Auto-Tailor - page 8 - 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. I start with a rough thumbnail to plan out the page. This page uses a dynamic four-panel layout, with more focus on the third and fourth panels, to emphasize the crazy robotic make-up application and then the fabulous final result.

2. Now I go in and work out the final poses and proportions. The first panel uses a low-angle to emphasize the way the character is being grabbed from above, like a helpless doll being manipulated by a larger, more powerful force. The second panel has the character being glomped by the lip enhancer with such force that he's actually pushed back, to emphasize how powerless he is to resist the machine. The third panel is the transformation with a lot of action going on with the myriad robotic make-up applicators. I want most of the arms to be obscured so that they look as if they are actually touching his face but I need to keep a few of them out in the open so it is clear exactly what kind of little robot arms these are. In the fourth panel, we can see the robot parts moving away out of frame, connecting the final reveal to the action in the previous frame.

3. Now I go back and work out all the fine details. Most of the effort at this stage went into drawing all those little robot parts and arranging them in a way that looks complex and busy without being too confusing to tell what is happening.

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). Variations in line width are especially important in a scene like this where there is a lot of fine detail in the robot arms.