marsoid

HOW I MAKE WEBCOMICS (part 4)

Added 2021-01-30 00:59:55 +0000 UTC

characters

one thing i personally try to keep in mind when it comes to writing my webcomics is that characters are the driving force in a story, they're the most important thing over plot or anything else. not everyone may agree, and that's fine, but i know i definitely greatly prefer character-driven stories over plot-driven. if you can get people to care about your characters, that's like half the battle of making a successful webcomic i think haha. so i wanna go over how i come up with characters and character dynamics in my comics!

for me, the character idea predates the comic idea. for Long Exposure, i came up with Mitch and Jonas long before i thought about even making a comic about them. i developed them as much as i could, really trying to get into their heads and crafting their backstories, and the comic's plot came from how i wanted their relationship to progress. i made Mitch first, and just threw in a bunch of traits and design characteristics i liked and had fun drawing. then when coming up with Jonas, i tried to make him the opposite of Mitch in personality and design. where Mitch was pointy and lanky and aggro, Jonas was round and stout and kind. when coming up with couples, i like to make them complement and contrast each other as much as i can!

so how do you develop a character once you have a general idea of what they're like? this might not ring true for everybody, but when i make characters i find that it helps to throw traits onto them and see what sticks. maybe it takes a few days to figure out if a trait "feels right" on the character, but eventually you'll get a good idea of who your character is. think about what your character's personality is like, and what could have happened in their backstory to make them behave the way they do! generally speaking if you're writing a webcomic with a plot, your characters need goals, motivation, a lie they believe, the truth they learn, and the ghost of their past that makes them believe that lie. i use this website for character and writing help a lot, so maybe it'll help some of you guys too!

art references

reference is SO important in making comics. use reference for anything you're unsure of! you might think you know what a doorknob looks like, but if you try drawing one without looking at reference i can bet you'll miss some key (heh) features! poses, anatomy, backgrounds, objects, lighting, whatever. it's good to use reference. photos and 3D models are a good bet, but i personally would advise against using other peoples' drawings as reference for your comics! ask permission first! ALSO using yourself as reference for specific poses is something i always forget to do MYSELF.. here's some sites i frequently use for finding reference:

Lighting on head reference tool

promotional

here's some tips for promoting your webcomic:

draw and post the characters a lot
answer questions about your characters/talk about them!
draw short comics/interactions between characters
commission your favorite artists for your characters
post crops of comic pages on social media with links to the comic

being consistent and frequent with art and updates helps a lot with promotional work. HOWEVER i don't recommend trying to keep up with social media algorithms because they're literal hell and are not made with human mental health in mind.