Auto-Tailor - page 12 - 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 is a simple page with a two-step process for the shoes and then a quick push out of the door. These events go well together because I can continue the raised-by-the-hands from putting on the shoes as a method for delivering the character back out into the public eye.

2. Now I go in and work out the final poses and proportions. I wound up switching to a low angle on the first panel. A dramatic height angle works well when suggesting vertical movement but, to be honest, I'm not sure if low or high is better. I switched to a side view with the shoes because, when both feet are facing forward, it's harder to clearly communicate that these are feet, especially when the massive petticoats hide away the visual cues that would give them better context. In the final panel, I exaggerated motion by using some mild perspective.

3. Now I go back and work out all the fine details.  To get a better match for the perspective on the underside of the petticoats, I drew a big circle with squiggly lines in concentric patterns, then used distortion to match the perspective. This gave me a better sense of how large and how far apart the bumps should be for proper distance. In the third panel, I pushed the sense of motion by showing lots of secondary motion as the hair and bows flow backward and arcing the back of the character.

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 bows and machine parts compared to the matching more distant versions in the third panel, to enhance the sense of distance. As usual, I stick with variable-width lines for everything organic and constant-width lines for everything mechanical. I used the perspective rulers in the first and third panels to align the speed lines.