How to become faster?

#1

I am a freelancer who creates comics for a weekly magazine…
I have strict deadlines, but I rarely sent my work on time, which makes the publisher very upset…
I really can’t help it… I want to draw, ink, color, create new stunning ideas in the shortest time possible while keeping the good quality + learning new art techniques…

I am the slow artist type, I thought about having some assistants, but I have some friends who work in the same magazine. They work alone with no assistants and they manage the deadline thing very well… And for that, most of them got a raise, but I didn’t…

Anyone here knows what it takes and what to do to become faster while still keeping the good art and ideas quality?

#2

What process do you go through to complete your work?

Is it completely traditional?

how much of it is done on a computer, and if you do what kinds of software do you use?

#3

Well… I start with thinking about the main arc of the story, design the characters and backgrounds ( This stage takes lots of time ) and write down the scenario of the episode I am going to draw…
After that I do the episode’s thumbnails, then I draw the sketches traditionally…
I scan the pages and start making the panels, put the text without balloons and do the inking, shading, coloring digitally…
Finally I put the balloons digitally as well…

#4

Hello,

Have you tried cutting out the repetition in your workflow?

By this I mean do you have various templates set up for your panels already that you can pick from? Setting this up each time would be time consuming.

#5

Hi!

maybe it would help to have a chat with one of the fast collegues and learn how he/she manages.
or maybe it’s just not the right job for you and you would be happier and more appreciated in a company that works with different timescales.
What I mean is that sometimes there’s nothing wrong with you (or with the company), it’s just that the job and you simply don’t match.
If you rellay care about the job, stick with it and try to become faster, but if it doen’t satisfy you then… just look around :slight_smile:
Best of luck!

#6

First of I really admire it when people include analog art techniques.

On the digital side, I am a real fan of learning the shortcuts. I think a keystroke is much quicker than the pulldown menus.

As far as type goes, I have a set up a few boilerplate responses like slatr mentioned. Just to shave some minutes off. For example; “New design is online, call me if you have any questions.” or “Invoice attached…” and “Changes applied.”. Those are set up with a typing utility (http://www.smileonmymac.com/textexpander/) to fill in if i type a four letter abbreviation.

An asset library or graphic folder would be helpful. For folders like this I like the new Adobe bridge (it comes with photoshop), big thumbnails lets us quickly see the file we need to plop in.

I think it helps me immensely when I have reference printed out in front of me instead of flipping a window back and forth.

Something might be able to cut corners on is instead of spending a lot of time in reading - skim for your research make your thumbnails, and skim again before sketching.

#7

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