HOW TO DRAW COMICS-a 5-step process-Step 1- 'IDEAS '

● Collecting Material- Make notes in a notebook about ideas and themes.

● Based on the material collected, write down roughly, a description of the whole narrative.

● For example--

This story is about an incident that took place in my neighbourhood. A man woke up one morning and found his house completely under water...

Step 2- PAGE BREAKDOWN● Based on the description of the narrative, write

a new description, this time breaking it down page-by-page. Write down dialogues as well. For example--page 1- cover- image of bird flyingpage 2- A woman walks on the side of a road. She enters the gate

of her college. A man stands at the gate. They look at each other. Page 3-...

TIP: Try to end your comic on an even-numbered page.

Page 1

Page 2 Page 3

(even- numbered page on

left)

(odd-numbered page on

right)(title page)

Page 4

(last page)

For example--

Step 3- ROUGH DRAFT● Based on page-by-

page descriptions, draw rough layouts of each page on paper.

This is the most important step in comics.

Step 4- FINAL DRAFT● Based on rough layouts, do the fair drawing

using pencil (H-grade) on smooth, thick paper, A4 size.TIP: Use photographs for reference if you have to draw something that you are not familiar with. You can download reference images from the Internet (ex: Google Images)

TIP: Try to avoid having the horizontal space between panels match with the ones above.

Step 5- INKING● Ink the fair drawing,

using either nib pen or drawing pen and waterproof Indian ink.

● Erase the pencil lines neatly.

● Scan the inked page in high-res (300-600 dpi) and save it as PNG file.

● Another way-- use tracing paper to trace the drawing in ink.

● Open the file in Gimp or Photoshop.

● Make corrections, add text, sound FX, and patterns.

● Save as 300 dpi (grayscale) PNG or TIFF file and that's it !

PAPER

For Rough Draft->● A4 size printer paper or notebook/sketchbook.

For Final Draft->● A4 size extra-smooth thick paper, also known

as Bristol Board or Ivory Board. ● Tracing paper (not necessary if you wish to ink

directly on the pencil drawing.)

On Manga Nibs

How to draw comics- SUMMARY

1. Ideas (description of narrative)

2. Page breakdown (add dialogues)

3. Rough Draft (page layout)

4. Final Draft (penciling)

5. Inking (+finishing in computer)

WRITING

DRAWING

The whole process can also be done entirely on computer using pen tablet and Gimp or Photoshop, but the steps remain the same.

(most important step!)