Behind the Scenes, Pt 2 (Patreon)

Here's part two of a short series breaking down my writing process from idea to final product. This was originally written for my book Kickstarter campaign, but it was eventually shelved. If you missed it, you can read part one here. Enjoy!

Getting Digital

Hey gang. I’m back with another behind-the-scenes update. Last time, I showed you how I turn my awful ideas into awful rough drafts. This time, I’ll show you how I make the awful final product. First up, check out my totally sick “battle station.” The thing on the right is a mouse, I swear. I use a trackball mouse because I’m a freak.

All of my comics are drawn digitally. I’ll use my notebook for reference, but I start from scratch on my PC. It really isn’t that much different. The big hunk of plastic taking up most of my desk space is an ancient Wacom graphics tablet I bought secondhand in 2012. I’ve drawn almost every comic with it, and it still works beautifully. So I look at my monitor, draw on the surface of the tablet, and my pen strokes are sent to an extremely outdated version of Adobe Flash. It’s pretty weird, but you get used to it.

I draw each panel individually, and then drop them into a custom made comic template. First, I do a rough sketch of the characters just to get them on the canvas. I’ll go back through and add details like fingers, faces, and dialog. I’ll dick around with it until I’m happy with the overall design.

Then I’ll drop a new layer and trace over my rough sketch with nice clean lines. The gray lines are in the rough sketch layer, and the black lines are in the final “ink” layer. Since Flash is entirely vector (no pixels), I can pull and stretch my drawings without it getting all pixelated and shitty. For example, if I wanted the guy on the left to lean back more I could just yank him back like play-doh.

I take the finished drawing and drop it into the template I mentioned earlier. This is where I color in the comic. This is my favorite part. It’s like I’m making my own coloring book pages. As you can see on the right, I select from a palette of complimentary colors I made just for my comics. A limited palette is a huge time saver, and gives my comics a unified look.

When I’m done playing with my crayons, I start on the next panel and the process begins anew. Rinse and repeat until the comic is complete. I might make some final adjustments like switching up the background colors or adding shadows and highlights, but that’s basically it! One Lovenstein strip fresh out the oven and ready for you to enjoy. Or not. It's up to you!

Once again, I hope you enjoyed sneaking a peek into my process. It was a lot of fun putting these updates together. For one last little update, I’ve put together a video showing the entire process from start to finish accompanied by some lo-fi hip hop beats for you to study/relax to.