Are you using Clip Studio Paint to make your digital comics? If not, I highly recommend it. For years I used Photoshop to make my comics like everyone else in the industry. Eventually, I made the effort and put in the time to learn Clip Studio.
There was a learning curve. But once I practiced and got my workspace and keystroke shortcuts the way I liked them, I started to feel more at home. I also invested in a Clip Studio Tabmate
The Tabmate is a small controller, like an old Nintendo Wii nunchuck, with all kinds of buttons on it that you can assign keyboard shortcuts to. While I draw, my other hand sits in my lap with the Tabmate and I can easily switch tools, scroll, zoom, increase brush size, transform, etc, all without touching a keyboard.
The company that makes Clip Studio also has a website with thousands of assets you can use to help you make comics. There are 3D models, detailed background drawings, zip tones, speed lines, custom word balloons…it’s a treasure trove of stuff that I have yet to fully explore.
The website does have a couple of drawbacks: For one, they have a really convoluted point-buy system if you need to purchase assets. And most of the site is in Japanese so it’s sometimes hard to understand exactly what you’re purchasing.
That being said, there’s a ton of great stuff there, and a lot of it is free. For example, this background drawing of a classroom interior.
I could purchase and download a high-res version of this drawing and just drop it into the background of my comic or I can use it as reference and draw over it. Which is what I did.
In Japan, manga artists are responsible for a lot of pages in any given week. So they are always saving time by using pre-made backgrounds, models and tones.
Definitely give Clip Studio Paint a look. It’s way cheaper than Photoshop, and they even have the full desktop version available for the iPad.
Let me know if you’d like to see more posts about how I used Clip Studio Paint to make my comics.