My Process

Everyone in the comic book industry goes about creating artwork in their own way. There is no "right way" to create a comic page, but this process is starting to work for me. Normally, I start out with the script that I wrote. From there, I do little thumbnails in my sketchbook. Next, I scan all those thumbnails and compose a unified thumbnail in photoshop making sure to adjust panel sizes and placement.

From there, I will print it out in blue-line at 3 by 5 inches I will do a loose rough. (Most scanners will not pick up non-photo-blue. Which is nice and saves a lot of erasing time.

Then I will scan it,  adjust it in photoshop one more time, take reference photos, make an overlay and print it at about 5 by 8 inches. This page is mostly "talking heads" so not as much reference was necessary. Normally I will only do overlays for poses if I find they are stiff or just not working. 

Here is where I focus on Silhouettes. I go over my reference in marker to establish the basic silhouette (just so I can make sure the poses are accurate).  I also finalize word balloon to make sure that the readers eye will move across the page the way that I intend it to. 

Now that I have my basic layout and composition pretty solid and can see that the story is running smoothly,  I use a light box to do a tight rough, also at 5 by 8 inches on 8 and 1/2 by 11 copy paper. 

This is all done before I even start the finished artwork! Next I will probably blow up this tight rough to 10 by 15 and light box over it to do the finished pencils on bristol board (While still making changes and improving the composition but focusing more on lighting and line weight). From there I will do the inks, the lettering and yayyy! finished artwork! I haven't always worked this way (I actually started pretty recently) I am still trying to figure out what works for me. This process may not work for everyone. The only way to figure it out is to try and fail... multiple times and then try and fail again... and again... I think that applies to not only comic books but also to everything else in life. I am still trying to figure out my "style" and I don't expect that something like that will be resolved any time soon. So, fellow artists and storytellers, just be patient. I know I'm "trying" to be.