What's your workspeed?

DelythThomasArt 2020-12-01 01:45:07 UTC #7

A good thing is to create a decent buffer, try and have 1-2 months of comic ready before you start posting so that if you get a flare or just...life happens you're covered.

therosesword 2020-12-01 01:54:08 UTC #8

Novelist here. Once I get going I'm pretty fast but... that's partially training. I don't think I've answered any of your questions before so, in a nutshell... I was a staff writer for a professional audio drama company for 12 years. It wasn't unusual for the boss to walk in the office on Friday and say they needed a 25 minute script by Monday to record. He might throw an idea to you but most likely not.

As a result I pretty much learned to write on demand (also have an advertising copy-writer background, again, write on demand).

So.... when it comes to my own stuff, sometimes I can pump it out like the dam broke other times it's total constipation of the brain. I'm a pantser so I don't do any plotting. I also don't post anything until the whole story is completed, edited and officially copyrighted (again, all that background comes to play, force of habit)

So, yeah, did three chapters of the new piece this morning and edited four chapters of the piece I finished yesterday but who knows what will happen tomorrow. I don't have a deadline although I do want to get the newest piece that I'm editing up on the site by mid-december.

Although I can work fast, you can really ruin something if you don't work well it's that old "quality over quantity" idea. So I do make sure to take the time to let things settle before I put them up. And, because I schedule things over a period of time I will go in and check the next chapter that's posting to see if I want to tweak it.

Write hard, write true.

therosesword 2020-12-01 01:56:07 UTC #9

You might want to (although I'm sure you've thought of this already) have enough work done so that you can schedule ahead to take you over those rough periods when your hands are acting up. You don't want to push it to the point where you make it impossible to work for a big chunk of time.

I know, sometimes I sound like someone's mother.

Tanako 2020-12-01 01:58:15 UTC #10

in 4 months I have drawn 201 pages in sketches, I have illustrated 112 and have colored 94
I plan to finish the story in December. at least the sketches then, I hope to finish the coloring and editing in March 2021. I never use to set goals for my self however, something happened to me in my life that made me began to set them. at least, it gives me a sense of direction so we'll see. but for the most part. I am very excited about my progress.

Rhonder 2020-12-01 01:59:37 UTC #11

SLOW

For my new project, each episode has been taking ~3-4 weeks to complete. The length per episode is roughly 15-25 panels. The first 3 episodes actually were pretty quick, they were a bit shorter and took about a week or a week and a half to complete... but after those I started adding more and more panels and detail and now they take forever to complete lol

Thumbnailing and sketching takes a week and a half or so, inking takes about the same amount, and then coloring I'm a bit faster at so that's usually done in a few days. My lettering is done during the sketch phase and sound effects and such get lumped into coloring.

Not yet as I'm still in pre-production, so I'm just completing episodes for buffer at the moment. Speaking from my last comic (was a page a week type upload) I didn't really end up cutting corners to meet deadlines. Most of the time I would meet them fine, and if I didn't I would simply delay the update by a few days.

For my current comic I've started to look more critically at where I can get away with fewer or less detailed backgrounds though. I have a habit of going overboard with them, which looks good often, but eats up drastically more time than if you can get away with some gradient panels or something >u>;;

Probably sketching tbh. It often takes me forever to figure out how I want to compose each panel and so it takes me ages to lock down a sketch. I've also recently noticed that I've been skimping on bringing the sketch up to an appropriate level of detail to ink from easily (because once I become conscious that it's taking a long time, I start rushing).

Inking is a close 2nd but I think in that case it's not so much that I wish I was faster at it, but just that I found it more enjoyable lol.

VibrantFox 2020-12-01 01:59:41 UTC #12

Comic artist and overall it's slow especially on days with low motivation or energy. As to the pointed questions

one episode can take up to a few hours to a few days to months depending on level of details or just overall motivation (i burn out easier as of late)
i try to keep the parts i'm good at short so sketching and coloring tend to be quickest while lineart takes the most amount of time (scripting and dialogue is done beforehand with a bit of ad lib when i'm sketching)
I've kind of abandoned setting deadlines since I can never really stick to em and it tends to make working on stuff harder and less fun (rather pace myself for free work than kill myself stressing over due dates)
as mentioned in an earlier answer lineart. Characters aren't too much of a hassle but when there's a lot of them or there's backgrounds involved it can take a lot longer so to be able to do so quicker would be awesome. I consider ppl who can turn their sketches into lineart too be the most powerful because mine are way to messy for that

Caro 2020-12-01 02:43:01 UTC #13

I do a lot in a week BUT I need to clarify that I work full time in comics and have years of practice dealing very specifically with streamlining my process and making sure I can maintain my output. I’m in a very specific position of waking up everyday at 6am just to draw comics until late evening.

How long does it take you to complete an episode or chapter?

I don’t work in episodes or chapters specifically right now because my main gig is print comics but in the past I’ve done weekly work for a major periodical that was six (maybe five I cant remember) per week and I used to have a featured Webtoon but lord knows I don’t remember how many panels I drew for them because this was a few years ago. Now, I’m a lot faster and more familiar with my process so I’m inking approx. 17 or so pages of comics a week right now. Haven’t gotten into color with these projects yet but that’ll be another story when I get to that. Right now my schedule is pencil and ink 2 pages of comic #1 Monday - Friday and ink at least one page of comic #2 once a day every day and then any spare time I have between those two goes to comic #3.

How long do you spend on each of the processes that are a part of creating your comic or novel?

It really depends. Some stories take me months to break, some take days. I’ll spend a day or two on designing characters and then another few days actually writing and thumbnailing. Then the rest of the speed of which things gets done is entirely determined by the project. Two of them I draw larger and one I draw pretty small to save time and inking usually takes me maybe an hour or two per page at the most depending. Coloring is a lot faster for me but I hate doing it.

Do you have a deadline for what you do, and if so what are some things you do to meet your deadline? Do you cut any corners?

I’m currently on a deadline for a graphic novel right now and my shortcut for that is just drawing it smaller. I usually pencil and ink four of those pages a day (right now I’m trying to ease back into 2 a day instead so I can work on other projects). I also have found that I work infinitely faster when I work traditionally and it’s well worth taking the time to have to scan them even if I hate scanning. I think if I still worked completely digital I would only MAYBE be able to draw one or two pages total per day and I couldn’t sustain what I’m trying to sustain like that.

What part of your process do you wish you were faster at?

I guess the only thing I wish I were faster at was coloring because the sooner its done the sooner I can stop looking at a screen! I’ve actually been thinking of hiring an assistant before I start coloring my current projects. Right now I have 140+ pages of the comic I’m on deadline for, 20 pages into a new comic I started to hopefully pitch around next year, and 60 pages of another ongoing comic and I just realized...... eventually I have to color those oh god oh no.......

ghostmaya 2020-12-01 02:59:42 UTC #14

I can Finish 1 episode on 1 day~ 30-40 panels~ Though I sacrifice the details on color in order to achieve it~

arbiterswake 2020-12-01 03:14:25 UTC #15

I FEEL you on the coloring parts.

It's also my least favorite process. Thanks for sharing.

cherrystark 2020-12-01 03:27:24 UTC #16

I'm a novelist. IF I am not distracted, I can finish a chapter and do minor corrections on it in a day. Right now, I'm not focusing on 2nd or 3rd drafts before I post. Once I feel like the chapter has said what it needs to, I post it. This way also keeps my momentum up so I've written more in 2020 that I have in the last 5+ years combined.

likhoradka 2020-12-01 03:39:11 UTC #17

Last time I timed myself it took me about 15 hours for an episode (about 30 panels for the one I timed) from sketch to final file. 4 hours for coloring, so that was the biggest chunk out of all the steps I do. It's usually about 1-2 hours for every other step (layout, sketch, solid sketch, ink & panels, prep color layer, color, shade, text & bubbles, arrange in final layout). If I have more background work to do or have to come up with a background character design, then it takes me longer. I'm not worried about any solid deadline since I've got a 4 episode buffer, but I do try to get it done within a week.

I cut lots of corners. I do minimal shading compared to my normal shading style, quick inking, readability over worrying if it's perfect, and use Sketchup backgrounds I've built to trace over. I used to hand letter, but went with just making my own font this time around. I went into this with a mind of just 'spit it out.'

rajillustration 2020-12-01 03:40:39 UTC #18

For my last comic I could do a page comic in 2-4 hours, but it was really simplified. My current comic is scroll-format with more panels, full color, and lots of clipping layers for the shading, so it takes about a week-week and a half to finish an episode because I only work on it for a little bit each day I work, and I don't work on it every day.

So how I work it is each episode is split up to 2-3 parts (sometimes 4), and each part has 5-6 panels. I draw the panels of one part one day, then I flat and color in the panels the next day--so in about 4-6 days I have the parts finished. Then, I have to assemble them into the long long episode, and that takes about a session to do because I add little pieces of flair to it.

One of these days I'll have to time it with Toggl or something to see exactly how long I take to do an episode, but because I'm usaully a little distracted listening to Twitch or Podcasts, it's not like...my most focused work like I do for paying jobs. I could probably go faster...I just...I'm being really chill right now because I haven't actually started posting that comic, just doing buffer. Just keeping my mind off the stuff in the world right now honestly so it's kind of my escapism work.

BrambleberrySquirrel 2020-12-01 04:21:06 UTC #19

It takes me 1-3 days to make an episode of my comic. I’d like to cut that time in half. I have a hard deadline to publish 1 episode a week. Right now I have 1 month of buffer built up. The most time consuming part right now is the line art for characters. If I can master line art I think I can triple my backlog. That’s my goal for starting patreon. I want to offer really good and substantial material for patroons.

imagineemmajun 2020-12-01 04:25:55 UTC #20

I am super slow. My first novel took 4 years and my second novel took five years to do the first draft. However it was around University and work. I have a lot of responsibilities outside writing and I only get to write for a few minutes a day sometimes. I hate being so slow. especially as I have lots of new ideas all the time. I'm often down about it because I'm not going to be able to write everything I want to and it will be hard to build a following with so long between novels.

Mallory 2020-12-01 04:32:27 UTC #21

High-five to all my health buddies. I have an unknown nerve issue with my hands where they randomly get in pain. So... I take it slow. It takes me 10-15 hours of drawing per page (which is an episode), and I can do that in just under two weeks, which gives me a couple days of wiggle room if I'm feeling sick or if I just want to draw fan art or something one day.

I decided to not take shortcuts (beyond the stylistic simplification) because I'd rather this be something I did lovingly for fun. You know, like a statue that you just whittle away at as a hobby. I estimate Engram will be about 120-130 pages in total (I have the rough plot from start to finish already done) so I'm (mostly) fine with the pace I'm working at. The writing and plotting I do in micro bursts over the course of months, but it took me a couple days to plot a chapter that will take months to draw so I'm not too worried about my writing speed, though typing more than 600 words a day hurts (I use the dictation tools on my iPad sometimes, but it only works for planning, not for actual writing).

The most time-consuming part for me is honestly the planning phase. The layout, sketching, finalized dialogue... Once I have all that down, I can just work on it like clockwork. The second slowdown is usually when I get to the flat colors because I just don't know wtf I'm doing so I just flop around until I accidentally find aesthetically-pleasing colors that match the composition. Once those are settled, the rest is smooth sailing. So, I guess if I figured out how to better do the visual development part of the comic, I'd be probably 30% faster....

I'm a bit stuck right now because I developed a chronic migraine right when I needed to draw the second-hardest chapter of this comic (a sci-fi megapolis, which is something I'm weak at....) so I'm going to be slowing down to posting once a month until I can work through this.

I created a buffer of about two months for myself so that takes some of the stress off. Also, if you have health problems, to avoid burnout I recommend you be realistic about how fast you can work and set your publication speed (i.e. your self-imposed deadline) to be a bit slower than that. Like, it technically takes me ~12 days to finish a page, but I publish every 15. Best case scenario you keep adding to your buffer - and you can always release bonus episodes. Worst case scenario, you got breathing room for when you feel like crap.

paracosmosfiction 2020-12-01 04:39:05 UTC #22

Ultimately you should listen to your body. Don't push yourself harder than you need to. That wear and tear will catch up one day and make it all the more difficult. Again, I can't stress enough, it's not a race. I know that's easy to say, and frankly, I struggle with it too. I don't have any health related issues beyond insomnia, but even that has its drawbacks. I'm late to work a lot because of it. (My supervisors are fortunately very understanding of my condition.) And it makes it harder for me to function during the day. Part of my problem is that my brain stays so wired I have trouble switching it off at night.

So I understand feeling like you're on a deadline, but you're really not. And trust me, I'll probably wake up tomorrow obsessively checking my replies and seeing how many likes, comments, and new subscribers I have because that's just how my brain works. But if you can figure out a way to distance yourself from that, take a breath, and realize you're doing just fine at the pace you're going, your life will be better for it. I promise.

paracosmosfiction 2020-12-01 04:45:01 UTC #23

All I can say is hang in there. Ultimately the quality of your work is what you'll be judged on, not how fast you got it out. And as far as those ideas you think of but don't have time for, I always write mine down for later. You may not be able to use it now, but come back to it when you find the time. Even if it doesn't turn out exactly how you pictured it, it may still turn into something unique.

I understand how it feels when life gets in the way of your passions. But like I said before, even if your best effort doesn't feel like much, you're still giving your best effort. And that in of itself is something to be proud of.

arbiterswake 2020-12-01 05:25:47 UTC #24

Thanks for all the responses. It's really taken a lot of stress away knowing that people have a variety of workspeed and will alter their speed accordingly.

Legendofgenii 2020-12-01 09:27:56 UTC #25

Two weeks plus
sketching (couple of hours), inking (several hours), colour & shading (hours), special effects (depends on what Gen is up to), backgrounds (days sometimes).
No rush. I’ve started to copy paste backgrounds sometimes.
All of it

alextsarace 2020-12-01 16:48:41 UTC #26

How long does it take you to complete an episode or chapter?

About a two month, maybe longer (my chapters consist of 40 pages each)

How long do you spend on each of the processes that are a part of creating your comic or novel?

Well, 1-2 pages per day is normal for me. Of course, I take breaks, so it's not that I draw everyday.

Do you have a deadline for what you do, and if so what are some things you do to meet your deadline? Do you cut any corners?

Yes, I do. If I don't I won't do a hing, I'm to lazy so deadline are musthave for me. I have a lot of buffer for now because I tend to start as early as I can to make more work before it's time to post according to my schedule.

What part of your process do you wish you were faster at?

Pages drawing, for sure. I wish I could do 60 pages per month (now I'm doing around 20-25) but it sounds impossible right now for me.