Evolution Of A Page

Wow, that was a long hiatus. It's been a busy summer but I'm back at the drawing table and ready to go.

Here's a preview page from BrainStorm and a description of how I get a page done:

I made preformatted sheets on 8.5 x 11 that are measured out at the exact scale of a reduced 11x17 art board with guidelines for trim and lettering. This allows me to thumbnail at the size the comic will be printed at. It helps me to visualize what the final work will look like. At this stage I read the script and rough out the panels and compositions and block in word balloons to see how the whole page will flow.


After I hear back from Robert on what I have so far I make any necessary changes noted and start to work up the figures and iron out where the panel borders are. I blow up this page to a 10x15 work area and go to my lightbox.


Once I've traced my roughs on to an art board (either a Strathmore bristol or Xerox Digital Expressions depending on how I'm inking) I move to the regular drawing table and start to pencil. I rough in with a 4H wooden pencil and then finish with a 2H lead holder.


If there are no more changes it's time to ink. I ink mostly with a W&N Series 7 #2 brush and Dr. Martin's ink. I do some details with a crowquill and straight lines are drawn with a ruler and a Micron. On this page I just drew one spaceship and then made a brush from that in Photoshop to fill in the rest.

I e-mail the page to Javi LaParra all the way in Guatemala and he works his magic from there.

Next step: Lettering....