KYLE JAMES SMITH

The covers of the first 3 issues of The Industry.

CREATING A COMIC PAGE:

Using a page from my webcomic The Industry: POWER as an example, these are the steps I take in order to create a single comic book page.

1. Of course, I always start with a script. Even though I’m ultimately writing for myself to draw these pages, I still like to write out my stories before I begin drawing so that I don’t have to worry about missing plot points or not leaving enough space for dialogue.

2. Once the script is finished, on a standard 8.5” x 11” piece of paper, I do a very rough sketch to determine how I want the layout of my page to appear. During this step, I’m mainly focused on creating a well-flowing sequence of panels that will allow the reader to follow the action occurring on the page as fluidly as possible.

3. After I’m happy with the layout, I begin drawing the actual page on a custom template sized to 17 x 26 cm (the size of a standard comic book page). Typically, comic artists draw their artwork larger than it appears in the comic itself, and shrink it down to size afterwards. This creates sharper looking art, allows for greater detail, and leaves room for “bleeds” (outer portions of the artwork that get clipped off during the printing process). However, because I am a self-publisher and don’t have access to large-scale scanners, I tend to do all of my artwork to size. When I start a new page, I begin by drawing every panel with a non-photo-blue pencil. Afterwards, I go over the blue pencil with various sized Faber-Castell, black India-Ink pens. When the illustration is complete, I scan the page onto my iMac, tweak the exposure to ensure I have nice contrast of bright whites and flat blacks, and save the image as a 300dpi JPEG.

4. Now that I have a digital version of my page, I send it off to my colourist - Tim Brandon, and wait around for a day or so while he works his magic. I don’t really get to see Tim’s process so there’s not much I can say about it, but I’m always incredibly happy with the finished result.

5. Once Tim sends back the coloured page, the last thing I do is add my captions, word balloons, and any sound descriptions that appear on the page. To do this, I utilize a variety of Photoshop techniques. Creating word balloons is fairly simple, but determining their placement can often be difficult. Word placement coincides with maintaining a solid page layout; it should make it easy for the reader to follow the sequence of events happening on the page in the order they are meant to happen.

And there you have it! That’s how I make a comic book page. To make an entire issue, I simply repeat each step listed above 21 more times. For more information regarding The Industry, visit https://www.facebook.com/theindustrycomic

-Kyle 

The Industry #3 - Cover Art

Illustrated by Kyle James Smith
Coloured by Tim Brandon 

The Industry: POWER #2 - also available for free online at www.theindustrycomic.com

Written/Illustrated by Kyle James Smith
Colored by Tim Brandon