Organizing before starting I'M ALREADY SO TIRED

[Triple_Horatio]

I've been spending a month or two drawing full body, one pose character reference sheets of my MAIN characters (my tablet works when it wants to), in manga style, while trying to plan out even the first few pages of my manga-comic. I'm so tired already! How do you find a balance between finding it a chore and finding it enjoyable? How much time do you spend a day on your comic, especially manga/detailed ones? How much material did you have before you started and how long did that take you?

[joannekwan]

On average I spend like 4 hours a day doing comics. If I'm going through a really boring part, usually I break it up by doing something fun in between, like watching youtube or drawing something else.

As for pre-production stuff, I'm really terrible. I hardly ever do character refs unless asked to as part of a collab or something. Usually I just draw the character about once or twice, until I get the "Yeah, that's exactly how I want them to look" moment and just use that as a ref, and those are hardly ever full body shots. I generally have a sense of what my characters look like anyway.
But as for settings, like buildings that the characters will frequent, I like to have at least a layout planned. Figuring out the floor-plan is pretty important. Sometimes I'll do little environment sketches, but most of the time I'll draw the environment in a panel and then go back to that later to use as a ref.

[shazzbaa]

I technically had a LOT of material before starting, but almost none of it was Official Reference Sheets. I just... drew my characters a lot, and scribbled sketches of the places that would inspire their world. Like, I drew them making different faces, drew them doing different things, scribbled them over and over in different poses and from different angles until their body type looked right and their clothes looked the way I wanted and I felt confident I could draw them with lots of different emotions.

So, getting my characters' designs solid usually looks more like this --

-- just a whole bunch of sketches.

I don't have the patience for a character sheet or character turnarounds unless I'm doing them for class or something. But on the other hand, if you don't enjoy drawing your characters over and over and over and over again.... drawing a comic might not be much fun!

[Triple_Horatio]

if you don't enjoy drawing your characters over and over and over and over again.... drawing a comic might not be much fun!

Very true! Maybe my laziness is just killing me slowly!

[Triple_Horatio]

Usually I just draw the character about once or twice, until I get the "Yeah, that's exactly how I want them to look" moment and just use that as a ref, and those are hardly ever full body shots. I generally have a sense of what my characters look like anyway.

That does make me feel better about my situation, I'm just impatient and want to start the actual comic immediately. ;__;

[joannekwan]

Haha yeah, usually I just jump right in!

[dojo]

If you really are just eager to go ahead and start, then that's what I'd recommend doing. There really isn't a right or wrong answer for how long you should spend preplanning before jumping into something. I mean, yeah, preplanning is a highly recommended boon, but there's so much you can learn from just diving into a project sometimes.

[Shanny8]

I'm the same as @joannekwan- I just whip up a couple of character designs until I nail something. I'm not the type that spends hours drawing a character design from every angle- not that there's anything wrong with it, I just dont enjoy doing that.

Depending on the day of the week pretty much dictates how much time I spend drawing/inking/coloring. When drawing I'm usually a LOT looser with my pencils coz I know I will do all the details when inking, so pencils can take anywhere from 3 hrs to 5 or 6 depending on detail & the number of panels. Inking usually takes me about 8 hrs to a full day per page; I often switch up between brushes & nibs to get the correct lines I want, plus using the line tools if rendering certain types of backgrounds. Coloring takes the same amount of time...lettering takes the least amount of time, as I usually have an idea of what I want on the page- so when I do start lettering, I can nail it in a couple of hours.

[UzukiCheverie]

I've been spending a month or two drawing full body, one pose character reference sheets of my MAIN characters (my tablet works when it wants to), in manga style, while trying to plan out even the first few pages of my manga-comic.

My personal advice/experience: Don't get too wrapped up in doing these. If you're the only one creating the comic, unless you absolutely need them to be able to do your comic (like if you won't be able to draw your characters from memory - which is still something that will come with repetition and practice as you draw your comic), then doing these is really not as necessary. When you're working on a comic team, or a video game design team, or something that requires that level of collaboration, yes, I'd say make as many model sheets as you think you'll need. But when you're just working on a personal comic, if you know your characters and otherwise wouldn't do anything with the sheets for now (maybe offering them as behind-the-scenes pics for Patreon, which is something you really shouldn't be thinking of yet, not until you've at least started it and gotten some episodes in), then putting so much time into them would be a waste of energy and time you could be putting into working on the actual comic IMO

Of course everyone has their preferences. I love model sheets and I'd love to be able to do more of them, but there's really just no reason for me to other than offering them to readers as Patreon-bonuses, and rather than putting all my attention into those, I could just, you know, work on my comic. I also find that putting so much time and work into pre-production can sometimes make the actual production harder - you wonder "When will I finally get to work on my actual project instead of preparing for it?" It can almost do the exact opposite of what you're trying to do - which is to stay motivated and interested in a project long enough to work on it.

But that's just me It's different for everybody, but if you find that doing all that work that isn't crucial to carrying your comic, I would suggest weighing your work priorities a little more and determining what's a "must" and what's a "save for later".

[Rueleer]

This problem is exactly why I gave myself a deadline for when I need to get character designs done. It just goes on forever if you let it. :'D (And I'm glad to see I'm not alone in finding ref sheets a huge drag X'DD)

As long as I can clearly tell a character apart from another, that's all I do before chucking them into the story. You can always change little aspects of someone's appearance later anyway, if you want to. (My trick tho is just to leave it until the end of my deadline, cuz then I'll /have/ to decide. X'DDD)

It takes me roughly 10 hours to do one page, split across 2 or 3 days most of the time. So around 5-3 hours per day. I spent about 3months planning, but was messing with 3 different stories at the same time.

To make it seem less like a chore, you need 1. figure out how long you can actually work on a page before burning out, and 2. what can motivate you to finish a page.

If you can figure how much you can do before getting bored, and how long you take to recharge, it's easier to make the best of your time. Thinking about good things that will come from you working on the comic also helps you enjoy the process, since that's essentially what motivation is.

[tayo_rafferty]

I'm quite bad at pre-production because I'm often too excited about just getting started on the comic itself. So I've decided to use all that energy to work on one comic (Seven Shaman) while I do pre-production for another comic.

So in a way I'm sort of treating my current series as like a prototype which fulfils my need to have an ongoing project while at the same time giving my more ambitious project time to develop properly. Then I can take everything I've learnt from my current project and apply to the future project.

Hopefully I can combine the experience of actually making a comic on tapastic with the careful preparation of a new series and get something really great.

[Doubtcent]

That's the thing about creating comics.
It's both really fun (once you get the hang of it) and incredibly tedious.
As a comic artist, you are in charge of everything the reader sees. From the story, the backgrounds, the character poses, the dialogue, the sounds, everything! Sometimes the process can be super fun, like concept ideas and story elements, but once you get into the nitty gritty, you have to sit there and draw something over and over.



Each of these individual panels took perhaps an hour each to draw, not including color. At a certain point, you have to just push yourself to just keep going. To tell yourself, "I'll get this panel done before I go to sleep."
Making a comic is a lot of work. You're either in it all the way, or not at all.
You can get away with a lot less detail if you try something else first, like a slice of life, gag-a-day comic.

[Down_the_Rabbithole]

Hi there. These are my best answers in order of what you asked.

1. For me personally, this is a project of passion. This is a story I want to tell no matter the cost. I find that the biggest "chore" about starting a new comic page is actually starting it. Once I actually start outlining the page, I get into a groove and then it's not really a chore anymore. However, it's important to take a day or two off to prevent burnout, but I don't take too many days off or else I stagnate in inactivity. It gets more difficult to get back on the horse if you haven't ridden it in a while.
2. It all depends on how many panels there are, how much detail is in each panel, and how much time I can work on it each day. On an average page, I'd say it takes me 6-8 hours. Some days I can power through a page because I have no life.
3. I started coming up with ideas over a year ago. So, I had over a year of building up material. The most difficult part was the writing because I've thrown away a bunch of drafts on the first issue alone. Hell, I had to gut entire characters and plot to get where I am now. Since I have a background in animation, I made character turn-around sheets in order to keep consistency. Though, I've been sketching my mains for long enough that I don't really need reference anymore.

Sum up, it's a lot of work, but if you're really passionate about this and you know this is what you want to do, you'll just do it. Remember to take breaks, but always come back.

[9outofPen]

I know how you feel! I'd say, if drawing turn-around character references is boring, don't do it! If you know what they look like and would rather spend your time doing something else, there are better uses of your time. You can always make character sheets later.

A habit I have from drawing my manga in sketchbooks is to break up the work. If one day I just can't draw characters right, I'll make backgrounds. Other days, I'm impatient and want to move along, so I'll do only characters and skip background the setting altogether. It feels like procrastinating, but you're actually working on something all the time.