It’s been a while since I have documented one of my pages from start to finish. I though maybe everyone would like to see what happened with the latest page?

Generally what happens with the writing process is, I sit on the idea for a week. Thinking about the best way to progress the story. The aim for each page is to end on a scene that I think will either make you laugh or smile, or keep you intrigued enough to return for the next page. After the week has gone by, I generally have enough of an idea, that I draft out a rough blurb of whats going on. I keep a physical notebook to write my ideas, and story break downs in. The page itself, I’ll write a small description of each panel. That generally will let me know if I can translate what is in my head to a page that effectively communicates it.

Once that is done I throw down some thumbnail sketches. Sometimes I’ll do some varying layouts, sometimes I’ll get something that I think works right away. Often times I’ll work on something, and change it when it comes to the actual drawing. Nothing is really set in stone at this stage. Generally I use the thumbnails just to get an idea of page layout. I don’t tend to use them for the planning of the actual drawing. My thumbnail sketches are generally really small.

After that, I get straight into the page. I draw in my panel grid. Then get onto the sketching. Which is usually loose. After the sketch, I throw in the text, just to make sure I have enough room, and no images that are important are cut out of the scene.

After I’m happy that everything looks as though it is flowing, and a reader can understand it. I move into the actual drawing. Tighten things up. This part of the process takes the longest time of course. I like doing it, but it is time consuming. Especially with more panels, and the backgrounds I put in. I think that stuff makes it all worthwhile though.

Then I’m onto the home straight. I add in the colours, make sure there is a light source thing going on to keep the characters grounded in their scene. My colour palate generally is very bright and bold. I like punchy colours. I find this comic is pretty light in tone, so I try to communicate this with the colours. I try and make sure that the colours highlight the areas I want your eyes to see. Pushing characters that are important to the foreground. Objects that aren’t as important I’ll try and push back, with a warm versus cool colour mix.

Add it all together, and you get the final comic! Hooray! Hope you enjoyed this look at the process.

Thanks for reading,
Marc