How many panels/pages do you have in a file when drawing?

[TheLemmaLlama]

Around 12 for me; I have a folder for each panel, which each take up the entirety of the dimensions

Also for page format people, do you ever draw multiple pages layered on top of each other in the same file like I do with panels? Or would that crash your program? :'D

[Lensing]

I work in different apps:
Autodesk Sketchbook for sketching, page design and panel borders.
Clipstudio Paint for inks and coloring.
I also do the multiple layer page thing but I do that with the finshed pages,
not with the files in progress, that would be too confusing.

I only have one folder for each step. Pencils, inks, coloring, panel borders etc.

[TheLemmaLlama]

Ah, so each Autodesk Sketchbook file and each CSP file each contain one page?

Do you do each step in batches? (e.g. sketch all the panels forst, then ink them all, then colour them all instead of sketching, inking and colouring 1 page then starting the next one from scratch)? If so, do you just end up opening and closing files all the time? :'D

[TheSingularitySeed]

I have about five panels per file doing page format.

Characters are in one group, backgrounds in another. Any effects also go in another group.

I think having multiple pages in one file would make my computer cry so I haven't tried that yet.

[TheLemmaLlama]

Gotcha :'D Same question for you; do you work in batches/use an 'assembly line' process?

I feel like if I open a file and finish, say, inking it, it feels weird to then close that file and open a different file and ink that instead of colouring the file I already had open :'D

[Lensing]

I do it like that:

Autodesk Sketchbook:
-sketch one panel
-put it into the page sketch/compositon file
then
Clipstudio:
-ink the one panel
back to AS:
-draw panel borders
back to Clip:
-ink

until the page is finished
then I color the whole page in clip

it maybe sounds too complicated for other artists because it would be better to work
in just one program but I dislike sketching in clip and I also enjoy the progress of switching between
apps. I also take breaks between the steps because I´m not under time pressure, I would work
differently when I would have a strict deadline

[TheSingularitySeed]

Yes I do five pages at once doing each step on each page before moving on to the next step (ink all, flat color all, shade all, etc).
The only step I don't do this way is thumbnailing because I like to thumbnail the whole chapter before I start rendering.

I think this method improves my speed and has also helped me catch continuity errors.
But for me this method feels natural because I used to bounce between drawings anyway before I started my comic. I get really bored looking at the same thing for too long, so I like being able to just switch to a different image.

[TheLemmaLlama]

Ah, so you work on one page at a time :] Makes sense - I imagine using two programs while also working in batch would probably be too much file swappage when you only have one page per file :'D

@TheSingularitySeed Gotcha! I guess I got used to thumbnailing all in one file, so I felt like doing an episode proper all in one file as well XD And switching to a different image when you get bored is probably a habit I should pick up; usually when I get bored I just stop working altogether :'D

[rajillustration]

I thumbnail it out in one file, and then draw each panel in a separate file and then take a copy of that file and stick it back into a massive file later, so I end up with a file with 15-25 panels, but all the layers and all that is done in 15-25 other files that I can go back into and edit when I need. Also nice for promotion or if I ever want to change to page format because I can just grab that panel whenever.

[TheLemmaLlama]

Gotcha! I guess I tend to work in one file even when I still have layers for each separate panel also because I tend to do a lot of copy-pasting ...

Does anyone do a lot of copy-pasting but also work on each page/panel in a seperate file? Does it get tedious? :'D

[Shanny8]

I work in page format- number of panels WILL vary.

I've done as little as one panel(full page spread or splash page) and as many as ten(or was 12?) panels.

It depends on how I want to pace the story/script per page.

[migxmeg]

Just one. My workflow is similar to rajillustration's - I used have a ton of folders on the canvas but during inking I felt so crammed into the vertical scroll bar and found I absolutely hate drawing things that are cropped - much rather let the lines trail off then crop later. Everything is worlds better now that panels get their own file.

I have so many similar/same layers that need to go on each panel - for that I have folders set up in template files and auto-actions to make it pretty painless.

[TheLemmaLlama]

Ah, I guess I meant more like 'do you just put one page in one file or do you have multiple working pages under each other in layers in one file'? I just stated it in terms of panels because I'm biased and that's what I'm used to :'D I didn't really mean to ask how many panels you have in a page (I just went back and edited the title XD)

@migxmeg Ahhh template files! I should probably make some instead of starting a new file, making a folder with all the layers needed for one panel and duplicating it 10 times in the same file XD

[migxmeg]

They're a life-saver! Just make sure to keep a back-up of your template in case you're like me and save by accident after doing some work before you did a "save as" with a new filename XD.

If you're in Clip Studio, auto actions are even better than templates for most things - absolute magic.

[rajillustration]

yeah I when I do copy-pasting I can either go back to the panel I know that certain picture is in and just copy paste from there, or something I started to do which has been really helpful is I make a file that has all of the times I used one person in it. So that way I can see "have I drawn this face before?" look at my superfile, and either use a picture I've already drawn as a base, or just copy paste. So like here's one I have of a character

Looks small but each image is about 8 inches wide, so it's easy to select an image, copy, and then paste. Also it's been helping me stay more on-model, which is nice.

[Shanny8]

My chapters are like 40 pages...there's the pencil & ink files, the color files, and the lettering- so that's about 120 pieces that I fit into a file. I save an additional copy of this to a backup HD(the working copy is on a USB drive so that I won't lose it if my computer crashes.

[Lady_T_Musings]

Lol yeah, that would destroy my memory layering up a bunch of pages in one on my ipad. My chapters are about 30-35 pages long though and I stack them by chapter. I do sketch my thumbnails for chapters on paper and take a picture and then cut them up and arrange them onto an 11x17 canvas at 350 dpi.

I did think it would be a great idea to do it like that though, but it would be hella busy in that file even if I could.

[TheLemmaLlama]

Ah, so you have multiple files open at once then? I wonder if that's less taxing on computer processing power than having all that data in a single file ...

@Shanny8 Eyyy fellow lumper 40 pages in a file sounds like a lot though - your device must be really powerful o_o

@Lady_T_Musings So ... calculation noises ... a 3850 x 5950 canvas (Sorry, I have no sense for inches and DPI :'D)

[rajillustration]

nah, I only have 2 files open at once. The panel I'm working on, and the masterfile full of other drawings I've done of that character. I close em when I'm not using them.

[system]

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