Androids Who Dream: Insights on a Page (Patreon)

Zzt. Clank. Whirr.

Insight Function: [ACTIVE]

After the conversation that Duski had on the server about her process, and how so many different artists tackle page layout differently, I thought it would be a great idea to have Duski share her thoughts and insights on the first page of Androids Who Dream.

- Miguel

Pencils (or Sketch)

This is the phase of actually drawing everything. I work from my initial thumbnail, which is the very first idea of what the page is going to look like. A thumbnail is often no more than a very fast doodle of where the main elements are going to be. It's essential to plan out the composition of a page so that things flow well. The first and second pass over this thumbnail involve sketching over those doodles. In the second pass, I'll often use reference for anatomy or buildings, and I refine the sketches layer by layer until I feel ready to ink it. During this stage I'll draw my panels in and also put the dialogue in, as well as any major onomatopoeia. I do this early so that I can ink it easily, and not put anything important underneath the dialogue boxes.

Inks (or Lines)

I put a white layer over everything and turn down the opacity until I can just see my sketches. (I also then lock this layer in photoshop so that I don't accidentally draw on it, which has happened plenty of times.) I usually start with the thing on the page that I most feel drawn to, there's no specific rule for what order I ink in.

Colours

This is just to demonstrate what my colours look like under my inks, it's not how I'd actually be looking at them while colouring. I'm still working out my process of colouring comics, I'm sure I'll experiment and develop a style I'm confident with in time. I separate each thing I want to colour using a mixture of fill tool and just colouring manually. I then use gradients, overlay layers, textures, a variety of things to separate elements and bring colour into things without going overboard on making everything a different colour. I also try to render/shade things minimally as I find it distracts from the inks. That's just my personal preference!

That's just an overview. There's a lot to making a page now that I think about it! Let me know if you guys find this interesting and informative!

- Duski