The Promised Process Post

Sorry ladies and gentlemen, The Tao of Snarky pg 15 will be delayed a week. Unfortunately last weeks page threw off my production schedule and instead of cranking out a mediocre page I wanted to give page 15 the time it deserves.

However, I have a consolation prize... As you can see by the title I'm going to go over the process I follow to create a page of The Tao of Snarky: The Cutting Edge.

I'm going to start the process from the point where the script is already finished, in this case penned by Brad DaMaagd. After going over the script I create a thumbnail drawing of the page, getting down the main shapes and panels for the page. This thumbnail was done at a 2"x3".

Sometimes my "thumbnail" is done on a folded piece of 8.5"x11" paper, it all depends on what I have on hand at the time. Once the thumbnail is completed I scan it in and print it off on a standard sheet of letter size paper. When doing this I use a blue "screen" to turn the black lines to a light blue.

Now I tighten up the image using Red and Blue pencils. Red I use to create rough objects and shapes. Then I use blue pencil to define details. Once I'm comfortable with the details I use a technical pen to identify what's commonly called the"pencils". I then scan the image and remove the colored lines so only the pencil lineart remains.

This lineart is printed onto an 11"x17" comic art board using a light blue screen to make the lines print light blue as shown here.

Onto the next step... to put this simply I ink the page using the light blue lines a guide. For those wondering why I go through all these steps I like to work with a clean board when I ink. That means no pencil lines to erase once the inks are completed. I find it provides a crisp line that doesn't need much if any cleanup.

After the inking is done I'll scan in the page and start the coloring process. this starts with color "flats".

With the page having a very flat gray-toned look to I then go though and add shadows to the panels. To give the page a little more flair I added a texture to the gray outside of the panels.

With the page art finished I place the image into illustrator where I add the text, the balloons, and sound effects.

There you have it , that's the basic process I use to create every page of Snarky that you see posted here weekly... well maybe not weekly but as close to it I can come.

See everyone back here next week for page 15.

-Jacot