Speed drawing

So I have been trying to do everything faster: typing, reading, writing.  I have to write content to ensure that I have an income as I also work on my graphic novel.  I have commented before on trying to learn how to draw faster.  Well, I did a little research of my own and found this cool video on Youtube that shows a comic artist creating a page by hand in four hours.  I thought that this was pretty interesting.  I always wonder how many pages I should be finishing a week.  Right now I am on hiatus from page creation due to the fact that I will be moving over the New Year's holiday but I know that when we are in 2013 I will have to get back on the horse and krank out some mean graphics.

I use Comic Life software so I don't have to draw panels from scratch or speech bubbles.  The Youtube video just shows penciling and inking not coloring.  I wonder how long this person takes to color their pages.    I think I want to create a page a day (workday that is) come January.  I know that I will have to work eight hour days doing something else but I think that I really could manage maybe five pages a week.  What do you think?  I think coloring is going to have the final say in the matter.  Here is the link to the video I found:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJvewrWJcac

Tips on Comic Writing Jobs

So I was browsing the web and I found something kind of interesting about comic writers and breaking into the industry.  So far the advice is that there is no such thing as a writer job in the comic industry.  It has been explained as one big catch-22.  You need publishing credits to get a job but you can't get a job without publishing credits.  Obviously, this means that work in the beginning will be done on speculation, which is technically what I've done so far.  I haven't submitted to any publishers yet (I don't know if I will).  However, my source names a couple of independent comic publishers who may take on beginning comic writers who are paired with good artists.  The link below gives some industry rates.  These are just estimates.  Most writers keep their pay confidential.  I hope this is  a helpful source for any other aspiring comic writers who visit my blog: http://www.scriptsandscribes.com/comic-writer-faq/

Exactly how to pair with a good artist who will work on spec with you is whole other story.  I haven't ventured in that far.  I've done all of my own art work so far.  Some things that I have read online seem to suggest that there is a lot of conflict and tension between writers and artists.  It seems that getting better at drawing is the best and most reliable way that I can complete my project.  Does anyone have anything else to offer on that note?

A Comment on Coloring

So while I've been going crazy with content writing and other things I took some time to research methods of coloring comics.  Obviously, this can be done by hand.  That is how most comics were created back in the day.  Penciling, inking, and coloring by hand is also the simplest way for amateur comic makers to get their project off the ground without having to pay for expensive comic making software.  However, I found this tutorial that shows how to ink and color a comic with Gimp paint.  Gimp is a program kind of like Photoshop but with less features.  You've probably heard of it.  While a Photoshop licence can cost six hundred dollars Gimp programs can be downloaded for free (also download the help guide).  

Finding this tutorial made me very happy.  I have been able to create comic pages which you all have seen and I have come a long way from where I was a few weeks ago, but I am always looking for ways to improve my art work for the sake of my graphic novel fans (when I get some that is).  What makes me so excited about this find is that now maybe I can have more control over coloring my comics.  One thing that really bugs me about the sample pages that I worked so hard on is the variability of the coloring.  I tried to get it the best that I could.  Now with this tutorial from David Revoy I can hopefully make my panels look so much better.  Yay!

If you are interested to learn how to color a comic with Gimp then please visit this page at David Revoy's website: http://www.davidrevoy.com/article32/comics-inking-and-coloring-with-gimp-painter
I hope that this tutorial will be helpful to all us.  Have a great day! =P