Nothing is ever as it seems, it's usually weirder

ultimately, I should love myself 🏳️‍⚧️

(I ask not because Black people don't deserve to see themselves as the protagonist, but because I recently remembered that the majority of short stories I wrote in middle/high school had Black MCs (12-year-old white kid had a revelation about how white most media is and decided to fix it themself. Whoops). Fortunately kid me sidestepped a lot of awful pitfalls because most of those characters were inspired by and written for/with my real life Black friends--but it's occurred to adult me that the solution to sidelining characters of color for a white protagonist can't always be "just don't make the MC white", especially in stuff I'm working on alone. It's weird if I, as a white person, never write from the POV of a white person.)

This was a bit of a ramble, the question is really the important part--I just wanted to clarify that this isn't coming from a place of not wanting to write Black protagonists but rather from a place of recognizing a potentially concerning pattern in my own writing (and don't worry, if any of those high school stories ever see the light of day again, I'm gonna hire sensitivity readers).

Tbh, my advice is the same! I recognize that not every Black character is gonna be the MC. But being a side character doesn't mean you have to be a plot device, a flat 2D outline meant to bolster whoever the MC is.

I might not need to know what your Black side character does every five seconds, but I do need to understand that they exist in a world of their own that isn't dependent upon the MC! I usually solve this problem by offhand mentioning things in scene that they are doing, or had to do, or will be doing. Writing their thoughts out, their feelings. Are they allowed to disagree? Are they allowed to show their own flaws? Do they have their own issues that might come up, that show they have a life?

start now. now. now now now. or else you'll never draw this damn thing

it's fine if you don't have the entire story figured out yet, it'll happen naturally

draw what you want to draw!! webcomics often run for years, so you better work with something you like

don't overcomplicate things. a simple, efficient work flow is your top priority in order to stay consistent

bullshit some things. trace background refs. reuse poses. draw your character's face from different angles and just copy paste it in to save time. be smart about your work baby

take breaks if needed. webcomic burnout is real

sometimes, a panel or a page looks bad. shit happens. move on

lettering is actually really important and super hard to pull off

it's your comic. do what you want forever!!!

I'm begging you again to work smart, not hard. reuse backgrounds. use brush sets for webcomic artists. trace 3D objects. use 3D models to pose your characters

you may need hours or days to draw one panel, but people will look at it for 5-8 seconds. keep that in mind

a simple background is better than no background at all (avoiding the white void increases the quality of your work by a ton!)

sometimes the anatomy needs to be a little off to make an interesting shot/panel. that's fine, don't worry about it too much

at least 2000px canvas and 300 dpi for good quality results

Also, don't forget to check the feet of your shower chair/stool occasionally ✌️