Added my Graphic Novel Worksheet + Composition

I decided to upload my Graphic Novel Worksheet, something I put a lot of effort in last week before I started going through old sketches and modifying my old drawing board.

My goal was to make a 48 Pager in the hope I'd be able to sell one someday, but you know what? Writing is tough. Not the actual writing process, but coming up with something to begin with. While I've been brainstorming ideas I been trying out my modified drawing table. I like it, I like it a lot. I've also come under the StumbleUpon bug and have been wasting hours surfing Astronomy and Art pages. So much so that I've run into people who've done comics of stuff I wanted to do. So much for originality hey.

I figure I might come off as a "Mr. Know-it-all " here, but the real intentions of this blog was to throw my ideas out there in the hope it might inspire other amateurs to see things in a different way. The processes I laid out here are guides I plan to use at some point, they might work for me, but not necessarily everybody else. And if you follow this blog you'll see I'm at a creative dead-end when it actually comes to creating something. Why is that? I have no idea. It could be writers block, artist-block ( that's real folks ) or because deep down I'm depressed and have a chemical imbalance in my brain.

Whatever it is, it's something I need to figure out. That's not to say I've been wasting my time. Sure I got off the beaten path and made a video game. I didn't draw for a month. Nor did I even attempt to come up with any stories. I did however try out a new method of laying out panels. This happened when I was trying out my new table, and since I wanted to practice some inking and coloring I also wanted to do a little better job than I normal do when I'm sketching. So I drew out these pages.

Just like those previous sketches I uploaded these don't follow a story. I used one of my customized Page-Stencils I made from very thick stock paper, added some panels, and filled them out while I was Stumbling around on the web. I know that sounds weird, but flavors of the month get me hooked and I find myself in a constant tug of war between what I should do, and what I want to do. ( last December/November it was Pinball FX2 on the 360 )

These aren't that great, but they were quick compositions to get me feeling comfortable in drawing pages out. It was about half-way through page one I started to struggle coming up with ideas of what to put in the panels. I thought to myself " if I can't fill up these panels, what makes me think I can draw panels with a written script. " After all my goal is to write out a Grpahic Novel before drawing it out. Frustrated I took a long look  at what I was doing and started messing around with both the Triangle and Traditional Compositions.

It was working, but I remembered a tutorial on DA some time ago where another method was to lay out a grid on your working area. It follows the same rules as the Triangle and Traditional methods. Willing to try something new I went for it and this is what I did to those panels.

By added a 3x3 grid to each panel first. I started to get a better view of what I could occupy those panels with. I had ideas, but nothing to push me into doing those ideas. After I laid out those grids I thought of what kind of dialog may or may not take place in those panels to also have an idea where to put the subject. I also followed the 1/3rd and 2/3 rules to make those decisions. Will it have a lot of dialog? Will it have little dialog? What angle/shot will I use? These decisions were made easier by starting with a simple grid.

The example I got this from used a much bigger grid to break down the composition. That fine as well, but since I'll need to be able to do between 5-8 panels a page, I needed a simpler form of laying stuff out. I hate it when I sit back and think for minutes or hours stuck on one panel. It isn't going to be a masterpiece. It's going to be glanced at and then the reader moves on. Which brings me to the first panel of the first page I did.

Notice there isn't any grids? That picture I worked on and off for almost a day before I used the grids. Pathetic. I added the background at the end only because I felt like doing a little perspective ( and little it is, lol ). I  took some time on the last panel of that page, because lately I've been in a perspective mood. I needed to clear cob-webs slowly, but I liked the results.

In the end even though I was trying to come up with a story, plus characters, and everything else. I was getting myself back into the process. Now these might not look like much, but even with all the mistakes in anatomy and proportions these pages will look way different after they're inked, colored, grained, and lettered. ( The reason I add grain to all my pictures is now is because I have an extensive collection of scanned comic books. My favorite is 40 years of X-Men. The added grain or noise makes my pages seem like they were scanned in. In other words it feels like a real comic book to me )


So that's where I'm at. I'm slowly getting to that phase where I know whatever I plan to do is around the corner. I got my method, I got my tools, and I got my time. I just need ideas. So when I say writing is hard, it is. Don't take it for granted like I've done multiple times in the past. Take the time to really craft something people would want to read, and you would too.

Protagonist and Antagonist, kind of big deal.

My last post was rather beefy. I woke up with no plans today, so I thought it be best I just do whatever pops in my head to waste time. One thing I wanted to cover to some degree was Protagonists and Antagonist. I mention them a lot on here, but I sometimes feel I'm sending off the wrong impression of what those two things are. One view that comes to mind is Good and Evil. That's the most obvious pairing of the two, but I've recently learned that it doesn't always mean that, nor are any of my processes mentioned here specifically designed to make action orientated stories.

They can be used in any kind of genre. Romance, Comedy, Drama, and even a Hentai. Every genre needs the same structure. A problem, a protagonist, and an antagonist. Without those things, we don't have an interesting story. We have a perfect world where there aren't any problems and everyone gets along. BOR-ING!! No wants to read that, and no one wants to make that. To make something interesting we need to get our hands dirty and we need conflicts. And for that it starts with a Protagonist and an Antagonist.

The Protagonist is of course our main character. They can be male or female. A warrior or a scholar. A kid or an adult. They can be whatever we want them to be and they aren't limited by the genre we want to do. The Antagonist is the Protagonist's counter. They're mostly known as the bad guys or villains, but they aren't limited to that either. The Antagonist is there to create conflicts for the Protagonist to overcome. The two could be friends, enemies, co-workers, family members, or anything you can imagine to fit the genre we want to do.

Let's take comedy for instance. Say we want to make a humorous story with no violence. We still need an Antagonist to keep our Protagonist held back from accomplishing their goal. The Antagonist could be the Protagonist's best friend who gives bad advice. They could also be a rival co-worker or family member. Whatever they are, they have to have their own goals as well. This could be something that involves seeing the Protagonist fail, or something the Protagonist doesn't agree with.  The Antagonist needs to be present to create the conflict our Protagonist will have to overcome to complete their goals.

I felt I needed to go more in depth with this because I didn't want to give the impression I'm only concentrating on Good Guy vs Bad Guy and every Climax involves an action scene. The basic conflict between the Protagonist and Antagonist is in every genre we know of. Even Romantic Comedies have the two along with some conflict to be defeated. It's not as serious as the Antagonist wants to take over world or kill the Protagonist, but it's there nonetheless in every piece of entertainment we read or watch.

Even light-hearted movies I grew up with have conflicts and antagonists. Most classic Disney movies from the 50s and 60s that weren't animated also contained those two things, and they were still family friendly. Comedies also have them, as they create situations for the protagonist that not only gets them closer to meeting their goal, but creates humorous situations for the audience without being violent.

That's why in my earlier posts I said the first thing we need is Protagonist and Antagonist to get the ball rolling if we don't have a story on hand to go with. The pairing of the two can create all sorts of crazy situations. Either humorous, touching, or action orientated, to create an entertaining story. When venturing off to do something new, start with those two. Brainstorm a bit to see which personality combinations will result in creating interesting situations. See which genre it might fit in best with. As a rule of thumb, the more ideas one comes up with with just those two characters is a sign the creator is on the right path.

Not every story needs a huge overall plot or detailed setting to be interesting. It could be as simple as just having the Protagonist and Antagonist being rivals in any kind of generic setting we could think of. Fantasy, Sci-Fi, or Modern. It doesn't matter as long as you have the Protagonist and Antagonist playing off of each other.

So when the well in your head is dry, and you feel overwhelmed with trying to come up with something huge. Take it down a notch, just start with those two characters and go from there. You could stumble onto something bigger than you expected without even knowing it.

The 48 page One-Shot and Digital Distribution

I mentioned in some earlier post how the 16 page One-Shot structure I came up with can be expanded to make a larger book if one so desires.

As I sit here desperately trying to shake off the holiday hangover and getting back in the swing of things I've put a little more thought into that process. The catalyst for me to expand the structure beyond 16 pages was the Morning International Comic Contest I was made aware of in November by the fine folks over at Manga-Apps. The page limit is 50, so that got my gears grinding thinking I should re-evaluate my process and see if it will work for a 50 page comic book or manga.

After some tinkering around with my basic structure I found it will work, however I must be disciplined in keeping my page count divisible by 8. The idea behind this is to use the same process for a 16 page One-Shot and multiple by 3. That will give me 48 pages. I now have a total of 15 sections to fill up my story, but the reason I want to keep the finished product divisible by 8 is simple. Professionalism.

Now I'm going to wander into a little rant here, but lets face some facts. The comic books and mangas we all know today will be a different beast in the future. Either 5 or 10 years from now everything will be Digitally Distributed. Think I'm wrong? Well consider this. Digital Distribution cuts out the middle man. It allows more people who consider themselves to be amateurs to become professionals overnight. It drives costs down and is better for the planet since there won't be paper products sitting on store shelves. Did I mention anyone can do this? Well that's a plus since there will be more competition and cost will be driven down, but unlike novels and books, comic books aren't something just any average person can do. It takes determination, skill, and lots of practice to be able to make something that can be sold for $1.

If you consider yourself an amateur right now, think bigger. Because once there's a way comic book creators from all walks of life have a portal to sell their goods to the world you'll have to think like a professional, and your total page count will reflect that.

Here's a scenario. A person wants to make a comic book to be sold online. They spend nearly a month making it the best thing they've ever done. Once finished it comes out to 13 pages, or maybe 11. Worse yet the comic book is mostly an introduction and then a complication comes up only to end on a " to be continued " which may or may not ever happen. Sound familiar? It does to me because this is the kind of comic book I use to make when I was a kid. No story structure, probably no plot, and because it took me so long to make a measly 11 or 13 pages I gave up trying to continue or finish it. Plus they also wanted to justify the time it took to make it, so they sell it online for $5, which is ridiculous. Believe it or not, I have found DD comics like that, and it's insulting to the rest of us.

Here's another scenario. A person wants to make a comic book, but they don't want it to be an on going series. They want it to be a self contained story, but 16 pages just isn't enough. At the same time they don't want it to be too large and they want to keep the finished price reasonable. The make a 48 page comic book, all self contained and properly organized. To be competitive they sell it for $3. How long it took this person to make it is relative, and that's something we all have to learn.

One cannot simply price a comic book on how long it took to make it. Page count will always determine your price. And if they're being sold Digitally, we have to ignore the price of hard copy to compare. Digital copies aren't printed and shipped. That's where most of the cost in hard copies come from. The easiest way to price a comic is to latch on a $1 for every 16 pages. However a 160 page comic book ( or manga ) will be $10 according to that. Then you use this rule, nothing over $6. It's foolish to think a digital copy can be equal to a hard copy, but that's exactly whats happening right now. And digital copies aren't selling like they should because of the illusion most people have in pricing.

The best option is to sell low, especially for the digital world. $1 is nothing to most people when it comes to digital transactions. So sell a 16 or 24 page comic for that. Not enough money for you? Well then you have to make another issue and sell that for $1. In other words, your now a professional. The only thing holding people back from that is their dedication. If they find it's a waste of time, they'll drop out. But if they're determined, they'll hit it hard and keep going because they're doing something you love. That's what separates the amateurs from the professionals. Not who you work for or how much you got published, but how much time you spend doing what you love. You could be a professional right now and not even know it.

For most people who want to venture in the DD world, keeping up a 16 page comic book might not be realistic to them. They might have a real job or a family to think about, and just want to do this on the side. That's where a 48 page self contained comic book comes in, or a Graphic Novel if you prefer. They can work on it for as long as they want and sell it online for $3 or $2. It totally up to them. The advantage of this is they could still make a considerable profit on it and not have to worry about finishing the story since it's all self-contained.

For me the 48 page comic book is something I'm considering for that Morning International contest. I may or may not enter, I don't know yet at this stage since I already missed out on another contest because I didn't know what I wanted to do. It got me back to tinkering with my process to expand it to 48 pages, so before I show that let's review the structure as it is for 16 pages.

Introduction pages 1-3
Problem pages 4-7
Solution pages 8-11
Climax pages 12-15
Ending page 16

Those are the basics of my process. Now to expand that to 48 pages I just repeat that same process 2 more times and it looks like this.

Section 1

Introduction pages 1-3

Problem pages 4-7

Solution pages 8-11

Climax pages 12-15

Ending page 16

Section 2

Introduction pages 17-19

Problem pages 20-23

Solution pages 24-27

Climax pages 28-31

Ending page 32

Section 3

Introduction pages 33-35

Problem pages 36-39

Solution pages 40-43

Climax pages 44-47

Ending page 48

This is how it looks by simply multiplying. However I got 2 more introductions and endings that I don't need. For anybody who's studied writing structure this next step will be obvious. What I've done is created a set of goals for my protagonist to accomplish before they get to the final Climax in the 3rd section. Consider the goals side-quests that help the protagonist get to the final Climax. Just like an RPG quest that needs 2 other quests completed before you can finish the main one up. What we'll do next is reorganize the 3 sections so that they are all connected together. Section 1 and 2 will contain small goals in them, while Section 1 will be connected to Section 3 to tie the whole thing up.

Section 1

Introduction pages 1-3

Problem connected to Section 3 that requires Goal 1 & 2 to be completed first pages 4-7

Solution creates Goal 1 pages 8-11

Climax of Goal 1 pages 12-15

Ending page 16

Section 2

Introduction pages 17-19

Problem pages 20-23

Solution creates Goal 2 pages 24-27

Climax of Goal 2 pages 28-31

Ending page 32

Section 3

Introduction pages 33-35

Problem pages 36-39

Solution pages 40-43

Climax of Problem form Section 1 pages 44-47

Ending page 48

Now this is started to look more like a flesh out story. To solve the overall problem our protagonist needs to accomplish Goals 1 and 2 to find themselves at the ending. We still have those pesky introductions and endings to deal with. Not only that, but because this is a larger book, we can expand our Climax and Ending in Section 3. We can also expand the overall Problem in Section 1. This allows us to treat the overall plot with some importance while Goals 1 and 2 are toned down. Right now it's too symmetrical and we need to make some parts bigger than others. We also need to keep our sections into 4 page sections for scenes and Pagination. So let's go over it again and see how this might look.

Section 1

Introduction pages 1-3

Problem that requires Goal 1 & 2 to be completed first pages 4-11

Solution to Problem creates Goal 1 pages 12-15

Section 2

Climax of Goal 1 pages 16-19

Problem from Section 1 reintroduced with Goal 1 completed pages 20-23

Solution creates Goal 2 pages 24-27

Climax of Goal 2 pages 28-31

Section 3

Problem from Section 1 reintroduced with Goals 1 & 2 completed pages 32-35

Climax of Problem from Section 1 pages 36-43

Ending pages 44-48

This is just a quick mock-up. In reality the length of each section is up to the creator. They might want a long section to display the overall problem in Section 1 or a short one. The same goes for the final Climax and Ending. In haste I left 8 pages for the final Climax and 5 pages for the ending. This is more than enough time in the comic book to give the reader a proper send off. There's also areas where one could add more content, shave some sections off to add to others and so forth. The idea behind this is to show that with more pages, we are able to do more things. Pages equal time in comic books. The more pages we have, the more detailed the story can be.

It's also key to keep in mind the Pagination when doing anything. As always, the first and last page will always be by themselves. With every page in between being connected to another page. Keeping those Paginations with in 4 and 8 pages keeps the comic book organized and guarantees it to be a page turner ( The reader turns the page either expecting a continuation of a scene or a new one ) We could also trim it down even further to add 2 more goals. The possibilities are endless, but anymore than 4 Goals will require more pages. Lets see how a 4 Goal story would look like if we want to keep all our scenes down to 4 pages, but keep our comic book to 48 pages max.

Section 1

Introduction pages 1-3

Problem that requires Goals 1, 2, 3, and 4 to be completed pages 4-7

Solution to Problem creates Goal 1 pages 8-11

Climax to Goal 1 pages 12-15

Section 2

Goal 1 completed creates Goal 2 pages 16-19

Climax to Goal 2 pages 20-23

Goal 1 and 2 completed creates Goal 3 pages 24-27

Climax to Goal 3 pages 28-31

Section 3

Goal 1, 2, and 3 completed creates Goal 4 pages 32-35

Climax of Goal 4 pages 36-39

All Goals completed leads to solution of Problem from Section 1 pages 40-43

Climax pages 44-47

Ending page 48

With this structure there's little room for some down time after a Goal is completed. However with 4 goals being hammered at one after another it could be a tour de force that will keep the reader hooked in for the 10 minuted or less it will take them to read it. Any more Goals and we'd have to add more pages. We could also reshuffle the amount of pages for each section to expand the final Climax or Ending. Or even remove a Goal to give us more options.

This kind of planning should be the back bone of every comic book no matter how many pages it is. In nature it's easier to take away than to add, so it's best start big and trim it down until it feels like a solid product. With this kind of planning we can determine our page count ahead of time. We'll have an idea of how much work it will take to finish the comic book and allow us to manage our time to complete it. This is important for those who have other commitments in life, but want to spend their free time doing stuff like this.

As I've said before everything I type on this Blog isn't written in stone. The overall message I'm trying to get through is we need proper planning. If you want to just dive in and start drawing and writing, go ahead I won't stop you. The more you plan out ahead of time, the better your product will be. No matter how good you write or draw, proper planning will make it even better.

Working 1.5 Trial and Error

I was moving right along with my first One-Shot, also the first comic book I've done in a year, until something didn't feel right. I couldn't put a finger on it, so I gave myself a couple days to think about what I've done so far.

One thing that popped into my head was I broke a personal rule of mine. Work with in my comfort zone. I'm naturally a doodler when it comes to drawing. I rarely draw faces who's heads measure over an inch in length ( not aspect size, the size I draw them at ). Feeling I was doing myself a disservice by trying to do something I wasn't comfortable with, I thought I solved my lingering concern. But it was only the tip of the iceberg.

I also noticed the comic book in whole doesn't feel right. I got half of it done, and a part of me wants to finish it. But still I feel I missed something, so I went back to the books. As I mentioned before my favorite comics to read are GI Joe and X-Men. However when I draw, I prefer something that looks like a Manga. This is where I found the problem.

My script and style were dictating my overall direction of my story. While I wanted to make something that read like and old school comic book, I was really making something completely different. Now at first I thought this was just me being lazy again and I'll have another failed project on the shelf. However the more I looked into it and analyzed what I was doing, I found I created a conflict between what I wanted to accomplish and what I was actually doing. This conflict eventually over came my progress and made me sit back and actually examine what the problem was.

I couldn't figure it out right away, so I did what I usually do when I'm stuck. Just doodle and read some comic books. After a couple days I looked at what I was doing. When it came to doodling I was concentrating on Bust  and Full shots. When I read some comic books I was looking at more Wide and Mid shots. This was the conflict I discovered with in myself.

I wasn't concentrating on what actually made me read the comics I like. Instead I was relying completely off what I practice the most. Thinking I was on to something I decided to use Math ( Oh yeah, Math rules ) to give me a better picture of what I needed to do to keep myself interested in what I'm doing. To do that I broke down the different panels used in 2 comic books I regularly read to see what made them up. The results were surprising.

2 Comic Books for a total of 199 panels.


9%  were Close-Ups Shots.
23%  were Bust Shots.
10%  were Full Shots.
31% were Mid Shots.
27% were Wide Shots.

The One-Shot I was working on told a different story. It's mostly made up of Close-Ups and Bust Shots. With a majority of those Bust Shots mistaken as Mid Shots and with very few Wide Shots. In the end I found my answer to why I stopped working on it, I had an image of what I wanted it to be, but was doing something that wasn't even close to being that. In other words, my sub-conscience shut it down.

Now I was quick to figure I was just being lazy, but everything I've done the past year or so lead me to think this wasn't the case. To explain that I'll take you back to 2 years ago where I decided to take my fandom and hobby to the next level. At first I was all gun-ho about making a comic book. But I ran into a lot of problems off the bat. My depression which lead to me not drawing for nearly 3 years had a strong effect. I couldn't draw men, I forgot how to draw in perspective correctly, and all the other little things took a dive as well. Proportions, hands, faces, anatomy, the list went on.

So before I could draw anything I basically had to teach myself to draw all over again. I also took this opportunity to draw digitally as well. After nearly 2 years of doodling, sketching, reading, and studying I finally became satisfied with what I was doing. However I also felt I wasted time. All those activities created a lot of clutter, clutter I saw that could have been used to make a comic book. All that lead me to the One-Shot process I've put in this blog.

So laziness wasn't an issue. I've had countless days over the last 2 years of doing nothing but drawing for 6-8 hours straight. I would wake up in the morning and just draw as soon as I got my morning coffee. So when I had this urge to stop drawing my One-Shot last week, I knew it had to be something besides being a procrastinator. Something was trying to communicate with me, and by looking what i was doing, how I was doing it, and what I wanted to achieve made me figure out what it is.

For now I shelved my One-Shot, however I can pick it back up if I want to in the future. It might seem like wasted time, but I ended up learning something about myself in that process. If I had just stopped and tried to do another one thinking I was just bored with it and that was that, I wouldn't have come to the conclusion that I was making something I didn't want to make.

Somewhere in between all this lies the connection between the doodler in me and the comic book artist in me. I need to find that connection so I can exploit it to the point where every time I draw, I'm working on a comic book. Because the doodler me can draw and draw 24/7.

So how do I get there? Do I just practice Mid and Wide Shots? Do I change my subject matter? Or is there something else I can do to make the connection easier? For starters I need to ask myself these questions and remember some tips before I embark on anything in the future.

Is this the kind of story I want to tell? If so, is it being told the best way possible?

That might seem vague, but in reality I need a good story. One that leaves me satisfied so I can keep drawing. My One-Shot was a story I wanted to tell. However one reason I stopped was because in the back of my mind, I know it could have been told better. In simpler terms, I'm a hard guy to please even when I'm the one making something.

If I don't want to draw something, don't draw it.


Against my better judgement, I went ahead and added capes to all my Heroes in the One-Shot. I hate capes. Why would I add capes? Exactly. It's not that they're hard to draw, but to me they add unnecessary clutter to a character's design. I had visions of cool poses with them, but that didn't translate too well when it came to the characters interacting in their every day life. For some reason I kept them all stiff and generic for way too many panels. I should have listen to myself, but I didn't. Which is weird since I had the same conversation with myself in the past and opted for no capes. Maybe I wanted a challenge, but for making a One-Shot, I need to keep the challenges to minimum. I need to draw what I'm comfortable drawing.

I don't have to draw everything, use dialog to help with the action. Switch between subjects when necessary. 


This is something I didn't catch till about 5 hours ago. I had a whole page that was nothing more than 2 characters getting from where they were to where I wanted them. Actually it was a page an half. In my head I thought " I don't want to draw all these backgrounds". But in reality I was adding an action sequence that was useless. I could have had the characters say " We'll make it over there" then cut back to something else only to show the characters where the needed to be later.In other words I wasted panels, time, and bored myself with a useless action. I should have known better.

Draw with in my comfort zone.


Remember I said I draw small. This is probably a handicap and definitely not an industry standard. But it is how I draw. Anytime I draw subjects bigger than I'm use too, things look weird. Including the pages I uploaded. Now I have 2 options on how to remedy this. I can still make my pages 1/2 larger than the finished sized, but keep my subjects with in my comfort zone and add more panels. Or I could make my pages smaller, even at 1:1 size. Now the second option has limitations. Even I can't draw that small, but to compensate I can do that on a story that has less than 5 panels per page ( I made a mini comic where each page was so small, I could only do 3 pages max ) I could have, and should have done this One-Shot like that, since all my perspective work was going to be done on the computer anyways. But for something that will use more than 5 panels per page, it would have to larger so I could have some various sizes on my subjects with in each panel.

This was something I decided when I was doodling, that the amount of panels per page will dictate the size I can make my comic book at. It will however, only work for me. It's part of that self discovery thing I was taking about.This is just one example of how all artists should review the things they do and how they do them. You might find something about yourself you didn't know.

Conclusion


I don't know what I'll do next. But after studying my work the past few days I've learned more about myself than I would have if I had done nothing at all. I still think the process I laid out for making One-Shots is a perfect example of how to balance writing and drawing to create a sequential piece of art. But as for me I have a split personality. The doodler artist and comic book artist with in me are struggling to find a common ground.

One one side I have the doodler who can draw for hours on end, wishing everything he drew told a story so he could share it with other people. On the other side is the comic book artist who has a story to tell, but can't draw for hours on end because something is holding him back. It really is a conundrum and something I need to address.

Will I find that perfect balance where I can draw for hours on end and tell a story? Am I doomed to doodle for the rest of life without every taking my talent to the next level? I don't know, but I do know that if I want to take myself to the next level, I need to figure out what's going on. It might take days or weeks. Maybe even months and years ( why not, I've wasted enough of my life already )

But I do know this. I have the passion. I have ideas. And I know if I apply myself a little harder I can find that common ground. I can make that connection. I guess I just never asked myself the one question I've always avoided.

How badly do you want it?


Oh so badly. Now to do something about it.

Working 1.3 Manga Studio Prep Work

Now that I have all my thumbnails completed it's time to get started with the rest of the work. My first job will be to import my thumbnails into a story using Manga Studio. The methods I use can also be emulated in other programs, but Manga Studio's soul purpose is comics. And it's full of handy tools to keep myself organized as I work.

I'll start by creating a new story using a page layout I created with specific specs. My thumbnails will fit with in those specs, that once finished will be the same specs Tokyo Pop uses for OELs. I haven't bothered to see if they updated their specs or not, since I don't plan on sending them anything. But it's the specs I've gotten use to using over the years, so to be consistent with what I'll do, I'll stick to them for now.

In Manga Studio I opened a new story with 20 pages ( the reason 20 is because I want those black areas to fill in later for a Cover, Back Cover, and inside flaps in case I want to print out a finished copy later that reads like a real comic book ) With a complete layout of all the pages, I then go one by one and place the thumbnails in the proper order.

Manga Studio saves both the Story and Pages as separate files. Since my computer is really old and slow, working with this many pages open at once, and at 600 dpi really pushed it. It will only get worse when I add my pencils, inks, and everything else. After they are placed in the proper order I save it all and close. Now I can go back and open each page on it own and work from there.

Zoomed in you can see how my thumbnail almost fills up my safety area. It's close enough for what I'll use it for. I also have my pages numbered on the thumbnail so I didn't lose track while importing them. Now that I'm working on one file at a time I can begin penciling over my thumbnails. I'll drop the Opacity of the thumbnail and use the sketch layer to start building up my panels. But before I do that I'll make my panel layer.

Using the panel ruler layer I create my panels. Once finished I Rasterize it and place it over all the other layers. This is a technique you can do in Photoshop as well. Notice how the area of my panels is transparent and the rest is opaque with white. This can easily be done in Photoshop with a separate layer and using either the blending options ( recommended for tinkering ) or the line tool.

Manga Studio also uses Panel Folders. Now I use to think these were great because it made a folder for every single panel, with all it's contents staying with in it. But it created too much clutter for me. Also when I zoom in and out like I do most of the time, it always went to the center of the panel, not to the area I wanted to zoom in on. Some people like them, but I prefer to use as few layers as possible, because it's going to get crazy once I start adding the dialog.

With my panels already determined ( I saved the Ruler Layer in case I want to make changes later ) I'm ready to get into the process of fleshing out my thumbnails. As I progress, the original thumbnails will disappear and my digital pencils will take over. I just roughed this out for now to illustrate the concept of how I'm working on this. I use a variety of pencils presets that I customized to have different opacities so I can build off my basic figures with a light pencil and as I progress move on to darker ones for the detail.

The key to doing this digitally is to not rush it. Use the same methods as you would on paper and take your time. The two panels I did need to be gone over again, but at least I'm getting an idea of what I want, adding and erasing as I got along.

Since I don't plan on using anymore than 2 pens when I ink ( That's what I'd use if I did this traditionally ) I plan to take my time on the pencils to make sure everything is the way I want it. And since this is done in Manga Studio once my pencils are finished, I can Ink and Letter this page before moving on to the next if I so desire.

Manga Studio was made for this kind of work because it's loaded with all sorts of handy tools. Such as perspective rulers and symmetry rulers. You can also quickly flip and rotate your canvas just like I heard you can in the new edition of Photoshop.

For now I just wanted to give a taste of how I go about tackling a comic book page in Manga Studio. The next entry I make will be with it finished. But don't worry, I'll make sure to break that down as well to show you how I got there.
 

Working 1.2 Story, Characters, and Thumbnails

This is probably the hardest step in making a One-Shot. Actually coming up with something. Since my last post I spent 2 days thinking about what I wanted to do. I had no idea at the time what that might be. I was leaning towards a modern setting, but decided to bite the bullet and do my fantasy idea I've had sitting for well over a year. Coincidently this was the same idea I failed on last year, but instead of rehashing old story ideas I decided to start from scratch and just use the characters I had on hand.

Although coming up with a plot wasn't easy. Since I wanted this to be an action orientated One-Shot I needed some concepts that went beyond Good vs Bad. Using this website, Chaotic Shiney, I saw an idea I haven't thought of and used it. The generator their provided this, " A Geomancer uses a Golem to ravish a town."

From that simple plot idea, I was able to use my characters and make a short story out of it. How did I know this plot would be good? It wasn't the first one that popped up, but it was the first one that sparked something inside of me where I was able to see a whole story evolve from it. Before I even wrote anything down I already had an idea of how many characters I needed, where it will take place, and how it will Climax and End. The Climax and End were important because if I couldn't visualize those two things quickly, then my story would have been doomed from the very start.

Once I was confident this will work for me. I began to write it out in my notebook.

When I said notebook I wasn't kidding. I meant the good old fashion spiral variety. With my simple plot selected I fleshed it out here. I also gave my characters names, listing the ones I'd use, as well as giving myself a schedule on how long I had to get everything done. Once I felt this was good enough for my One-Shot I proceeded to make my character sketches.

To make these I used a home-made stencil I crafted from a blank stencil you can purchase at any craft store. The stencil was built off an ordinary pose that I drew, then cut out in certain sections so I could quickly put a body on the paper and add in the face and costumes on top of it. I highly recommend blank stencils to any artist out there who knows they are going to use a repeated process over and over again. These can be used for any type of project you can think of. Word Balloons, Page Templates, and even your own handwriting.

The character designs I decided to go with were my 3rd designs. Even though this is a fantasy with guns, I wanted it to seem somewhat more fantasy like and went with a tunic/cape design on my heroes as opposed to a full body suit/pants design I came up with first. I didn't want it to seem too fantasy like, hence the guns, but I didn't want to give the impression this was too modern. I had to balance it out.

With my characters in place I began to do the thumbnail using the Thumbnail Worksheet I made in my previous entry.

My thumbnails might be crude, but as long as I know what's happening in each panel I'm okay. If I was making this story for another artist, I would go back on these to flesh them out more. I tried to keep the figures simple, in some cases just an outline of them with an indication of how their head is orientated by adding circles for eyes or ears.

Another thing to note is before I began. I laid out my Story Structure on Page 1. That was my guide to how the story would play out. Also each page represents each section of the Story Structure. By keeping it separated like that I was able to concentrate on one scene at a time.

Also I was able to work backwards. After I finished my Introduction, I immediately did my Ending. Since the  Antagonist's are only on those sections of my One-Shot, when I draw this out I can do my Introduction and Ending first to stay consistent in my artwork when doing the Antagonists. If I went in order, I'd have 12 pages of doing the Protagonists and the Golem, then have to go and draw the Antagonists from the beginning for just one page. The idea here is to be consistent. If I did a comic book that went back in forth between two groups, I'd work on one group first, then the other to stay consistent, even if it's done out of order.

Another thing I did is when it came down to The Problem, Dealing With Problem, and The Climax I worked backwards again ( as mentioned in my tutorial ). Because I know how the scenes began and ended I worked around the whole Pagination Areas so I properly paneled my scenes.

Take The Problem section for instance. I know I had to use pages 4 and 5 to introduce my Protagonists since my Antagonists were in the Introduction. Before I started I knew I wanted the page 7 to end with the Golem marching down the street. That was the first thing I drew, then for my Page Breaker for page 7 I added each character in a surprised reaction to what they're seeing. After that I proceeded to do the other 3 pages.

I started on Page 4 with a wide shoot of the town. Then I knew a conversation would take place, so to end the conversation I had Page 6 start with a villager breaking up the conversation and warning our heroes of the Golem. With those main panels in place I started filling out the rest. I didn't keep what I first chose ( and if you look hard you can see eraser marks ) but by laying down key panels first, how it ends, where it starts, and where it changes, I was able to easily fill out the rest of the pages. This is what I mean in my tutorial about working around your scenes and Pagination Areas to determine your paneling.

Onto the action in the Dealing with Problem and Climax sections. Guns are user friendly when it comes to action. You can use one panel ( wide or whatever ) and the amount of action you want out of the guns depends on how many SFX's you use. Cheap I know, but know this. Hand to hand to combat and any other form of physical actions require a lot of panels. I got off easy because my fantasy story does have guns ( a creative decision made last year ) but I had plans to add some melee weapons in here. That proved to be too much on my page count, so I scrapped it.

However when 2 of my characters go to push the statue off the temple to crush the Golem, that was done in 2 sequences. Them running past the Golem and up the Temple to get to the roof, and then them pushing the Statue over. I also juggled that with the other 2 heroes who went to get bigger guns to slow down the Golem in the right spot so the statue would fall on him. This helped me balance out those 2 separate events happening in the same scene when it came to paneling my pages.

I also started out by doing the last page of the Climax first. Knowing my Ending won't end with our heroes, I needed a moment at the end of the Climax for the Protagonists to celebrate a little. The aftermath being a Page Breaker panel that I will spend more time on than the others.

Where to go from here?


With everything I need to finish my One-Shot completed I have several options. If I was busy ( which I'm not ) I could pack everything together and start another One-Shot project, leaving this one sit until I had the time to complete it. Or I could begin drawing it out. In this case I'll be drawing it out for the sake of the this blog.

Doing that I have 2 routes I could go. I could do this traditionally or digitally. I will do this one in particular digitally with Manga Studio 4. With that option I'm going to take the scans of my thumbnails and place them on each page as a guide to draw out my One-Shot. I could do it traditionally, but for some of the panels I have designed I'll probably rely on the 3D model figures Manga Studio provides. Again the decision is all mine, and any way I decide on how to do this will work, it's just a matter of what I think will work best.

To help me finish this quickly I'm going to keep this in the back of my mind. If I did the maximum panels I was allowed for these 16 pages, that's a possible 128 panels. At 15 minutes a panel that 32 hours. My On-Shot has a total of 67 panels, I think ( I'm not recounting ). That's half of the maximum I will allow myself to do for an average of 4 panels per page. If my math is right that should take 16 hours, give or take, to pencil this out.

Add another 16 hours for inking, dialog, and colors/tones and I should have this done in a week. The only thing that could hold me back is if I get too creative in the art ( work outside my comfort zone ) or if I have eye and hand sprains. ( I'm known to sprain my hand a lot and I use a CRT monitor that just kills my eyes ) Either way if I treat this like a job, I should have no problem finishing this up if I work on it 6 hours a day. Just below full-time at a real job.

The Story, Characters, and Thumbnails are the hardest part of any One-Shot. With that out of the way I can concentrate on just drawing it up with no distractions or second guessing where my One-Shot is going. I already know how it will play out, now it's up to me to finish it up so people can read it.

2.4 Mini Conclusion, and the Here After

So I've uploaded my One-Shot Structure that I wrote over the past 7 months. Since all the information provided in it was found from various sources, many of which I mentioned and contain far more information than I'm willing to share, this is provided a no cost to you.

Personally I got enough How To Draw Books to choke a horse. And you probably do as well.

I'm a pretty simple person, and everything I posted before will be the simple tools I'll use to create my own One-Shot. I feel awkward explaining how I'm going to do it without actually doing one yet. Believe me I've been debating on that. But I figure if I shoot the gun and post it all it will inspire me to actually make something with the process I put in place.

And that's where this blog will be headed in the future. Any One-Shot or comic I make from here on out will be posted here in stages, so other amateurs can see the process in action. And any new information I learn along the way will also be added as time goes on. And any constructive criticisms or questions will be handled with. I will take the time to answer any questions, and even add more information to my previous posts if someone feels like I missed something.

As I embark on this new journey of satisfying my lifelong dream I'll leave you this. Whether you're talented or not, I think anyone can make a comic book. I think every individual in the world has a story to tell or an imagination to share. Art is not an activity that should only be enjoyed by an elite few. It's an exercise everyone should take part in so they could learn more about the world around and most importantly themselves.

If you have doubts about yourself, throw them out the window. All you need is passion and a little help from others who share that same passion. That was the purpose of this Blog. In the end I hope it does help someone out there just as it's helped me.

So sketch, create, write, and enjoy doing what you love best. I know I will.

This is an esential read. Also be sure to check out Scott's website to explore other ideas and exercises. Like the 24 hour comic.












Even if you prefer manga, this book is old school. It's full of the basics to get the ball rolling.












Even more old school. This is a must have book to learn how to create Sequential Art. Even the pros use this book.












There are a ton of How to Draw Manga Books, but this one is the complete package. It covers everything one will need to know to get started. Highly recommended.

2.3 Positive and Negative Space

The last thing we need to learn is Positive and Negative space. Most people treat this as a per panel rule, but for what we’re trying to accomplish I feel it’s something that needs to be utilized on the entire Pagination Area. While we’re thumbnailing our One-shot we’ll keep in mind the positive and negative space as we go along. This will include both backgrounds and black fills.

This will help us getting a better understanding of what the finished product will look like, no matter if you plan to color or tone your One-Shot, or if you’re doing western or manga style. Some people will talk to death about this subject and make claims like “ Pro don’t mess this up “. The reason why pros don’t mess this up is because it’s so simple to do. You could screw it up, but even so it will still be effective. The best way I found about managing Positive and Negative space without killing myself over it was in How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. Now I’m going to be a little harsh here, but it doesn’t matter if you’re doing a manga, that book as a lot of useful information in it.

Their way of managing Positive and Negative space came down to one simple guideline. Direct the reader into seeing what you want them to see. The easiest way for us to do that is to manage our backgrounds and black fills. When we ink our One-Shot we will use different thickness’s of pen strokes to create a field of depth and variety to our lined work. But we’ll also add backgrounds to show the reader where our characters are, and black fills to help direct the reader’s eyes into seeing what we want them to see.

How we handle small and large panels will also help the reader. Same goes for the flow and the designs for each panel. So when we manage our backgrounds and black fills to our panels in each Pagination Area, we have to make sure we highlight what we want the reader to be focused on in each one.

Lets take a look at an example of a Pagination Area I penciled a year ago. Keep in mind this was a One-Shot that I failed to finish. Despite not finishing that One-Shot, the pages I had done lead me to make this tutorial. I knew something was working in this, but I didn’t know what it was until now. So lets take a look at it.



As you can see this is a pretty standard penciled drawing of a Pagination Area. I have a total of 9 panels spread across it. Out of those 9 panels, only 4 contain backgrounds. I didn’t know it at the time, but by only having 4 panels with backgrounds I was creating balance. Another thing I didn’t know I was doing was using a variety of panel designs between each panel. Even though I have Close-ups occupying the middle of both pages, each one uses a different composition or is slightly different from the next one.

I did all of this not really understanding what I was doing, I was just going through the motions. Even though it looks flat and boring, this is just the pencils. The next step will be to highlight what we want the reader to see in each panel. This will create Positive and Negative space that will help direct the reader even more. So lets see how this will look with a little bit of ink on it.



With an ink outline it still looks flat. Even so I decided to add a little help in directing the reader. Notice the bottom gutters of the first panels on both pages. I added a little angle to them in this step to direct the reader. However page 2’s first panel is angled in the wrong direction. It makes you jump from that panel on to the 3rd one. That’s another powerful tool we can use to help the reader. Even though it’s angle isn’t much, our eyes are directed to the wrong panel completely missing the one we should go to.

One page 3 the first panel’s bottom gutter is angled in the correct direction and leads us to the right panel. I try to keep angled panels to a minimum, one maybe two a page. If I wanted this done correctly, I would have had the top gutter on the bottom panel of page 2 angled to direct the reader to the first panel of page 3. A helpful little tool to keep the reader on that Pagination Are without getting lost.

Besides that bad angle on page 2. I have the right idea in directing the reader through this Pagination Area with my choice in panel designs, but I’m going to need a little help. That’s where backgrounds and black fills come in. Those areas are where we’ll manage the Positive and Negative space, and there really isn’t much too it. It’s mostly about managing our black fills. We have two choices on how to accomplish this.

We could either add more black to the backgrounds, making the lightness of the characters stand out. Or we could add more black to the characters, making them standout from the lightness of the backgrounds. Either one will suffice and accomplish the same thing. Help direct the reader. We can also swap where add more black between each panel to create more variety. Whichever one we chose, we need more black added to this Pagination Area.

The simple reason is this. If we can’t tell what’s going on in the images without color, then we didn’t successfully manage our Positive and Negative space. If this was colored right now,  we would have a better idea of what’s going on, but we still won’t be focused on the most important parts of each panel. It will still look flat and boring.

By using black fills and creating a little bit of depth, we will successful keep the reader focused on the important parts. So lets add some more black ( but not too much )

Well maybe I used too much, but by using a black fills in or around the characters of each panel I pretty much circled what I wanted the reader to see in each panel without doing exactly that. I also used it sparingly. Some people will say “ Use more black to create a gloomy comic,” but in reality we have to keep in mind that colors and tones will also help us balance that out. Those too will be determine the mood we want to give our comic book when it’s nearly finished.

What we want to accomplish by using black fills is to balance our Positive and Negative space and highlight the points of interest in each panel. We can add black to them like I did in most of it. Or add black around them like I did in the first panel on page 3. Either way we want the reader to be directed to the most important thing with in those borders. And overall you want to use it sparingly so our Pagination Area as a perfect balance of Positive and Negative space. Remember the Traditional Composition method? Try to manage your blacks in 1/3rd’s. For this example I’d say that the whole Pagination Area is 1/3rd black, 2/3rd white.

Now the last panel is one that can be done either way. I decided to add more black to the characters to make them standout, but I also could have added more black to the background. Let’s see how that would look.



By making the grassy hill they are laying on more black then the characters, I’ve made the them standout more. They’d standout even more if the background had a line width that was less then the line width used on the characters. However I did add more black to the tree line to illustrate that they were looking down on a little valley. By swapping the use of my thick black fills I’ve made that panel look more different than the last panel on the previous page. I’ve also created a better balance of black on the Pagination Area itself.

This is a trick that’s commonly used by most artists. It’s also a cheap way to make anything you do stand out more. Common places it’s used is around characters faces, mostly around the face in either the hair or the shadow under the chin. Entire bodies when they want the figure to stand out more compared to the background. Or in the background to make the character standout in a scene that could be taking place at night or in a dimly lightened area.

Managing this as we do our thumbnails will give us a better idea of how we’re directing the reader, and how our key points of interest in each panel that we want displayed. Although these examples take it to the extreme ( I’d probably never fill that hill in with all black ) there are ways of breaking it so it doesn’t look like we just colored in an area with black.

The best way to get better at this is to remember the basics and of course practice, but if I had stopped at just adding ink lines to these pages, the reader wouldn’t really know what to look at in each panel. The whole Pagination Area would look neutral and they would be totally dependant on the dialog to help them through it.

By laying down some thick areas of black we’re helping the reader see what’s happening in each panel without having to rely on colors or tones. Probably the best example of doing this was done by Frank Miller in his Sin City series. Although in that he took it to a whole new level, those books alone show how a creator can direct the reader through whole book by properly managing the Positive and Negative space without he use of colors or tones.

Backgrounds

I wanted to talk about this separately because this was a topic that always bothered me. I use to think backgrounds we necessary in every panel. However I’ve come to realize this isn’t true. Like I showed in those previous pages, I used a background in 4 of the 9 panels. That is, so far. There are also special effect backgrounds I could add to the other panels to portray a mood or an emotion. A technique that’s commonly used in mangas.

I guess what I’m trying to say is backgrounds that show a location shouldn’t be overused. They’re critical for Mid and Wide shots, but when it comes to the other panels shots there are alternatives like the ones I just mentioned. Another thing to note is the backgrounds shouldn’t overshadow the points of interest in each panel.

This holds true for special effect backgrounds. They should be subtle compare to the points of interest, or be managed with black fills. Location backgrounds don’t have to be in great detail, and should be drawn with a thinner line than what was used on the characters. The idea behind this all is this, a reader will focus on the points of interest of each panel while everything else is just filler to them.

In reality a reader will get a glance of a panel, read the dialog, and move on to the next. This gives us the creators an advantage. We don’t have to sit and concentrate all our efforts to making the best looking backgrounds. If the characters fit in the background correctly and it offers just enough information for the reader then the mission is accomplished.

So if you’re worried that it doesn’t look good, don’t be. Our overall goal is get the reader from panel to panel, page to page. And we can make it as simple or as complex as we want too. Don’t worry about what other people are doing, just concentrate on your own abilities and do the best job you can do. You never know, you might even surprise yourself at some point down the road.

But it’s a road nonetheless, not a teleporter that will magically get you from point A to B.

This is an esential read. Also be sure to check out Scott's website to explore other ideas and exercises. Like the 24 hour comic.












Even if you prefer manga, this book is old school. It's full of the basics to get the ball rolling.












Even more old school. This is a must have book to learn how to create Sequential Art. Even the pros use this book.












There are a ton of How to Draw Manga Books, but this one is the complete package. It covers everything one will need to know to get started. Highly recommended.

2.2 Paneling the Pages

Paneling the pages can be as complex or as simple as we want them to be. So before we get started I’m going to show an example that standard 6 panel layout I mentioned before.


As you can see I’m using pages 2 and 3. The reason for this is because those two pages are a Pagination Area ( remember that? ). The Pagination Area was used in our story layout to help provide scene changes and locations of our story sections. They will also be used together when laying out our panels. The reason for this is because we need to treat each Pagination Area as a small story. It will contain a beginning, middle, and end. In the old days of comic books each page was treated this way. But back then comic books were full of ads, and two page spreads were pretty rare until the 80‘s.

By treating each page as it’s own little story it was easier for the printers to add advertising without worrying about the reader getting confused. Each page contained enough information for the reader to stay on track. One artist who was best known for his one page panel layouts was Jack Kirby. However as comic books grew over the years, so did the page layouts.

That basic 6 panel layout might seem boring by today’s standards, but even if you do your entire comic book like this it’s still acceptable. It might not be flashy, but it’s still a good way to layout your pages and tell a story. Bone is one of my favorite comic books off all time and this basic layout occupies a majority of its pages. The reason I’m showing this layout is because it’s a good place to start before we get real fancy since we also have to know how a comic book is read and which direction it should flow for the reader.


As you can see the reader will start at the top left and zigzag from left to right until he/she reaches the end of the page. From there they continue on the next page from the top left making there way to the bottom. This is in just about every How To Book you can find, but I figure I should mention it here because it will effect how we lay out our panels. We still don’t have enough information to actually free ourselves from the basic 6 panel layout, but by understanding the flow of the pages we can use our angles and composition to keep the reader on the page.

Now we’ll begin the real work. By using our story layout process from earlier, we will use both the dialog and artwork to determine the size of each panel. Before we do that there is one handy little tool we can use to help us fill this Pagination Area up with panels. I found this little tidbit in How To Draw Manga Vol 3. It was neatly tucked away in-between all the previous information I just told you about paneling. They didn’t spend much time on it, nor did they have a name for it. They just knew that this was most important part of laying out the panels. I call it the Page Breaker.

The Page Breaker is the first panel the reader sees in every Pagination Area before any other panel when they turn the page. This is the one area of each Pagination Area that needs to be focused on the most. And logically, it is where you’ll start each area as well. Remember how I said back in the Story Layout that we started with the Climax and Ending first? Well we’re going to do something like that with each Pagination Area. And once you know where the Page Breaker is you’ll see what I mean.


The Page Breaker takes up the top half of every second page in each Pagination Area. Our One-Shot comic book will have a total of 7 of them. The reason the Page Breaker is somewhat important is because every time the reader flips the page, that area of the next two pages is the first area they’ll see. They don’t know it’s the first thing they’ll see, but it’s in the back of their mind. If our best panels and best artwork occupy those 7 areas in our One-Shot, we could leave a good impression on the reader. But if it’s phoned in art wise and not at all exciting they could bored.

Now the Page Breaker doesn’t have to be one huge panel taking up that area, it can be divided up in a series of panels that make up an action, or even take up 2/3rds or the entire page. The most important thing to remember is you want to get the reader’s subconscious attention when they turn the page, using that area of the page to do so. And we only have to do it 7 times in our 16 page One-Shot.

Since we’re going to be treating each Pagination Area as a small story, consider the Page Breaker as the Climax for that area. It will be the first thing we work on for each Pagination Area. Next we’ll work on the beginning and ending of that area. Just like we did with our story structure. We’ll be working around the whole Pagination Area first before filling in the detail.


With these 3 areas worked on first, we now have an outline of how to fill up the rest of it. Think of it as if you were drawing a person. The Beginning being the head of that person, the Page Breaker the body, and the Ending where the feet will end up. That’s what we’re doing, building an outline structure so we’ll have a properly proportioned Pagination Area.

Now that we got an idea of how this area will be laid out, we can start adding in the other panels. This is where we rely on our story to tell us how to make the rest of the panels. And it’s not as hard as it sounds. Before we fill in the rest of the area we have to remember a few simple rules. And trust me these aren’t hard to remember. Knowing them will help us determine not only what kind of panels to use, but how to lay them out. And in the end we’ll find ourselves breaking free of that basic 6 panel layout.

• Use small panels for conversations and action sequences.
• Use large panels for high points, not mundane ones.
• Use 20-25 words per word balloon, 30-35 per panel. Don’t repeat dialog.
• Don’t use the same Panel Design in two panels that are next to each other.

Those are the rules we’ll use. Not only to fill in the rest of our panels, but also for the Page Breaker, Beginning, and Ending panels as well. To get a better understanding on how we use those rules I’ll go into more detail about each one. First we have to know what I mean by large and small panels. Remember the picture that showed the basic 6 panel page layout? Each panel in that picture is an average sized panel. Anything smaller than that will be a small panel, anything larger will be a large panel. That will be our guide for determining the size of our panels.

Let’s start with small panels. Small panels are perfect for characters engaged in conversations or action sequences. In conversations we’ll keep in mind rule #3 to help us along the way. We don’t want to use too much dialog. For example if we have a panel that contains nearly 35 words of dialog, that will probably take up 2/3rds of the panel. That is a lot of words to cram into one panel, so when we’re doing our thumbnails and using dialog to dictate the artwork we’ll keep in mind the word limit to help us judge the composition we‘ll use for that panel. Otherwise we could end up with too many small panels full of word balloons. When a reader sees a wall of text ahead of them, they’ll probably close the book early ( I‘ve done this as well ) we don’t want that to happen.

An action sequence will be a series of small panels that lead up to a large panel for the high point. They can average in 2 to 3 panels in length and will have an animation like feeling to them. They can also be tapered starting from a small panel, to an average one for the second action, and ending with the conclusion of that action in a large panel.

Its one thing to consider when we thumbnail our One-Shot and decide to illustrate a big action sequence. If we made all the panels in an action sequence large, the end of the action won’t be as dramatic as the series of events that led up to it. That’s why it’s best to use small panels or a variety of sizes leaving the large panels for the final action. It gives the reader a kind of payoff that in the end will leave them satisfied.

That brings us to large panels. These should be used to illustrate high points in our story. Examples would be the result of a conversation, a scene change, a setting change, or the final result of an  action. If  we want we can start a page with a large panel to set the tone for the rest of the Pagination Area without adding any more large panels. Or we can end on a large panel to make everything that happened in that Pagination Area feel more dramatic on its conclusion. Either way large panels are there for us to create a certain mood or tension. They are used to reward the reader for reading a series of small panels, or give them a taste of something even more dramatic yet to come when they turn the page.

The word limit is actually pretty generous. I’ve tried, and filling 20-25 words per balloon is a challenge for me. Even more so with the panel limit of 30-35. The idea with that rule is to make sure we don’t exceed those limits making our pages look like a wall of text, something the reader doesn’t want. We need that balance of artwork and dialog to keep them interested in our One-Shot. And too much of either one of those could tune them out. So when we start working on our thumbnails we’ll keep that in mind so we’re not concentrating on one aspect more than the other. We want an equal balance of both dialog and artwork.

Panel Designs are the combination of a panel shot, panel angle, and panel composition. Just as we have to make sure we don’t repeat ourselves in the dialog part of our One-Shot, we also can’t repeat ourselves in the artwork. An example would be two panels next to each other that both use a close-up shot, a mid angle, and a traditional composition that has the subject taking up 2/3rds of the panel. To mix it up we only have to switch one thing. Say we still want it to be a close-up with a mid angle shot. We could just change the composition to having the subject take up 1/3rd of the panel then 2/3rd‘s in the next. Or use a Triangle composition instead. All we know is we don’t want to have identical looking panels sitting right next to each other.

Some artist can get away with this, but for an amateur who’s just starting out, it’s best to use variety between each panel to keep them from looking boring.  It helps keep the reader interested and that’s what we want to accomplish. If all our panels had identical designs it will look like we didn’t put any effort into our One-Shot at all.

With these simple rules to go off of we’ll start seeing ourselves coming up with a variety of page designs, each one different from the other. The reason that happens is because we’re using our story to determine our art for our One-Shot. After a while we’ll see that every new project we start will look different from each other because of the difference in stories. Despite the fact we’ll use the same structure when laying out our 5 story sections for every One-Shot we make.

This is an esential read. Also be sure to check out Scott's website to explore other ideas and exercises. Like the 24 hour comic.












Even if you prefer manga, this book is old school. It's full of the basics to get the ball rolling.












Even more old school. This is a must have book to learn how to create Sequential Art. Even the pros use this book.












There are a ton of How to Draw Manga Books, but this one is the complete package. It covers everything one will need to know to get started. Highly recommended.