What is the most time consuming for you when creating comics?

[sekabead]

We have myriad methods to make comics. Some of us will follow traditional process, e.g. making draft, then creating rough sketch, etc. Some of us prefer to make background in 3d program. Some of us might even do fancier stuff, like making everything in 3d program then rely on NPR techniques for example. Some of us will do them in team. No matter what the process is, there is that one stage which is like "boss level", the most time consuming of your method.

For example, I find myself stuck on sketching for days, and then the other process following after it is relatively quicker. Sketching of a single panel take 20 minutes on average for me, so for a single episode consisting of around 25 panels take about 8 hours of non-stop sketching. Completing it in one go for long term might result in free carpal tunnel, so sketching of a single episode take minimum of 2 days for me.

So I'm curious how about you? What is the most time consuming of your process when creating a single episode?

• Researching the internet (related to your story, not including browsing tapas forum/socmed/others.)
• Making script in text docs
• Translating your script into English
• Placing panels / Thumbnailing
• Sketching
• Drawing clean lineart
• Flatting colors
• 3d Modelling assets
• Creating background
• Shading
• Lettering sound effects

Show results

[Shanny8]

For me for the past 2 years, the penciling part has been the most time consuming. the inks take a while, but I love inking so it doesnt seem like a time consuming chore...I'm not super big on coloring(coz the flats take so long) but I'd prefer to do that than penciling.

[Klaustasya]

I was about to say coloring but even sketching the whole panel, try to figure out the right perspective and anatomy proportions of the characters usually eats up a lot of time for me. I don't like inking yet it comes pretty faster than the sketching phase.

[Rhonder]

Hmm it's hard to say for sure, but I estimated "Shading" since along with that usually comes my special effects, sound effects, & etc. which is typically the largest time sink on any given page.

On any given page a different part might rise to the top though lol. Some pages are a chore to pencil if I'm not super confident in the layout/poses of everyone before going into it, inking always takes a lot of time both because I'm slow but also because I work with a dip pen and so have to take care not to run my hand through wet ink (too much, it happens usually at least once every page or 2 lol...) and flatting is usually quick unless there's a lot of different things going on in the background in which case it balloons in time...

[feardeer]

I haven't timed it, so I don't know if it's actually the longest, but I do know that lineart feels like it drags on forever sometimes.

[rmdooley]

Inking. Ugh. I have probably spent more of my life inking than breathing.

[PaulDevers]

Pretty sure lineart takes the longest, mostly because I'm a picky son of a bitch when it comes to making characters look right.

[N1ghtm4r3]

its the first pencils because without a hard and strong pencil it all falls apart, so good placment and goof pencils will help make good art

[vfinnigan]

Since I like to write the lesser known stories from US history, I have to spend an immense amount of time on research.

[Luminosophy]

Planning and sketching. Once it's all done, it's done. Line art and colour might be laborious but all the decision making was solidified already so it's just paint by numbers at that point. I think maybe just thumbnailing itself? Have to throw out so many ideas to whittle down to what works. :v

[faisalhussein394]

Clean line art and background, sounds about right.

Every time I want to draw something on a panel, it always has to do with making a background especially the big ones.

As for clean arts, well my art was not that clean. I really love to put so much detail even if it's just one character.

[gempompadour]

For me the most time consuming part is probably tracing my sketch with a light box. I can come up with crude sketches really fast, but drawing a clean piece from them feels like it takes ages. I love adding more and more little details and when I'm finished, I find out it took 4 hours to draw just one panel.

Following that coloring is another process that eats all of my time. But doesn't feel as rough because it's done on a computer and I can eat and do whatever I want. With paper around you have to be more careful.

[azzy-m]

At first, I was going to check Backgrounds, then I realize: nah, it's totally doing flats.

I think due in part why lineart doesn't take too long for me is because my art style is fairly simple. I can finish it within a day or two (depending on my time and how tired i am), while flats can take me like about maybe 4 or 5 days? I work pretty slow.

[arcojawa]

Procrastinating........

................. but aside from that, honestly it tends to very. Sometimes the storyboard phase takes the longest, sometimes it's the sketching phase, occasionally backgrounds, and sometimes it's the digital stuff that holds me back.

[arleedraws]

Lineart probably takes the longest, but storyboarding takes so much mental energy. Constantly rearranging, rereading, having to take into account where dialogue bubbles and text goes... ugh!!

[rmdooley]

Storyboarding is my favorite part because of how dynamic it is

[oakiel]

sketching is my quickest, no doubt. I have that mastered - the whole 20 panel episode gets sketched within an hour. lining? nah. that stuff takes me days. literal days per episode.

don't even mention backgrounds.

[Rosso]

I'll gladly ink, block, color, BG... etc all day over scripting.
No joke, i spend days just to get it over with the script of the next episode : (
Scripting is an art of its own which i'm quite average at ( in my defense, English is not my first language though, so it has a lot to do with that as well XP ) and because it's the first step to come before sketching anything, i find myself procrastinating a whole lot before starting to work on the next episode...

blocking/coloring is the fastest step for me and most fun to do : D
but yea
spare me the scripting plz ; (

[jrxtin]

Drawing is by far the most time consuming thing I do, and I'm not even hatching it as much as I could.

[phen]

Sketching and setting up. Thumbnails I'll fuss over but I'm getting better at time-wise. But yo, those refined sketches are beginning to take their toll. In the recent couple of chapters, I've spent hours just trying to get a panel right only to scrap it, ink it, then scrap it again. I'm hitting a learning curve late and it's just exasperating lately.

I enjoy inking very much, I just can't stand agonising over a decent sketch to help get the whole thing going!