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Sep 2022

I'm curious on what other people's schedules are!

It took me a while to finish up my schedule, but I've finally settled on one that works for me. I don't give myself too much work in order to be able to achieve what I need each day, leaving room to do more if I want to.

I start drawing new episodes on Saturdays, while my upload day is actually Tuesday. It works since I have a couple days to see if I can finish an update, and if not I'll be aware that I'm gonna use up my buffer/ not upload that week.

But yeah, I like starting on saturday because I have plenty of time to plan! I used to start on Monday, but the last thing I want to do is start pages first weekday back. And I find finishing on the Friday to be quite satisfying.

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    Jul '22
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    Sep '22
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I don't like strict schedules. I work more loosely, and update on monthly basis. (beside hiatus) I usually make comics in a batch like 3~5 pages.

1st week:
* promote a bit
* make side contents/photos for social media/patrons
* do side projects if i have
* thinking/visualizing on next batch of comic work
* rest time!

2nd week:
* side projects if i still can
* side contents/photos for social media/patrons
* thumbnailing, and some revisions
* detailed thumbnailing
* some penciling
* still have some rest time

3rd week:
* detailed thumbnailing
* penciling
* inking

4th week:
* inking if I haven't finish them
* scan, digital retouches and the rest
* add texts along with other language.
* more working hours

Near/On deadline:
* reformat to web versions, check pages
* post 'publish'

I Upload every 3 weeks.
I use the first day to write the episode and make a storyboard.
Then the rest of the first week to sketch and do the backgrounds, next week to lineart and base color and in the final week shading, speech bubbles and effects.
I draw like 40 panel for each episode and draw a lot of backgrounds, so I need the full 3 weeks

For me it's usually like this:

My chapters usually have around 30-40 pages. For drawing, I do scanning & editing after 3-5 pages.

Currently I'm well behind the schedule, as I'm already in the middle of drawing chapter 17 and only recently started planning chapter 18 :sweat_02: but I have vacation soon so I hope to catch up.

This is so interesting, I'm surprised to have seen more people who schedule for a couple weeks than week to week :smug_01:

But fr, 8 weeks to finish that many pages is super impressive, that's a ton of progress!

I think that if I did my serie digitaly and in colours, I'd do the weekly schedule to make sure I have enough time for lineart, flats & shading :smiley: but with how I draw, it's easier for me to plan out bigger chunks of work that can be done chapter by chapter, and just remind myself to draw pages in the meantime :smiley:

Mnn yissss planning and schedules inhales deeply

I'm always blowed out by folks who can work and post same week. :triumph::sparkles: I'm not that efficient haha, well maybe if I didn't have a day job it would be possible, but idk if that's for me tbh. I just feel freaked out thinking about it though. I have to have most of a chapter done before I even contemplate posting or else I'll feel like I'm always trying to catch up (shoot I still feel that way with a backlog haha).

I have a scheduled on and off period that I rotate the focus of my art during the year so that I can also work on non-comic-focused artwork and short stories. I love working with watercolors and markers, but I do my comic digitally so I had to make time for more traditional media. I split my art focus into a 6 months on 6 months of period, but it more accurately goes by whenever a chapter of MM! is done posting, and then I take 6 months off from posting the comic to work on getting the next chapter together and on other fulfilling art projects :purple_heart:.

I have a full-time day job where I'm fortunately not mega micro-managed to death. It's got busy periods and lulls through the day with heightened activity at the beginning and end of the month and I capitalize on my down times to work on my comic. Usually being able to pencil thumbnails, research, and work on the script.

Off Period
This is the time when I'm not actively posting on my comic outside of maybe a Q&A and holiday art. I work on editing my script, thumbnailing, line art, and putting text down on the rough page layouts.

Sundays: I post to Patreon illustrated prose, works in progress for the comic, and HD scans of my nondigital work
Mondays: I work on the comic. Usually importing any thumbnails I sketched into Procreate to arrange on a page and redraws.
Wednesdays: I work at the art desk away from my tablet, so inking, painting or markers
Thursdays: I do social stuff with friends online

On Period
Sundays: I post to my Patreon with the early comic update and nsfw stuff and queue pages for the next week or more
Mondays: Cleaning up pages that are almost done; final changes and additions. My pages go up for free & censored if needed
Wednesdays: I continue working on my comic, but video call with an art bud to motivate and have company while working unless working on text, then I listen to a pandora station of either Antonio Vivaldi or Gymnopedie by Erik Satie on repeated, (IDK why specifically this song of his, but it puts me in the mindset to get stuff done and be calm and I don't tire of it).
Thursday: Work on my Comic Codex and running ideas by hubby about the world of Magos. He keeps me on my toes with fleshing out things I didn't think too hard on like economics, exports, nitty-gritty infrastructure, and cultural attitudes and relations between species and stuff haha. I also have gotten into video editing and posting speed paints, so I've been working on them usually on Thursdays too.

In Flux
The days in which I can work on my comic at work. Hard to quantity, but I can get a good bit done on a quiet day!

Constants:
Monday: is always for my comic
Tuesday: is always for my hubby
Friday; Off day
Saturday is a toss-up of what needs attention most

This is my basic week schedule. Sometimes I lose a day, sometimes gain a day. I have enough room to allow for these things to happen.
Monday: Write script, finalize ideas I have been daydreaming about for the last week to a month.
Tuesday: Finalize script (read over for mistakes on a fresh set of eyes)
Wednesday: Do layouts of entire episode for pacing and placement of dialogue
Thursday: Pencil roughs, panel boarders, and Dialogue added (no reason to draw under dialogue balloons, waste of time)
Friday: Ink episode
Saturday: Base colors
Sunday: Final read through (on an even more fresh set of eyes) and schedule to be posted Monday morning.

Basically:
Mon-fri: Drawing, scheduling. I tend to draw one page at a time, and I do 2-4 pages a week
Saturday-New episode uploaded!
Sundays are mainly promotion and liking comments

Monday - Work on my YouTube Scripts/Work on editing, Twit/Inst (Post Pics from current chapter)
Tuesday - Work on my YouTube Scripts/Work on editing, (Post TikTok video on Twitter and Insta)
Wednedsay - Work on YouTube Scripts/Work on editing, (Post sneak peak on Twit/Inst)
Thursday - Work on Outline and first draft (Post TikTok video on Twitter and Insta)
Friday - Read dialogue for 30 minutes in the morning, read dialogue for 30 minutes at night, talk on Tapas Forum in the morning (although I might do it at night since my comic blew up when I forgot to do it in the morning last night), advertise newest chapter
Saturday - Create batch of TikTok videos, talk on Tapas forums, read dialogue for 30 minutes in the morning, and 30 minutes at night
Sunday - Work on the descriptions for webcomic, talk on Tapas forums

Rinse, wash, repeat.

Okay, I wish I could get into a regular weekly schedule like this, but it never seems to work out for me. Random things always come up, so I just work as much as I can or feel like each day.

Currently I am experimenting working in bulk kinda like Igneriss shared. I am trying out working on 10 pages at a time. The steps being...
- page set up, panels, speech bubbles
- thumbnails
- sketching
- lineart
- coloring
- reformat to scrolling format

I'll have to wait and see if I like working with this method, and how much time it saves.

I tried to stay on schedule but I really can't keep up with consistent work.
So to sum it up, it took me:
1. 2 days to draw a rough sketch,
2. 3-4 days to draw line art + speech bubbles (yes, it took me the longest :sob:),
3. 2 days to color and submit~

21 days later

I don’t have a set schedule beyond intending to publish episodes or WIP posts, if I don’t have a complete episode, each weekend. However, I have an order that I follow:

  1. Rough sketches of the panels and the dialogue
  2. If there are any backgrounds made with 3D modeling in the episode: Model them and render them in the angles I need.
  3. Vector over the sketches I made, place the dialogue and start putting the episode together.
  4. Resize and blend the 3D rendered backgrounds before putting them into the episode.
  5. Base shading.
  6. Export the episode to add watercolor effects, lighting effects and other finishing touches before publishing.
  7. Publish the episode.
  8. Make announcement posts.

In between episodes I also publish chapters of the web novel spin-off. The steps for that are simpler:

  1. Draft the chapter and sketch the illustrations that will be included.
  2. Vector over the sketches.
  3. Shade the sketches.
  4. Export the sketches to add the finishing touches.
  5. Publish the chapter with the illustrations.
  6. Make announcement posts.

While I’m working on a webtoon episode or chapter, I also draft a blog post with WIPs.

What is a schedule?!

Just kidding, while I try to have like 1 day of thumbnailing, 2 days of sketching, 6 days of inking and 5 days of coloring. I usually end up taking longer depending on the corrections, changes and approval from my clients.

Right now, I'm taking a small pause (I should have started sketching this Monday but I had an ingrown fingernail on my skillful hand which got removed today) so...yeah :sob:

A schedule... I don't really have that hahaha
But I guess my deadline would be 20 pages a month, so a chapter a month.

I do have a schedule, but it doesn't have anything to do with the days of the week. I actually work on a Day 1 to Day 7 schedule, trying to complete a page a week.

Day 1: Prep work. If necessary, cut paper for pages. (I work traditionally.) If I already cut paper earlier, I take a sheet, tape it down to my board, and lay out the panels (margins, general figure placement, etc), and then put in the word bubbles. Yes, I physically draw the word bubbles onto my pages instead of adding them digitally later. Then I ink the panel margins and the word bubbles, so I don't have to worry about losing them/drawing over them when I start drawing for realsies.
Time spent: Average of 30m to 1hr, depending on complexity.

Day 2: Sit down and DRAW. Take the generic sketched-in figures and flesh them out and finalize them. I tend to get them mostly how I want them with a lighter pencil (3H), and then go over the final pencil lines to make sure my tangled sketch mess makes sense with a darker pencil (HB).
Time spent: 2-3 hrs

Day 3: Ink lines. I take four sizes of Micron pen and ink my pencil lines, sometimes adding details that I didn't do in pencil for whatever reason.
Time spent: 30m - 1.5hr

Days 4 - 6: Erase the pencil lines (now that the ink lines have dried overnight, just to be safe), and start coloring. A simple page might take me 2 days (or even one if I really want to push myself), but a complex page will definitely take me all three. On average, a coloring session will last a minimum of 2.5hrs, often 3-4hrs.
Time spent: 4- 10hrs

Day 7: Make a thumbnail plan for the next page (sometimes the next several pages), scan and edit the page I just completed, and otherwise rest. If I still feel like drawing, or if I finished the page early, I might work on non-comic artworks.

Sometimes I shuffle around which days I do things, if I think I can make it work. For example, I'd prefer to do page prep, inking, or scanning on days when I work, because these things are way less of a time investment than drawing or coloring. But as long as I can get my page done within my seven-day window, HOW I accomplish it doesn't matter.

I don't really have a strict daily working schedule. But what I've found out via trial and error was that I can comfortably upload every 10 days. I mostly don't need the whole 10 days (depending on the episode's length), so the rest of the days I work on upcoming episodes. This strategy of working ahead saved me many times when I couldn't draw on the comic because of life stuff, so until now I always stayed on schedule

But my schedule usually looks roughly something like this, when I can work on it 8 hours a day:

Day 1: Planning the episode (thumbnailing, basic dialog)
Day 2: Spacing the panels, refining the dialog, more detailed sketching (can sometimes take a day longer)
Day 3: backgounds
Day 4: lineart (can also sometimes take a day longer :tired_face:)
Day 5: base colors, shading (takes sometimes 2 days)
Day 6: sound effects, other effects, action lines
And lastly: Schedule the episode on all platforms (webtoon, tapas, patreon, WebComics) and check every hour for comments and likes :sweat_smile:

...I need to learn to draw faster

Nice getting a working schedule :raised_hands:

I dont really have a strict schedule ... or a schedule at all really :sweat_smile:

I just make sure to finish one chapter before posting it, so I have a bout 30-40ish weeks to prepare the next chapter and try to keep that up :upside_down:
Right now Im preparing some 3D BG elements to sketch over for the next chapter, and then Ill thumbnail the whole next chapter then I just clean sketches - do lineart - color - finishing touches one page at a time.

I am actually a bit behind atm due to a convention in july I had to do a lot of prep stuff for and now I got 27 weeks to finish up the next chapter :triumph:
You'd think being unemployed gives me a l ot of time for the comic but having to stress over searching for jobs and applying to them as well takes so much time for me :sob:

1 month later

closed Sep 3, '22

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