How to Start Your Comic: Process and Inspiration
Multimedia Illustrator Elena Hartley had a great idea for a comic but didn’t know what steps to take to get started. But once she found a workflow, the story fell right into place. Don’t miss out on her breakdown, including:
- Story Inspiration: Pandemic Shows
- Main Characters: Opposites Attract
- World-Building: Myth or Man
- Pages and Line Work: Energetic Composition
- Dialogue: Hand-Drawn Balloons
- Final Project
My name is Elena Hartley and I hail from Atlanta, GA but I’m currently based in Brooklyn, NY. I’m a multimedia illustrator at Newsela where I design educational figures for the company’s article content. I have a background in science illustration, with a specialization in earth sciences. Outside of work, I collaborate with scientists on their figures for journal publications. In my free time, I love drawing characters and writing comics. I’ve always wanted to draw a comic but I’ve never had the confidence or inertia to start one. It’s a skill I would really like to get better at, which is why I sought out this class through CGMA.
1. Story Inspiration: Pandemic Shows
I came up with this short story during the middle of 2020. In the midst of the pandemic, I went for a world that was as fantasy as possible. Since I was watching Avatar the Last Airbender and The Clone Wars during that time, I’d say I took a lot of inspiration from them. But I’m also always inspired by the forces that shape the planet and decided to base my protagonist on the water cycle.
While I had fun writing the story, my biggest goal for turning it into a comic was for it to be doable. I’ve wanted to draw a comic for a long time but I’ve always been intimidated by everything that comes with it and I had never felt my drawing skills were good enough. For this project, I wanted to keep the world and characters pretty simple and fun to draw. By framing this comic as a learning project, my goal is to be able to focus more on paneling and storytelling in addition to practicing character drawing.
2. Main Characters: Opposites Attract
For this assignment, I wanted to solidify the two main characters’ designs. I wanted them to be fun and easy for me to draw over and over again. The character lineups I created for this assignment were time-consuming but really rewarding and they helped me think about my characters from a three-dimensional perspective. I remember spending a lot of time simplifying their designs and looking up clothing references from different angles.
The two main characters are Dean and Chandra. In a nutshell, Chandra is guiding a powerless and amnesiac Dean to an ancient cave in an attempt to restore her powers and memories. Since the two spend a lot of time together during their journey, I wanted them to have a fun and somewhat silly dynamic between the pair.
They are almost complete opposites: Dean is very weak, Chandra has survival skills. Dean is a little stupid, while Chandra has a bit more wits. Chandra is mortal while Dean is immortal. I took a lot of inspiration from times I had traveled with friends and the shenanigans we got into when writing Dean and Chandra.
Read “5 Steps to Creating a Spielberg-Worthy Comic” to see how to create a large cast of characters.
3. World-Building: Myth or Man
The story takes place during a lost period of time on Earth. I’ve always liked how different mythologies described processes that shape the world. And since I studied geology in college, I wanted to create a simple mythology inspired by the forces that shape our planet, like tectonics, rain, ice, and wind. There is a “god” like being who lives in the sky. Her children are the Winds who shape the land she raises. The Winds are the ones who interact with the creatures of the Earth and thus can take different forms inspired by what they see.
However, I didn’t use any of the world-building for this week’s assignment. When it comes to designing a world, I struggle the most with man-made settings so I wanted to use this week as an opportunity to practice. I decided to challenge myself by attempting a city and a cabin.
The city, Centralia (kind of a placeholder name at the moment) is where Dean and Chandra spend at least two chapters, so I’ll have to have it fleshed out whether I like it or not. I decided to base the city on Muscat, Oman. While in college, I did a field camp in Oman, where I helped a professor sample the rocks in the Omani desert. We made frequent trips to Muscat and I was super caught by how the city was built in very rocky terrain. The houses were square-shaped and white which contrasted the dark brown metamorphic outcrops.
The cabin was built by Chandra and is an important location in flashbacks. I designed it based on where I thought Chandra would build it. Since she’s not a fan of people in general and a bit shy (in her childhood), I assumed she’d build the cabin up on a hill. Since I envisioned Chandra to be a builder (before the events of the story) I wanted her cabin to come with a workshop. I also love the feel of comfy wooden cabins.
I did a rough model in Blender of both the cabin and the city to get started (see above). I think I’ll give each location a redesign when I arrive at their appearance in the comic but for now, I’m happy that I at least gave it my best shot.
4. Pages and Line Work: Energetic Composition
Before taking this class, I had really struggled to find a good strategy for drafting pages. Luckily, the instructor introduced the class to his method, which was quickly sketching a simple thumbnail using a pen. I found this method a lot more freeing since I didn’t have to worry about messing anything up. I wanted each page to have solid energy in its composition.
I created thumbnails in spreads so I could get a sense of how the whole page felt. I would make 2-3 sketches for each spread before I settled on a version I liked. Afterward, I sketched slightly more detailed thumbnails to solidify the composition. When I started creating the actual page, I often adjusted the page layouts even further.
Scroll through to see Elena's thumbnail sketches.
For the final line work, I chose to work entirely digitally. I sketched the layout of each page, frequently asking my roommate to pose for more dynamic poses. After creating a tight sketch on Photoshop, I started the outlines. I created an outline brush to keep my lines consistent. I left the background outlines loose since I knew they were likely going to be painted in rather than filled like the characters. I also sketched in effects and action lines, creating brushes to help expedite those as well.
5. Dialogue: Hand-Drawn Balloons
I really like the look of hand-drawn balloons that have been incorporated into the layout of the page so I decided to draw balloons into the page sketches (this might have saved me time in the long run as well).
I’ve always liked the look of hand-drawn fonts but my natural handwriting is really terrible and I wanted to make sure my text was easy to read. Our instructor showed us a site where we could generate our own font using a template. I created two fonts: one that was based on an existing public domain font, and another that was my handwriting (I made sure it was legible).
I did a rough test page this week to try out my comic font.
Don’t miss out on Comics: The Art of Storytelling taught by Miki Montllo!
6. Final Project
For our final project, I turned in two completed spreads. I felt good about the composition but I couldn’t finish the pages to the state I had envisioned during the class. I wanted the final comic to be in color but I quickly realized getting each page to the state I wanted would take forever. Therefore, I decided to start working with a friend to assist me in background coloring. Since I’ve completed the class, I have actually been able to finish the first chapter of the comic, with the help of my friend Nick. It’s definitely taken a lot longer than I initially thought but it’s still going!
Be sure to check out the full preview here!
Final Thoughts
- The main reason I chose to take this class was that I really needed something to push me to start a comic. I really wanted to learn tips and techniques from a professional comic book author and thought this course would be a great opportunity. I also wanted inspiration and motivation from other classmates also on their comic journey.
- The feedback Jason Brubaker gave was very helpful. He has a lot of experience from working in the industry and on his own so I’m thankful he was willing to share his wisdom with the class. His advice helped me shape my own process (which is still a work in progress). I’m still developing my own workflow for everything (character creation, page layout, world-building, etc) but I now feel much more confident working on my own.
- I think one of the most important things I walked away with from this class was a more refined focus. This class helped me break down a really intimidating project into something that actually feels doable in a few years. It also helped me realize that I need to keep this project fun and enjoyable to work on. Since I work a full-time job, I often don’t have much time or energy to work on time-consuming projects. In order for me to stay motivated, it’s essential I keep it fun.
- I would recommend the course to anyone who’s in a similar position to me: has an idea they want to bring to life but not quite the confidence to start. Creating a comic definitely takes a lot of motivation but it helps to have a class that pushes you to start.
LEARN MORE
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RELATED LINKS
Read “5 Steps to Creating a Spielberg-Worthy Comic” to see how to create a large cast of characters.
Watch these tips from Comic Artist Jason Brubaker and enroll in his course Creating Comics & Graphic Novels.
