My Process

Script                                  Thumbnails                   Filetypes
  • Write script
    • 5-6 panels
      • More depending on beat structure
  • Read through with a friend
  • Thumbnail w/ stick figures
  • Second thumbnail to determine where bubbles are
  • Small sketches that inspire each panel, possibly include reference photography for backgrounds and facial expressions
  • Gather instruments: Bristol Board, pencils, pens, brush, rulers, etc.
  • Measure panels
    • Final will be 6.25 x 9.75
    • Scale on Bristol to 11 x 7(Fits in scanner)
    • Panel rows line up ALWAYS
    • Fist panel always reserved for strip title
    • Give .25 inch gutter between panels
  • Pencil
    • Blue pencil
      • Bubbles first
      • Rough character placement
    • Draftsman pencil
      • More details in characters
      • backgrounds tighten up
  • Inks
    • Panel borders first
    • Pen & Quill characters and anything possible
    • refine with Microns (don’t JUST draw with microns)
  • Before scanning
    • Mark up page with all corrections that need to be made
  • Scan
    • 600 dpi
    • turn off all auto correct settings
    • Change to 1200 DPI
    • Change to Bitmap
    • save as filename “Striptitle_RAW” as a TIF file with LZW compression
  • Corrections
    • Change to Greyscale
    • Change to RGB
    • Image Size> 400 Dpi
    • Save as> “Striptitle_cors”
    • Turn on rulers
    • create flat guide at top of page
    • Free transform piece to right angle
    • Adjustment>Levels
      • Remove greys by playing with levels
    • Threshold
      • black and white the piece
    • Save
    • make corrections according to art page
    • Image>Image size> 100 dpi
    • Save as>”Striptitle_ftyp.jpeg”
    • close photoshop (saves memory)
    • DO NOT SAVE TIF FILE UPON CLOSING (You already did that before you resized it)
  • Add bubbles
    • Open illustrator
    • create new document:
      • 11×7
      • RGB
      • Inches
      • save as: “striptitle_typ”
    • create new layer
    • lock art layer
    • Label new layer “type”
    • save
    • Start adding type
    • save frequently
    • When finished:
      • Turn off art layer
      • leave type layer on
      • Save
  • Adding type
    • open “cors” file
    • open “typ” file
      • change to 400 dpi
    • add typ to cors file
    • save as: “Striptitle_still”
  • Finalizing for web
    • Flatten “still” file
    • open template file
    • Add “still” file to template
    • Make template changes in title and date
    • save as: “striptitle_final”
    • Flatten image
    • image size>100 dpi
    • save for web as: “Striptitle_fweb.jpeg”
    • DO NOT SAVE (the fweb file will screw up your final version)
  • Post to website
    • Write supplemental post
    • Add to gallery
    • Update on Facebook
      • personal profile
      • HP profile
    • Update on twitter
    • Add previous week to HP FB profile