How to YOU do YOUR comics?

[SakuraBell]

I was wondering what people's different methods were for making their comics, for example do you write them out as a script first and then start drawing? Or are you one of those people that thinks up the story in their head as they draw the comic?

I'd really love to know.

[misterloki]

I always write the script first! I think unless you are doing a practice short comic, it's important to write the script out or you miss great opportunities for foreshadowing, highlighting themes and well crafted character development. Without a script, pages will also suffer from word bubbles not having sufficient room, issues with pacing and reveals. I am not saying that you need to have every detail hashed out. I started my webcomic with a strong feeling for the beginning and end and a general idea for the middle. I am still fleshing out the scene writing only in the chapter before, but I think it is important to at least know what your destination is in mind.

I get a vague idea for the dialogue, open to change as needed and a brief description of what I need to happen per page. Here's an example!

Pg 1:
“We’re loyal animals, even if it kills us.”
Cage stares at Puck and Redd sleeping. He smooths the hair out of Redd’s face, kisses him and heads out.
Pg 2:
“You let them in, and you’re willing to give your entire identity”
Cage is walking through nice neighborhoods, his ears pinned back. He darts around a corner.
Pg 3:
“Throw your entire life away for them”
He emerges around the corner with the business card in his hand. Cage compares the sign of “Molokov” on his card to Molokov on the gate.

---

As for comic process, I am a bit bizarre on that end.

My pages start off traditional pencils, digital inks, traditional color and digital lettering. It's simply what works best for me!

[AnnaLandin]

My workflow goes something like this:

Brainstorm --> Outline - -> page-breakdowns in text (i.e: "Page 1: character walks through forest. Page 2: He spots something in the woods and stops. Page 3: he goes to investigate") --> Thumbnails/page layouts and all first draft dialogue --> Digital rough sketches with second draft dialogue/speech bubbles --> clean sketches --> ink --> colour and shading --> final tinkering with dialogue.

I never write a full text-only script - dialogue and thumbnails always happen side by side, because I need to know what a page will look like before I can make a decision on what is said.

I always plan out my comics before I draw them; it keeps me from writing myself into a corner.

[punkarsenic]

im writing mine as a book alongside, because i find it easier to get to grips with the details of a story that way, then transfer it. from that, i transfer the chapter into a plotline, changing some things to save space / make it more comic friendly - then i thumbnail out pages from the plotline, and script it panel for panel. then i draw it for real. im trying to work it out so like, while im scripting im also writing and drawing, but it's still shaky.

[vongcw]

I'm a hybrid of planned and inspired.

I find that I love storytelling that uses a lot of foreshadowing. That requires a pretty hefty plot writing preparation. I spent 2 months just writing (built on 3 years of inspiration) for my comic Aetherwar. BUT when I started drawing it, a lot of scenes changed for 2 major reasons.

Firstly, comics aren't pictures of writing. A comic page is a composition in itself and has powerful tools unique to its medium. So some written scenes which were exciting and fine to be read, were either boring or extremely long winded in comic format. The change was practical.

Secondly, between the written draft and drawing, other ideas often happen to me. Better ideas usually of what I'm trying to achieve in a scene. Usually that would be a character trait or a plot device.

Which is tricky because it can fundamentally change the story and I have to run back to my plot sheets (of which there are several iterations now) to cross check that each thing is well paced and without plot holes. At least as far as I can see.

Once the pencils are down, the art process is straightforward. Pencils, ink, colour. All done digitally. After that the final touch is to just clean up the dialogue. Often times things can be said simpler and more effectively than even the fifth draft. And that's about it!

[mkrenez]

I do this mostly;

Research (Gaming, TV, Etc.) > Brainstorm > Script > Read Script > Edit > Draw.

Sometimes I script while drawing and edit to what's being drawn.

[MidZM]

For my story I have a set outline in my head of how I would like it to look and feel and I try to write as much as possible for the next chapter before I start drawing it, but sometimes I get writers block during the course of writing and I move on to next phases until I'm unblocked.

Then I head into Blender and get started on modeling the backgrounds or posing depending on if I have the BG already finished or not, then if I have my character for that scene I pose it into the correct position for the scene, if I do not have the character for the scene I go into a wonderful program called Makehuman and create the model and import it to Blender.

Then the next phase is the drawing which can take anywhere from 1 to 4 days depending on a lot of factors like if I have to go to work, college, how lazy I am that day, how quickly I want it done etc. I start with sketches of the characters to which I have to draw EVERYTHING from scratch except the character proportions which means clothing, facial hair, hair, eyes, character expressions are sometimes difficult sometimes not. Then I move into lineart, coloring (Black, Grey, and White), effects, speech bubbles, and anything else it needs, then done! It is a long frustrating process

[SakuraBell]

So you make reference models for your backgrounds and characters in 'blender' and that 'makehuman' program?

[MidZM]

Yep, it makes the finished piece look MUCH more aesthetically pleasing then if I had ever tried to do it without them, and it greatly reduces time on trying to get proportions correct.
Because Makehuman makes the character a near perfect human model I do have to re-proportion certain aspects during the drawing phase to make it look Anime style, like chins and jaw line, and occasionally shoulders.

Here's an example of one of the series' armors that would normally take me half or a full day to draw just a lineart completely finished in an hour

[Ringarune]

I start with a summary of my chapter that gives me a solid guideline for where to go. After that I thumbnail in chunks, like I do 5 pages thumbnails and then Finish up and ink those, and then I repeat the process until I'm done with the chapter. I like this process since it gives me a lot of flexibility.

[ratique]

My workflow goes as follows:

• Brainstorming with husband
• Sketching the next chapter very roughly, first draft of text is added to it (lots of stick figures and poor writing)
• Sketching the characters on paper, every panel separately
• Combining the separate sketches to create one page in Photoshop
• Drawing the lineart on my surface pro, then doing the basic character coloring, also on my surface pro
• Moving over to my laptop, adding backgrounds and more fancy light effects
• Giving the final page to my husband to fix the writing.
• Posting it online.
• After that, moving on to the next page and repeat.

[Puppisama]

I wrote a sinopsis of what the story is about, from start to finish, to know what I'm doing lol. Also I write the chapters and describe them page by page, and each page, panel by panel with dialogs and notes.
Like this:
Chapter derp # - 18 pages
Page 1 - 6 panels
panel 1: derp like a real corgi
panel 2: derp even more
....
...
...
Then I proceed to make a sketch of each page, or some of 'em, not something very detailed, but with the dialogs in the correct positions and what they say, next, I do the lineart, and make the details and corrections.

Oh the irony, I never thought I'd writte or detail something for VCvsDvsCFAD, I wanted to be really simple and kinda strightforward, but in the end the inspiration possessed me, and ended up making something bigger than I thought on the beginning.

[Desertfyre]

I tend to write in novel format and then translate it into a comic. Each chapter is a chapter of a comic. I don't do a script persay.

Since I have a movie in my head when I read anything it's not that much of a stretch for me to take the in-my-head-movie and make it into a comic.

Usually, my idea starts out as an in-my-head-movie that I have to write in a novel form (even if it's a short story like my comic Shadopla) then start making a comic from that. I just do scripts if I'm making a movie script and that's a whole other thing.

I tried the whole digital toning thing and it just doesn't work for me. I see in color, so I ditched trying to make it a "manga type toned comic" and went for color speedpaint. Plus many of my stories have a fantastical element that needs a painterly style which is something I like to do anyway.

[igneriss]

First I write down main events of the story, and separate them into chapters, so I won't forget what was supposed to be next.
.... but I still forget sometimes, so the current version of my story is different from one I had on my mind when I started drawing :'D
Next, I draw thumbs for chapter's pages, with text underneath. It's really sketchy, but at least I know what should be on each page. I sketch all pages of one chapter at once, then draw frames and speech bubbles, and after that finally draw pictures. Usually, when drawing chapter 1, I already have sketches for chapter 2 and thumbs for chapter 3. It makes working a bit smoother ( :

[agentfink]

I work with my husband as the co writer on mine.

It started with an idea I had and with help from my husband, we refined the character and the plot a bit more.

We then wrote down some pieces of the story that we want to hit -- though it is not concrete-- as we want the characters to dictate the story to us as we write it.

Husband writes pages to an issue and I go over them with my notes. There's some back and forth for a bit and then I start doing rough layouts (where I make additional changes to the script if needed).

Often times, after he sees the layouts, he gives me more notes (and we go back and forth).
Then as I am drawing round 2 layouts, more dialogue changes can occur and we seem to shape it into something better than we first started.

(I should note, the entire script for the issue is often times, not finished when I start drawing roughs!)

[candaceandco]

It's take me years, but I've finally got my exact method for cartooning down.
Step #1 is simple: Come up with an idea (keeping my eyes and ears open to the world around me helps here, and so does reading comics!)
Step #2: My "script" is simply penciling in the entire cartoon, which is my favorite part of the process. Mistakes can easily be erased, or even ignored!
Step #3 has me inking the whole thing, followed by erasing all pencil lines.
Step #4 is where I scan the cartoon to a .png format (I used to only make .jpeg images). Once I get the black-and-white cartoon onto my computer, I color it using Photoshop Elements.
Step #5 is where I take my final product and reformat the whole thing, cutting my cartoon up and putting it back together in a way that will allow me to post larger images to various sites, like Tapastic.
The final result is seven (yes seven) versions of my cartoon: The original, 2 black-and-white digital versions (one .png, one .jpeg) 2 colored versions (ditto), and 2 reformatted versions.



https://tapastic.com/series/Candace-n-Company

[R.n.P]

I do both only that I plan my comic in my head rather than writing it down so that if any better idea comes my way I can easily replace it so my comic won't be too rigid n no fun

[timinabox24]

well
first I have a while list of ideas I would like to put into my comic
then I write a few things that are about to happen
then I write down all actual text for the pages at least a few pages in advance
then I draw it
I don't know if that's the correct way, but it's what works best for me

[spadesart]

When I began SPIRE I set up an overarching plot bullet list of all the most important things to happen in the comic, then started forming a more detailed outline of every chapter (I've outlined up to chapter 4) that documents scene shifts, important dialogue, environment descriptions, thumbnails of important panels, etc

Then I move onto my dialogue script for individual chapters.
Once I finish my script I start drawing pages. It's all digitally done in sai/lettered in photoshop or gimp, I go with sketch, lineart/lettering, flats, shading, and then finishing effects.

Just remember from someone who made this mistake twice to NEVER make a plot heavy comic up off the top of your head as you go it will always end badly.

ps I had to go back to the outline for some of this and I completely forgot about all these gems I have in it (profanity warning)

[storytimebiondi]

Though I am still developing my method, generally I start with a basic concept. From there I develop what I want the comic to "do" (thematically, and what it brings to the table genre-wise [ie. is it a tale about motherhood, or family, etc). From there I develop characters (usually character visual design comes before personality). Following that I develop setting, then begin hammering out the plot and its flow.

By this point, I'm impatient. I usually start drawing pages willy-nilly, but then back track and start writing out a script. Currently, I'm doing a page by page overview, followed by a written script.

My art is done digitally in Photoshop with a tablet. I use a template to make sure that my stuff would be print worthy (should the day ever come). Lettering always changes on me, but I generally try to do it in illustrator.