Overview of my Webcomic Process + Tool Files!

My process for making comics has changed a lot since I began working on them seriously over a year ago. When I started RORY, my process was a lot messier and it led me to making a lot of mistakes I wish I had known to avoid in hindsight. Overtime, though, I've figured out a process that saves me a lot of hassle and cuts out some of the inevitable trial and error that goes into making a webcomic on your own. Now, my process for making pages of both RORY and DatMK is much less stressful!

My general timeline for creating a set of pages is as follows:

• Script
• Thumbnails
• Pencils
• Inks
• Colors
• Final Steps

I do most of these steps in batches, meaning I will complete each step for a group of several pages at a time (usually around 12-20 pages per batch for DatMK, or 2-4 pages per batch for RORY) before moving on to the next step. This helps me keep pages consistent and makes the process faster, but that's my personal preference and isn't the go-to way for all comic makers! Try it out yourself and decide if you prefer it to completing each page entirely before starting the next one.

Script

I like to keep track of my comic's storyline by writing down a vague outline and tightening it up from there. 

A good first draft can be as simple as a bulleted list of events you'd like to see happen, even if you don't know how to connect them yet. 

Following my rough outline, I make a list of questions I'd like this chapter to answer, or certain themes/feelings I want it to convey. Having that helps me double check during editing that I'm getting across what matters the most. (For example, I might go back and decide to add scenes to establish some character traits that will be important later, so they don't appear to come out of nowhere when the time comes for them to matter.)

Having your overarching theme written down somewhere visible to you while writing your ideas down can help you make choices about the story you might otherwise overlook. (Your theme will probably evolve over the course of the story, so don't feel like you need to strictly obey it in every single scene! It's just helpful to keep in mind if your theme is important to you.)

With a solid outline, I start scripting. I write both the dialogue and the actions of each panel, and make a guess as to how many panels I'd like on each page. (If I think of a good page composition for a scene at this stage, I'll write it down or insert a sketch so I remember it later!)

The format of my script is something I'm comfortable reading, but it might not work for everyone. Play around with your script format until it becomes easy for you to read without looking too jumbled.

For me, a script is not something I have to follow exactly, but more like a blueprint that I can change on the fly if I think of something better. A lot of the time I find myself overestimating the amount of panels it'll take to convey something while I script, and it'll end up cutting a few pages out of the final product. I also have a habit of constantly tweaking dialogue, so I rarely end up following the script text precisely.

A blank template of my script format is attached to this post, feel free to use and tweak it to your liking!

Thumbnails

Thumbnails are rough, small sketches that quickly get across your ideas. This is where you can figure out the layout of your panels and decide roughly where you want your text bubbles to be placed.

I find it helpful to draw my entire chapter in thumbnails and lay them out side by side to see how the pages would line up in print form. I like to save big reveals or intense moments for page-flips (even if it's going to be a webcomic originally, I still like to plan for print someday just in case!) to build a little suspense.

I like to use my head angle brushes at this stage so I can quickly get my ideas across.

Pencils

At this stage, I redraw my thumbnails at the correct scale and focus my attention on detail and consistency. It helps to have references for your characters up at this stage so you can refer to them, that way you can prevent accidental mistakes and inconsistencies in their designs. I also take this time to assemble my panels using Clip Studio Paint's panel tools (Create Frame and Divide Frame Folder).

These drawings don't have to be perfect, but should get across the panels clearly enough that you won't have any trouble inking them later on.

At this point I also like to lay down my text bubbles and make sure they fit neatly with the panels as they're drawn, and make any changes to the layout before I start inking if they're needed. I keep them hidden until the end, though, so I don't accidentally forget to draw/color beneath them.

Inks

When the time comes for inking, I like to keep separate folders for each set of panels. Clip Studio Paint makes this easy to do with their Divide Frame Folder tool, which will automatically divide them into layer masked folders when you split up frames into panels with certain settings checked. I attached my tweaked versions of both my Frame and Panel tools to this post. 

In these folders, I make two vector layers for lineart: one for the background and one for the characters.  I keep them separate because this will making coloring much easier later on thanks to Clip Studio Paint's Reference Layers function.

Then I proceed to ink. Since I do my lineart on vector layers, it allows me to really easily erase intersecting lines and resize everything without losing quality. This is a massive time saver especially when drawing backgrounds. More information on vector layers and how to use them can be found here.

Colors

Like the lineart, I like to keep the colors organized in their respective panel folders. To fill in your characters without leaving any transparent gaps, set your character lineart layer to Reference Layer (the lighthouse symbol on the Clip Studio Paint layers panel), then use a tool like the Fill Lasso set to reference the Reference Layer to quickly fill in the whole shape. I attached my Fill Lasso tool to this post with the settings necessary to do this method. 

Once the characters are filled in with a solid color, I alpha lock the layer and then use either a fill bucket or a hard brush to fill them in with their correct colors. I usually pull these colors from my swatch set, which I add onto whenever the setting atmosphere changes or a new character is introduced. This is an easy way to keep your colors consistent across pages without having to colorpick.

When the characters are colored, I go ahead and color in the background with a similar method. I then go back and apply any lighting and shadows to the characters, making sure to match the background's light source.

My final step of coloring is to color the lineart. This is totally optional but something I think really ties a page together personally! For this, I have a CSP auto action which you can find more info about here.

More information about reference layers can be found here, and a demonstration of the fill lasso tool can be found here.

Final Steps

Now I can turn the text bubble layer visible again and move them around until they look right with my panels. 

Once I have them laid out where I want them, I can go ahead and add any finishing touches to the page like textures, SFX, etc.

And with that, my pages are complete!

Before publishing online, resizing and adjusting to fit your comic site's dimension limits is usually necessary. I will make a guide on how to easily do this in the future so look forward to it!

For a few extra tips on how to improve your comic workflow to make things faster and easier, check out my "Tips for Improving Your Comic Workflow" guide here!

I hope this was helpful insight to anyone looking to make a webcomic or anybody who is just interested in the process 😄