Smuggler's Run Page Process

The comic has been going much slower than I like. That being said, it is getting done, and I thought it would be fun to show my work process a little bit, a kinda beginning to end sorta thing. I still experiment alot as I go, but overall I have a pretty decent process worked out. All that said, here you go, the first page of Smuggler's Run.

Thumbnails

1. First I do a thumbnail. I like to spot my blacks in the thumbnails, as well as work out the rough balloon placement. This particular thumb is 3x2 or so.

Pencils

2. Next step is doing the layout and the pencils on the 11x17 bristol board. I prefer to use vellum bristol, as it holds ink much better. That being said, it doesn't hold up as well to working out alot of erasing and re-working the same as a smooth board. Its a bit of a tradeoff for me, but since I work over the pencils anyway, its not as big of a concern for me.

Background black.

3. This particular page has alot of black since the story is set in space. I decided to fill in all the blacks for the space area before inking anything else. The last panel is different from the thumbnail, as I realized that the crop I wanted would look really really weird combined with the black. I decided that I'll do a sort of "negative" approach for that panel.

Inks

4. The final inks. I add the stars and played around a bit with layering. I am not happy with the second panel. It feels very boring to me, and the face seems really chubby and wonky once I inked it.

Final Page

5. Paste up of panel 2. I'm alot happier with this one. While the angle isn't quite as extreme, I still think it is pretty readable, and I think it flows better.

Here is a fun detail of the establishing shot. I really love doing space and stars, and I am pretty happy with how this one came out!

Ill continue to update on the remaining pages, though I don't think I'll upload every as I finish, but we will see!