How do you sketch a comic properly?

[JoshRaed]

I’ve tried multiple ways, and not a lot of them have been that helpful.

What makes the sketch different from just drawing it otherwise? is it just scribbling the drawing instead of drawing it with straight lines? Does drawing it twice work to the same purpose?

[Kelheor]

There's no "proper" way to do anything. It either works for you or it doesn't. A sketch is basically there so you can draw over it and not redraw lineart if it goes wrong. Imagine drawing with a real ink, where you can't smash ctrl+z and simply redo the line. So you make sketch (or a few) first to make sure everything looks as you want it to.
If you can draw lineart immediately with no sketch - great for you!

[darthmongoose]

For me, the thing that makes sketching sketching is pressing lightly with the pencil, or in the case of working with a tablet, having the opacity and thickness of the brush tool set to imitate a fairly light pressure that doesn't over-commit to a line too early.

The idea is to just quickly and lightly lay down lines, generally without erasing any, but rather just adding, and pressing harder to make lines you want to keep stronger. Just chipping away at the shapes and refining them. Sometimes you won't know what the shape is until you draw a line and go "no, not there, it needs to go here." and draw another one in a better place and then reinforce that better line.

[JoshRaed]

In your experience, does sketching it make the art process faster?

[Kelheor]

I just don't work without sketches ever, so I can only assume going straight from white sheet to lineart is obviously faster, since you skip a few steps. But IMO you have to be really confident in what you do to draw like this. Which I am not I can't say I will definitely recommend anyone one or either way, because people work in really different ways. It's probably good to do both for different practices, for example, sketching a lot with a pencil for your everyday art practice and then going straight to line for your comic.

[GodbreakerComic]

I do a sketch of anatomy (thin pencil 50%), then a detail layer of hair/clothing on top, then remove the sketch layer.

I find it helps. There's a difference between wearing clothing, and looking like the clothing is their body, know what I mean? Same goes for hair. On their head vs part of their head are two very different things. Early in my series I didn't use an anatomy sketch layer and the characters bodies looked kinda... weird.

But most importantly it helped me improve my skills as an illustrator and for that alone I recommend giving it a try.

[NickRowler]

Usually I do a thumbnail traditionally then create a sketch digitally from my thumbnails.

I know I did try once scanning my thumbnails and built the sketches off of that. Tho I found it better just to resketch everything just incase I make more changes.

[IndigoShirtProd]

I do the same! Thumbnail sketches for me are a life saver because it allows me to get out and try my ideas without the pressure of it being on the final page. Plus it's great for composing a page that is appealing a readable, allows you to know where to place speech bubbles so it compliments and doesn't cover up the art, and keeps you from making pages look too similar.

[abigaillmartin]

For me I draw the pages on my sketchbook with a pen and the sketches most of the time are very messy and a whole lot of crossed out word balloons and letters.

But that’s okay! It doesn’t have to be perfect! That’s the whole beauty of doing a thumbnail sketch!

Most of the time certain sequences are altered or whole unnecessary pages are completely left out all together sometimes that’s how it goes.

I later put those sketches in the paint app I use and then try and make everything perfect by that point it’s very easy because of the almighty undo button/or control z.

All hail Control Z! Bask in its glory! 🤣

Humor aside, everyone has their own way of drawing and there’s really no right way to do it.

[OneArtsyBeaver]

With tears and procrastination.

Jokes aside, I start with rough shapes/ the layout I want. See how that feels and then sketch out the rough draft. I then finish it up and color/shade. Obviously that's like saying "draw the owl." but it's the barebones way I do it.

[BoomerZ]

Sketching is a process to get the ideas and forms down easily and quickly. You keep it loose and quick so you can get the pose you want. In comics it takes on a more meaning process than in fine art. In the sketch phase you are not only nailing down the anatomy (be it a human, car, or background) but you are also placing your "camera" in the shot. This will control your pacing and flow of the storytelling. This is also where you should be placing your dialogue for two reasons. One to make sure it fits, and two to find out what you don't need to draw. Zero reason to draw awesome background if no one sees it. Also it makes sure while reading the dialogue the "right" way (left to right in English, your mileage of other languages will vary) so people on the left aren't speaking after people on the right. Then you have to cross word balloon arrows. You can find all this out before you commit to a set layout.

Finally if you are working digitally, your sketch becomes your thumnail, which becomes your pencils, which you ink over on a separate layers. They is not reason to do these in separate steps. You can go from thumb directly to pencils, erasing the thumbs as you go. Just use the sketch as a guideline.

[SleepingPoppy]

I usually use my sketching phase as my thumbnails as well- so the idea is very much laying out not just the individual panels, but also the overall page. My sketches are looser and more expressive than the final art. They help me think about composition and as @BoomerZ said, the camera view.

The sketching phase is vital for problem solving. It's how I notice if something isn't reading clearly, or can be placed better. Because sketching is quick, it's no problem to erase, re-draw, re-orient, until I get something I like.

After my sketching phase, I look for references that match my sketches as close as I can, though sometimes this also leads to re-thinking panels depending upon the reference photos I find. Now is a brand new sketch phase, which is more about following references to get the building blocks of the pose and anatomy correct. For this, these sketches morph into my final drawing, as I erase and add detail.

There is no "proper" way. It's just about whatever work flow works for you. But this is how I do it, if that is any help!