There are many ways to do things. The following is
merely a description of how I go about making a comic. I hope you will
find it useful.
Step
1 - The Text: In my work, I don't have to come up with the
text or script as you may call it. Sometimes the text comes with
art suggestions as well. I always like to have as much input as possible
for a project. I'll read it over a couple of times and think and
pray about how to illustrate it, what approach to use, what art style,
etc. I may also do some small sketches if anything pops into my head.
Step 2 - Break It Up: The next thing
I need to do is to determine how many pages the comic will be. In my
work, the final comic needs to come out to be a multiple of four. Sometimes
I just measure the text from top to bottom with a ruler, make an estimate
as to how many pages it will be and then divide the length of the text
by that number. For example, if the text is 50 cm long and the comic
will be 12 pages, each page should have approximately 4.2 cm of text
on each page. With this in mind, I will measure down the text, see
where 4.2 cm will hit and then look for a natural break like a new
paragraph or part of the story. Then I put a little line and write
the page number with a circle around it. The main idea is to divide
the text so that you have relatively an equal amount on each page.
If you don't do something like this you can find yourself winding up
with 13 pages and then you have to stretch the last bit another 3 pages
to come out to 16! That can be a drag! Of course, if you don't have
to worry about having your comic a multiple of four, that's even better!
Step
3 - Character Design: You don't always have to do this,
but if you do have characters that will appear throughout the comic,
it's a good idea. I scribble around until I come up with my cast
of characters and then put them all on one page. I even give them
names so I can remember who's who. In animation work, not only do
you do character sheets, but you do one for each character with several
poses and then do pages to show the comparative sizes. That's a lot
of work, but sometimes necessary.
Step 4 - Thumbnail Layout: Now I'm ready
to block out the comic page by page. I take a sheet of paper and fold
it three times so that I end up with 8 mini-pages. It's much easier
to do small pages like this as it prohibits you from getting into too
much detail and you can see the overall flow of the comic. If a comic
is longer than 8 pages, I do the rest on the back.
Step
5 - Layout: Knowing the basic layout I now go to the computer
and layout the text and frames using InDesign. Then I print out the
blank pages.
Step 6 - Rough Sketches: I make preliminary
roughs for each page, frame or pic. These are just to get the basic
idea down.
Step
7 - Refine the Sketches: I place a rough sketch onto my
light table, place another sheet over it--usually the print out of
the InDesign layout--and go over the lines. This step eliminates
all my scribbles and guidelines, etc., and cleans up the sketch.
Step 8 - Ink: Once the final pencil
sketch is done and I'm happy with it, I'm ready to ink. I put the final
sketch on my light table, tape a piece of final art paper on top, and
ink! I use a Japanese brush pen for most of the lines, so it goes pretty
quick.
Step 9 - Scan and Layout: Then I scan
the final pic and place it into my InDesign layout. Of course there
are always little fine tunings to do with the layout and art which
I work on till I get it right. I add speech bubbles in InDesign so
that they are editable later on if necessary.
Step 10 - Done! So that's
how I do a comic! There are lots of ins and outs along the way, but
I've tried to keep this to the basics. Hope you liked it!
