another small sketch

Here are some sketches of what the typical Sidian people look like.


My story is all written. I finished it a few months ago, though I'm only now starting to rough together the layout to figure out my panel placement as well as page count.

For those of you interested in seeing how a comic book is made, here are my steps.

1. Come up with a story idea you want to tell. Whether it's based off one idea, or a single drawing.
My story is based off two separate concepts. One is Genghis Khan. The other is a crappy little sketch I did in my journal. It was of a woman warrior standing over a hill of bodies with more enemies approaching (ala Conan) yet she has arrows sticking out of her all over and a spear through her chest, so it is obvious that she will not survive. But even with all the wounds she's got, she is still standing and ready to fight. Yet behind her is the silhouette of some large beast about to attack her from behind. The idea was that we're seeing the death of a great warrior.

2. Flesh out the idea with character designs, and story concepts. Fun stuff.

3. Write the script. I prefer to type mine out as if it's going to be a book. I don't worry about comic book format with panels separated and text, versus dialog. I just write it out as a story form. I'll figure out all the technical stuff later.

4. Final your designs: characters, locations etc. I don't get too elaborate here as I may create new location ideas or alter characters in the layout phase.

5. Rough Layout. This is where the real work begins. I take a bunch of 8 1/2 X 11 pieces of paper, fold them in half, and sketch out the entire book. I get all the panel layout and page count figured out at this point. Now I've got a mini rough version of my entire comic.

6. Shoot reference. For this comic I've decided to shoot reference for my characters. I've based most of the characters off friends and family, so I'm hoping they'll be willing to pose for me. I've already roughed out the entire book so I'll know what I'm going to need from them. I'm not too worried about costumes and what-not, just posing and faces. I want the characters to feel real.

7. Pencil stage. Now I'll move on to drawing the darn thing. I love this part. If you've planned out your rough version well, and you've got reference photos and character/location designs, there's not a whole lot of thinking here. You just have fun and draw.

8. Color tests. I'll probably do a rough color test for each page on a small piece of watercolor paper. I'll sketch out a rough of the page and test out my palette here. I don't want to ruin my drawing with a poorly planned paint job.

9. Color stage. I'll be watercoloring the entire book. I'm excited about getting my hands dirty with some real medium. It's been a while and I'm ready to rock it.

10. Lettering. I'm planning on using some kind of digital lettering software. I've lettered my own books in the past, but I'm not really a letterer and poor lettering really downgrades a book's quality. I don't know what program I'll use yet. I'm most comfortable with photoshop, but I've never been too happy with it's fonts. If anyone's got a better idea, let me know.

11. Market the hell out of it. I'll be going to comic cons, taking out ads, and sending free preview editions to all the stores I can find.

12. Print and distribute. I'll be publishing myself (I think) so I'll advertise in a comic buyers mag and the order number will determine the print run. It's been a while since I've done a rag so I'll be figuring this step out as I go.

Viola! All done.

I'll keep you all up to date with my progress as I go. Wish me luck.