind of business since there was none of that kind in my small city. Everyone at the beginning told me that I won't last long because there's no demand for that. After more than a year I can tell that a demand is very high and that's why I'm overloaded with work. I still don't earn enough to hire someone else to help me, so I'm struggling alone heh. I have rather new tech and I've been working in photoshop for more than 11 years now so I'm quite efficient when it comes to digital work. It's just that I'm simply overwhelmed with work!

At the beginning I was bringing work to home with me and that's where I stopped drawing comics or even single panels. Now I don't do that but I still lack the time to draw...

@genjiOtori Hope my parents would understand that... I sleep around 6 hours during workdays and at Friday night when I'm totally exhausted I could sleep for the entire month - on Saturday morning my mom usually turns on the radio really REALLY loud in order to wake me up around 9am (I'd often sleep till dinner, that's how exhausted I am).

[anitacomics]

Take your time then, making comics is exhausting and takes SO MUCH time. You'll realize it...and you'll still love it.

[MGComics]

Oh I was just commenting how I would treat myself ... better than you guys at least? lol I will definitely listen to your advice! I think that is very valuable <3

Thank you for your insight. Lol It matters what you do. I'm lazy by nature too but here we are, working so hard so we can create this. So yeah, I still think you're hard working specially when you have to do sacrifice to do what you love and maybe leave a legacy behind

[Houndstooth]

I work on batches of 2-4 pages at once so it's hard to tell exactly how much I'd get done per day. I generally manage to do one page of inks, or one of flat colours, or three of shading if I get on with it when i get home.

I'm at work 8:30am-5:30pm every day except weekends, so when i get home on a GOOD day I'll be non-stop drawing from 6pm-11:30pm (I don't eat dinner)
On a bad day (ie. it's been a long day and I'm exhausted) I'll generally work from 8:30pm-11pm.

Weekends I tend to reserve for sorting out stuff I've let build up over the week - I'll prioritise laundry, cleaning, etc. I rarely work on comics over the weekend to be honest, I spend that free time working on other projects - I make fursuits so I'll have a day on that rather than the comic.

But I'm fairly lucky in that I don't have a social life, I don't go out, it takes very little time to get to/from work, and I have very little to do with myself other than draw so I can just sit down and go for it when I get home.

[teagirlvn]

Haha your life is almost exactly like mine, except I'm still living with my mom and she don't force me to do housework, since I'm making money with my drawing at home too, so I have around 4 to 5 hours per night. You are right, I should just keep going without worrying about the speed, it's my first time doing comic so there's a lot of thing I should learn by doing it slow first.

[teagirlvn]

You are totally right but I'm afraid I can not fully follow it, I mean, my ideal life should be exactly the same as you said, I understand what good and what not at the point, but the urge wanting to finish a piece of drawing don't let me go to sleep in time, although I know for sure that I will regret it tomorow, the force is just too strong sometime, haha, I think most of the creator here can understand that, but then again, you are totally right, I really should learn to control myself for a healthy life.

[teagirlvn]

Yeah I realized my speed is quite slow compare to everyone in this thread, that "take my whole night" panel is only a small one with one character and simple background, I figured out the reason why I was that slow because I'm not used to drawing natural gesture, expression, I mean, I only draw single-image artwork up until now, the character is always cool and has some kind of unrealistic dynamic pose, but the way to express a character in a comic is very diffrent, way more diffcult, a lot of thing need to take in account, just a very "normal" pose took me a lot of time to make it feel right, because I have never really draw any normal pose, and dealing with expression that much before.. I really should to learn those thing first before worrying about the speed, thanks.

[ratique]

Full time job-human here!

How many panels I can draw really depends on the artwork, and drawing is only half the battle - writing and coloring also take up a lot of time. I would average it at about 5 panels if I can work for a couple hours after coming home from work, feeding the dogs and myself.

And no, I don't have other hobbies. I stay away from games purposefully, even from books (unless I can listen to them), or TV shows that require my full attention. I keep my weekends and vacations empty in order to draw. If friends visit, we usually draw together.

This may sound awful for many, but I enjoy drawing. It is a hobby and relaxing to me. If this isn't the case for you, a huge project like a webcomic can quickly turn into a burden. And I also can get tired of it.

Depending on how dedicated you are, you will either work through it or take a break (maybe even give up on it). And that's fine - you are here because you want to anyways.