From Thumbnails To Pencils

I am going to use page 55 from my Hulk Fan Webcomic to show how I usually draw a comics page:

1) After reading the script, I take as much as I need to imagine how the page could look like. Dozens of ideas run in my head, and I pick what I think works best.

2) When I am ready to draw, I scotch a regular "computer printer" page (size A4) on my drawing table, and start doing "thumbnails".

Thumbnails are small and very sketchy versions of the final page, which allow me to see how the story develops graphic wise on the page. "Storytelling" is seen here: how the story flows and is told graphically. I believe this is the single most important ingredient when drawing pages.


Note: The scotch tape is special for artists, does not spoil the paper.

The number of thumbnails I draw could vary from just one to two or three in some cases. Sometimes I redraw single panels only.

Note 2: In the attached sample, you see some discarded panels (marked with an X). The final thumbnail is on the right.

3) When the thumbnail is ready, I scotch it on a side of the drawing table, and scotch in the middle of it a large white drawing board to draw the final page.

The drawing board is an A3 size page that Architects use in Argentina. A3 is approximately 11 x 17 inches, which is the standard size of boards used in the USA by comic book artists, so they work just as well.

Using a "blue" pencil (it's actually light blue), I sketch the thumbnail at full size, and apply details if necessary.

Note: The light blue pencil that I use is a Staedtler L3 karat aquarell made in Germany.

4) When the blue pencils are done, I grab an HB pencil and draw the final pencils (all of it: lines, shades; characters, backgrounds) over the blue pencils, and use a fine point marker to draw the panel borders.

Note: I use HB pencils by Papermate or Faber, and markers by Staedtler.

5) Finally, using my Windows PC, I scan the artwork at 300 DPI in color mode, and using Photoshop, remove the blue color, convert the artwork file to grayscale, make any necessary adjustments so the page is ready for the next stage (inker, colorist, or letterer), and save it as TIFF with LZW compression.


This process takes about 4 hours, time depends on the complexity of the drawing.

> More drawing samples at www.juliomolinamuscara.com

> See the Hulk Fan Webcomic at http://incredible-hulk-library.com/superhero-library/incredible-hulk/incredible-hulk-webcomic.aspx