Sketching Out a Comic

Horse Life 12 - rough sketch

Everyone has their own way of jotting down ideas. Around here, napkins are popular surfaces, as are random scraps of paper. Sometimes, I might even jot down an idea in an actual sketch book. But I don’t do this too often. Instead, I keep my sketchbooks for more finished ideas and keep a folder on my desk filled with low-quality sketching paper and soon-to-be-recycled printer paper. This paper is used for notes, ink tests, doodles, ideas, etc. I like having this paper really close at hand so I never need to go hunting for paper when I’m thinking/doodling.

I’d been contemplating several ideas for this week's “Horse Life,” but until today, none of them were really doing it for me.  While I was out at Starbucks tonight I suddenly had my idea! I thought I’d post my concept page here to give you an idea of how rough my initial ideas look. After this roughest stage, I'll re-draw the page at least once before inking it. 

This seems a remarkably simple process compared to “Privateer Princess” (our old webcomic).

As I wanted “Privateer Princess” to look more like real manga comic, each page went through four or five distinct stages of creation before posting. First, Matt did the initial rough. Then I re-drew it (at least once). After which I inked it and added tone on the computer. Then we added the dialog together. After this we re-sized the page for the web and then posted it. Phew! It was a lot of work to post weekly. 

“Horse Life” is much easier. Perhaps I’ve learned a few things since the “Privateer Princess” days. Perhaps I’ve just gotten a bit more laid back about it all. Either way, I’m finding “Horse Life” to be a delight. I hope you are too!

If you’d like to take a look at “Horse Life” you can see it here.

If you’d like to see “Privateer Princess” you can see it here.