Experienced artists, do you have any tip for a first time comic creator like me?

[PlsDelMe]

I want to start my first webcomic tomorrow, thank you very much in advance.

[monotone_ink]

Draw something that's only 2 pages--once you're comfortable with that, slowly expand your boundaries.

[mcarrowolga]

Make your pages in batches of 3 or 4.
Like this: sketch 3 pages, ink 3 pages, colour 3 pages, add text bubbles to 3 pages, etc.

You won't believe how much this simple approach increases productivity and saves time.

[skicoak]

Simplify your renderings whenever possible. You don't have to draw every hair on a guard's arm.

If you're gonna have to draw a character hundreds to thousands of times... Don't give them a jacket with 50 buttons.

Eyes and eyebrows tell the emotional story on a character's faces.

Vary your panel sizes and shapes to control the reader's eye and manage the pace of the story.

Backgrounds are a story element but they don't HAVE to be a main character. They can show up like a secondary character... Just enough so the reader remembers they exist.

Have fun!

[Legendofgenii]

How exciting!

Have fun, and whenever you have that spark to create just go for it!

Try not to worry about not knowing everything about comic making (I don’t) before you start, you can learn as you go.

What will it be about?

[BlairFujin]

Using 3d models and photos as refs and copy pasting elements you already did is not cheating - it's working smarter ;p

[DarkChibiShadow]

If you're doing digital art: be aware not to zoom in too much! This can make it so you focus too much on the little details which will ultimately slow you down.

If you make your canvas nice and big, and don't zoom in too much, just shrink it down when you post it and all those errors will be washed away, wow~

Don't neglect your thumbnails either.... always do your thumbnails!

Also, start with something small! 10 pages or so, complete that story, and then go on to something bigger! It's important to understand what finishing something feels like.

[yoyoyoshiko]

Woahohoho! Thats so exciting! AAAA! I almost wish I could be in your shoes, comics have become a great love of mine since I started out nearly a decade ago aahaha!
Best advice I can give is to use this opportunity to start learning about how you work. How what is your average time for completing an update, what are your favorite things to draw/write, and under what conditions can you perform at your best? You should also be keeping an eye on what your own personal goals are. Do you want to keep an update schedule? Improve your artwork? or are you trying to have fun and kill a few hours? (right, this sounds a lot like homework but you can really just keep these thoughts in the back of your mind)
It took me a few years to realize this but I eventually discovered what I wanted out of my own comics and the kind of structure that I needed to do my work. One of my personal goals is to complete a fully contained story, some artists will not care as much about this. It was very helpful to me to plot out my entire story(no writing, just bullet points) from start to finish, with a chapter-by-chapter breakdown, so I knew the scope of my project and how much work I would have to be putting in to finally complete it. It gave me a clear and defined finish line, which was important to me and my own process.
It was also important for me to be making something I was REALLY enjoying so I wrote a list of my favorite visual and writing tropes, and other ideas I was interested in playing around with. Now if I ever need to juice up a scene or a page I can easily find what excites me, and I find I am less bored with drawn out scenes that are necessary for my story but less interesting for me.
Don't ever forget that this is an undertaking for you, number one. I see a lot of creators, greenhorn and veteran alike, who get really disheartened when they do not see the type of outside response to their comic that they were hoping for and its a little sad.
Those feelings are valid, but are not generally productive, and can be really de-motivating. If you find yourself feeling like that, seek out other likeminded folks, fellow creatives or not, and share your stories amongst yourselves. I have been making comics non-stop with my pals for years and we keep eachother excited! Remember to take care of yourself when you are working on your comic, learn to recognize burnout, dont work too hard but strive for improvement, and be kind to yourself.
There are those who wish to see you succeed, even if they are yourself. Good luck, and HAVE FUN!!!

[thecrystalrook]

This I cannot recommend enough. I work this way as well, and it really breaks up the monotony of drawing massive amounts of comic book pages.

[PlsDelMe]

How exciting!

Have fun, and whenever you have that spark to create just go for it!

Try not to worry about not knowing everything about comic making (I don’t) before you start, you can learn as you go.

What will it be about?

Thank you very much It's a romance, inspired by shoujo manga. ^^

[PlsDelMe]

Good luck, and HAVE FUN!!!

Thank you <3 your answer is so good, congratz on your almost 10 years journey

[SleepingPoppy]

This board has a master list of the Nitty Gritty Tips series, which is full of advice on specific stuff like paneling, flow, and speech bubbles. Wonderful advice for the experienced and newbies. There's also NGT on things like promotion, patreon, ect, but those three are my favs. ^^

NITTY GRITTY TIPS Hi Y'all, welcome to Nitty Gritty Tips! This is the master-thread for all of Nitty Gritty Tips. A series of discussions where we get together as a community to share helpful advice, tips and tricks, around around a various topics. This thread is also where people can come to suggest new topics for the series and share forum discussions that can be considered honorary NGT's (any thread where we've all gotten together to share advice) NGT will be back soon with new topics,…

[yoyoyoshiko]

lol ty, got kind of excited there. i just happened to find something I really liked early on and stuck with it wahaha! feel free to reach out if you have any questions, everyone here has a wealth of experiences to draw upon.

[kitschensyngk]

When I first started, I was just posting pages whenever I finished them. Then I decided to keep a regular update schedule, and my productivity improved dramatically. Find a schedule that you're comfortable with--usually a few times a week depending on how fast you work. Stick to this schedule so that your readers know when to come back for the latest installment, but expect there to be times when you can't update--vacations, illness, family emergencies.

Maintain a social media presence to keep your readers up to speed. Joining forums and Facebook groups is a great way to gain new followers and notify them of site updates.