When I’m working on a comic page, the first step is to plan. Plan, plan, plan!
How?
Ask yourself some important questions, such as, what is the message/story I’m trying to tell, who are the characters, when does it take place, how does it all happen?
Above is an image of some of my planning. It can take me up to 8 pages or more of planning and doodling concepts to block out the theme and basic story elements for the page.
I’ll move on from story telling to the specific “who” characters that will appear in the story.
Once everything is planned, and remember you can only plan for 80% you can never plan 100%, because otherwise you’ll never move forward with your project, I’ll begin blocking out the layout/composition of the page.
After all the content is laid out on the page as I want it, I’ll go over it with pencil and then I’m ready to ink.
I’ll do a basic contour ink, then I will establish the lighting for the image so I know where the shadows should be coming from for each panel.