A Step-by-Step Guide of Making A Webtoon Comic From Scratch

In love with web comics but not sure how to start one? Well today is your lucky day! 

We are grateful to have a step-by-step guide given by this Instagram rising star, Stephatty who is no stranger to creating on Webtoon.

An avid storyteller and creative artist, Stephatty started drawing digital art in 2020 when the Covid pandemic hit. Coming from a digital media production background, she has no knowledge of drawing and that year was the first time she picked up drawing. 

Fortunately, she never looked back ever since Having a brave soul, her love for digital art gave her the motivation to quit her job and become a full-time artist. Not many people can make such a courageous decision, but hadn’t she made that choice, she wouldn’t be here unleashing her talent and creativity to avid comic readers. 

You can find Stephatty’s full length comic on Webtoon. Reunion is her main storyline on the site which speaks about two long lost friends reuniting and coping with change. Inspired by the recurring themes in her 20s, she  decided to channel that into fiction to convey those experiences of growth, change and reconnection. 

In this article, you will learn: 

• How to map out your plot and characters 
• How to create your story online 
• Quick tips on renders and effects 
• How to do good lettering and SFX
• How to get used to storyboarding and sketching 

Step 1 - Mapping out plot and characters 

Think of characters as people you know in real life. The more you spend time with them, the more you know what they like. Put your characters in different situations and visualise how they come to life. As crazy as it sounds, your characters do write for themselves sometimes. Simultaneously, you can brainstorm a plot based on their personalities. 

Both plot and characters are storytelling elements that come hand in hand. 

Step 2 - Flesh out the story 

This means having a clear summary, a beginning, an ending, and then figuring out the sequence of events to get there. This is also a good time to start some world building to bring your universe to life. Some creators prefer writing the story as they go, but always have a conclusion that you aim for so everything youI write can point to that.

Step 3 - Writing 

For webcomics, it will be necessary to start breaking down the story into episodes. Knowing what event takes place in order of episodes will help the process flow better. In addition to that, start writing the dialogues and script, and it is important to keep in mind the personalities of my characters so you can make their delivery more convincing. 

Step 4 - Storyboarding and Sketching 

This is, in Stephatty’s opinion, the most difficult part of the whole process as it requires the most decision-making. Yet, for beginners, the way to make things simple is to start planning scenes which include the setting, backgrounds, atmosphere, camera angles and subject placement. Once again, draw back inspiration from your personas in the first step. You can always refer to the dialogues here so you can clearly envision the emotion of the characters and try to communicate that through their expression. 

Step 5 - Line/Ink and flats 

Clean up your sketches and apply a base colour. Things will start to look more straightforward from here. 

Step 6 - Render and effects 

In this step, you will start to learn shading, applying lighting and effects that match the events happening in the episode. 

Step 7 - Lettering and SFX 

Start putting all the finished panels together and place speech bubbles/dialogues, sound effects etc. Unlike movies, comics are unmoving pictures, so relying on SFX is important as it helps audiences bring the scenes to life through their imagination. 

Step 8 - Proofing and editing 

Lastly, go through the whole episode and do one last check for any spelling mistakes, accidental overlays etc. Once everything is in the clear, it’s time to submit and you will repeat Steps 4 to 8 over again. .

That’s all we have for today. Hope you have all you need to get those creative juices flowing into your story. Before we end, here are some wise words from Stephatty herself: 

Write about what you know. With the ever-changing algorithms, it’s very difficult to predict or have a guaranteed formula for success, plus, there is more and more content being uploaded everyday, it’s harder than ever to stand out. We can’t control how apps work or make them favour our content on command, but we can choose what we create and how we want to present them. 

It doesn’t have to be original, it just needs to be genuine. You have experiences that are unique to you, that means you have a story to tell. So write about what you know, tell us your story, the right people will listen. Good luck!

Follow Stephatyy on Instagram for her latest updates: 

✦ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephattyy/

✦ Discord: https://discord.com/invite/iekami

✦ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/stephattyy

✦ Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephattyy

✦ Buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/stephattyy

✦ Webtoon: https://www.webtoons.com/en/romance/reunion/list?title_no=3416