Sarah Is Pathetic

Okay so.

I'm lame.

In lieu of my lack of sketches lately (sorrysorrysorry) I decided to post my comic process here on the blog since Neal mentioned it a few days ago. This is not the process going into K12's graphic novel, as the last thing I wanna put up here is anything related to work. I will take you through the process of a page from my comic, Thistil Mistil Kistil.

FIRST STEP: Script (maybe)

Sometimes the script comes first, sometimes the thumbnails. For every chapter I've done so far I seem to thumb out the first four pages and then tailor the script to fit them, and then develop the story from that. A majority of my pages are scripted first, and then thumbnailed.

SECOND STEP: Thumbnails


I created a template in Photoshop that's set up like this (though my new template has lines down the middle so I don't have to draw the gutter myself). Each page is about the ratio size of 11x17 inches. I get 8 pages onto an 8.5x11 sheet of paper and since they look so small most of my pages have only a few panels on each page, but I don't like to crowd it anyway. The biggest thing is to leave a cliffhanger at the end of each page, even a tiny one, to make people go to the next one. Usually it's a question, a precursor to a big reveal, or a reveal that makes the reader want to continue.

I also don't redo a lot of the pages. I tend to spend a long time just staring at a page and going through my head how I could lay it out, and then I draw it. If I like the pacing of it, but not the layout, I fix it in Photoshop.

The page in question I'm going to elaborate on is page 14!

STEP THREE: Page setup

IT'S PHOTOSHOP TIME! Yes I am a mostly-digital artist. Pretty much the only thing I do with pencils for TMK are the thumbnails. The pages are set up again at 11x17 in CMYK color at 300 DPI. Actually they're a bit bigger to allow for bleed in case it's ever printed. I also work in CMYK in case it's ever printed and I don't have to worry about that hurdle. I haven't had a lot of problems with CMYK and even though there's technically less color I don't have a hard time making the pages colorful anyway.


I select the thumbnail and bring it into the file and enlarge it. It's blurry o'course but it's just a guideline. What typically happens is a resketch.

STEP FOUR: Resketch

A resketch is what I ink over. It's refining the lines and tightening (slightly) the characters and putting them more on model. It's also, as in the case of this page, where I decide I want to change up the panels a bit and what they show. I also might add the borders at this point, which are just white boxes set to multiply with an inside stroke.


In this case just about every panel went through a change. In panel 1 I wanted a more establishing shot of Odin and Coal and the other gods, so I pulled back and showed more of the surroundings. In panel 2 I redrew Odin to look more menacing from a worm's eye view, putting him in a more superior position. I wanted to do the opposite with Coal in panel 3, so his shot is more from above and his position in the panel highlights his small stature. I wanted the reveal in panel 4 to be more impactful, so I deleted the background altogether and had just a simple silhouette sort of thing of Odin lording over Coal.

STEP FIVE: Ink


This is pretty straightforward. I go over the lines from the resketch, altering line width where appropriate, like if something is closer or farther away from the viewer. Inking is probably the easiest part of the whole process.

STEP SIX: Backgrounds


Now, backgrounds can take me anywhere from one hour to several. TMK's style is very designy, abstract, and fanciful. I usually have some fun with the backgrounds, and in the later pages I start to add texture with brushes. The backgrounds are also usually lineless, and made primarily with the lasso tool and gradients.

STEP SEVEN: Color


TMK has just straight-out flat color. There's no further rendering on the figures, no shadows or highlights. I might add shadows for effect (like panel 4 will get) but they're not a common thing. I didn't think, if I wanted to keep up with this project, that adding a lot of rendering would help that, so I decided not to do shadows or anything. But at the same time the black lines looked really harsh, so I did something else! Something that is, ironically, probably more time-consuming than adding simple shadows and highlights.

STEP EIGHT: Colored lines


Coloring the lines probably takes the most amount of time in the whole shebang but the effect is well worth it. Now the lines fit the backgrounds, everything is softer and more cohesive. It looks more finished and refined. It's also the last big hurdle until a completed page!

STEP NINE: Text and bubbles (and other stuff)


Ahhh the text! The font I use for dialogue in TMK is one I made myself with temporarily free software. It's just my handwriting, and I think it matches well with the rest of the simple, hand-drawn-looking stuff as opposed to a perfect little computer font. The bubbles are vector shapes drawn with the pen tool in Photoshop and given an inside stroke. The bubble lines are gray instead of black so they aren't harsh against the backgrounds. And also look shadows!

After the text and a bit of cropping and resizing YOU'RE DONE! Yaaay you have a completed comic page in just nine easy steps. Now go forth and conquer!