Auto-Tailor - page 7 - Process (Patreon)

Since the colors and shading were done by my partner, Jade, I'm going to talk more about other aspects of my process in more detail.

1. This page uses a simple three-panel layout, with most of the focus on the large third panel. Really, this page is just about doing that visual gag in the third panel.

2. Now I finalize the proportions of the character and in the wall and hoop skirts.

3. Those hoop skirts were crazy complicated and detailed and I didn't want to have to draw them all over again from scratch, especially since they probably wouldn't come out very consistent on the second take so, instead, I copied the final version of the hoop skirt from page 6. Then I removed the machine parts and drew in the parts of the hoop skirt that were hidden from view. Now I have a visual element I can reuse in the comic. I used mesh transformation to reshape the hoop skirt for a slightly higher viewpoint in panel 2 and to bend and bulge the hoop skirt in panel 3. The character is very carely posed so that his hands come soooo close to the override but never quite reach it.

4. Then I ink everything, using a couple of different pens (one with a blunt tip, for outer edges, and one with a fine tip, for fine detail). I didn't have to re-ink the hoop skirt, just touch it up where the mesh transformation messed it up.