Work in progress

Or - working process. I suppose some of you might like to know the process from blank board and a script to finished page. I've been feeding you bits and pieces for a long time now, so it's only fair to show something useful, maybe. For all of you young (or not so young) aspiring artists out there, a note that this isn't any law or Bible about how it has to be done. This is just the way I like best and it's the same if I'm working for the big publishers or something on my own (read; Darko's). Except that in second case we're mostly skipping the whole checking and approving part.
In most cases, I get the script for the whole issue. I hate getting the script in pieces. I read it and make small doodles on the page, just to set the size and format of the panels. First ideas about composition. These are just for me, hardly readable to anybody else. You'll pardon me for bluring the letters, but script's not mine, so it's not for me to show it in public.
Then I draw the layouts. They're A5 format (15x21 cm) , not very elaborate but enough for the writer and editor to see (following the script) what I'm planning to draw.

After their eventual notes or my questions, I start working on pencils. Quite often layout of the actual page is different from first thumbnails. Sometimes it's because of a suggestion from writer or editor, but mostly it's because I've changed my mind and come up with better solution. As you can see, it's just a clean line without blacks. Most of the time, I know what I'll black out in ink and even more often it's a texture I can get only with brush, so no point in using pencil for that. It's a luxury you can afford when you're inking your own stuff. : )
I scan the pages and send them the to the writer and editor again. This is the crucial part where they can see if I got everything right.

Then comes my favorite part - inking! : )
First, Winsor and Newton brush, series 7, size 3 for the blacks, then Conte nib and Faber-Castell PITT artist pen for the lines. I scan those pages as greyscale, not bitmap, to preserve all the shades I get with dry brush. I send those scans to editor and writer again, but more as a proof that I'm done then for checking out. Any request for changes at this stage are very, very rare.

Then - THE MAGIC!
Matt Hollingsworth's wonderful colors! : )

Clem Robins will do the last part - lettering. Balloons with dialogues and writings above the store and on the postcard. But you'll have to buy this book to see that!
And read it, of course! : )