The Process
I hope these simple instructions can give you an idea of how I make my comics, or maybe give you ideas of your own. I'll boil it down for you though. Essentially I have three main layers, and a few supporting layers. First is the line layer, it's pretty self-explanatory. I use it to create the forms, and scenes. next is the color layer, I use that to denote what color each object in those scenes are. On occasion I will use this layer to do tone shading as well. then there is a tone layer, I use that layer for highlights, shadows, and everything in between. It also helps to exaggerate colors in a scene. then there are the supporting characters. the canvas, which is comprised of two canvas layers It's the same canvas every page, and is made from a heavily modified picture of concrete. then there is the color correction layer. This layer affects the "mood" of the scene, as well as evens out the colors which is why I call it the color correction layer. Similar to how color correction works in photography.
Lines
Some say that my line work is rough, that my forms are always a little off, and that it's for the most part inconsistent, and I'd have to say they're totally right. However, that's never bothered me much. I assume that over time it will get better with practice. Even if it doesn't though I don't think that's the most important part of the line work. I find it far more important that the scene makes sense, and that the reader can tell what's going on with or without text.
To start everything off I first start with a simple story board to get an idea of what panels I want. I'll copy, and paste each board into a page, and then figure out how I want my panel lines to come together. Once that is set I move onto sketching the scene. I try my best to sketch the scene as though I was going to take a picture of it, and generally follow some of the simpler rules of photography. I highly recommend learning some of the basics of photography, it can be very handy when setting up panels and interesting shots.
Color
this is the fun and easy section. I do my best to keep this layer as simple as possible. Although there are some neat tricks I like to use. the windows in this picture are either going to be on or off, and this is one of the few occasions that I will take extra care on my line layer to make each line thick, with minimal anti-aliasing, and ensure that every window, and wall is fully enclosed. In doing so I can use the fill tool to quickly run over each window with a light or dark color to denote lighting coming from them. doing so affects how the tone layer, and color correction affects the "brightness" of the layer beneath it.
For the most part will not use the color layer to do any shading. However, there are some exceptions to this. One of them being when I need more variance in the tone without having to fidget with the tone layer as much.
Tone
In this layer I add highlights and shadows. for those of you familiar with Photoshop this layer is typically set to hard light so that it can add more contrast without taking too much of the color out of the layer below it, while adding contrast. I tend to use very muted colors for most color work. one notable exception is skin tones as they can vary greatly.
All Together Now
Above you can see the panels combined. on the left is the line, color, and correction, and on the right is the tone, color, and line added. All together it creates a nice balance between high contrast, and also evens out all of the color for the whole page.
Color Correction
on the left you can see the color corrected version, and the non-color corrected version.
Extras
Sometimes I will draw out an entire panel, even if I am not planning on using it. I find that it makes it easier to pick exactly where in the panel the image fits.
