Process.

So anyway, sometimes people ask to meet me and discuss how to go about making comics. I’d like to help them but I spend most of my time drawing and am pretty beat after the day’s work. However I always felt guilty about politely declining offers for coffee (I prefer beer) To assuage my guilt I’ve put together a sort of basic beginners tutorial on how to make comics keeping in mind some of the problems that I’ve faced as a self taught artist in india. You can find much better tutorials online as well as dvds and of course books are an invaluable investment in the learning process. This is just a starting point with some random stuff thrown in. Just to start off with you have to read the following books. How to draw comics the marvel way http://www.flipkart.com/books/0671530771?_l=gWxQa0snNjHUHKJhnj_y0w--&_r=YCwPQNAEt_ej5sUdFxaDBw--&ref=a0f68480-7b43-4c87-b6f4-d87db980f6b4 and Will Eisners Theory of Sequential art. http://www.flipkart.com/books/0393331261?_l=pFlIm8T2HxANhwos7dMXmw--&_r=uVVDmqaOr4BgCoAhQo7bQQ--&ref=fad65f0c-ce3e-4514-9bab-0d841b04b254 There are hundreds of book suggestions that will pop up on amazon’s recommendation list. You’ll want to learn as much as possible after these two books.

After reading the script I make about three or more mini thumbnails per page. Here’s a zoomed in version of a few. These are literally as big as my thumb. Here I start fleshing out the idea for the page, the size of the panels, the placement of the figures and the flow of the dialogue balloons. This is the stage where you do most of your planning.

After I settle on a mini thumbnail I draw the bigger thumbnail on an a4 size paper roughly in the dimension of 18.5cm by 28 cm. I have tried various methods of drawing pages getting different results. After you have completed your final thumbnail you can Xerox or print it out to 11 x 17 inch or 13 x21 inch paper. Slap another paper on top of it and start the final pencils by using a lightbox. A light box is basically an a3 size box with a couple of bulbs in it and covered with a glass screen. I’m not sure where you can buy one in india but you can probably get one made by any carpenter. Sometimes if I find a better way to draw a page I abandon the thumbnail entirely. As you will notice with the following page. Another method you can use for final rendering is to scan the thumbnail and blow it up. Flesh out the pencils further in Photoshop or corel painter and start digitally inking it. I don’t really like either of these methods because it’s too constraining and feels like an assembly line procedure. But then again what doesn’t work for me might work for someone else. My advice is to experiment as much as possible until you find something that feels natural to you.

Now a little bit about paper. You can order comic art boards online but they are expensive when converted to rupees. I find the best paper locally available to be glossy ivory card paper. You can buy them as big as you want. Right now I use 12 x18 inch ivory card paper. The only drawback is that the paper is not acid free and will turn yellow over time. It takes pencil, ink and gouache paints without warping or wrinkling. To start off I mark out the 11 x 17 inch area and loosely sketch in the panels. As you can see the first two panels are nearly done in this scan. I currently use a 2mm staedler pencil holder with hb lead for sketching .5 mechanical pencil with Faber castell hb lead for detailing. and Faber castle kneaded eraser. You’ll also need French curves, a big triangle and a ruler. Some people recommend a t square too, I have one but I only use it as a pretend Thor’s hammer.

Over the course of 6 to 8 hours I finish the pencils. I used to keep my pencils pretty neat and tight until I realized there really was no point in that since I’m going to ink over it anyhow. If you are working with an inker you might want to keep it as neat as possible. You also might want to invest in a good scanner since quality of your image would depend on it. I currently use Epson perfection v300. It seems good enough. At least better than the god awful canon I had earlier. Drawing on larger 13 by 21 inch paper lets you add a lot of detail but most of it will be lost in the final printing. Also it takes a loooooootttttt of effort and keeping it up page after page day after day for months on end will make you insane or insanely late on deadlines. But I still recommend you try it at least once.

Everything in nature follows a rhythm or flow and you need to incorporate that into your pencils and inks. In fig 1 you’ll see a badly drawn leaf =P Notice the direction in which the lines are going. They flow outwards and for anything organic that you draw the same spiral principle will apply. Like for the head. And for everything else. I guess the only exception is mechanical stuff and buildings and such.

Finally a little intro on line weights. There are many different types of lines you can use to draw. 1 There’s the straight line without any shift in weight. 2 The thin to thick or thick to thin line. 3 The thick to thin to thick line. 4 And my personal fave. The chicken scratch line. I avoided using this for a long time because most books tell you it’s the worst kind of line but I actually love it =D Just observe how your favorite artists handle lineweights it’s pretty easy to pick up and fun to do.