So, how hard is it making comics?

[saffasas]

I have struggled with it on the past, but I think the thing that’s helping me not to face the blocks this time is the fact that I started out making it with the mindset that I just need to accept that my skill level is where it is right now. I might improve by making the comic, and I probably won’t improve as fast if I’m not making it. There will be things that don’t sound the way I want them to sound or look the way I want the, to look, but they will look and sound the way that I’m able to make them right now. That really helped me not to struggle as much or second guess every decision that I make.

But to answer your specific question, my goal is to do a page a day, when I’m working on my comic (I take breaks of a week or two inbetween making chapters). Some days I make more than one, some days I don’t make any. And I only do one writing session to write each chapter, but then if things need to be cut or swapped round or extended a bit as I’m making the pages I do that. But I really don’t change that much because my goal is to make everything as quickly as possible.

It also really helped that I decided to make a square format page for this comic rather than a traditional format. I find it way easier to break down the beats that way!

[aeonsylver]

Pretty hard...
Drawing comics is an ungrateful craft, you work yourself off for a long time to post something that'll take 5 min or less to read. If you are a freelance artist, like most people on Tapas, you need to do every step yourself, from the script to the lettering and finding a balance to work on it all can be very taxing and demotivating pretty quickly, BUT when you post and see your story taking shape before you, it makes everything worth it, because it's your story and only you can make it.

I started drawing a page per day then, over time (2-3 years) I was able to draw 3-4 pages a day with easy, but yeah...time it's the key word here.

[Pandastrophic]

I honestly don't know, it's hard but also kinda fun? I find certain aspects of it hard and other aspects I love and look forward to working on so I don't find them hard. I find writing difficult in general, I also find it difficult when I make edits last minute and add like 6 new panels to an episode that I thought was completed, adding text to a 30+ panel comic is always super boring...
But I always look forward to the drawing and colouring part of the comic, I've been struggling a lot with making illustrations, I used to make like 4 or 5 finished illustrations unrelated to my comic but I've been in such a horrible art slump for the past 2 years and the comic has really kept me drawing because its the only think I look forward to working on anymore. Seeing the episode completed and uploaded is really satisfying to me too.

[crowstories]

I agree that it's fun-hard... most of the time. I enjoy problem solving and learning new things, and the amount of time I'm required to spend drawing each day just to finish the week's comic has led to rapid improvements... But with that said, there are still a lot of panels I'm not happy with, which is discouraging, as is the fact that my skills have already advanced beyond what is currently published, which makes me feel weird about trying to get new subscribers. And my neck hurts all the time... which is pretty normal for me but drawing for hours every day reeeeally doesn't help.

It's also unfortunate that my current release schedule doesn't leave me any time for art that isn't for my comic... and it's gonna be like a year before I finish this thing, assuming I can keep up the current pace, which I know I can't.

So yeah, it's hard. Mostly quite enjoyable, but definitely hard.

[Lady_T_Musings]

For me, the hardest thing about making comics is making and following a schedule. Like I could draw all day long, but actually, planning page, making layouts, creating story and dialogue, choosing fonts, making pallets... all things that must be considered when making comics, and planning when to work on those has been the most challenging thing for me (outside of drawing landscapes, wow that one takes 5-ever for me once I have to create them). Though getting a schedule together and making it routine defiantly helps me a ton. I still hit blocks of course, but the more I make this comic, the more I get accustomed to what I can do to solve the problems I run into. I love making it though and know that the struggles are making me better as an artist and storyteller, even when I don't feel as confident about something I made in particular.

[pilot-obvious]

I'm at a really difficult point in my story. What I really want to do is work on the next arc of the comic where all sorts of cool stuff happens. Right now, the first arc is still setting up the scene/tone of the comic and introducing one of the main characters. I feel like it's been dragging on forever, but that's because it takes forever for me to actually draw the updates. It probably takes like 15 minutes to read LMAO

I kind of hate how quickly it takes to consume the stuff that takes me forever to draw.

[crowstories]

Oh man, I feel all of that... also I feel like what I have published now is really uninteresting compared to what's going to happen like 3/4 of the way through the plot, and who is gonna stick around that long??

[joannekwan]

Thanks for the warning!
Right now I've got a bit scripted and it's shaping up to be more like the novel is the expanded universe while these slice-of-life shots are looking through a microscope.

[TedGravesArt]

I felt like a fairly decent illustrator when I started my comic, and I can say now that making a comic is the quickest way to feel like crap about your craft, haha! Comics quickly show you every spot where you're lacking as an artist. One of the toughest challenges for me is figuring out how to move the camera around in an action scene without it being disorienting to the reader, and still maintaining the energy and dynamism of the camera. Pacing is another thing. In film, you can show many different things happening with very quick cuts, and you have real motion in the frame. In comics, that's much more difficult, so framing shots so you can see multiple things happening at once in an action scene, while communicating the movement, while still keeping an interesting camera angle can be tricky. Also, now you're forced to draw something from an angle that you're not used to, which is an added layer of difficulty. You can't fudge it, because it's necessary to the page layout and readability of the comic.
And of course just the tasks of designing so much stuff, drawing so many things you never have had to draw before, doing it all quickly and sticking to a schedule, these all can be really difficult. Also, working for a month and a half concepting and drawing pencils, without posting anything is rough. I desperately want to share what I'm working on but can't, so it's hard to keep my motivation up at times.
It all forces you to get so much better though! I'm only a couple issues into my comic, and already I can see a massive improvement in my art. If I had started with the issue I'm working on right now, it would have taken me twice as long and looked far worse.
tldr, comics are so haaaarrrrrdddd, but worth the effort!

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Yeah. Comics are hard, real hard, but I'm a sucker for the pain, I love the challenge.

[Caro]

i’m in the camp of folks who don’t have that much trouble with it. I’ve also been drawing them professionally for years and drawing pages and writing daily before hitting that point. Its basically my default art form like if I have to work on a new project I basically CAN’T come up with anything until i start doodling comic pages even before i know the plot or characters or setting.

Heck, the first thing I do as a warmup in the morning is a page of throwaway comics. And then i spend the next 10 hours of the day inking pages.

There are things that CAN be frustrating in the process but as far as difficulty goes its definitely the least labor intensive job I could have because its so very much in my comfort zone.