When I first started working on comics, I didn't realize that there was so much to it. I honestly don't know what I thought. I wasn't aware of how many people it took to create one. Let's list a few:

• Writer

• Editor

• Letterer

• Penciller

• Inker

• Flatter

• Colorist

And each one of them does their thing as they pass the comic along. There are more people involved but I will just focus on the latter part of this assembly line, starting with the Penciller.

Step 1.

So, the penciller is the one that lays out what the writer comes up with, and usually, they start with a thumbnail and/or rough sketch, such as I did here. Just laying out the idea. In this case, it was the hero about to punch the villain while being surrounded by cops. I took liberties and had the hero holding the villain up with a sense of overpowering. Every hero should appear powerful. What do you think?

Step 2.

This step still falls in the hands of the penciller, and it is basically a clean up of the rough sketch to where you can see more of the elements.

Step 3.

This step goes a little bit further with the other figures on the page. I hashed out the police officers. Noticing that perhaps a full squad of cops was not necessary to convey them being surrounded. This is still on the penciller's plate. Here is where the penciller gets into the nitty-gritty with any little details that may have been missed in the previous cleaning of the sketch. I like to call this the Detail Sketch step.

Step 4.

Time for inks. In some cases, there is a separate person who goes over the artwork with inks. In my case, I do the inking for my own artwork. I wouldn't call myself an inker, but I know a bit of where I want to lay down my solid lines. Have I inked other people's work? yes, and I find the art extremely difficult for me, especially when the pencils are loose.

Step 5.

Is usually reserved for the Flatter. He just lays out the flat colors. Again, in my case, I do that too. There are cases where the Flatter is also the colorist and he does the flatting before laying down values.

Last but not least, you swing it back to the Letterer/Graphic Designer to throw all the logos, text and branding material. This time around the talented Alberto DeArmas added the graphics and even corrected the color of the villain's costume which I botched. Voilà! You have a cover. Lately, I have been holding off in drawing any covers until I have at least half the book done. This way I can better depict what I think should go on it. This is not the case for publishing companies. Since they usually have different artists working almost all the steps in the making of a book, they can assign the cover separately and even before the book is finished. But anyone can do whatever they feel.

I hope I was able to shed a little bit of insight on the steps I take to creating a cover for any book. If you want to learn more about Alienox, click the button below.

Until next time, #drawwatuwant.

-Haro

Join My Mailing List.