How do I practice for making a webcomic other than making a webcomic? I don't want my webcomic to be shit

How do I practice for making a webcomic other than making a webcomic? I don't want my webcomic to be shit

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draft a webcomic and ask for criticism maybe

You don't. Because Sup Forums will only care about your webcomic if it's shit.

Make a comic but don't publish it, I have lots like that

Post more Mika and I will tell you the secret to making a good webcomic.

just make it, and put it out there. If you have a deadline to hit each week it will motivate you!

Also, try to find the areas that you feel weak in, and study/work on those areas.

The first thing you make won't be your strongest, so if you are 100% certain you'll be embarrassed by it later, just use a pen name.

But I think most people are happy to see webcomic artists improve, and hiding your old work and not showing it to anyone isn't especially helpful.

Also, try to make a webcomic that has a definite beginning/middle/end. (If it's on the shorter side, then that's great too.)

Also, improvement doesn't happen in days or months, but in years. Try not to get discouraged, and again, be critical of areas that you don't feel the strongest in.

Alexa>Mika

Webcomic author here. Heck, probably one of the ones is referring to. My advice is to just make a webcomic you're okay with making kind of bad.

Everyone has some special idea they think is amazing and they want to make perfect. Instead, just make something you think is pretty cool, but which you're okay making a little sub-par. The process will teach you so much about writing and what people enjoy that eventually your old idea you were so committed to making perfect will look like shit.

Is it better to spend a long time planning and preparing a webcomic or is it better to just jump in

The biggest problem that plagues webcomics these days is the author just getting into it with a basic idea of a story and just going with the flow, eventually writing themselves into a rut or a corner, having no idea what to do, and then spending way too long fucking around trying to get out of the corner or just giving up and disappearing off the map.

If your webcomic is story driven, make sure you write up the plot start to finish before you even start.

Of course if it's an episodic kind of webcomic just go with the flow since you don't have to worry about it, but when you get to the point where the comic stops appealing to you and you want to move onto something else don't just stop updating and drop off the map, make a fucking update telling the fans that you feel you've done everything you can or just don't feel like continuing on with that particular comic and feel like moving on to other things.

>tfw had a movie idea I'm currently adapting to a webcomic
>Will probably do your post on it
>Still have my completely perfect other idea safe in my mind

Should I make a practice webcomic completely unrelated to the story I want to do just so that I don't fuck up the actual webcomic i want to do

You don't. You practice doing a thing by doing a thing.

Your comic will not be up to the standard you want it to be, especially if you have high standards. You just have to do it anyways or you'll never get good.
If it's something plot based you should have some sort of plot outline and character profiles. But you don't want to get so anal that you have no wiggle room once you start.

If it's a gag a day type thing you can just jump in once you know what your premise and characters are.
Buddy, with that approach you'll end up doing a whole bunch of practice comics and never doing your passion project, because as your skill improve, so do your standards.

youtube.com/watch?v=rDjrOaoHz9s

Pen names!

>I don't want to make a shitty webcomic
If you want to improve yourself, there's not much you can do to get around it. If you want to get better at drawing you need practice. If you want to get better at writing... There's not exactly much you can do there at this point, but you can at least figure out your strong points and what style you're most comfortable with.

The best thing is start small. Do a concise, self-contained webcomic, or two. Maybe even a few one-shots and short stories. There's no point in creating massive, hyper-detailed settings if you can't tell a decent story within them, as some webcomic artists tend to fall into doing.

t. Failed webcomic artist

There's no trick or training that keeps you safe from public opinion.

The best advice I can do is, if you think your idea is a good one, just go forward with it the way you think is the best. Many good webcomics start like that.

Now, if you have a theme you'd like to develop by long term, make some research, study character designs and all. It's a good starting.

study good comics and learn from there really
if you lack that level of cognitive thinking to understand what makes something good and why it works without having someone explain it to you then you'll never be a creator

nice

I just started a webcomic, but I'm making pages now as a buffer and then will begin publishing it a bit later. Nothing is on the web now, so I guess it's... just a comic? A proto-webcomic?

Anyway. Seems like a major poison for webcomic artists is a shitty release schedule that kills the chance to grow the readership, so that's why I'm trying to get around that. People want consistency, after all. So that's why I'm doing what I'm doing. It also gives me a chance to self-edit without pressure.

I think a lot of successful webcomic artists have a buffer going on. Even the ones I don't really respect do it, so despite not liking the people or their comic I view a large part of their success as their ability to always have a page at the ready and several more after that.

So I guess what I'm saying is, you can make a shitty mistake of a webcomic and people will still read it if you generate consistent content.

whats your webcomic user.

That shit ain't even real.

Start by making smaller and more self-contained stories, minicomics, zines. Make a bunch of shit. Get yourself out there. Keep moving. Remember even if you start your big project you can always start over and make it better, look at Tyson Hesse and Diesel.

Wait, Tyson Hesse made Diesel? Wow, he really stepped up his game since then.

I started my big project..and started over. It was a solid decision.

>Search "Tyson Hesse" on Google
Holy shit! When did he became good?

Those are all good points, but I especially wanna second this one:
>But I think most people are happy to see webcomic artists improve.

One of my favorite things about webcomics is seeing how much stronger and more skilled the creator gets over time. It's cool when you're midway through someone's comic, and then you look back at the first installment and you see a huge difference and improvement. Especially if the comic was already pretty decent at the beginning.

So don't feel like you have to have the technical side 100% perfect from the very beginning.

if it wasn't shit, it wouldn't be a webcomic.

youtube.com/watch?v=n2Lfg1NkPdk
really?

It's probably going to be shit anyways. It's always going to be shit to someone. Prepare yourself to suck. It's a part of the learning process.

This
Everyone can get better, it just take practice

Take the time to revise your ideas & story, so you have something really worth turning into a final draft. The revision process is where you turn it into something really solid.

You don't have to make the story totally nailed-down and perfect. Just give it enough thought that you don't rush in with half-baked ideas that could lose your interest.
You'll be more confident and have a stronger sense of direction this way.

Why does Ryu turn into a little brown girl?

>Diesel

Is this Jojo reference the terrible comic diesel?

Practice drawing. A lot. Read tutorials. Also read lots of good comics. Try to read with a critical eye so you can figure out what they're doing well and HOW they're doing it.

Also keep on a schedule. None of that means shit if you don't update on time.

>wanting to make a webcomic
Follow your dreams user, all the way down the barrel of a .38.

>People still use .38 special
Are you a cop from the 80's? Shit's pretty much obsolete for anything other than using it in a .357 gun for cheap plinking.

reference to the street fighter 2 ova movie