Cornucopia Drawing Process (Patreon)

I did some significant cutting on the outtakes for the $5+ donators, but there's literally HOURS of things to listen to so I couldn't finish it in half a day. Instead take a look at this week's Cornucopia page in all its process-y glory! All work is drawn in Adobe Photoshop CS6 with a Wacom IntuosPro Small Tablet.

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1 - SKETCH
First I do a VERY simple thumbnail on regular computer paper and scan it in. This is mostly just so I can block out how many panels a page will have and where the word bubbles should go. 

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2 - INK (pictured above)
This is by far the longest step and I usually go back to this repeatedly even while coloring and shading to fix and add things. For example, the girl in the last panel didn't have the front flap and straps on her overalls until the very VERY last minute, simply because I forgot them.

I'm actually a pretty slow artist, as artists go, and I'm very finicky. So digital lineart takes me a long time. Inking often takes me the better part of 2 full day of 7-12 hours of illustration.

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3 - FLAT COLOR
First I add the flat colors on the characters and large objects in the foreground, like the doorknob in panel 7. This step is usually pretty quick as most of is it just Magic Wand Selection > Select > Expand 2px > New Layer > Fill.

This is also the part of the process where I add the background images. I'm a fan of 101 Dalmatians style backgrounds with simple, angular lineart and lots of analogous colors that don't distract from the foreground image. The only time the backgrounds get focus is when the viewer is entering a new area, as seen on these  two  pages.

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4 - SHADING AND HIGHLIGHTS
Depending on the setting I then add the shading on a ~50% multiply layer and the highlights on a ~75% standard layer. The settings change based on the location, but that's what I used for this particular page. Characters and important objects get shaded but oftentimes background objects do not. This way they stay more flat and don't distract.

Then the page is done! You can view this finished page and many others here on my website, www.nuco-comic.com.