My Experience Making Webtoon Backgrounds with AI Art (Practical Notes)

I draw webtoons as a hobby, and because I felt I was wasting too much time drawing backgrounds, I tried using AI images for backgrounds for about half a year. To get straight to the point: "Use it, but be prepared to fix a lot by hand."

1. With prompts, locking in a style is key

If you just throw in "a cute cafe" every time, the tone comes out different each time, creating a jarring feel from panel to panel. I lock the seed value and save color/paint-stroke keywords as a set.

2. It's faster to set the composition yourself

If you just use text like "an alley with perspective," trial and error can take 30 minutes each time. It's much faster to put in a rough sketch and generate based on that.

3. Never delegate people

Fingers, eyes, clothing wrinkles... every single one is terrifying. Backgrounds only.

4. Copyright/Ethics

I'm still thinking about this constantly. I use a paid model and have checked the commercial-use terms, but honestly, I'm scared of how readers would react if they knew. So even though I only use it for backgrounds, I disclose that I used AI in my work notes.

My work speed feels about 40% faster. But the time spent grinding on prompts makes up for it... so total time is cut by about 20%. In the end, a tool is just a tool.