Starting with a script& a script will keep you on track with your story

& a script can be very simple such as bullet points and actions, or very complex

& scripts are also much easier to revise than art

Other decisions& what size/format do you want your comic? (standard size in the us for digest/print is a 2:3 ratio, generally drawn 10” by 15”. Standard european/japanese sizes are based on a4 paper)

& web comics can be any size, shape, and color

& printing a comic? (we'll do a panel on this later)

thumbnails& thumbnails are your first draft – they help you visualize what you want on the page without committing too much time/effort

& thumbnails can be very simple (stick figures)

& making multiple thumbnails using different camera angles can help you create more visually interesting pages

roughs& a tight rough is usually page size

& refining what you worked out in your thumbnails

& this is the place to work on things like perspective

Pencils and inks& some artists will make another pass at the pencils before inking

& if you mess up, you can use white paint or a white gel pen to “erase” mistakes.

& or photoshop.

screentones& screen tones are often used in manga

& tones can be bought and pasted on original art, or applied digitally

& other ways to make grey values include hatching/cross hatching, dry brush, watercolor/ink wash, and copic markers

Colored comics& various techniques to make colored comics – digital media, markers, paints, colored pencil, mixed media

& its your comic, do what makes you happy!

So what's the secret to being an awesome comic

artist?Practice.

A lot.

Read comics.A lot of them.

A huge variety of them.