Hey guys, Chris here!

So after Shane sends me his really cool script and I give it a read, I start to plan out how I’m going to compose each panel. Shane usually has a pretty good idea on what each page needs and it’s not that often we discuss changing up the pacing of what he originally sends me. I make small (and very loose) thumbnails on the side of the script to try and get a general idea of what the finished page might look like:

After I go through the script, I then tighten up my initial thumbnails into more thoughtful 3″ x 4″ sketches. Here I’m mainly thinking about a variation of shots and making sure everything will be clear for the reader:

Once I’ve got the issue all thumbnailed out and I’ve done any research that the script might call for (in this page’s case I had to figure out what a train station in the 1880s looked like) I then feel confident enough to start penciling out all of the pages at 10″ x 15″:

I keep my pencils loose so that I can finish up a lot of the drawing in the inking stage. This is the stage where I check back in with Shane to see what he thinks. We’ll usually discuss a chunk of the penciled pages on the phone and on this page, we decided that the only change that should be made is that in the 2nd panel: Sterling should be facing left instead of right to make his discovery of the little girl on the 3rd panel more evident. Shane’s a great writer to work with because he a.) only requests changes if they’re necessary to the clarity of the story and b.) those changes are usually pretty easy to make. Those two things make for a very happy artist!

After we get the pencils straightened out, it’s onto the inks which is probably my favorite step:

After that, the inks get scanned in and digital halftones are added along with any lettering and speech bubbles the script calls for:

Then, it’s off to the printers!

Thanks for following through our “Anatomy of a Page.” If you haven’t read Shane’s Part 1- “Words!” yet, then click here!

-Chris