Oh, you young whippersnappers. In my day we had to chisel out our comics in stone, make ink from burnt trees, scan them with a Gutenberg press, then build a computer from scratch, then develop an operating system, them hard code in HTML (which we also had to make from scratch).
You're sending this all from and ice floe, right? I'm pretty sure that's what they do to comicers your age. Did you really move to the states??? Or are you floating in arctic sea with a gang of homing pigeons? 🤔
For those like me, who were totally paying attention but forgot half the tips or more: Simplify your art style (Overly detailed art is laborious and slow and hard to repeat through the comic) Have all your references done (characters, props, sets, thumbnails, ect) Work in batches (doing all your pencils for ten pages, instead of doing the pencils, inks and colors for one) Quantity over quality (Work faster, you can beautify things later. Much later.) Focus on time, not progress (EX: Work for 30 minutes, regardless of if you finish anything or not)
The last tip was my savior on 2021. Sometimes I fell like sh1t because I don't progress "enough", but then the Nice Me (?) comes and say "Hey, you're working your hours. That's cool. Don't worry" :')
I like to create illusions through my drawing, kinda like tricking the readers they saw what they thought they saw considering that they'd read through every panel in like a second. Those 'detailed sequins' you saw on my character's dress? Naw man, those are just specks I smacked in there with a sprinkle of glitter effects and the power of highlights xD
This page is so cute! Oh my god. Also the "setting time goals instead of progress goals" is really good advice! One thing I do that I learned from a comic tutorial is to set up text and speech balloons before I begin sketching. That way I can move the bubbles around and place them in a way that's easy to read. But more importantly they become part of the page and panel compositions from the get-go, so I don't have to worry about maybe losing a part of the drawing later.
I discovered this channel after deciding I want to finally turn my story from when I was a kid into a grown-up comic, and I just want to thank you both. These video-lectures have been so helpful for me as a beginner. My entire career (theater) was put on hold due to the pandemic (I've been 4 months without work) so I decided to switch gears and finally make a comic, and I wouldn't have the necessary tools without this channel. Genuinely, you guys are valuable and great teachers, providing these lessons FOR FREE ON RU-vid! Thanks so much!!!
This is what I realized while watching the video. Do what you love, and even if the art isn't as good as you wish, you will get better the more you do it. And even if every page isn't perfect, as long as the story is good, and you can tell you put effort into it, then everything is fine.
The time limit thing is so true. I even do that with working out, instead of trying to go so many miles on the treadmill, I set a time. Some days I run the whole time, some days I walk part or even all of it. But at least I did something. And I find it works for doing art too!
I definitely agree about working with a timer, setting small goals. If you even do a little bit, like 15 minutes, but do it every day, you can build momentum.
Hi! I have been working on my own comic for a little while, and just wanted to share some things I've been doing and how they kinda relate to this video. Along with a few tips. First off, 'Simplify your art style'. I personally don't do that, as the setting doesn't require super fancy designs, but I do recommend it to other people. It could get annoying drawing the same complicated character over and over again. Second, 'Have references (characters, props, sets, etc)'. Once again, I personally don't do this much, but it would definitely be helpful to others who need it. Third, 'Work in batches'. Yes. Do this. I have been working only on storyboards so far, but when I get to doing the actual art, I am absolutely doing this. I'm kinda doing it right now, as I have a sketchbook just to sketch out the pages and then when I do the actual art, I can learn how to do it better than my horrible sketches. Cause I have sketched many a face wrong, and messed up dialogue, and also had wonky anatomy. Fourth, 'Quantity over quality'. As I said previously, I have been making really bad sketches. But, I am learning from them for when I complete the actual thing. Fifth, 'Focus on time, not progress'. I have also been doing this. When I sit down to work on the comic, I don't really care how much I get done, just that I actually get _something_ done. Sometimes I get more done than I expected. For example, one time I came up with four pages in two hours. That is fast for me, and I like how they all turned out. So, win-win! Lastly, just get started. It may be slow going (I have been working on just sketches for only the first twenty pages during five months, whyyyy), but just start.
I'm willing to start my comics soon, and watching your videos is very helpful ! Thanks for all the help and support that you give to us ! You are very awesome
I think someone mentioned on character consistency, forgot the name but they mentioned their theory that a webcomic true beauty, have head assets; they drew them prior, all angles are drawn, blank eyes and no makeup and shading, no hair even, i heard they used the "sprite" technique to ensure that all of em are consistent.... So if you want a consistent face, make a high res face map that you could modify...
Setting a time each day is definitely nice. I still set progress goals for myself personally, but what I do (and idk if this would be interesting to anyone else) is I set a progress goal for the day that I want to meet, and I also set what I like to call a "bare minimum goal" for if I don't quite meet my initial progress goal, and I also kind of set a "max progress goal" for if I meet my initial progress goal sooner than expected and wish to keep working. The "max progress goal" is meant to help me not over work myself so I'm not burning myself out, and when I'm able to reach said max goals it always feels really nice. My "bare minimum goals" still feel pretty rewarding because I understand that sometimes things might just take a bit longer than you'd expect them to, and that's ok, so long as you're making some amount of progress. Hope you guys see this comment, I know this is an older video, and I think I've watched it at least twice now, thanks for the helpful advice!
This was really helpful thanks. I'm 33 with like 8 stories I've had and did little drawings here and there and never did anything with because I have a mindset of "if it's not perfect I can't do it" and I'm trying to get out of this mindset
I wanna differentiate between the raster and vector parts of my comic, so making simple designs is out of my book. I already work in batches as I draft everything out first, outline and put in gutters and outlines second, blocking colors third, shading fourth, and then final details and refinements. And not going to publish until I have at least 50+ episodes done. I just don't want to place stress on drawing a new episode every week. Like, 50 episodes drawn out, and then take my time to draw another 50 or so episodes.
Thank you very Ursula for this video. Thanks you for saying that working being session oriented is valid. Iy think it has to do with flow. Editing after having had put the comic out there is such a soothing thing to hear. Indeed perfectionism is a great enemy of progress! Many many many thanks!!!!
For the timer thing, it kind of fits if you do it while you're doing your laundry. Because usually a wash takes about 30 minutes, and then the dryer will take about the same amount of time.
I have these ideas for comic stories that would be long and detailed and complicated, but I do have an idea for a comic that's in the style of 4-koma/comic strip type of style with a really simple idea and style (examples of the 4-koma style are: Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun, The High School Life of a Fudanshi). I figure something simple like that would be a good place to start and practice. Have you ever done something similar, a comic strip type of format? What would be your advice on that?
help! whenever I try to change angle/perspective, my drawing style changes! I want to make a web comic but I can't even draw the characters consistently between 3/4, profile, and front facing views (not proportions, that's the easy part). how do I fix/work on this?
iterative drawing exercises. Draw your characters over and over again. From front, back, from the side, 3/4s, top views, etc. Once you get something you're happy with make a model sheet or turnaround that you can reference quickly during production. If there are inconsistencies, find where they are, and correct them. Putting a profile directly next to a front facing view is a good way to find misplaced anatomy. Also, a lot of times you as the artist are going to be a lot harder on your artwork than your audience will be. Remember that, too.
"if this means making your comic black and white," Me, who already fully rendered the first page into basically an illustration: 👁👄👁 (it's actually not that a big deal, only the first few pages will have this kind of rendering because i'm making the color and amount of polish actually relevant to the story :D)
