I'm not the best artist, and I probably couldn't come up with a story-line to save my life, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate all the hard work all those webcomic people out there are putting into the craft.

I'm curious as to the time commitments all you webcomic artists are putting into your strips (or if you have more than one, the different time commitments between the different strips).

What's your MO when you develop a new strip? For those of us who don't create comics, I think it might be interesting to see what those who do go through to come out with those pretty, entertaining bits of art that we end up choosing to pay attention to over our regular work. Maybe those that do draw webcomics won't give a care about how their fellow artists go about developing an idea into a finished product, but I think it would be interesting to compare techniques between individuals.

I recommend watching Goats: The Documentary [goats.com].

Here's a very abridged methodolgy of my comicking addictio- umm, habit:

INTIALLY (i.e., when i FIRST started):

-1) Read lots of webcomics (as "research")
-2) Brainstormed what kind of comic I wanted to draw THIS time around, asking questions like "what's the point of the comic?", "what are they supposed to be doing?", "what genre?", "what format?", etc... (FYI -- I drew other print-based stuff before this)
-3) Drew a bunch of different characters in different styles to see which fit best for my idea
-4) Drew 5 "pilot" strips to see if the idea could work at all
-5) Drew 5 more weeks of strips to make sure I had something that could last
-6) Wrote up like three months of point-form scripts and ideas to REALLY make sure i had something that wasn't a one-trick pony
-7) Signed up for a Keenspace [keenspace.com] account
-8) Started updating regularly, and continued to do so...

(Note that it took me like two to three months to do all of this before I even signed up and started putting up my comic...)

WHAT I DO NOW:
-1) Try to draw daily, whether it be comic-related or not (sketches, life drawings, anything)
-2) Try to write out my "storylines" a week in advance, so I can review them when drawing the actual strips (I almost ALWAYS improve the "original" script greatly when drawing the strip itself)
-3) Always read LOTS of webcomics to make sure I'm coming up with new ideas rather than do what someone else has already done
-4) have LOTS of fun with it.

.....

On top of my own "main" comic, I'm always trying to think of and work on other projects and such, just 'cause I'm hooked on comicking.

In the end, I think that having lots of fun with it is the MOST important thing -- you can't enjoy what you do, what's the point of doing it, right? ^_^

Right since I only draw one comic, i'll just tell you what led me to do it:
1: got hooked on comics. In fact, Goats was my second online comic, behind bob the angry flower.
2: sent out some emails talking to nice cartoonists. Including Jon! (Jon you remember!! it was the long obscure email about 3 years ago ;) don't worry! I can't remember that well, just that you sent me a nice reply :) )
3:Doodled.
4:Started making small gag comics
5:started making A3 gag comics
6:Started bordering Gcomics
7:Started getting published in free newsletters
8:started website
9:started this post

So far, from original doodles I have been off and on comicing for 5 years. Recently coz of my website I have invested in new pens and paper. Looked into writing and all sorts.
I take about 3 hours a strip (from pencil to web) and I have over 100 comics. So roughly 350 hours at least. But time added for thinking about comic (which is about 70% of my day) and learning new techniques and HTML etc.. Lots of hours.

But like Damonk13 said, its all about fun! I love my comic (and others) way too much to write down the hours put into it. Its more an obsession than a hobby tho! My room is full of comics!!!

-Gwynne

Well, mine are usually drawn right as the thought hits my mind (sketchbook is usually on me all the time) so not much planning goes into them.

I may think over the general idea, but in the end i can draw basically whatever comes out and in any order. You can always edit it in photoshop. :)

So:

-Draw it in pencil
-Scan it in
-Clean up the ugly parts
-chop up the images to smaller size
-prepare the webpages in dreamweaver
-upload
-wait too long to update again
-repeat

I'm trying to start my own Webcomic. I need some help.

When I scan in my pencil drawings, it's all purple-y and what not from the erasures and sketching. What's the best route around this? I've been touching it up with Photoshop for now, but it's not great, and I have a tough time keeping subtle shading in there without making it look really bad. Once I actually start doing strips, I was hoping for something easier. Let me know, thanks.

In Response to Lonely Goatherd (#1522):

Two things you can try that usually work for me:

- Try adjusting your levels after you've scaned in your image. Play with the sliders and the eyedroppers until you know what they do. Usually, the light pencil lines can be eliminated by making sure that you select a cutoff point for your whites that's darker than the pencil lines.

- Try scanning your image in black and white instead of grayscale at a high resolution (600dpi usually works). Anything lighter than 50% gray will drop out, and your image is still large enough that you don't lose tons of detail.

- If these two things don't work, you're pencilling too hard. Only pencil lightly, just enough to give you a guideline for your inking.

- Use blue non-repro pencil for your pencilling. It won't show up in your B&W scans. Also, you won't have to erase and risk smudging.

In Response to jon (#1524):

That is, obviously more than two things. Think of everything after the second thing as Bonus Knowledge.

In Response to luvrhino (#276):

I have a pal at NYU Tisch that is in the same class as the people that made this documentary. I got to hear all about it this summer when he came home... now I can finally see it for myself! Yay!

Even at my current one-a-week rate of updating, and even though I do not draw it per se, my comic takes up an enormous amount of time. These days, I put in about 20-25 hours a week on it. The breakdown is about 40% strip-creation, 30% promotion, and 30% web stuff.

Strip creation includes: selecting clip art; communing with clips; writing notes and fleshing out the backstory; writing the dialog and narrative; laying out the strip; file conversion; printing; archiving; revising.

Promotion includes: scanning the web for comics portals and getting listed and cross-linked; sending my mailer out to editors; communicating with the print venues (current and potential); keeping up communications with other webcomics creators; contacting conventions about guest spots (and actually doing those); working on merchandise; doing research into things like what it will take to get my first book published; special projects; making posts like this :)

Web stuff includes: learning HTML, PHP, JavaScript and MySQL from scratch; hours of site design, maintenance and development; tracking traffic and referral links; maintaining communication with readers through the forums; keeping content fresh; uploading the strips; writing news and commentary

I never planned to make money from the strip this year, though I have made a little bit of my outlay back. I am hoping that all of this work will pay a dividend next year, when the book is out and a few papers are paying me. But even if the whole thing folds up, it has been a hell of a lot of fun so far.

In Response to damonk13 (#382):

When did you start?
  -Adrienne (goatherdess, thank you)