Thoughts on thumbnailing from the process of OPTING OUT by Maia Kobabe
I drew these two pages in my sketchbook about a year ago when I was trying to explain some of my thought process on thumbnailing while working on Opting Out (which was initially titled Saachi's Stories). Since this is a middle grade book, clarity of action and storytelling was really important to me, so I decided pick a basic page- a six panel grid- as my base, and only deviate from it when I thought it served the story to do so. I co-wrote this book with Lucky Srikumar @diamoric-comix and it's out in stores on May 5 2026 <3
Transcript below the cut!
PAGE ONE:
For most projects I pick a "base" panel grid for normal pages that don't need extra emphasis. For Saachi, that was a 6 panel grid. I made a digital template to drop in every page. There are easy variations that include an establishing shot (single tier on top, middle, or bottom). Shifting the gutters to give some panels more space. Occasional 3 panel tier. Dropping panel borders.
4 tiers-used for a specific character or when Saachi is uncomfortable.
9 panels- used for phone calls and hard, wordy conversations. I like to alternate characters in 9 panel grids to create a checker pattern.
In grids I also like to alternate close-ups with medium or long shots on diagonals or patter speaking characters on diagonals.
Fantasy pages! Some pages contains stories, daydreams, or poems and these break out of the grid entirely and often have no borders!
PAGE TWO:
I use a large panel on top with just two below, or two on top and one below, when introducing a new setting- big establishing shot
The fight scene gets diagonal gutters- rare.
A fairy tale gets rounded panel borders.
Sometimes I "shrink" the last panel on a page at the end of a scene to transition to a new setting. Two times I used 4 tightly packed panels in combo with border-less panels in storytelling-mode.
There are only 5 full page images in the book. First & last are in the "real world" and the middle 3 are in Saachi's "poem world"
Most used Saachi page layouts- 181 of the 253 pages fall into these 8 categories:
85- 6 panel grid but with adjusted size
52- even 6 panel grid
20- even 3 tiers
5- full page
5- even 4 tiers
5- square 4 grid
5- establishing shot either above or below an even 6 tier grid
📖 P R E O R D E R S 📖 Please Share!
THEY'RE BACK!
~Now in both the original A6 size AND A5~
If you like A) thumbnailing your comics really little and B) prefer to thumb on paper, this is the book for you! 📄
✨Space for scripts
✨easy double spread planning
✨thumb 120 pages
ORDER HERE!
Taxes are kicking my ass this year, so anything helps!
