How and what you help yourself during the webcomic creation process [promotion too]

lomcia 2021-09-09 21:01:51 UTC #1

How do you help yourself to draw the scenes? Do you use 3D models, freely available bases? Maybe references from photos or plywood? I am curious. Write or show how you do it, what you recommend to improve your comic drawing and speed up the process.

Additionally, you can also promote your comic here!

I will start. So I often use 3d models with ArtPose PRO, I recommend the program. On their basis I know how to draw a pose and apply light and shadow (a friend recently gave me this idea). I also re-draw heavier scenes from photos or take photos myself asking my family to pose for me, I also sometimes take inspiration from movie scenes or comics, especially for fight scenes. And how do you help yourselves in creating comics?
Comic:

jermajay 2021-09-09 21:06:04 UTC #2

Someone recommended using Google Maps to draw backgrounds and it's been the most helpful for me so far!

dominioncomix 2021-09-09 21:17:36 UTC #3

I draw almost entirely from imagination, with reference photos to see what something actually looks (ie if i need to draw a barn, i’ll pull up some photos of barns, but the perspective and the design itself are up to me basically, i just have no idea what a barn actually is supposed to look like)

It definitely shows from time to time, lol. Lots of creative anatomy and perspective.

To be honest, i really admire people who can use all tools at their disposal to make good art. I’ve even known some artists who made full 3d designs of recurring backgrounds of their comic to speed up their work. That’s really cool.

Mandatory webcomic link:

Lilmonstart 2021-09-09 21:25:25 UTC #4

Well besides pinterest xDx
I mostly search on google pictures related to the poses the characters gonna have, references for enviroment and google search depending on the thematic of the story idk like (lifestyles in certain age, the technology, other cultures, etc, etc) it depends on where exactly the story gonna happen (modern era, medieval age, fantasy, and much moreeee)
hehe also take pictures to other or to myself to create the poses too xd but hey 3d models also help alot!

And well when I have like a clearer idea of my story and how´s gonna go around my imagination pops out of nowhere and create way more crazy ands weird sh*t

and well here´s my comic

igneriss 2021-09-09 21:46:52 UTC #5

I make the same gestures and expressions as my characters are supposed to have and somehow it helps. I still don't know how it works.

Other than that, nothing much. I try to practice composition, perspective etc with my regular arts and sketches, and then use the obtained knowledge when drawing comics.

Here's my series: https://tapas.io/series/sisefi

Scarlet_Cryptid 2021-09-09 21:50:28 UTC #6

I'm a traditional artist, so a lot of digital shortcuts aren't really available to me. I'll echo the sentiments of several people here, though: lots. of. reference.

If I see a photo of an environment that might be useful: Save.
If I see a picture of a cool pair of boots I might use in a costume: Save.
If I see a useful pose, especially one that would be difficult to draw without reference: Saaaaave.

But I go one further, actually. See, I'm a marker artist, and have been for well over a decade at this point. So I have ... a lot of markers.

This means that I usually have the color I need to replicate an effect... but FINDING the right color in that assortment can be challenging. So I grouped the markers into color 'families', where a slot in the rack holds markers that could considered light/medium/dark versions of each other fairly well. This means if I need to find a darker blue that would look weird to shade a lighter blue with, well, it's right there.

But it goes farther.

I also maintain a swatch book, with each of the color 'families' arranged so I can see what they actually look like-- and they're swatched on tiny bits of the actual paper I do my pages on, so the colors are as accurate as they can be. I even keep it in a portfolio that stays closed most of the time, so I can protect the samples from light and minimize fading.

All this means that if I see a picture of, say, a wheat field..

and I want to replicate it...

... all I have to do is check my swatches against the photo. It's IRL color picking. And it saves me SO much time, and SO much trial and error. (The original is actually closer-matched in color-- any discrepancies are largely due to the scanner.)

TedGravesArt 2021-09-09 23:18:32 UTC #7

Oh boy I've got some resources for ya!

First, taking pictures of yourself is so so helpful for expression work. I've got an OBS scene that's just a fullscreened camera feed for taking spur of the moment reference videos too, really helps you act through your characters when you can look at someone emoting exactly what you want to get across.
Google maps as jermajay pointed out is a godsend, as is sketchfab for quick 3d references of those tough angles.

https://line-of-action.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing
Line of action is a great resource for figure drawing, in fact I use this pretty constantly to warm up and shake out the tension in my hands. 60 seconds per image for 15-20 minutes. It's like magic.

Nothing can replace a real professional letterer, but these are very very useful lettering guides for getting your text to look more professional!

https://www.reubenlara.com/perspectivegrid/

Perspective grid generators are another essential tool in my toolbag. The top link is free and online, the bottom link is offline and costs a couple bucks, but has some useful features that the top one doesn't.

https://www.photopea.com/
Photopea is a free online clone of photoshop.

https://coolorus.com/
https://paletton.com/#uid=1000u0kllllaFw0g0qFqFg0w0aF
Color wheels are very useful tools for generating colorschemes. Coolorus is conveniently integrated directly into photoshop, but a free alternative is Paletton. Really useful resources if you're colorblind like me!

Anatomy Dolls are very useful in a pinch. I've got a couple different kinds. The Figma figures are pretty flexible, and affordable. The seamless dolls are much higher quality and don't fall apart as you're handling them, but they cost a lot more, and you're sure to get some weird looks if you leave them out of the box hahaha

https://flatto.nl/
An online line art flatting tool. You feed it an image of your line art and it spits out an image that you can use to start coloring.

Notes on self publishing by our very own @joannekwan

https://writersdiet.com/test/
Useful writing fitness test, great for writing punchy copy

As a bonus, here are a few art resources I made myself to help folks out:

If your eyes always look misaligned when you flip, try drawing the horizontal line on your heads straight instead of curved!

kitschensyngk 2021-09-09 23:49:03 UTC #8

Follow these Instagram accounts:

@etheringtonbrothers
@tips_for_artists
@drawingtricks

Plus there's always Google Images.

lomcia 2021-09-10 07:00:02 UTC #9

OH MY GOD! Amazing. I admire traditional artists!

lomcia 2021-09-10 07:01:15 UTC #10

~wow. it should help me a lot too to progress! good advice and nice work u do!

iHateFridays 2021-09-10 11:19:23 UTC #11

Honestly I just reuse my lineart allllll the time XD I don't really use 3D assets or anything like that tho. Sometimes when I draw houses I occasionally trace pictures XD

TheDoublekey 2021-09-10 12:51:33 UTC #12

I usually get references from google images or from art books I have. It's never a bad thing to use references, as long as you're putting the effort to analyse what you're drawing.
More often than not I open up some of my mangas to understand the composition better (speech bubble, screentones, other techniques that are used, etc.)

Here's my webcomic for you to check out:

Dialusion 2021-09-10 15:37:04 UTC #13

I'm pretty similar with posing and taking inspiration from movies or other works.

I'm definitely a reference photos type. If I can't find the pose I want, I'll just do the pose and try and either take a photo or, if that's not possible, just try to remember the feeling. Some poses, like acrobatic/gymnastic poses, I need to look up to get it right. Same for objects, either find one I can reference around me, or just look it up and reference it there. I'm still playing around with tools and resources to make things easier.

Also, I make time a bit of a resource and reference, training myself to think, decide and draw faster. If not, think even farther in advance to make up for time not available. Helps me practice and refine basics too, since I work pretty well under pressure and without a lot of time.

...and since promotions are ok, here's a story of Games and Desperation where Passion, Personality and Potential manifest Power

euphisa 2021-09-10 16:42:10 UTC #14

I use sketchup to make my backgrounds, and custom brushes to make my greeneries. I reuse my panels, can be wholly or partially. For example, say i want to reuse my background, i copypaste my background, then i scale/deform it to fit the perspective. Thats for partial reusage of background likewise i think u can imagine how to make a carbon-copy of your panels.

I use references for difficult poses. I for life can never have the patience to adjust 3D models for poses, as it takes too much time. So instead I take pictures of myself or surf the internet for references.

I am trying this new supposed quick method to shade in csp. I cant explain it well, but i learned it through observation from a pro korean webtoon creator livestream. I was astounded when i saw how effortlessly he can shade, yet produce such high quality art.

ElitaRenata 2021-09-11 00:10:46 UTC #15

For CWAM we like to use clip studio assets. They have a wide range of brushes, sets and word bubbles. It definitely helps speed up the process!