Speed Vs Detail

Balancing detail and speed is one hell of a trick for a webcomic creator. It is common pitfall for many of us starting our webcomic. Unfortunately one cannot always have both of these qualities in the work. We go ham on all the intricacies early on and then wonder why we keep missing deadlines or worse, burn out completely.

Last week I talked about tricks to help you develop your style. Part of this process is also learning when to go all out on the details and when to cut a few corners as you try to balance quality vs speed so here are a few things to think about when you begin working on your current/next comic project.

What is the length of your story?
Is it an epic historical drama with a chessboard of moving pieces? Or is your story a light hearted gag strip that you want to release every week? Determine what length you think would be appropriate for your story and from there, plan it out a few chapters in advance. Ideally, for an epic tale, you’ll have a broad outline in mind, but if you’re still trying to work it out, then knowing what the workload you intend to take on might be can help keep it in perspective.

How much detail do you want to put in?
If you want your work to look super duper blinged to the nines, then be prepared to do A LOT of work. Detail takes a lot of time and energy. To help you, look up some tricks on speeding up the drawing process on YouTube or Deviantart. Learn some keyboard shortcuts to help speed up your workload, or even search for nifty Photoshop brushes and patterns to help you achieve your desired result.

Consider how long you want your work to take
When you sit down to do your next shiny project set yourself the task of deciding how long you want this project to take. If it is a short, one-shot comic, is it one you want to finish in a matter of weeks or do you want to take a bit longer? Not only will setting yourself this timeframe help you determine how much time you want to take to tell your story, it will also help you keep focused. If it is a one-shot over a series of months then you can take your time with the detail. If not? Then you need to consider the shortcuts you might have to take.

Build up a buffer and take breaks!
These tend to go hand in hand. You might want to complete a chapter or two before you begin releasing your work to the world so that you give yourself time to maintain your pace/desired level of detail. If you find yourself becoming exhausted, take some time for yourself. Believe it or not, your audience is generally very nice and they prefer you to be healthy and happy rather than exhausted!

Come to terms with the fact that detail vs speed is a compromise
As you develop your style and practice more, you’ll find that you’ll eventually speed up. However, even the pros cut corners to get more work out. Till then, try and be realistic when it comes to your expectations about your work and don’t be afraid to sacrifice a little bit of detail for speed and visa versa.

Is your comic incredibly detailed or do you try to keep it super simple? Comment below and let us know! And join us on Sunday evening for our Quackchat at 5:30PM(EST). We’ll be following up on this topic so be sure to tune in and give other creators your tips on how you found your style!

Till next time lovelies!