JL8 #264 Production Journal, Update 03

Alright, so a quick recap: the next JL8 update is going to be huge (a total of 18 pages, but I think I can break it down into a few more manageable pieces, but either way, it's a real big update). Obviously, the larger the update, the longer it will take for me to produce it. As such, I want to provide you all with some content in the interim, and I thought maybe a spoiler-free peak behind-the-scenes would help to scratch that itch.

In my last update, I mentioned that I've laid out/thumbnailed all the pages. For those who may be unclear, "thumbnailing" is simply drawing tiny drawings (the size of thumbnails or so) so that you can get a general idea of how the panels and pages will look before you begin drawing them in earnest. 

I personally work from a very loose script that's basically just all the dialogue I want the comic to have, and then just start drawing (also very loosely, as you can see) shots from there. As you can see above, it's basically just a giant pile of numbered drawings--the numbers indicating the panel number--but there's no page layout to speak of. As a quick note, these are only the first 36 panels of the script. When I was finished, I had 105 total panels, so this is barely even 1/3 of the entire thing.

Once I've got the entire script paneled out (again, as seen above) THEN I'll go through and look at the panels and try to figure out how to build the pages. For example, obviously I start with panel one, but what panel would make for a good page break? Panel five? Panel seven? I'll toy around with that in a separate stage (which I'll be posting next) and when I'm finished with that I'll have all the preliminary information I need: what the panels should look like, and how the panels will be arranged onto the page. From there, I'll start drawing out the panels on my sheets of bristol board and actually begin drawing.

Anyway, I think that about covers it for today. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to ask! I'd love to hear from you all! Enjoy your weekend!

-Yale