From Start to Finish

[holywa]

How long does it take you, the artist, to make a manga page? From start to finish? Is it a fast, hurried process or is it long, arduous, and frustrating? What materials do you find yourself usually using?

~~~ Do you honestly find it fun?;)

[Tentopet]

Takes me about 4 or 5 hours to pencil a page, 3 to ink a page, 1 or 2 hours to tone it, and maybe another half hour for random computer shtuff. Total: 8-10 hours, aka about a page a day. But this is fairly fast. Sometimes it takes me longer to pencil. I can get pretty frustrated getting things right. But overall, I really enjoy what I do!! And I'm not just saying that. It's been getting more enjoyable as I go along :)

[RikkiSimons]

Every page is differnt, so it's difficult to place an absolute time. Tavisha and I work almost on all ShutterBox pages together and there are pages that can take a few hours and there are pages that can take a few days. The fastest we ever went was on ShutterBox Book One where we did eight pages in a day — and it nearly killed us. Our yearly physicals were scheduled right after completing the book, and we both received stern warnings from our doctor about blood pressure. We take things slower now.

-Rikki

[LCibos]

On average, it takes me about a day to pencil a page of Peach Fuzz. Sometimes if the pages are simple enough, I can squeeze in an extra page, but especially complicated pages might take me two days to finish. It tends to balance out overall to a page a day, and I use any leftover time to screen tone.

The process can be an uphill battle (and yes, it can be frustrating at times), but seeing the completed page makes it all worthwhile for me.

[holywa]

oh my goodness, I must have been dead last night. I must keep correcting the message. Gwah!:eek:
How do you guys make the manga page? Ex: First sketch, then draw, then ink, then...goodness knows, take an orange break?

Was nice to hear about the time though. It's good to know the artists are having fun. :D

[Pedes]

oh my goodness, I must have been dead last night. I must keep correcting the message. Gwah!:eek:
How do you guys make the manga page? Ex: First sketch, then draw, then ink, then...goodness knows, take an orange break?

Was nice to hear about the time though. It's good to know the artists are having fun. :D
Hehe, don't sleep creating an new thread :D

[PeNCILz]

I just finished the first page to my manga this morning. First I basically sit down and set up the page layout after looking at the rough copy I made. Then I look at the layout and make murmuring sounds and begin erasing. This is usually a thirty minute process.... Then I begin filling in the layout with the art and repeat the last part of the layout process this takes about two hours.... The first page, which is not inked yet... Waiting for my brother to come home with free art supplies supplied by my art teacher from my old school... (Whom I drew a kitty for to persuade her to give me free art materials... She likes cats...) Then when I get that I will not doubt practice with the nibbing for an hour or two most likely three though and then begin the inking where I will no doubt mess up the ENTIRE page and have to restart... TT.TT

[Pedes]

oh my goodness, I must have been dead last night. I must keep correcting the message. Gwah!
How do you guys make the manga page? Ex: First sketch, then draw, then ink, then...goodness knows, take an orange break?

Was nice to hear about the time though. It's good to know the artists are having fun.
I'm not a TP artist (yet, I hope) but the hell:
I usually see/plan a story like a movie, so I see the scenes. When it comes to drawing a page I decide how panels should look like and divide page into panels/areas. I susally don't do thumbnails of the whole page. Nor I do rough sketches - I usually do pencils fo the start, reason being I would rub off with my hand the roughest sketches and only dirty the page that way. When I'm not sure how to draw a panel I sketch a thumbnail on a separate piece of paper. Sometimes if panel goes really wring and paper gets dirty I do a panel on a separate piece of paper and gule it on afterwards (after the inking and cleaning the pencils). Then I ink and clean. After cleaning goes touch ups and inking black areas. (Or I ink blacks before erasing, so there's less to erase.. depends on hpow celan the pencils were). And then scanning and...
As for toning I still haven't decided wich one to buy: comicworks or Mangastudio, though I like the demo of MS (And it's cheaper).

[rivkah]

I think overall, I average about a page a day, but like everybody else, it varies for me, too. Detailed pages with full backgrounds can take two or three days. Pages without backgrounds can be done in a few hours. Plus, I complete all the pencils before inking and toning but average 2-3 pencils a day. Another weird thing is that I often work on several pages at once. I ink the bodies on about four pages first, then I ink the hair, and last the backgrounds. Once a whole chapter is inked, I go back and tone which is usually very quick . . . it takes about two to three days to tone the full chapter. Ballooning takes about a day. Sound FX vary.

What I've found odd is that I've actually slowed down since I first started out. Used to be I could pencil, ink, and tone eight pages in a day, but though I didn't realize it at the time, I DO now realized that it looked rushed and sloppy, especially the backgrounds which were amateur at best. So while drawing and inking bodies and facial expressions may be the most important part of the visuals, the "extras" can be just as important and now take twice as much my attention as they used to, therefore increasing production time.

[RikkiSimons]

How do you guys make the manga page? Ex: First sketch, then draw, then ink, then...goodness knows, take an orange break?

We have a bit of a silly tutorial of one of our more complicated pages, going through all the steps on a single page (from script, to pencils, to backgrounds, layout, lettering, inking, toning, and finish) here: http://www.tokyopop.com/mangaonline/submissions.php?viewPage=sub_howto.htm&archives=01_2006.

-Rikki

[supersaiyanneo]

did you guys go to college? and if so, how long did it take to earn your degree?

[QueenieChan]

No. I never went to art college. No art training whatsoever. Wish I had art training though. Still, having no art training has it's own rewards.

And I do my manga the traditional way. I get an A4 sheet of paper, rule the specs out with blue pencil, and just draw in all the panels and then ink them. I scan them in, fix them up on the comp, tone and then letter it. Ta-da! A one-woman operation, from start to finish. I don't bother with thumbnails because I have no need, and I don't do proper pencils because I ink on rough sketches straight away. :D

That's all there is to it! :D

[supersaiyanneo]

what's an A4 sheet of paper?

[tomselleck69]

it's the 'standard' paper size in america and several other countries.

A4 = about 8.27×11.69 in.

[lazesummerstone]

It seems like it takes me far too long to do a page... probably because I'm too easily distracted by ANYTHING!!
If I can get all the distractions to go away, I can finish one page, drawn, inked and toned in a day. But that's maybe 18 hours!

[Pedes]

what's an A4 sheet of paper?
As said, standard size for many countires. 21x29,7 cm