Tips for starting a comic?

[Savvybug]

I'm new here and I would like to start a comic but I've never really made one and am not sure how to go about it. I have an idea but I'm still developing the characters. Anything would be really helpful. Thanks!

[eishiya]

Did you search these forums first? There are already threads with tips.

In a nutshell:
- Plan ahead! Even if you don't want to write the whole story before you start, at least know where you want the characters to end up, know their goals and at least roughly how they'll get there. Thumbnail your pages before doing the final art (thumbnails are miniature sketches in which you can quickly try different compositions for the page).
- Don't rush into a story. Let your story idea sit for a few weeks at least before committing to it. If you have trouble remembering or caring about the idea after a while, it probably wasn't any good to begin with! The really good ideas will stick with you and haunt you until you get them out. Some of my ideas have been with me for over a decade.
- Do concept art for your characters and major locations. Practice drawing them so that you can keep them consistent in the comic.
- Practice the basics. Anatomy, environments, light and shadow. Practice expressions and motion, too. You'll need all of these in your comic. They're not easy, which is exactly why you should practice them. Your comic will most likely call for difficult poses and environments (often all in one panel!), don't shy away from these. Put the work in, it'll get easier after a while. If you try to cheat your way out of the difficult parts, you won't improve and they'll stay difficult forever.

And most importantly: Don't give up! Your early pages will probably be pretty bad, but you won't learn how to make better comics without drawing comics. Don't wait until you're "good enough."

There are a lot of other tips (look for the random comic tips thread, for example), but you needn't concern yourself with those at the beginning, they'll just overwhelm you. Don't be afraid to make mistakes and learn from them. And if you don't see your mistakes, someone else might, so don't be afraid to get critique (unless you have a thin skin D:!).

[Super Bluey]

If you want to make a sprite comic, it won't be hard to give you advices. But if it is hand drawn, well, you will have to learn carefully.

[mosama]

Have fun and make the stuff you want to make. Make a comic that you would want to read yourself. Try not to stress out over it, we all gotta start somewhere. I think the most important part of the process is actually having the dedication to continue making the comic after it gets going. There isn't much else I could think of telling you, good luck though!

[Savvybug]

Did you search these forums first? There are already threads with tips.

I'll check the forums out and thank you because you helped a lot!

[Savvybug]

Have fun and make the stuff you want to make. Make a comic that you would want to read yourself. Try not to stress out over it, we all gotta start somewhere. I think the most important part of the process is actually having the dedication to continue making the comic after it gets going. There isn't much else I could think of telling you, good luck though!

Thank you I will keep that in mind!

[eishiya]

Please don't double post. If you want to add to your post or reply to two people, edit a single post instead of making another. If you click Quote on someone's post, you don't have to use the new reply form it gives you, you can just copy+paste the quote code into your previous post :]

There's this ongoing thread that might be of interest. It's about choosing between multiple ideas, so if that's something you struggle with, it might help. It's not in the Art Techniques & Tutorial forum, so it might not show up in your searches.

[Jadiekins]

Did you search these forums first? There are already threads with tips.

- Practice the basics. Anatomy, environments, light and shadow. Practice expressions and motion, too. You'll need all of these in your comic. They're not easy, which is exactly why you should practice them. Your comic will most likely call for difficult poses and environments (often all in one panel!), don't shy away from these. Put the work in, it'll get easier after a while. If you try to cheat your way out of the difficult parts, you won't improve and they'll stay difficult forever.

To add to this:
DRAW THE SHIT OUT OF BACKGROUNDS/ENVIRONMENTS. Draw backgrounds all the time. It's one of the biggest pitfalls for beginner comic artists is that they focus all their time on the characters, but not enough on where the characters are. You have to force yourself to like drawing backgrounds. They might not be fun to do at first, but over time you'll get better, and you might even start to enjoy it.

[corruption]

Develop the characters alongside your development of the plot. Most people consider the characters and plot to separate, but they are two sides of the one thing. Characters enact the plot, and the plot expresses the characters.

You could have a greatly crafted character who is skilled in their own fields, and has an incredible past, but unless the plot allows you to express that, it does not come into play. You could have a marvelous plot that id done right will keep your audience following you for decades, but if you make the characters not fit properly, they are unlikely to read past one month's worth of the archive.

One trick the old play-writes use to do when writing their plays (which Shakespeare is known to of done a lot) to prevent other groups of actors from doing their plays as well was to write the characters and the plot to suit the actors. That way if anyone else tried to preform the play, they would not do it as well.

Another thing people forget is to think about how the events in the plot shape and change the character. You can't fully make the character designs until you have made enough of the plot to figure out the main events and subplots, and how they will change your cast.

Mcgaffins; try to avoid suddenly introducing them from no-where to move things along. That is a sign of a hack writer that everyone hates; both the sign, and the writer who treats the readers like idiots who won't question things suddenly popping up from no-where. If how it comes into play is established, like someone ticking off a chaotic spirit who likes seeing what people do in odd situations, then it is expected and permitted.

[Nordlys]

I agree with those suggestion, although I still need to have a basic idea of my characters to write a story, or i can't write anything. For example, for a story I'm writing now, I already had ideas about how my characters were - even if, apart from a couple of characters, i had no ideas about their personality. When i wrote the plot it was easy to understand all character (and even to kill off one because he didn't fit with the story). I think the mindset beginners have is that they think to their story as something that can't change, instead they should learn that their story can be changed if they recognize the basic idea is good but they did some mistakes to think to the plot at the start.

[eishiya]

I agree with those suggestion, although I still need to have a basic idea of my characters to write a story, or i can't write anything. For example, for a story I'm writing now, I already had ideas about how my characters were - even if, apart from a couple of characters, i had no ideas about their personality. When i wrote the plot it was easy to understand all character (and even to kill off one because he didn't fit with the story). I think the mindset beginners have is that they think to their story as something that can't change, instead they should learn that their story can be changed if they recognize the basic idea is good but they did some mistakes to think to the plot at the start.

This.

Nothing is immutable. It's perfectly acceptable to start with fully-designed characters as long as you're willing to change them as the story demands.

As for characters with traits we never see in the story: I think it's fine and even good to know details to the characters that are not ever shown in the comic. A character's past informs their decisions and personality in the present, even though the reader doesn't need to know how in most cases. But again, the writer must be willing to change this stuff if the need arises. The important thing is consistency. If you, the writer, know what informs a character's decisions, then your characters can make decisions consistently, even if "consistently" includes quirks and seeming inconsistencies.

I agree with what corruption is saying overall though - tailor your characters to fit the plot and vice versa, don't try to shoehorn one into the other.
And don't try to show off aspects of your characters that don't help you tell your story, although those aspects in themselves are fine to have. If your character's a great cook, you don't have to force a dinner scene into your story. It's okay to leave some aspects of your character unexplored!

[Mundius]

Did you draw the characters a few times? Even when I want to add a small character, I always draw them out at least 15 different times to understand how to draw them properly. Heck, my hero himself was redrawn to look more Adventure-Timey, down to the fact that I used an old copy of the guides for drawing Finn and Jake as some basis.