Apart from the layout and thumbnail sketches, my process of illustrating an illustration have three steps: pencil, ink, color.

In the pencil stage, I really try to get everything I think I’ll want in the illustration.  I’ll put too much in sometimes – but that’s alright.  It’s only the pencil stage.  I am careful to try to get everyone’s sizing just right.  I actually draw most of the pieces separately – like Pacey and Slasher above – then I scan them into my computer and assemble them digitally.  This way I can alter characters sizes or move them around the composition.  I pencil the whole book before I proceed.  When I am done, I send the whole penciled book into my publisher and wait for notes.  Usually I will need to make some changes.  Maybe there’s a place where I can add a couple pages, or maybe a scene is unclear and I need to redraw it.  Once I finish my revisions and my editor is happy, I proceed to the inks.

I ink my drawings the old fashioned way, with a pen and a piece of paper.  I print up the illustration I am working on, then take it to my light box, slap a clean sheet of paper on it, then ink it with a brush pen.  It’s basically glorified tracing, although I do have to envision the final product because I don’t have to ink everything.  For example, see those background trees in the color image?  I didn’t ink those at all.  I knew I didn’t want any black lines on them.  So sometimes inking is knowing what not to ink.  This is a fun process because I can do it on my couch and watch movies.  When the inking stage is complete, I move on to colors.

Coloring the pages is all digital.  (This is when I do a deep dive into podcasts.  My favorites are: My Favorite Murder, How Did This Get Made, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, and Minor Adventures with Topher Grace.) I use a limited color palette of black, white, grey and shades of purple.  There’s a mix of technique between simple color fills and working with digital brushes.  I am new to the digital painting game and am still learning.  My art designer at Random House, Michelle Cunningham, has been so generous with her time and knowledge, helping to guide me through the process.  And for everything else I don’t know, there’s YouTube.

Each stage takes me about 3 months to complete.  Factor in writing, layout, and time for notes and revisions, and each graphic novel takes about a year to complete.