What is your process in making comic?

[booklove]

I don't know how some people can make really long strips/comic, fully colored in a week. I guess maybe it's their full time job. But for me, it takes hella time.

It took me 3 days to find the right reference, sketch and ink.
2-3 days to color if I'm feeling colorful. But oh god, coloring is a lot of work too. It's fun but work is still work.

And my strips is super short.

[Tanako]

Lol you and me both Pal, it is a lot of work. I don't even have a life because I'm basically slave to my work. the weird part is that I like it. it makes me antisocial but I guess it works. but then again, I try to still have a personal life despite working a full time job.

well the way I do it is that, I draw my regular panels. then I create a separate ling strip in PSD. then I crop the images and place them in a vertical psd page. maybe lets say that long psd page will contain 3 comic strip pages. all I do is crop the panels and align them and WALA, you have a webtoon format. its easier that way for me. but it is more work of course because you aren't drawing directly into the long strip page. but I like it that way, its better.

as for coloring, no matter how you look at it, its still al to of work. its up to you to decided if you wanna be dedicated to it or not lol

[kip]

for me the whole process for a single page (4 panel strip) takes roughly 30-45 minutes

first I do the thumbnailing (including scripting this can take up to 5 minutes)
Then I move over to photoshop to do the text (takes about 3-5 minutes)
Then I do the lineart! (takes about 10-15 mins)
Then background colors (I usually have my backgrounds as pretty generic geometric shapes but not always. depends on how complex they can take 3-15 minutes)
Then color and last edits~ (15-20ish minutes)

here's a vid for a rly simple page (26 mins work) bc thats the only one i ever bothered to record lol

in the past the same thing took me about an hour or two? It's really up to how much you want to put in the comic (and personally im on the lighter end of that with my comic being more something to do than a passion project lol)

[mariusthered]

yes it is my full time job. (so good job i love eating can food).

At present I have a few thing on my mind and it's effecting my concentration, so I'm a lot slower right now.

the trick to full colour comics in a week?....a big buffer! the bigger before you stat the better.
2. you must be disciplined. so no pushing aside the comic to watch tv or play a game. if you have a set time to work on a page..work on it!
3. it take me about a week to write a script
4. 2 hours to lay out the bubbles on the pages ( about 15 pages) (and i have a template page all ready that saves time)
5. sketching and backgrounds takes about an 15 mins per page.
6. colouring back ground can take longer depending on details
7. inking takes about 30 mins per page.
8. colouring the figures takes about 20 mins
9. shading one hour or more depending on what im doing.

so in answer your looking about one hour per page, when im not shading it ( and i never put much effort in shading free stuff)

[DokiDokiTsuna]

It takes me about 2-3 hours to color a page; sometimes less if it's not very complex/I know the characters well.
Drawing a page, however, can take me anywhere from 30 minutes to several days. Sometimes I'm just not motivated! ¯ \ _(ツ) _/ ¯ I could probably put out weekly content reliably if I could focus like a professional; I work fast enough and the time is there. But the energy and willpower seem to come and go whenever they please...

[JRHoch]

I have a full script that I wrote over several months. When it comes to laying out the pages, I might make some quick thumbnails to get a sense of the composition, but I usually start by color blocking first before I do final pencils or inks.

Often I'll go back and forth between the color and the inks. They're not separate elements in the way I illustrate.

I like to have at least a few weeks completed ahead of time. This way I can look at my pages with a fresh eye and sometimes add another panel or two or change the wording.

[graveweaver]

I do 60-100 full color panels a week, fulltime, 12 hrs a day

Day 1: Draft
Day 2: Line
Day 3: Line
Day 4: Flat colors
Day 5: Shading
Day 6: Backgrounds
Day 7: SFX, Text bubbles, final file formatting

Sometimes I finish flat colors and shading in the same day and so it only takes 6 But mostly just practice going fast and you will get faster.

[VibrantFox]

i'm relatively crap at consistency so i've no specifics on length of time, not to mention i sometimes work in bursts so low energy periods can be a few days or more and high energy or concentration can be a few hours at best.

(i'm also doing slice of life type comics at present so backgrounds are another story entirely)

As for process:

• i usually start with scripting sometimes in bulk for a bunch of episodes other times just a quick jot down of a strip or scene
• then i do thumbnails which is essentially the rough/first sketch. i also try to plan text placement here

I've actually begin to use a new method for this based on a tweet i saw. i dont quite know how to describe but it's generally one big canvas with "panels" the with dimensions similar to a full page, do the roughs in those, then transfer to the actual document and adjust the size and placement as necessary.

• once all that is done it's lineart
• colors and shading
• text and speech bubbles

lineart regardless of energy levels is always the longest step and coloring much shorter especially for character since i work from my own reference sheets. if backgrounds are involved it's much longer especially if it requires perspectives and coloring time varies depending on how many different elements are involved. i'm still bad at work times since i get distracted or just procrastinate but when my heads in the game most of these hold true

[mariusthered]

(i'm also doing slice of life type comics at present so backgrounds are another story entirely)

every time you do a background save it as a stand alone picture. build yourself a library of backgrounds to go back to and it saves a huge amount of time.

[VibrantFox]

thanks for the tip when i'd mentioned that though it referred more to "the way i do bg's varies between a solid color or gradient versus actual detail backgrounds"

something i'm hoping to do is find a program or software that'll allow me to build rooms/environments in 3d space so that i can work from those

[kip]

I’ve mainly heated of people using Sketchup and Blender for that! (with the occasional use of

• and sometimes sims ? which i’ve actually tried before and is a Lot of fun lol

[mariusthered]

i used poser 10 before i switched pc's and now cannot find my codes ..but its a good program

[GabiWolf]

It takes me about 5 hours for one page. I am in the odd minority where I have no script but in any creative process I do I never have a script. I dump first and tweak later, so I mostly just have random sticky notes with plot points flying around in my purse and on my desk.
As for actually making the strips, I do it in traditional page format first, I have an easier time visualizing panels that way. I look up references if need be but don’t waste to much time If I can’t find anything helpful. Do a gesture drawing on one layer and then flesh is out on the same layer. Ink on a separate layer, then flat color on the next layer. I usually only have two or three layers for colors, not a separate layer for every single one, I don’t like a cluttered sidebar. Then I do simple multiply shading so I can just do it fast with one brush and color. Bam done! Then I arrange it into scroll form on another page, and add all the texts.
As for backgrounds I have all of my background that appear often drawn separately so I can just import them. That’s a separate day of work from the actual comic, where I just draw backgrounds.

[KrispyKremeBits]

If I remember to thumbnail I'll do it but I mostly do page layouts in bulk (2-10 pages)give them to my editor partner, do the changes then ink. On a good day, I can panel 10 pages and fully ink 2 of them with shading. It takes me roughly 2-3 hours to do one page. Now if I were coloring them it would take me at least 3 hours depending on the shading. I'd like to do comics full time but money is too important to survive sadly.

[BlueWorldComics]

I'm the kind of person that starts with a premise and quickly begins working out details. After getting the bare minimum worked out, I get to work. I make sure to have one year's worth of comic finished before I begin posting and also that the end of the year comes with a completed arc. That way, I not only have time to edit everything, but also it gives me a chance to start/finish the next season.

My writing process revolves around making the panels to a page first. Sometimes I start with dialogue, sometimes I start with the panels themselves. Each page starts with a 6 panel grid and adjust it as I see fit.

After I figure all that out, I draw the appropriate pictures, scan them into my computer, and adjust each picture to fit within the decided panel size. Then I trace.

After all the tracing and finishing touches (color, background, etc.) are complete, I make whatever adjustments I need to and... Ska-doosh!

My current series is a lot easier because all the panel sizes and shapes remain more or less the same from strip to strip.

[zammap]

For me, drawing doesn't take that long. But COLORING and formatting takes FOREVER UGH. It was taking me a full month, non stop, to complete an issue.

[Shanny8]

For the last couple of years I've been in this grind where pencils have been taking longer than I want them to; the more the detail, the longer it takes- even with me generally slopping through them. It takes about a day or 2 to get pencils done...inks take about 6 hrs to a day depending on detail- but I love inking so it doesnt seem like it takes that long. Coloring takes another whole ass day, depending on the detail and the FX...lettering takes about 6 to 8 hrs, depending on if I'm doing certain things with the balloons and sound FX(although during the "crunch time" when I was finishing a book for MomoCon last month, I lettered 21 pages in about 2 days).

So yeah, I need a week to get a page ready.

[dawgofdawgness]

My process:

• Thumbnailing -
  (panelling, rough sketches, speech bubble placement, dialogue tags)
  I have a set size for my pages since I'm planning on printing it
  

  

• Lineart and speech bubbles -
  I usually complete lineart for the main subjects/foreground and then move onto background, since you can more easily bullshit the background.
  

  

• Flats/gradients -
  

  

• touchups/ lighting (and fixing any typos or weird dialogue)
  

  

[nathanKmcwilliams]

I follow a prepared outline of story, then sketch everything digitally , make panels to enclose my sketches.
Then I move on to drawing, coloring, and backgrounds in each individual panel one at a time.
(This part can take me from 3-8 hours...just depends on how inspired I am to draw, and whether or not backgrounds are simple.)

Text is last, I decide on dialogue based on both my outline, and how the characters look in each panel. I do my dialogue in GIMP. Layout the text how it should appear, then go back to the drawing program and make the bubbles.

I let the page sit for a while, then go back and edit text (typos...continuity errors...). I have a big buffer, so then, right before I go to post the page I do final edits on text, and touch up the art to make sure it is the best possible representation of my skill. (I still make sure it looks close to how I originally drew it)

[LT1986]

I wrote the main ideas to each chapter of my web comic years ago. In the past, I used to read over the main ideas, make a few more details, sketch every page in the chapter, and then color every page.

Now I review the main ideas and write down details for about three pages, instead of the whole chapter. Then I sketch and color each page one at a time. This keeps my drawing, coloring, and writing skills at work more often. The old method had me not drawing for months while I was coloring.