Penciling
| Tools | The Idea | Penciling | Inking | Scanning / Touch Up | Lettering | Finishing Up |
All of my penciling is done on regular Xerox paper and can be done anywhere from ten minutes to a half hour or more depending on the layout and complexity of the drawing. Since I hate drawing the boxes for comic strips all the time, I just don’t bother. To this end I have created a template on an 8½’ by 11′ piece of paper with the boxes already drawn to the scale I would like. For those times when I do a more custom layout, I just draw it out on the paper first. I need to know the constraints.
I tape a sheet of Xerox paper to the template to start. I can easily see the template from beneath, even without the benefit of a light box. This lets me know what my boundaries are. I tend to go just a bit outside of the lines to leave myself some wiggle room later on.
Once I start penciling, I create registration marks in the corners (indicated by the arrows) so that I know what the outer boundaries for the strip are.
Once the pencils are done I will occasionally place word balloons in just to check the spacing and layout of the characters. Note the registration mark.
Perhaps it is because I come from an animation background, but I personally love the look of sketched artwork. I feel it shows so much more life than finished artwork, and I know of a few artists who feel the same way. It’s the same reason I have the “Work in Progress” version of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.
Once I am done penciling I tape the pencil sketch to the back of a sheet of vellum. Actually there is no front and back on the vellum like there is on some marker paper or drafting rag. The pencils sketch is easily visible through the vellum and is now ready for inking.
