how long does your comic take?

Shishio · Post by **Shishio** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 9:49 am

The time needed to write a script varies, but it doesn't usually take long. -U! tells me it takes him anywhere from 2-4 hours to illustrate a strip.

Nomadic Phoenix · Post by **Nomadic Phoenix** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 12:23 pm

I usually spend around 5-20 minutes sketching out the page and basic text in a notebook. It then takes me around 2.5 to 3 hours of digital drawing to get to my finished product...and that's with no breaks nor any form of distraction.

Of course, my finished product isn't as artistically awesome as some other ones out there...but hey, I do what I can.

Laemkral · Post by **Laemkral** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 1:31 pm

About 20-30 minutes total.

My writing is very simple and on the fly (yay gag strip), pictures saves me a ton of time, and the main hangup is creating word bubbles which I can do one in just under 3 minutes.

Deaths Head II · Post by **Deaths Head II** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 9:52 pm

I usually do it in between stuff. I draw the sketches during my free time in school, and when I'm doing the lettering, coloring, finishing and whatnot I usually multitask. So its over 5 hours for sure, probably around 12 or something. Could be shorter but I don't have the patience to do it all in one sitting.

Kirb · Post by **Kirb** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 9:55 pm

Depending on how detailed I make the page, it can take 4-7 hours of work.

Always on sundays. ;_;

Robbie · Post by **Robbie** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 11:31 pm

Six hours..... one penciling, one more inking, then three and a half or so on the computer coloring the thing. Throw in an extra half hour there for whatever goes wrong during the process.

Turnsky · Post by **Turnsky** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 8:43 am

i'm a detail fiend, really how long a comic takes depends on how long i want to work on it.. usually a fair amount of time is involved, i script purely by the seat of my pants.

Garneta · Post by **Garneta** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 9:11 am

Probably around 3-6 hours (the 3 only if it's a really simple one panel sort of thing) sometimes more.

Fabio Ciccone · Post by **Fabio Ciccone** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 10:14 am

Well, it's a B/W strip, so it takes about 3 to 5 hours, usually closer to 3.

9 hours/week is everytime I have... luckly for me I have bus rides and restroom time to think about the plot!

Tarts · Post by **Tarts** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 12:40 pm

....
For the first strip EVER:

20 minutes- Drawing character template
20 seconds- Take a picture with phone
1 minute- Transfer to computer
5 minutes- Trace in "Photoshop"
1 minute- Color
3 minutes- Dialogue and finishing touches
5 hours- Uploading

For all succeeding strips:
1 minute- Tweaking character models
1 minute- Dialogue and finishing touches
Forever- Uploading

Geekblather · Post by **Geekblather** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 12:50 pm

Wow. I feel like such a slacker now, seeing people who put 10 and 20 hours into their strips...

My most recent strip (that will be showing up tomorrow) I actually did a screen recording of the sketching/inking/coloring the figures steps, and that came out to 1 hour 15 minutes, with very few distractions. I factor in another 45 minutes for adding in the text and background. So, about two hours, although this was a fairly simple strip. If people are curious why I recorded, I'm making a video to put up on my site to show how the magic happens.

More complex strips, or strips that need references, take a little longer, obviously, but I'd say I can usually keep it under four hours.

Americangothic · Post by **Americangothic** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 6:06 pm

dont feel like a slacker. My comic takes about the same amount of time yours does. Every page is less than two hours-- 'course...distractions often mess that up...

Geekblather · Post by **Geekblather** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 11:00 pm

Ah, excellent. Good to know.
And your strip is so pretty too! I'm actually in the process of catching up on the archives. I love that you ink/shade it with watercolors. I love watercolors.

Anarchist · Post by **Anarchist** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 6:29 am

water colors with airbrush and newspaper, thats my favorite kind of mixed media- it takes a while to work on, but the result is fasinating.

Liddell · Post by **Liddell** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 2:38 pm

My better comics (read: the more recent ones) take about three hours to draw, ink, and color. Most of that time is spent doing pencil work--I don't have fancy ink supplies, and I use fairly simple colored pencils for the coloring.

I could tell my comic for 04/12/2007 was subpar because it only took two hours.

My new update (which will be done later tonight and posted tomorrow) has taken an hour and a half, and I've only done pencil work on three of the characters. I need to be prepared to spend longer if I'm going to have everyone wear elaborate clothing more often.

I anticipate drawing time to approach four to five hours per comic as I move on to more difficult subjects. My comic is certainly *not* going to be about college life for very long, and there will be much more interesting things to put in the backgrounds soon.

Americangothic · Post by **Americangothic** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 5:35 pm

anarchist wrote:water colors with airbrush and newspaper, thats my favorite kind of mixed media- it takes a while to work on, but the result is fasinating.

I love airbrush, but just dont have the time to drag it out, set it up, clean it etc.... If I did a M-W-F I would definitely try it-- then I would have two days per page. Right now I'm also guest artist over at another comic, so for a while I'm going to be doing ten pages per week.

Most stuff I assembly line- I draw everything during my lunchbreaks and lately I've been inking with ballpoint pen-- it's just faster. I lay all the pages out and watercolor them all at once, then scan and text all at once. It's down to a system-- it has to be or else I would go insane.

Anarchist · Post by **Anarchist** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 7:12 pm

wooooow-!
yeah, i have been reading your comic! i WISH i had the time, but inking takes long enough that i don't, and ADHD kicks in after a half hour, so i have to torrent something or play unreal tournament 2k4 before i go nuts.

Tenma · Post by **Tenma** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 7:15 pm

Anywhere from 3 to 8 hours.

And it's not getting any faster, dammit.

Rkolter · Post by **Rkolter** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 7:42 am

The comics themselves take maybe twenty minutes a panel, but the research and prep work add a lot of time to the overall total. Break it out, and it's maybe an hour a panel for a question I have to really dig for.

Fabio Ciccone · Post by **Fabio Ciccone** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 8:14 am

Tenma wrote:Anywhere from 3 to 8 hours.

And it's not getting any faster, dammit.

It never gets... you make more comics, you get better at making them; you get better at making them, you pride yourself more on making it; you pride yourself more, it takes more time.

And so it is

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