This episode of Screen Tones is OVER 9000!!! This episode of Screen Tones is all about controlling your power - your speed and level of detail to make comic pages at the speed you want to make them! Listen along as the gang talks about tips and tricks about preserving your energy for MAXIMUM IMPACT on those knockout pages!

I think we’ve all been in a place where you spend a lot of time on a specific panel and it looks amazing but using all that energy is exhausting and not-sustainable. Speeding up your page-creation process is a fine balance between controlling the detail in your art, using the resources around you, and sometimes even modifying elements of the writing to make sure things are moving at a pace that’s enjoyable for yourself and your readers. So we’re gonna talk about how that’s done!

How long does it take you to make a comic page, and how much faster has your process gotten over time?

You can listen to our hosts answers starting at 2:03 of the episode.

Where’s the line between making high quality art and getting the page done?

In webcomics, done is better than perfect. It's just a fact that webcomic pages are read in a matter of minutes. People are typically moving through pages rather than lingering and absorbing every detail of the page, so those panels you spend tens of hours on to get the most detailed crowd scene? Probably not as appreciated as it should be.

That doesn't mean you can't put details into pages. Be as detailed as you want! But know that the details aren't necessarily what the readers are going to notice. And too many details on a page can be overwhelming and drown out what is important. One guideline to consider is keeping a limit of one highly detailed panel per page. You can use the details as an establishing shot that tells readers where your story is and go for more simple backgrounds on the rest of the page.

Do what makes you happy. If your priority is creating intricate pages every time and that brings you joy, go for it! If you find that you care more about telling the story than the art, allow yourself to embrace a simpler style that enables you to do just that. Everyone's 'line' is going to be different and practice and experience will help you find your ideal setting. Invest your time in what is important to you but remember that you don't need EVERYTHING to be perfect, detailed, and tackled like a stand-alone illustration.

What is your advice to people who finish one page and they’re exhausted? What elements should they look at adjusting in their art?

Use less detail in backgrounds and character designs. Don’t draw every button or pocket or person in a crowd scene. Save your strength for one or two panels that really matter plot-wise or for setting the scene. Overly-complex backgrounds can be distracting anyway, and buildings/crowds can often be “blobbed” in if they’re going to be covered with text anyway. You can also look at or trace your own photo references or 3D models.

Everything you do will build on itself! Things that were harder before will get easier with time, and drawings or expressions that you like from previous pages can be copied and pasted or retraced in future pages.

Do what sparks joy… in moderation. It is good to do what sparks joy for you, because that joy will give you energy. So if that means taking time to do a little more rendering on shiny effects sometimes, that’s fine. However, there’s a point where it becomes counterproductive (redrawing past pages that don’t really need it, going into it for every scene), and not only can we lose reader interest over the years, we might even lose our own interest as we outgrow our original ideas and writing. We have to move forward eventually. Webcomics are a marathon, not a race, so don’t exhaust yourself! Keep those moments as small treats rather than letting them overtake your process.

Look at your writing for granular actions you can cut: Spending too much time rendering every action in your written script will bloat your story. Do you need to draw someone picking up a coffee cup? Is it Chekov’s cup? Probably not! Taking the time to roughly thumbnail your panels before you draw them can help find the unnecessary actions, or reduce the number of panels per page on crowded pages.

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Episode Release Date: October 18, 2023

Episode Credits:

Ally Rom Colthoff (@varethane) - she/they, chirault.sevensmith.net wychwoodcomic.com

Renie Jesanis (@renieplayerone) - she/they, kateblast.com

Christina Major (@delphina2k) - she/her, sombulus.com

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The Intro "DO IT (feat. Shia LaBeouf)", and the Outro "It's Good To See You Again​!​!", both by Adrianwave, have been used and modified in good faith under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Licensed. Edits include: Fade IN/OUT, and a repeat added to the beginning of "It's Good To See You Again!!". For more information on this creative commons use, please reference https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/