Can I see your vertical format rough drafts?

[60Six]

So, starting next chapter, my comic is probably going to go through a pretty big change, format wise. Up til now, I've done the traditional formatted comic pages, but starting next chapter, I'm most likely switching over to the vertical format, just to adjust to where things seem to be headed these days. I'm pretty okay with this decision, as I think there are a lot of cool things you can do with your paneling in a vertical format when you don't let it just become a bunch of white space between panels.

However, the one thing I've just been very unsure of how to do is...the rough drafting. The one thing that's going to probably be hard for me is currently, I do my rough drafts with pencil in a sketchbook. This is fine for traditional format pages, as the sketchbook is roughly the same dimensions as my finished pages, but I think this is something that's gonna have to change for this new format... I'm not entirely sure how to go about this next chapter, as I normally take a week or so to rough draft my chapter into a sketchbook before starting the chapter.

So how do you guys do it? Do you just have a folder for rough draft pages? I'm assuming it's all done digitally. Do you finish an entire chapter of rough drafts before starting as well? Do you use those rough drafts as the beginning sketches of your pages (Because currently I don't, the rough draft is just for jotting down layout and action)?

Overall, I'd love to know your workflow so I can maybe get some ideas of how to approach the early stages of my chapters from now on.

[MinNCompany]

Hi 60Six!

So, the best way to describe my drafting style is LAZY (because sketching and layout is my least favorite part of the comic process) so quick warning (apology?) in advance for that ha

I start with a nice long canvas and a vector layer with preformatted rectangles that i use for 'panels' (usually copied and pasted from my previous file) I stuff them all at the bottom of the canvas.

I add in the speech bubbles, only roughly approximating spacing at this point

Then I go back and arrange panels and speech so that there is adequate spacing for drafts, but I usually don't cement the actual layout until after ive sketched out the draft (lordy this makes me looks so incredibly lazy)

Add sketches. The nice thing about vectors is that you can easily reshape and resize your panels or space them closer or further apart to enhance timing.

(i don't really have a step between 'layout' and 'rough draft'. . . I kind of mash both into one as evidenced by my terrible sketching here)

I don't add tails until I'm finished with lineart.

If you were curious, no, my chapters and canvases never match up - (this particular canvas was split into three uploads: chapter 41 part 4 and chapter 42 part 1-2 x_x)

You mentioned sketching into a sketchbook before starting the chapter? I do that sometimes as well! Once I'm done with the sketch, I scan or take a picture with my phone and drop the sketch into the corresponding panel

(These sketches of course were a lot nicer than my usual layout sketches - but it's all a hot mess really)

(I hope you find something useful out of this)

[DavidPerry]

I have a template set up in Photoshop that has the proper proportions, title space, and one frame (as a shape layer) that can be duplicated and resized as necessary for the rest of the comic. Once I have those in place, I'll start the sketches. Once those are done, I'll do ink or start painting the backgrounds, depending on which makes the most sense for the layout of the comic.

I also do something a lot of other artists don't do, which is fill my gutter space with art, as well. Nothing complex or distracting, but they generally have some stylistic relevance to the set in that particular episode.

[60Six]

@MinNCompany @DavidPerry

Thanks both for your responses! So correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you kind of combine the rough draft/sketch phase?

Currently my rough draft stage and sketch stage are VERY different processes. Rough drafts are just for figuring out layout and panels, while sketch is for laying down the details for line art:

Is this a step you just kind of skip and go straight into the sketch before line-art? Hope I'm making sense here.

[MinNCompany]

@60Six Haha yes, I skip the sketch stage and lineart straight from the rough draft

(There are some panels that I will sketch, like if it's a difficult perspective or a detailed background, but most of the time I already know what I want to draw from the rough draft hence the lack of a sketch)

[DavidPerry]

Yeah, they are kind of combined, but mostly because, digitally, it's easy to go from rough to refined. I do still go through a rough draft phase, but it's worked over into the final sketches.

[Merle]

I have a very rough written script. I read the next few lines, and figure out what I want to happen in this short chapter (most of the times one big reveal/ something that brings the story forward). Then an ending/clue/last panel forms in my head. And then I just dive in and do a very rough sketch of every panel. (VERY ROUGH)
Then a second refined sketch and then so on.

Thumbnail my chapters like this, 10-12 panels per "page" (pscht this has spoilers, don´t tell my readers haha)

[fuyudust]

I used to sketch the whole chapter out in long format, but then I realized they require us to upload page by page anyway, and it's a pain to arrange things in long format then cut them out later, too much work, too much time, file too heavy, and I'm too lazy, so I keep plan it out/draw it page by page like this.

Compare to paper manga style, I just reduce the number of panels on each page, avoid putting 2 panels on the same height, unless the content in each panel happen in the same time, also avoid making the readers to stop at one place too long, I mean, it will break their scroll flow.
Like the sketch you posted, I would spread it out to 3 pages.

Certaintly sometime I want to do some cool effects that only can do in scroll format too ( click to see whole page ).

[youcannotread]

For the rough drafts I make three vertical sections so I can make sure to keep the scrolling dimensions of a phone in mind. I go through one more draft digitally to make sure I give the panels enough space.

[Merle]

Oh, you´re the one writting sandwich love! I love it haha x3 great to see your procress!

[Laht]

That image is spectacular. Where can I read that series?!?

[fuyudust]

Hey thank youuu

@Laht It's was my first comic but it was not received well, I think I the way I started out the story is not interesting enough, so I withdraw and redoing it

[bilvyy]

I have the luxury of drawing digitally, so I just start with a file about 1880px x 4000px - I'll draw a panel then scroll down, and if I hit the bottom of the document, I just extend the canvas to be longer. I have a basic script like "Character: Dialogue" that I reference and just start drawing from that. Then I just go over everything cleanly, and will add my text and panels over the top since I don't have traditionally outlined borders. Questables is quite a loosely woven comic so I don't have to think so carefully about compositional things that would matter more in non-gag comics o: https://tapas.io/episode/876408

[Devika]

I love how the fire (and the whole scene!) gets more and more intense as you scroll down, incredibly cool effect!