STORYBOARDING
ELIZA: Hey ladies, What do you use for boarding your dummies? Like do you print out a template, or just hand draw it as you go, or do it all digital? I'm looking to break away from my usual style of Post-It notes, which was something I took from animation a while back...as I feel like I'm not respecting the gutter as much.
LALENA: I’ve been doing it on my iPad. But previously I’ve printed out templates on paper. This might be one of those areas where everybody thinks that everyone else has a better method! I got some Post-it notes to try it your way. And I like how Patty and Vanessa put them up on the wall; I’ve meant to try that too.
PATTY: I make templates and then slide them under tracing paper when I'm getting started. That way I don't have to keep printing out templates; also the tracing paper softens the black outlines. I like to use several thumbnail sizes because sometimes a sketch might look fine tiny, but not so good at a larger size. I like to make thumbnails that reflect the proportion of the book.
ELIZA: Thanks; love hearing your process! I agree on softening the black outlines, maybe that's why I've avoided any outline! But feel like I've gotten in trouble with gutter a lot because of that. And definitely want to make sure I do thumbnails that reflect the size of the book as well!
PATTY: You could also print them out at 50% opacity to soften the lines. They bug me!
RIVKAH: I used to print templates, like Patty, but now I just use lined index cards. (I did the sticky note technique a few times too!) I like index cards because they feel less precious, and I don't hesitate to chuck them or try to draw a real pretty thumbnail. Quick and dirty! I draw the full spread on the index card if it's a spread. I go straight to full size sketches after thumbnails. Though my current dummy-in-progress, "The Wind," I cut out paper spreads and am sketching at half-size because I'm trying to keep the art (relatively) simple...r! I used to draw page and panel lines in non-photo blue so I could scan and edit them out in photoshop later. Black box lines drive me nuts too!
EMMA: I make templates with lines that are 25% black, so that they aren't too harsh. When I'm ready to make the pencils a little tighter, I use tracing paper so that there aren't any lines. I then scan those and edit the .tiffs in PS before I put them into a document. When I make the document, I enlarge the pencil sketches about 200%. That makes them not thumbnails, but not full size, either. That's how I start to see what's working and what's not. For the comp I'm making of Yellow Birds for my agent to have in Bologna, she'll have that mid-size comp. She's asked me to take a few pages to color, so for that, I'll take my chosen pages, enlarge them to what I think is 100% and draw them with a pencil, making sure everything looks structurally sound. I'll trace that with charcoal, scan the charcoal drawing and paint in either Photoshop or Illustrator. I still prefer Illustrator because I like adding vector texture. In the past, when I've sent something out on submission, my prior agent would want me to send out a pencil comp at 100%. She'd also want 2-3 spreads in color, so I would do those separately and she'd send that with the comp. Dunno yet what my new agent will want for submission. I love reading what everyone else does. It's SO helpful.