I sit down and show how I draw my webcomic in this video
In the video, I show the process of how I draw my webcomic diary using the Medibang Paint app on my drawing tablet and talk about my process.
How long does it take me to draw my webcomic?
The whole process to draw my webcomics is meant to keep with the diary-style I like to convey.
So I draw it all freehand to keep it loose just like writing ideas and thoughts down in a diary or journal.
I try not to spend more than 15 minutes drawing the comic, sometimes maybe 20 but I always try to keep it short.
I actually found that if I spent a lot of time making it perfect and detailed it doesn't seem like an authentic story that actually happened to me.
So how do I begin the process of drawing my webcomic?
How do I start my webcomic drawings?
Every day I kind of have an idea of something that happened today in my head that I want to draw about. As I open my drawing app on my tablet I'm still thinking about the idea I have for the webcomic and how I want to draw it.
The first thing I do?
Write the text. I write down all the words for the story in the panels. Then of course check if I have misspellings. Plus it helps me figure out where the people in the comic should be to make the conversation flow in the discussion.
The next thing I do?
Then I try to figure out how I want to draw it.
I said before I draw it all freehand on the fly so based on how I mapped it out in my head when writing the text. I also try to recreate a loose layout of the place it actually happened when I draw.
This one is about something really minor that happened to me. It was a nice day out and we were thinking, "hey instead of just working inside why don't we go to the coffee shop?"
I don't map out what I'm doing when I draw it or sketch it first. I just kind of picture it in my head and draw it.
This leads me to another thing I've decided about the webcomics I draw.
Does my webcomic have to be perfect?
It's like challenging myself to see if I can make this up in my head and put it down on virtual paper.
Also, that means the perspective is all over the place in this thing too but whatever? 😄
That's the other thing that's unique about doing these comics in this way.
While I don't really sketch out or correct a lot as I draw, I just try to move it forward and see what happens.
But I will say, I use the back button a lot!
Rewriting my webcomic as I draw it
I also decided to add the sound effect "Scootch!" for the sound of the chair in this one after drawing a panel.
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| Scootch! |
I just felt like I was scootching the chair the whole time I was sitting outside the coffee shop on the patio furniture.
On the last panel, I realized I should add some dialogue that Merijoy said about the sun glare on her laptop too.
Much like how I try to draw it on the fly, as I draw it, the story sometimes makes me realize I should update what I already wrote.
This is really how I come up with my webcomic ideas.
How do I come up with webcomic ideas?
For me, I just use things that happen to me every day. Sometimes they are serious thoughts or problems I'm having. Other times they are things that are just mundane things that I feel other people could relate to in everyday life.
The concept of what was going on in this webcomic I'm drawing in the video I posted here?
The furniture was very nice at the coffee shop patio. But it had like a bucket seat? So I couldn't sit back in it without being at a full incline. So I had to sit up in front of it on the edge.
I just kept adjusting the chair the whole time we were there. I'd be like sideways and stuff and constantly changing to get comfortable.
That's what I'm trying to convey here in this webcomic.
Even though we were trying to work and I'd get comfortable for a little bit, then all of a sudden be like, "now my arm's starting to hurt".
And it was a wooden table that had panels, so when I put my arm on it no matter where I put them it would be in between where the separation of the panels was. So the wood would be digging into my arm.
So a concept as simple as that is what I use for my webcomics sometimes.
The final outcome of my webcomic?
Anyway, I think I got it in the end? I look uncomfortable in the chair there right?
Then I just got to clean up some of the edges where I went across the panel lines with the eraser tool and I'm done!
I always think this is going to take longer to draw and I'm always like, "how am I going to draw this?"
So that's how I do this:
- It takes me about 15 minutes to draw the comic
- I write out what the story is in the panels
- I draw what I picture in my head from the day
- I try to keep it quick to make it a diary/journal style
- It's all really something that happened to me each day
And it never really takes too long at all!