- Everyone has a different pipeline (which is the steps it takes to make a page) so once you have a style that works and a pipeline you are happy with, STICK TO IT, otherwise you'll be reinventing the wheel each and every page and it takes forever.
- Because you have a pipeline, if you noticed that there's a part of the process that you absolutely hate, if it feels like paperwork--find a way to get a program to do it for you, or turn that sucker into an action. I do my color flatting with a program and I make really intense actions that I outlined out here. Like--it has already saved me hours and hours of the current project I'm currently making.
3. When you are making your linework, try to do things in long, graceful lines, do not go back and do tiny strokes--long, graceful, beautiful lines. Redoing the same line over and over is a pain in the ass and takes forever. See-through brushes and tiny brushes also take longer to color so I love em for illustration, I don't use em for comics anymore.
4. Make photo reference for hands. It's always faster than thinking you remember hands. You don't.
5. You don't need a background in every panel--in fact you only need it like once a page. In long-form comics, you need it even less. Occasionally add that spread shot for the wow factor, and then go back to doing plain panels for the rest with the occasional background element. Details kind of slow down your reader, it makes things feel dense--you most likely won't need them.
6. zoom in if you can get away with it. Not all the time, but if you can crop out the excess and edit your pages to less panels, less dialogue, less...STUFF, that's probably the right choice.
7. Brushes that are stamps are hella helpful--stamps of leaves, stamps of grass, stamps of trees and etc. These are in both Clip and Photoshop and are just great. If it looks too much like you pulled assets out of your butt, put a blur on it with an adjustment layer and that usually helps.
8. I don't use 3d bgs because I don't need to, but I do use guides for perspective, they are wonderful.
9. Don't skip making thumbnails for your layouts and your color studies. It saves so much time and you won't end up with cramming text into space it can't fit into.