Currently, I post two pages a week on my webcomic. I was posting one a week from the time the comic went live in July 2015 until about two weeks ago. My goal is to work up to three posts a week by the end of this year.
I work very old school. I draw everything on paper first, ink it, scan it, clean it up and add photos and other elements, then vectorize everything and post it. It's a lot of steps. I could save time if I drew everything directly onto a tablet. The drawbacks to that are a) the learning curve and b) the fact that I can't afford a tablet right now.
I've seen some friends do really beautiful, expressive stuff on a tablet, so I am not discounting that for the future. But for now I need to work with what I have, and I need to keep it on a schedule. Last week I skipped both posts because I had a show to prepare for and no panel backup. I would prefer not to do that again, so I really need to build myself a buffer.
Two things are important for working fast: trusting your style, and forgetting perfection. I am trying to tell a story with this comic; and while visual beauty is important, perfection can wait for the painted character portraits and mural renderings. Meanwhile, I develop my drawing style with regular discipline.
And it's more than just drawing; it's more like cinematography. How am I telling this story? How am I pacing it, what world does it create in the viewer's mind? Every now and then I look over what I've posted so far, and I think roughly a third of it is pretty great. That's a good ratio. I'm always aiming higher, of course. But I think I am headed in the right direction.
