Tips to tackle the art of a comic

[ashtelyith]

I never feel satisfied with what I do. I know I should just draw without thinking too much about it, however this is very complicated to achieve.

What are your tips to tackle the art of your comic? What do you do to not look back on it and redraw the panels again and again? How do you make it effective?

I would like to finish drawing my episode this week, I already have the storyboard and some sketches done, but I just can’t seem to go farther. Weirdly enough, I always feel like my storyboard is better than what I draw afterward.

[darthmongoose]

I made a little overview of my process as an extra on my comic. Here's how I do it:

(you might need to "open image in new tab" to view these full-size, or you can go here.)

The thing with comics is that preparation and being familiar with your pipeline helps a lot. I make sure before I even start making a page that I have my template for pages set up, I've got all the brushes and tools I need set up, grabbed any photo or 3D model reference I need, and made my palette so I can quickly reference colours for each character. I also did test run panels before I started making pages, to make sure the style I wanted to use wouldn't take too long.

Finally, remember that you're not slow. Comics take a long time for everyone, but since you only see the result, you might be thinking "Oh no, everyone's bashing out all these pages no problem and I'm really slow and rubbish!" and it's like... no, comic artists who make nice looking pages mostly just spend a really long time and are resigned to comics being kind of their lifestyle.

[Lensing]

1) set strict deadlines
2) finish the project
3) publish the project
4) ask pros (and readers) for help

Make a list with things you want to do better in the next comic.
Do research and preparations for the next comic.

Then start the next one. I think it´s the fastest way to improve

[ashtelyith]

Thanks! That was super useful. I guess I need to take more time on the sketches and layouts, I tend to jump too fast to the definitive sketches, they look almost like the lineart. If there’s something I don’t like I need to redo everything.

I agree, I have a tendency to think I am super slow but the other comic artists I might compare myself to often have a full team of assistants. I should just relax and take it at my own pace lol. I’m also slowly getting better compared to my past tries at making a comic, which is positive even if it takes time!

[ashtelyith]

Thanks for the tips! I used to apply all of those on my past projects (not comic related) and it worked like a charm. I don’t know why it’s so hard to do the same with comics!

[Llyrel]

Can relate. I struggled with perfectionism for a very long time. I still struggle to this day, I tend to be overly critical of my art to the point that sometimes I even lack the courage to post promo pics on my social media.

BUT!

I've also been posting my comic for 3 years at this point, so hopefully I can share some of the things that worked for me

"Done is better than perfect"
This was the quote that literally changed everything for me. I'd been working on the script for The Emergency Coven since 2015 and posting it as a sims story on Tumblr, but I was too scared to turn it into a comic with actual drawings because I felt like I was not "good enough". I found the courage to start working on page one only in 2017 and got stuck there for the following three years. Three. Years. Then I stumbled upon this Youtube video talking about perfectionism and how it hurts us, and that's where I heard the quote "done is better than perfect". It made me realize that sitting on my project for so long wasn't doing it any good. What even WAS the point of taking ages to do a single "perfect" page if the story as a whole was never going to see the light of the day? So I realized that it'd be better to worry less about making it "perfect" and focus more on getting it "done".

Time limit
Another thing I do is kind of... have a limit on how much time I spend on my pages. I work in Procreate, so I can easily see how many hours of work it takes me to make a page. Typically it's 7-8 hours of work for the average page, 12-14 hours of work for complex pages with lots of backgrounds or difficult perspectives. I try to never go over that limit. If I start to notice that I'm getting close to the "time limit" and still obsessing over fixing tiny details... I call it a day. I stop trying to fix the thing and just try to finish the page. Maybe I let it sit in my comic folder for a few days and THEN add some quick fixes in Photoshop, but other than that... I let it go.

Use shortcuts
3D models, stock photos, selfies, Body-kun/mannequins/dolls, mirrors, copy-pasting faces and backgrounds from already drawn pages... as long as you're not stealing somebody else's art, there's no shame in using shortcuts. Artists do it all the time!

Find a compromise
I wasn't feeling very confident with digital art when I first started to make my comic. So I made it a mix of traditional and digital instead. Then, as I started to learn more tricks in Procreate, I started to work entirely in digital. My original shading style involved a lot of painterly rendering and, although I loved it, it was very time consuming and was also starting to hurt my wrist. Comics are very time consuming and you're going to spend A LOT of time drawing pages. So making sure you have a style you can easily work with is key!

Preparations
Already mentioned by @darthmongoose, but yep, this is an extremely important thing. The key reason why I can keep up with my schedule while also having a full time job is because I had a LOT of preparation work done before. Namely:
-I have a summary of the whole story from start to finish;
-I have a good half of the script already written;
-I carefully plan my layout and scenes using 3D models and photos, so I know exactly where each character goes and where each balloon goes before I even put my pen on my tablet.

For me personally, having a good part of the script already written helped immensely, because in this way I don't need to stress over writing AND drawing at the same time! I know some comic artists can just do with a summary and then write the script as they go, and that's fine! It all depends on what works best for you, really but yep, preparation (including stuff like saving your palettes, Photoshop actions and so on and so forth) can make things a lot easier!

[Lensing]

I feel like that too, I´m a musician, I played on and recorded endless singles, albums and
did it like that and I got better at it. It was really hard for me when I got back into comics.
It got better when I started to have real deadlines, projects which get printed. It made
me work harder and seeing the printed page is something completely different than
when you are working on it

[ashtelyith]

Wow! Thanks, there were so many relatable concerns in your message haha. Even though I know it’s better done than perfect, time passes and nothing gets finished. You look back at the previous years and you’ve only made two steps at most. It’s like I know what I should do, but it doesn’t enter my head. It’s hard to stop being perfectionist, but I can definitely see how it impacts my creation process. It can also causes procrastination and demotivation, ugh

The "painting" art style part is also relatable. I’m still not super confident with lineart and flat colors but I know I need to stick to a simpler style, still sometimes I just start painting for no reason and I need to stop myself before going overboard and losing time!

I have the plot fully written, summary for a big chunk of the episodes and scripts for some of them. But I’ll be honest, there is a lot missing. From my experience as well, I do think it becomes easier to draw once you have most things planned out.

Again thanks for your tips, you listed a bunch of useful stuff so I’ll make sure to take them in consideration from now on!

[thepenmonster]

1) set strict deadlines

Yup. IMO you must treat it like you're at work so that means specific start times, specific break times, and a specific finish time. At least that has been working for me and that has in turn made me confident I can start posting in the fall.

Use shortcuts

My only nitpick with this is that a lot of people treat the shortcuts as the actual work and I find this leads to art that looks like it was cobbled together using freeware like Magic Poser Web, or Streetview photos, or whatever Japanese gravure idol they found on Pintrest.

To put it another way, the person who can't draw a table obviously didn't draw that skyline of Tokyo. If they bothered to draw it and didn't just apply a blur to a photo they found.

Not that the audience cares so maybe it's the right way to do it now.

I know I need to stick to a simpler style

You draw how you draw. If you see where you failed to convey what you wanted look up how other people did it and see if it can apply to your way of drawing. Never feel like you should draw a certain way unless your plan is to be as boring as the front page of Tapas.

[allisoncandraw]

The thing about comics is that people only look at each panel for maybe like, 1 second before going to the next one. Whenever I get caught up on the details, I try to remember that.

[abigaillmartin]

"Done is better than perfect"

Dude! I couldn’t agree more with this! I myself can be quite the perfectionist but I know I can’t get anything done if I woe over how bad it’s going to be. Most of the time my artwork turns out okay.

[Llyrel]

My only nitpick with this is that a lot of people treat the shortcuts as the actual work and I find this leads to art that looks like it was cobbled together using freeware like Magic Poser Web, or Streetview photos, or whatever Japanese gravure idol they found on Pintrest.

To put it another way, the person who can't draw a table obviously didn't draw that skyline of Tokyo. If they bothered to draw it and didn't just apply a blur to a photo they found.

Not that the audience cares so maybe it's the right way to do it now.

Yeah, of course it's important to learn the basics before using shortcuts and that one shouldn't overdo it, but in this case my advice wasn't really targeted at "complete beginners who have never drawn anything ever", but mostly at "people who already know how to draw and are looking for ways to speed up their process". In the context of my post, I'd consider "learn the basics of art" more as one of the things that go under "preparations"

The reason why I say "don't be afraid to use shortcuts" is because I often hear this thing according to which a "real artist" should never, ever use shortcuts or basically anything that speeds up their process because that would be "cheating". And in the list of "shortcuts real artists don't use" you'll even see included stuff like... references. According to an illustration teacher I had, "an artist should know how to draw everything from memory and never use references". She was not the only one I heard saying that. There just seems to be this idea that, to make art, you have to suffer for hours and hours and just "know how to draw" without ever actually... dunno, even looking at the thing you are supposed to draw.

Except that art doesn't work like that!

Artists have used references for centuries! ...And other shortcuts

Tintoretto used to make clay models to use as references.
Caravaggio would basically build the exact scene he needed to paint and apparently even use mirrors/a camera obscura to copy the scene. Plenty of artists used lenses and the camera obscura before photography was even invented. Canaletto basically traced over images projected inside his camera obscura and so did his colleagues painting those incredibly detailed views of Venice and other cities.
Others would straight up copy poses from ancient statues, bas-reliefs or even other paintings. One famous example? Liberty Leading the people by Delacroix. The woman's torso is copied from the Venus de Milo and the composition + the bodies at the bottom are straight up taken from Géricault's Raft of the Medusa. And don't even get me started on the amount of people who copied the pose of Jesus from Michelangelo's Pietà
When photography was invented, artists such as Manet and Cézanne would use photo references, sometimes taken from magazines. Max Ernst straight up invented a new technique to make incredibly complex textures by simply scraping the surface of a painting (the grattage). Lots of artists have used photo references and/or took their own photos. As technology evolved, more possibilities were added, such as 3D or highly detailed mannequins you can buy.

So basically: learn how to draw, learn the basics, but don't be afraid to use a little trick here and there to speed up your process. Just make sure you know what you're doing and don't overdo it.

[thepenmonster]

The reason why I say "don't be afraid to use shortcuts" is because I often hear this thing according to which a "real artist" should never, ever use shortcuts or basically anything that speeds up their process because that would be "cheating".

I'd love to know where that came from. My guess is cruel art school teachers trying to eliminate competition for the few gallery walls they have access to.

That or artists bullshitting their patrons to grab a bit more cash from them.

"Oh! Si! Si! That hand took days, Your Holiness! This fresco might take a few more years of me and my studio living on your villa and eating your food..."

[Llyrel]

I'd love to know where that came from. My guess is cruel art school teachers trying to eliminate competition for the few gallery walls they have access to.

-cough- I mean, considering that my illustration teacher DID make sure I wouldn't get the job when a rather famous local company expressed the intention to hire me, you may have a point there... -cough-

Also, the second part of your post, LMAO! :'D

Again thanks for your tips, you listed a bunch of useful stuff so I’ll make sure to take them in consideration from now on!

Glad you found them useful! I wish you the best <3

[moontokkym]

Kate summed it up really well, so I can't really add anything to the process in itself because my process is basically the same as hers until colouring.

I will add that something that helps me is to have a lot of prep for pages, so not only the thumbnail but also having concept art ready for my characters' looks in the scene, for the setting and the decor and stuff. In short: leaving as little designing as possible for the page phase. It really frees up my mental energy if I'm just copying the designs I already have and just get them on the page rather than create important stuff whole cloth as I'm drawing the panel. Not only that, knowing I'm going to have to come up with something during the panel process sometimes blocks me from even starting to draw the panel, so it really slows me down. It's to the point I just sketch random people and make them a bit cyber while I'm out and about and use those practice sketches as one-time NPCs in my comic because it's way easier than making people up.

If you don't do a ton of prep work, it's likely you also don't have any concept sketches of how your decor looks or how chairs are or how a character's drink looks so the full burden of coming up with designs (even if they're just basic everyday things) is during the actual drawing of the page, which can slow you down massively depending on what kind of artist you are and how your brain works best.

I know it can often feel like a waste of time to draw something not directly in the episode when you just want to get it done, so it's not as attractive an option to spend a load of time making concept art on the side and then having to refer back to it, but you could be the type that it really helps.