Auto-Tailor - page 10 - 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 part of the story is speeding up because there's a lot to squeeze in and I want to make it feel like it's all happening very fast. The shape of the panels are also getting more chaotic with weird angles and overlaps. Even the camera angles are getting extra dramatic.

2. Now I go in and work out the final poses and proportions. I'm having to get creative with the mechanisms here, going with rollers and a bellows (because a bellows is good visual cue for inflation without resorting to a hose with bumps in it).

3. Now I go back and work out all the fine details.  I used a perspective ruler for the bellows.

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). Thicker lines in closer objects contrast with thinner lines in distant objects, like the closer hand and machine part compared to the matching more distant versions, to enhance the sense of distance. As usual, I stick with variable-width lines for everything organic and constant-width lines for everything mechanical.