How much time do you spend making your comic?

[Phalanx]

Just wondering, how much time do you guys actually spend on your comic.?

Also, how long does it take you to finish a page?

I calculate an average of around 3 hours per page, for mine.

I usually do a week's worth (two 520 x 835 full colour pages) at one go.
Here's the time breakdown:

Storyboarding (10-20 minutes)
Pencilling (2-4 hours, so 120 minutes to 240 minutes)
Scanning, adjustments and Cleaning (15-30 minutes)
Borders and Text (15-30 minutes)
Colouring (2 - 4 hours)
Code and Comments (10 - 30 minutes)

So minimum amount of time:

(10 + 120 + 15 + 15 + 120 + 5)/2 = 290/2 = 145 minutes = Around 2.5 hours

Maximum amount of time:

(20 + 240 + 30 + 30 + 240 + 30)/2 = 590/2 = 295 minutes = Almost 5 hours

So, the average would then be:

AVG(145 + 295) = 220 minutes = 3.67 hours.

And therefore and average of a little over 7 hours a week

This is not inclusive of scripting, which I do seperately and far in advance, since I need people to read it for the multiple rewrites.

Whew!

[War]

It varies greatly. I've churned out some really crappy comics in less than an hour, and spent more than 6 hours on others.
Generally the longest process is drawing and inking, which take in the region of an hour to two hours usually. Then I scan them all in, and because I'm lazy I have to construct the comic and add borders and stuff which takes 10 minutes or so.
Then I start colouring. This used to be my longest section but I've gotten used to all the techniques I use, and know every keyboard shortcut now . Colouring generally takes an hour to two hours.
The average comic is probably done in around 3 hours. And I do three a week.

[YarpsDat]

scripting: hard to tell, I do this all the time, I see it in my dreams.

storyboarding: 5 minutes, unless I really want to pick a special camera angle.
penciling stage 0 (basicaly-big storyboard): 30 minutes
penciling to stage 1: 1-3 hours
inking: 30min- 1,5 hours.
scanning, cleaning up, adding frameborders: 15 min
writing text, adding wordbubbles: 30min-1 hour.

sums up to:
min=approx 3h
max=approx 6h20m

average would be around 5 h per page,
but it actually takes much longer, as I take tea and snack breaks all the time. Every 13-30 minutes or so.

[Mr.Bob]

Well yes time does vary depending on what I want to do, and how much effort I put into it. Scripting and plotting is not considered as time spent because its being worked out in my head all the time, especially when im supposed to be doing other things, and storyboarding and layout is (I admit) spontaneous as i draw the page having in mind what must be accomplised by the end of it.

So generally the break down for an average page is:
3 hours pencilling
1 hour inking and erasing (Eraseing all the penceil is the most dangerous work)
2 hours finishing off on computer (which involves colouring and any other bits and pieces)

However I usually end up spending more time on them. 8 instead of 6 hours. Sleep is for losers

[Nishichi27]

Well, my comic takes a long time (and it better, because I only update once a week). I mostly spend about:

30 mins scripting/concept/storyboard
3 hr. drawing
30 mins. scan/clean up
3 hrs. color

But, that's the minimum. Unfortunately, that's also about the number of free hours I have in a given week that I haven't planned something.

[VileTerror]

I Blame Danny: if it's not done in 30 seconds, I've taken too long.
The untitled comic: 5 years should suffice for a single panel.
Lovers' Dyrge (upcoming): I dunno, I haven't started yet.

[ZOMBIE USER 14998]

It varies wildly, depending on how ambitious I am feeling. Particularly when it comes to doing backgrounds.

[Jeffy]

back when i was working on it, at the most recent, it probably took me about 3 hours if i worked on it solid

[Johndisko]

i make comics between classes at school so i have about one hour every couple of days. in that time i can crank out about 5 comics... however the majority of my time is spent thinking about how i can satisfy the requests that i receive. during class and at home i try to think of funny answers to the suggestions that i get here and in email but the actual making of the comic once ive settled on an idea is real quick.

-jd

[Matt Lim]

Web comicing has lost it's glamor to me. I am seriously burnt out and am probably not going to draw another comic in a while. Especially sine I have College Apps I need to fill out. So I say 0 hours.

[TheBladeRoden2]

I haven't even put the time in to finish my sig, which is supposed to get up to 9 factions.

[VileTerror]

9? Okay. I was afraid my four Dyrge "factions" would be perceived as a rip off of your work.

Ya. I'd like to recommend you get that comic of yours done soon. I'm starting to get curious about it.

[Faub]

This all depends on where I am in the storyline and what I need to look up to make it work.

Research and storyline: varies. I can bang out the dialogue in a half hour that will last for several pages. Or it may take me days to get the general theme. Research never takes less than an hour, but I don't research all that much.

Pencils: on average, it takes three hours to do pencils.

Scanning, background scribbles and layout: This can easily take two hours. After I scan the images, I finish them on the computer. That's where the flat gray scribbles come from that roughly resemble shading come from. It's not just that, though. Most of the time, the background doesn't "come with" the characters. I need to overlay the characters on the background, erase the parts of the background that the characters cover and then do the scribbles. The end result is interesting, so I'm not going to change this process anytime soon.

Text: Adding text is the easiest part, but it still takes roughly a half hour to an hour.

Saving and uploading takes around a minute and half, so I don't really count this.

6 - 8 hours usually. If this were a full time job, I don't think I would have a problem with it.

[Luprand]

Hmm ... I'd say I spend about 12 hours a day in some comic related activity, be it scribbling, inking, scanning, pondering, plotting, rehashing, sharing, ignoring class, writing, coloring, uploading, etc.

--Sij

[Evil Jamie!]

Too.
Damn.
Long.

[Terotrous]

Planning: Although I do sometimes sit down and write out scipts, it's rather infrequent so I won't count it. If I want to make up a strip on a certain theme, I can usually get a joke in a couple minutes.

Lineart: Around 0.75-1.25 hours. 1.5 hours if it's really ornate. The sunday strips have twice as many panels and take about 2 to 2.5 hours.

Colouring: Colouring the Sunday strips takes about 2 hours.

Site maintenance, uploading, commenting etc. About 10 minutes per update.

Which roughly works out to 1.15 hours for dailies, and about 4.5 for sundays.

Of course, my "sunday" strips aren't actually made on sunday, sometimes there will be two in a row, or none for several weeks.

[Ian the Scribe]

It takes me about an hour from start to finish to script, draw and ink each comic for the week, and then about five hours getting them all scanned and up on the web... I could probably cut down the time if I really concentrated, but that's rarely an option.

[Kyouryuu]

It depends. In the short stint I did CG'ed work it took me forever and even then it didn't turn out too well. I took too many little shortcuts and the whole thing suffered. To do CG work in the way I'd <i>really</i> want to, it would take several hours I don't have. That would take about 1-2 hours per frame.

Typically I spend about 15 minutes writing. The overarching story was something I conceived a while ago (beginning, middle, and end!) so those 15 minutes are basically spent thinking of the specific dialogue to be used.

The underlying pencil work takes about 30 minutes depending on what needs to be drawn. The secondary pencil work ("pencil inking") takes about 15 minutes. The pencil shading work takes about 30 minutes. Scanning is about 5 minutes. Adding the word balloons and related vector work, resizing and optimizing the artwork, takes about 30 minutes. This is the most fun part, in my opinion.

So I'd say I spend 15 + 30 + 15 + 30 + 5 + 30 = 2.5 hours on any comic, times two comics a week, is 5 hours a week.

Admittedly, I could spend more time with each comic and I could color it. But I don't want it to feel like work, nor bite off more than I can reliably chew (with college classes and all). By doing little work, I know I can keep doing it and not get bored. Granted, pencil sketches don't do wonders for audiences...

[Brockway]

My comic doesn't take long to draw out the stuff I scan. I do alot of editing in gimp (coloring, drawing backgrounds, dialog, arranging, etc) Thats what takes me awhile. I can draw out the characters and stuff in like half an hour, editing is what stretches my time out.

[Superlance]

I can whip out Hunter in about an hour, at least so far; once I get to the next chapter, with the second character, Raon, it will take longer since I have to draw that stupid helicopter, and I might actually color one or two...

Legacy takes about three+ hours, but I've cut down the time since I just now figured out you can use the dodge and burn tools to do shadows and highlights with.