🖌️ How I make comics! from pure chaos to something that actually makes sense (Patreon)

Hello! ✺◟(＾∇＾)◞✺

I recently made a comic about my first kpop concert experience and thought it'd be interesting to share how I approach making comics. Also, editor's note moment, I want to rectify my declaration about Twice being the kpop group I've drawn the most fanart for. That is clearly red velvet erasure and entirely my bad.

With that out of the way, let's jump into making a comic! 🤗

Tools: sketchbook, ballpoint pen, Clip Studio Paint, drawing tablet

Pretty much anything I've ever made starts out extremely rudimentary and messy. I try to capture the idea from my head as quickly and accurately as possible before I forget about it. If I had a nickle for every time I thought of an idea and then told myself I'd remember it later...Carrying around or having a small sketchbook on hand to jot down ideas has been a crucial change. I don't always make note of every passing idea, but it's still a great tool to have.

1) Sketchbook mayhem

These are some of the first sketches I did of the comic. Most of these were done while I was out and about. I aim to capture the general feeling I want to convey, keeping sketches VERY simple and writing anecdotes to help me remember details that I can use to flesh out the comic later. This stage is purely about cataloguing events as they happen.

✧ quick sketches I do to get the main idea down, zero concern about polish and detail at this stage

2) From traditional to digital

To start putting things together, I arrange all my sketches in one file in Clip Studio Paint and decide their chronological order. The story I want to tell begins to take shape through this process of moving pieces. When the order feels satisfactory/makes sense, I lower the opacity of the sketch and start drawing the lineart on a new layer on top. I'm not a stickler for clean/neat lineart so usually my first pass feels pretty good.

✧ sketch is in blue, lineart is in black, both are on separate layers

• 2.5) During any stage of this process I'm regularly tweaking or changing things that don't feel good. A lot of things only reveal themselves as you're working on something so I problem solve as I go.

✧ how I arrange my pages; each page is in its own folder

✧ how I organize layers within each page folder. I like to use color tags to organize and help me easily keep track of things. for larger projects like this, things can quickly get out of hand so I take the time to label layers and save myself a future headache.

3) Extra details for the cherry on top

Once I'm happy with the art and text (I currently handwrite instead of using a font), I'll add finishing touches through screentones and effect brushes (things like star and heart decorations). CSP has a great tone tool that you can find under the layer menu and then customize using the layer property window in the workspace. For my Twice comic, I exclusively used this tool to make different screentones and convey different shading effects. I suggest playing around with the settings to find a look that works for you. ^^

✧ where to find and create a new tone layer

✧ various settings you can adjust in the layer property window to get a tone look you like

And that's about it! I didn't have a step-wise approach to use when making the comic, so it's interesting to extract a process from it in hindsight. I hope this is useful and that it helps you make your own comics. What I lay out here is just one way to do it, so take what works for you and have fun. ^^

Have a lovely day/night,

Vicki ₊˚ʚ ᗢ₊˚✧ ﾟ.⋆˙⟡♡