Process - Tracing Paper - Analog and Digital

(Book available at http://pigeon-press.com/)

On page 57 of  Madden and Abel's book Drawing Words and Writing Pictures, inker extraordinaire Charles Burns discusses his process:

"After I've worked out the flow of my story and written the basic narrative and dialogue, I usually begin by creating a rough thumbnail of my page so I can plan the size and configuration of my panels and where I want the lettering to be placed.  Based on my thumbnails, I rule out the borders on what will eventually be my final board and then I tape down a sheet of tracing paper and start a rough, generalized drawing of the entire page using a soft pencil.  Some of my drawings at this stage look almost abstract--I'm not interested in the details; I just want to define the basic shapes and work out the design of the page.  At this early stage I can also cut out portions of the drawing and re-position them or even re-size them.  I continue by laying down new sheets of tracing paper and refining the drawing.  At some point I usually flip the tracing paper over and do another drawing in reverse so I can look at it with "fresh eyes" (try looking at your drawings in a mirror and you'll understand what I'm talking about).  The final stage is transferring the tracing paper drawings to my Bristol board by using a light box and a pencil with hard lead (I don't have an image for this stage. . . it's been inked over)."

This method is the analog version of what Freddie Williams II talks about in "The DC Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics," a great resource that not only discusses digitally drawing comics, but has tons of useful information on every step of the comics process.

Freddie uses this same method in his own workflow - he begins with the script, taking notes and making small thumbnails as he goes along.  Then layer by layer, he refines his thumbnails into pencils.  Using Photoshop, he can easily convert the black lines that he's drawing to a faded blue, and then draw in black on another layer above them.  Though he doesn't mention it, it's extremely simple to just flip the page horizontally and do another trace over, which will help you notice awkward poses or anatomy.  When he's ready, he has every line where he wants it, he can go back in and Ink the page either digitally or physically.