Behind the scenes - page creation

Something a little different, I saved all major steps to how I create a comic page and made it into a lil gif to share pretty much how long/how many steps it takes to do this shit 😂 I'm in no way complaining, half the reason I can even do 2 webcomics at once is that I feel like I fly through Patchwork pages cuz it's so fun for me to draw! Hope this is interesting to some of you!!

1. SCRIPT: Written at comic creation stage, edited pretty much every week. Some less dialoguey scenes also don’t even get written, it’ll just say ‘fight scene’ or ‘sex scene’ and I just plan it out years down the line when I get closer to drawing it. (Tools: Notes app on phone lol)

2. THUMBNAIL: Make some tiny doodly-doos to figure out page layout/camera angles, usually 4-6 thumbnail pages done at a time depending on the scene (Tools: pencil and sketchbook paper or sticky notes or backs of receipts, there’s no rules here)

3. SKETCH: Bust out that sketchbook! I’m aware artists are pretty much solely digital now but if I had to lean over my graphics tablet screen any more than I already do for coloring I’d become the Hunchback of Houston TX. It’s also faster, portable and for me there’s something to the weight of pencils/pens that stylus’s can’t bring for my weird scratchy linework style (Tools: 6x9 sketchbook and regular ass mechanical pencils)

4. INK: Bust out them fancy art pens and light board and trace your heart out. Pretty much easiest step. The light board I own is wireless and a little bigger than the size of a piece of paper so also very portable friendly. (Tools: Sakura Micron pens, high gloss computer paper, A4 sized TOHETO Light Box)

5. SCAN/BOX/BUBBLE: Get that bad boy on the compooter and make it look like a comic page! Also try and correct some of the fuck ups while inking cuz pens don’t have an undo button lol Probably my favorite step (Tools: Epson flatbed scanner and Photoshop)

6. BASE COLOR CHARACTERS: It's like those therapeutic coloring books for adults only these sometimes have dicks in them. Are there coloring books with dicks in them? I want one. (Tools: Photoshop using XP Pen Artist 15.6 Pro graphics tablet)

7. BASE COLOR BACKGROUNDS: See above minus the dick part. Unless the background calls for dicks (Tools: Photoshop using graphics tablet)

8. SHADE CHARACTERS: A fun but sometimes stressful step with lighting/shading/color tone experiments. Chill comics like S&S and Tree Falls don’t use tons of dramatic lighting but with PW I’m trying my best 💪 (Tools: Photoshop using graphics tablet)

9. SHADE BACKGROUNDS: Backgrounds need love too, y’all. Except if there’s a lot of people, animals, buildings, cars, nicknacks, props, or mechanical shit then they can fuck right off with all that lol (Tools: Photoshop using graphics tablet)

10. EFFECTS: Go nuts with any last minute overlay lighting, highlights, sparkles, etc, you deserve it. (Tools: Photoshop using graphics tablet)

The end! Some pages are obviously faster than others and some take a few days to a week to finish depending on detail levels or backgrounds or panel redos. But I wouldn’t choose any other hobby/side gig!! 😊