At present I'm working on two creator owned manga stories. I'm glad that I have the time and freedom to finally get to them, because they are stories I've long wanted to tell. In the midst of penciling said stories I've noticed something that I wanted to share. The importance of 'locking' your story ahead of time. Having the discipline to really treat writing as a separate craft ahead of executing the artwork and sticking to the storyline once pen'd. This is something I definitely struggle with. As I draw I'll see a new angle and start to deviate from my pre-written version. Soon I end up on Nowhereland, or off on a disconnected tangent and have wasted a day or two penciling pages that have taken me far afield of where I should have been going. Yes making changes to improve your story is fine in measured amounts, but make sure that before you start drawing that the basic structural foundation of your story is solid and will take the reader where you want them to go. Trust me, if it isn't, you will end up wasting a lot of time changing and re-arranging things, and often to no avail. Now, with the advent of Photoshop or GIMP, it's easy to re-composite pages and chop them up, move stuff around, etc after the fact, so really, draw it first the way you wrote it, and make changes later as needed. I've found this to be a much more effective and productive strategy when working on my own stuff. I mean we all want to shoot the moon and achieve greatness in our work, but drawing yourself into a disorganized corner will never get you anywhere except burnt out, frustrated, and lacking confidence in your efforts. The way to avoid this is by inches. Write a solid story, draw your layouts, finish your pencils, ink them suckas, tone or color, submit or publish. No skipping steps or jumping ahead. Shortcuts are always the long way around. I think you'll find that by slowing down and being a bit more methodical that you actually speed up in the grand scheme of things sequential. Best Wished and I hope this little bit of insight from my drawing table has been helpful.
IIID
Watch out for new previews of 'Miko' and 'Agency Black' coming soon!
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