EXORCISM: script to thumbnails (Patreon)

Now that the Exorcism script is finished, I can move on to thumbnails!

If you’re not familiar, thumbnails is the step before layouts and then pencils. I use them to to really just figure out panel layouts and basic staging. Here’s ones I drew for the Exorcism short story I wrote a few years ago

You can see these ones are even looser, and that’s only because I had room for notes— and it was only 12 pages. A lot less to keep track of then a graphic novel!

One thing worth mentioning to is that my thumbs would likely be a lot tighter and easier to read if I was showing this to an editor haha. But because it’s just me on this project, I can afford to be a little vague.

Here’s how it translates, and if see if you can tell what’s going on page to page!

Here’s the script:

And then here’s the first page of thumbnails

If you can’t make sense of it, no worries. It was not meant for another human’s eyes.

As small or quick as these look, these can also be pretty heavy mental labour! Even if you’re not drawing everything, you’re planning the whole page and have to consider who is talking, what panel matters the most, make sure there’s room for dialogue bubbles etc

Once I finish the thumbnails, I’ll post a video going through the sketchbook and talk a little bit more at length about the process!