How to Make a Webtoon || Behind the Scenes Imposter Syndrome

I use Clip Studio Paint and 3D models free assets that Clip Studio Paint offers to make my webtoon and my webtoon backgrounds on my wacom display tablet.

Tools to Use to Make a Webtoon

You might be wondering what software should you use? I recommend looking for any art program that has layer options like Krita which is a great free alternative to Clip Studio Paint Debut.

This helps to keep the word ballons separate from the art so if you need to move things around you can do it easily without having to redraw everything.

The program that I use is clip studio paint to make my current webtoon called catch me! fight me! love me! You can use any free art program, I wrote a blog post about a covering What Programs I use to Make a Webtoon.

Another tool that I use to make a webtoon is to have a drawing tablet and a stylus. The drawing tablet I have is the Wacom Cintiq 24HD but this is a big investment so recommend beginner artist start off with a more budget friendly tablet.

In my blog post How To Start a Webtoon – 5 Tips for beginner you can find a few cheaper drawing tablet options to make a webtoon.

What is the size for Webtoon?

Once you have your art program go ahead and start it up by creating a new document. If you are uploading to webtoon their uploading file format is 800px by 1280px.

I usually double the file size in the art program so that I can zoom in closer to draw crisper lines; I then will export the webtoon file size back down to 800px by 1280px.

I went into a little more in depth detail about How to Format a Webtoon Comic for Line webtoon over in this blog post.

There are a few different ways to do this, you can either draw all the panels in one long format file and slice it later or you can draw the panels on their own individual file. 

I do a mixture of both so I will usually triple webtoons recommended format file size and draw either 1 or 2 panels with each file.

If you choose to do the long format style then there is a handy website that helps you slice your image for you.

I usually use the selection and crop tool to go back and forth between cropping each panel and saving it as a separate file but that can be a little tedious….yet here I am still tormenting myself…. 

Being an Artist is Hard

Being an artist is hard and making a webtoon can be even harder. It can be a time consuming thing and for me personally our we’re a family of 5 so a lot of time and energy goes into taking care of my life responsibilities. It’s hard to find that perfect balance between comic work and family or school or all the other things that demands our time.

I have to tell myself that there are already enough things around me that make life hard and maybe I should stop adding to that. Like maybe I should stop being so hard on myself due to feeling like I don’t measure up as an artist, thus triggering my imposter syndrome.

Something that I’m trying to do to help myself with this is first stop beating myself up comparing the amount of time I can commit to others.

It’s okay if I couldn’t commit to working on something for 8 hours straight or even 1 hour straight. I need to be kinder to myself while also being practical. Any amount of effort is worth it no matter if I can only give 10 minters worth or and hours worth. 

I’m learning that having that negative emotion of guilt that I’m not doing enough can eat away at my motivation and before i even get to working on it I give up because I feel what’s the point since I’m not able to give hours of my time.

So let go of that guilt….or at least we can try to let go of that guilt together.

Time Management Tip for Beginning Artist

Now here is a time management tip I use to help me get past my fear of the blank page (a.k.a. procrastination) What I do is give myself 25 minuets of drawing. It doesn’t have to be every day and it doesn’t even have to be 25 minuets because 15 or 10 minuets is just fine. 

I just make sure to pay attention to what my current headspace is at and if it’s in a good headspace that’s not pushing back against sitting down and drawing then I set my timer. This is just because my main priority is my mental happiness.

The goal here is to allow ourselves to create because even though it may be only a small amount of time that we can commit to drawing that little bit adds up.

So together let’s find an amount of time that we can afford to give that works best for our individual life responsibilities and lifestyle and try to stick to that as best as you can. Let me know in the comment section what you’d like to aim for.

Right now I use the kitchen timer method where I work for 25 minuets and then take a 10-15 minuet break (sometimes depending on if I get distracted with tiktok it might be longer…….I need to work on that)

What should you do next?

If you have any more questions feel free to leave a comment down below and I’d be happy to answer them!

I also have a free ebook where I cover how to make, publish and monetize a webtoon comic for beginners!

Also if you’re looking for a wholesome, fake marriage trope, AMBW manga webtoon to read to pass the time then you might want to check out Catch Me! Fight Me! Love Me!