How much time do you spend on each comic?

Odd1 · Post by **Odd1** » Thu Mar 14, 2002 1:20 pm

I was wondering how long most cartoonists spent drawing + scanning (+ editing + lettering?) each of your comic strips/pages. This is how long I need, but I'm new so I think I'm still very slow ^_~:

Drawing each page: about 30 minutes

Inking: 10 minutes

Editing once scanned: 1 hour

Lettering + Text balloons: 30 minutes

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Right now I'm on a Wed/Sun schedual because I probably couldn't handle much more...

Shoe · Post by **Shoe** » Thu Mar 14, 2002 1:45 pm

Jesus it took like 2 minutes to load this reply page...

Anyways, I spend about 25 minutes drawing, and then about 2 minutes inking.

I scan the pictures, and it takes me about an hour in photoshop to do all the editing. Add in about 30 minutes where I stare at the screen thinking of what to write, and you have a total of 1 hour and 57 minutes spent on my strip. I'm guessing.

My jugular is throbbing...

Magz · Post by **Magz** » Thu Mar 14, 2002 3:00 pm

It really depends on the strip - I usually scribble out a few in the sketchbook (10-20 mins) then I trace them out in a batch of 2-3 (maybe about 30 mins or more depending on how detailed the comic is) Scanning takes about 10 mins then I fiddle around with it in photoshop for a bit adding colour & text -this can take anything from 20 mins to several days depending how distracted/bored/enthusiastic I am at the time!!!!

Shoe · Post by **Shoe** » Thu Mar 14, 2002 3:37 pm

10 minutes to scan? CRIPES.

Monkey Angst · Post by **Monkey Angst** » Thu Mar 14, 2002 3:47 pm

Hmm... good question. I don't think I can gauge how long it takes, since I often get distracted and start doing something else. generally, it takes about fifteen minutes to get the pencilling down, then probably a half an hour to ink it. Then I've got to go over the fuckups with White-out (if you don't already have the White-out pen, get it! It rules over all things and makes life so much better) and then I've got to let the White-out dry and re-ink... usually takes about an hour.

So then I scan, which is in two parts, so I scan twice, save twice, then I have to tweak those two images (I hope one day, just once, I'll scan it so that the lines are PERFECTLY horizontal and vertical, but as it is, there's a lot of "Rotate" to do), then shove the files together -- that's about ten minutes. Then I have to put it in Illustrator and add text and boxes and crap, which is about 15 minutes.

Man, looking back over that, that's a long time for a project of such dubious quality. Huh.

Loserz Erik · Post by **Loserz Erik** » Thu Mar 14, 2002 4:28 pm

Wow, you guys all have such short production times.

I don't feel like breaking the process into parts here, but depending on the size and detail of the particular comic I'm making, the process can take anywhere from 5-8 hours total. The inking usually takes the longest for me.

Shoe · Post by **Shoe** » Thu Mar 14, 2002 4:45 pm

Good God...

Ozma · Post by **Ozma** » Thu Mar 14, 2002 6:37 pm

For me.. it's about

20 min - drawing
10 min - inking
2 min - scanning
30 min - photoshop
5 min - upload

I can't draw very well, so it doesn't take me that long..

Meredith Gran · Post by **Meredith Gran** » Thu Mar 14, 2002 7:46 pm

Panels/sketches: 30 minutes.
Inking/Lettering: 20 minutes.
Shading: 20 minutes.
Scanning/Web-editing: 10 minutes.
Total estimated time: 1.5-2 hours.
Actually getting a strip finished before the next day rolls around: Priceless.

There are some things time can't give you. For everything else, there's reality. <=)

Psyca · Post by **Psyca** » Thu Mar 14, 2002 7:52 pm

Well... lesse... I do my comics slightly differently...

Drawing: 45 minutes
Inking: None, mine are all pencil
Scanning: 5-10 minutes, depending on how much I have to scan.
Editting: A lot. I never timed it. But it's a lot of time, since my scanner hates grayscale. x.x
Lettering: 10 minutes

Well. Yep. That's about it. ^^

Kevin Wolf · Post by **Kevin Wolf** » Thu Mar 14, 2002 8:17 pm

About two hours total writing, drawing, inking, scanning and coloring time on days when I have time to draw the damn thing. Sometimes it takes longer, sometimes I bang it out in less than an hour.

Odd1 · Post by **Odd1** » Thu Mar 14, 2002 10:47 pm

On 2002-03-14 16:28, Loserz Erik wrote:
Wow, you guys all have such short production times.

I don't feel like breaking the process into parts here, but depending on the size and detail of the particular comic I'm making, the process can take anywhere from 5-8 hours total. The inking usually takes the longest for me.

In return, your inking looks much better than pretty much anything I've seen in web-comics. If I knew HOW to ink that well or possessed the materials, it would be worth my while ^_^

Do you use fine liners or do you apply ink from a bottle? My resolution for Issue 2 of my comic is to buy some inking material. But I don't know what to buy!

How does everyone here ink??

- Liz

Jamie! · Post by **Jamie!** » Fri Mar 15, 2002 12:32 am

can't help you on that liz, sorry.

anyways,
drawing/inking the comic takes me from half to three hours (depends if i'm right into it, or if im doing something, then come back to the omic, then leave it, then come back ect.)
I have only used pencils in my comic... eh, once, because pencils are for people who have pencils. that and i do just fine without them.
scanning and editing take something like 1-2 hrs to do. it used to only take only about 10 min, but then i started being all clever about it and made it look neater (stupid shadeing...) now it takes, oooh, say 1-3 hrs?
tierdness is also a big factor for me. eg. one day i was all perky and awake and had the comic done in 2 hrs, then then next night i was fecked. I started the comic at 5pm and finished it just befor 1 am... (Stupid shadeing...)The fact at it's a daily comic, and it usually has 6 or mor pis in one strip at a time dosent make it any better for me. Thank god i have at least 8 of these babys in resreve

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special edit because i felt special...
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also, for the inks i use a fine, 0.3 felt tip pen. It's snazzy.

_________________

[ This Message was edited by: Jamie! on 2002-03-15 00:36 ]

[ This Message was edited by: Jamie! on 2002-03-15 00:39 ]

ZOMBIE USER 3098 · Post by **ZOMBIE USER 3098** » Fri Mar 15, 2002 1:09 am

Here's my estimated time spent on the comic (all numerical units unless specified are in minutes):

Planning: 1 - 1440
Drawing: 10 - 20
Inking (optional): 5 - 10
Scanning and Contrast Levels: 5
Typing: 70 WPM so forget that
Coloring: 15 - 30
Readjusting Stuff: 5 - 10

Well, it usually takes me a while to get everything set up. These days, I'm thinking of not coloring my comics due to time constraints.

-Albrecht
http://ntnation.keenspace.com

---------------------------------------------
QUARK!

SuperJoe · Post by **SuperJoe** » Fri Mar 15, 2002 1:11 am

Okay. Now I feel I must reply.
Average strip...
Penciling: Ah ha ha.. no.
Inking: Well from start to finish it's a half hour. Of course actual inking time is a few minutes.
Scanning: A few minutes there.
Formatting: Up to a minute.
Hmm.. I guess that's it. If I do colour, and the program doesn't screw it up, that takes an hour or so.
Especialy with my crappy mouse. It's hard to colour in the lines when your mouse sticks. And I've never used that flood fill thing.

ZOMBIE USER 7782 · Post by **ZOMBIE USER 7782** » Fri Mar 15, 2002 1:12 am

5 mins to draw a comic, about 1 minute to scan on average, 30 seconds cropping and 1 minute uploading, plus about 5-10 mins time in between these activities. I do 8 at once for best results.

Ashess · Post by **Ashess** » Fri Mar 15, 2002 3:20 am

On 2002-03-14 22:47, Odd1 wrote:
On 2002-03-14 16:28, Loserz Erik wrote:
Wow, you guys all have such short production times.

I don't feel like breaking the process into parts here, but depending on the size and detail of the particular comic I'm making, the process can take anywhere from 5-8 hours total. The inking usually takes the longest for me.

In return, your inking looks much better than pretty much anything I've seen in web-comics. If I knew HOW to ink that well or possessed the materials, it would be worth my while ^_^

Do you use fine liners or do you apply ink from a bottle? My resolution for Issue 2 of my comic is to buy some inking material. But I don't know what to buy!

How does everyone here ink??

- Liz

you know, I've been wondering the same. I use brushes, of diffent sizes (.1 being primary) mind you, all top material. either saber, or some new sithetic (sp)by pro arte proline plus. and 4 the big fields squirel tip. I've got some penns too, but I only use 'm for when my hand isn't steady enough, and the usually only for the faces. though I started with only penns though.

all the same, scetching takes, what, 30 minutes, at the most. inking another half.
that includes lettering. then sometimes I add colour. and that depends on how much I colour of how long it takes. usually not more then 20 min. rubbing out the inklines, scanning, and some photoshop touch-ups, another 30 at tops.

of course, I am supposed to be a provessional artist, so I'd have to be fast.

Dustin · Post by **Dustin** » Fri Mar 15, 2002 4:04 am

Adventures Anatomica - the "main" strip - takes me roughly one hour to draw. I'm not sure about the time it takes to write, as the ideas for the various strips are usually in some semi-complete form in my head before I start, and I work out the rest of the details whilst writing and drawing them.

And I'm not really sure how long the individual aspects of the comic take. I just do a sketch of varying degrees of roughness and then ink the bastard, and every time I clock myself it's usually about an hour from start to finish. Scanning doesn't take too long, and all I need to do after that is fiddle with contrast and sharpness, minor cropping, and resizing, then save. All winds up to maybe five minutes. Sometimes I fix up little typos or minor inking mistakes.

The other comic - Local Heroes - takes way, way, way more time. First, I have to meet with my co-conspirator Josh and we hammer out a script or two. That can take fifteen minutes to a few hours, depending on how hard it is to figure out a particular frame. We'll also hold the occassional session to plot out future storylines and fill in some of the rough sketch for the over-all comic from beginning to end.

Then the drawing. I draw one to two frames per piece of paper, so it takes a few hours, two abouts, or three sometimes, to get a whole strip penciled and inked. After this I have to scan each page in, then I crop and resize. Then I cut and paste them all into a background, resize some more, crop some more, add the dialogue, make touch-ups, and the end. All that rot sets me back another hour or more. The total running time for a page of Local Heroes looks, at this point, to range from 4 to 6 hours.

All this has been in aid of asserting nothing of great significance. But I regret nothing. Nothing!

...wait... what did I just say...?

~D

Froggy · Post by **Froggy** » Fri Mar 15, 2002 4:53 am

You guys spend time on your comics?

ZOMBIE USER 8413 · Post by **ZOMBIE USER 8413** » Fri Mar 15, 2002 5:07 am

Heck yes we spend time on it. What else are we gonna do? Crank out some kinda mundane frappe like everybody else?

...

You guys know I didn't mean that. Right?
What're the torches for? I got Marshmellows!

MARSHMELLOWS! EVERYBODY LOVES MARSHMELLOWS!!!

EVERYBODY LOVES THREEDARK! NOOOO! NOT THE PITCHFORKS!