I thought it would be interesting if we all discussed our creative processes when writing, illustrating, lettering, or collaborating on comics.
As a writer, I like to approach creating a comic by having some source material to work with first. For example, in the first comic I'm trying to publish, I used a poem that I could easily visualize. For the next piece I'm planning, a collection of vignettes from my grandmother's life (who is now losing her memory), I plan to start with some recordings and short stories. From there, I gathered some research images and sat down with my illustrator to talk about the source material. We made notes with some ideas for rough sketches:
Annotated Poem Scan.jpg
Here, you can see our margin notes from that first meeting. Some images stuck, like the mechanic working on a tune-up; some were changed, the background schematic was switched out for a flow chart; and still others were shifted to other scenes in the comic.
From here, the illustrator took these ideas and created some larger-sized rough sketches we could use as concept art for the book.
Rough Sketch 3.jpg
After the artist created a series of these sketches. Our next step was to meet back up and discuss any changes to the concept image. For example, the above image of a fuel injector with shoes was altered for the final piece to have a mouth so that the injector could represent the esophagus. We also changed the text to read, "Calories are fuel." This did a better job of showing the comparison between an ingredient the engine needs for combustion and a resource humans need to survive.
Next, I needed to panel, so I took the series of individual images home. At first, I scanned each drawing and moved them around in a document, but as we finished more concept art, scanning every piece became cumbersome. So I took to arranging the pieces on the floor instead! Just like this:
Panel concept.jpg
I will continue discussing my process in the next post. There, I'll talk about writing the script and the second part of paneling.