Creating a webtoon isn’t just knowing how to draw. The creation of a webcomic can be difficult and the beginning process is different for each person. Here are a few tips to consider when starting your first webtoon:
1. Establish an Art Style
Having an established art style does a number of things. Your art style practically equates as your signature. By establishing a set art style that you can use in making your webtoon, readers will recognize you, the creator, based on your art. Establishing an art style that is consistent throughout your comic will produce a more positive note from readers. You don’t want to start out with one certain art style and end up
in a different art style by the middle or end of your comic. It can be unsettling, throwing readers off.
© Adonis, © Mangahasu, Screenshot Image from Mangahasu, mangahasu.se
However, there is a difference between a consistent art style and improvement in art style. As artists, if you constantly work on your art, it is bound to improve, creating a shift in the art of the webtoon and that’s okay. In fact, readers recognize that and applaud creator’s more in those instances.
2. Know Your Platforms
Research which platforms you want to publish your webcomic on before you create panels to your comic (or have too much of it completed to change without starting over). Each webcomic platform has different requirements regarding panel size, resolution, and other technical points. Each webcomic platform also caters to different audiences and this connects to the next tip.
3. Know Your Audience
When choosing which platform you want to publish your comic on, decide which audience you want to create your comic for, or which audience fits the readership of your already created comic. For example, if your comic is a Korean webtoon stylized romance webcomic, Comixology might not be a platform you would try to publish your comic on. Instead, Webtoon or Tapas might be better options.
Additionally, try to narrow your target audience. Broader may be better in some cases but in this instance, a narrowed audience means an audience that is looking and interested in the type (genre, topic, subject, style, and more.) of comic you are creating. They may be more inclined to stay and stick around longer.
4. Have the Story Already Built
One struggle creators sometimes face is coming up with a story that they can/want to work. On average, it takes a few years and at the least one year, to complete a webtoon with a plot. Therefore, you should:
- Create a comic over something you like or find interesting, so you won’t find making webcomics tedious. Otherwise, it defeats the purpose of pursuing a career you enjoy.
- Draft out the story before you start drawing. It can be in the form of notes or a storyboard, script formatted dialogue and action, narrative formatted prose, or other ways that you find helpful in plotting the story to the comic.
You don’t always have to follow the drafted-out story line as you draw and post each episode online, but it can guide you as go. And if you’re lucky and get sought out by a publishing platform, you’ll at least have something completed/partially completed to present to them to show the direction your comic will take.
Instead of just diving right in and just drawing something then posting it online, consider these tips to get an easier start to developing your own webcomic.
In addition to these tips, here is a helpful video for beginning creators by the popular webcomic platform Line Webtoon:
And provided here are more helpful tips given by Jaywalker Pictures, a creator who has their own comic posted on Line Webtoon’s Discover section:
Bibliography
mangahasu.se/reminiscence-adonis/chapter-69-ill-be-your-knight-c649340.html
Jin. “GETTING STARTED ON WEBTOON • DiscoverMore.” Youtube, uploaded by LINE WEBTOON, 19 Feb. 2019, youtube.com/watch?v=SXKcdt6COr8&feature=youtu.be.
“How to make a webtoon – 5 tips to get started.” Youtube, uploaded by Jaywalker Pictures, 3 Dec. 2016, youtube.com/watch?v=RZJcStExiwM&feature=youtu.be
Webtoon In Depth 