See that comic to your left? How long would you guess that it took to get it up online? When I was considering that question this morning, the answer was a lot longer than I expected.
First I sketch a few ideas very roughly. Then I choose one to use and sketch it a little less roughly. I scan that in, perform a little contrast adjustment and resize it. Then I upload it to the site and change the HTML for the page so that viewers can enter their captions. Later in the week, I traced over it and scanned in the the tracing. I then edited the drawing a little with my computer to get rid of smudges and correct some gross perspective errors (minor ones are all part of the cartoon’s charm.) Next, it’s all about adding the colour. I spent a couple sessions colouring it, and notice that many of the elements are gradients and such. This week, I resized and uploaded a colour version a few days before the contest ended. Then on Monday, I chose my favourite caption added the text and the balloon, made some final color changes, uploaded the finished comic and changed the HTML again.
I estimate I put six to seven hours into that comic. That’s almost a full day’s work — and for only a semi-good looking comic. Imagine if I had drawn the band members in the van window! Too bad no one pays me for this. Good thing it’s fun.
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