Show me your storyboards/outlines!

jwabeasley 2025-05-24 14:02:37 UTC #1

When I was new to comics, I neglected the storyboard/thumbnailing process. Just planning out a chapter seemed like so much work, let alone drawing the thing. However, these days I think the storyboarding stage is the most important part, even if the production stage is the longest part.

Here's my thumbnails for chapter 4 of Etherwood:

That chapter starts here if you want to see the final versions:

Comic artists, what do your thumbnails look like? How long does it take you? I'm thumbnailing chapter 7 right now and it seems I can only satisfactorily do 2 thumbnails in an hour of focused work.

For you novelists, I presume the outline stage is equivalent. Do you pore over your outline for days? It usually takes a few weeks for me to finalize a chapter of thumbnails. I spend a lot of time thinking about how to fit the scenes together into their most entertaining form. I do my best to avoid any dry moments - every page should have a treat on it.

Also shout out to @allenT because I know you spend even more effort on composition planning than I do!

kyupol 2025-05-24 21:45:24 UTC #2

Wow I don't draw storyboards just go straight into it from the script phase...

But here's some rough sketches I did... relating to ADB.
Some of you already seen the full color panels...

KevinReijnders 2025-05-24 22:55:33 UTC #3

Storyboarding is honestly one of my favorite parts of the process. Trying to figure out the panel puzzle and the composition of a page (or multiple). I've been slowly improving from chapter to chapter (the early ones form CH01 look rough AF to me haha.)

Storyboarding a full chapter has so far consistently taken me 7 to 8 weeks, resulting in the full script being sketched out.
Fun little quirk that happens every time is that when I start the storyboard the sketches are very rough and unrefined, but by the end of it, they get so tight and clean I barely need to do any touch ups for the final product.

Here are example of a storyboard spread for Chapters 1, 2 and 3!

wolflu66 2025-05-24 23:27:00 UTC #4

"I have very different working methods for webtoons and traditional page comics. For traditional page comics, after I finish the storyboard, I strictly follow the plan, and even if adjustments and changes are needed along the way, I'm particularly cautious.
But for webtoons, there's much more flexibility - the concepts of the two are really quite different.

unnamedbastards 2025-05-24 23:29:21 UTC #5

this is the page 11 of my comic that later i format to tapas to publish

ambermdo 2025-05-25 00:16:05 UTC #6

Here are some of mine

AmysGames 2025-05-25 00:18:27 UTC #7

Mine tend to be pretty minimalist, but I like color coding the characters:

allenT 2025-05-25 03:30:45 UTC #8

Thanks for the shoutout @jwabeasley !

Not everytime but sometimes I do an overview of chapter thumbnails to see if it works or not (not focusing on the flow yet but the subplots & ideas).

Aftr that I bring focus on panelings & flow to page thumbnailings. I almost never do just 1 try, mostly will do 2~4 revisions. I'm more critical on the panelings & may sleep on it to come up with better ones. Ya If I don't feel good on a page I'll come back to it until I'm satisfied (no time limit to this, could take days)

Then I draw detail thumbnailings into a bigger booklet & is a must for me to do so. Adding minor details into the drafts till I see fit. This also is to confirm the final looks of the pages. Once done I only need to "copy" it into my comic papers.

Overviews -> Individual page thumbnailings (sometimes in small booklets) -> detail thumbnailing booklet

jwabeasley 2025-05-25 04:33:27 UTC #9

That explains why you have so much monologuing! I like the energy in those sketches!

Hah, it's interesting how they go from light to dark when you're viewing them from a distance. 7-8 weeks sounds right to me.

jwabeasley 2025-05-25 04:39:03 UTC #10

That's interesting, I hadn't thought the webtoon planning would be so different than page comic planning, other than that many webtoons obviously make their planning an afterthought.

It's interesting how much changed from the first to the second sketch. Huge differences in composition there. Good energy in both of them.

wolflu66 2025-05-25 08:16:48 UTC #11

@jwabeasley
I'm thinking it might be because traditional pages have a fixed aspect ratio, while webtoons don't have such strict height limitations - this creates the difference.
Of course, this is just my personal experience and thoughts; perhaps other people have different working methods.

Red_Dog 2025-05-25 21:04:15 UTC #12

Here's some squiggles that are somewhat readable compared to the other ones I make when storyboarding future chapters.

By the way this isn't for the next chapter. This one isn't gonna be out for some time.

Red_Dog 2025-05-25 21:15:10 UTC #13

Wow, your's looks way more professional than mine. lol. They look great.

Red_Dog 2025-05-25 21:16:27 UTC #14

Squiggles! My favorite way to storyboard. For better or worse.

jwabeasley 2025-05-25 21:24:04 UTC #15

These are great, thanks for sharing! You do such detailed thumbnails, that's interesting.

jwabeasley 2025-05-25 21:24:36 UTC #16

Interesting, I haven't tried color coding the storyboards before, I might try it.

jwabeasley 2025-05-25 21:45:33 UTC #17

Your planning never fails to impress me. These are some slick storyboards. Paneling is a weak spot of my comic art, and I've often been inspired by your layouts.

jwabeasley 2025-05-25 23:41:08 UTC #18

These are great. You can really see the humor in this sketch stage, it really comes through.

Ha, I feel you. I'm about a year out on my Tapas lead time.

MrVandrin 2025-05-26 13:03:39 UTC #19

I often juggle between storyboarding on trad and storyboarding digitally on Clip Studio Paint, directly translating what I put panel-by-panel on the script:

Breeze.Hill 2025-06-01 18:21:16 UTC #20

I actually figure out a large part of my story through pictures. So thumbnailing is something thats ongoing for me all through out the process cess.
Pictures just work better for me than words, which always feel vague and slow.
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I usually find my favourite panels through this.

Once i have the story down i go to my tablet were i have a template i fill in.

It starts off rough but gets cleaner as I nail everything down.