MacRatLove -- In The Making

Although I've been working on MacRatLove for nearly a year, my process of working on the comic has continuously been changing. When I first started out, the comic was created mainly on the computer, but now the process is split fairly evenly between real media and computer work. Following is the step-by-step making of a single comic.

(Apologies for the poor photo quality, they were taken with my iPhone in low lighting.)

I start off with a rough pencil sketch in a sketchbook to get a basic idea of what I'm wanting. Materials aren't really important at this point, but I generally will use a softer pencil, no harder than an HB.

Next, I'll draw out my panels on Strathmore smooth Bristol paper. I make my page 8 inches by 9 inches, mainly because my scanner only has an 8 1/2 inch width. I'll go over the lines with a 05 Micron Pen.

Using my same generic pencil, I'll sketch out the comic again, having to make adjustments because the drawings in my sketchbook were taller and narrower than my final panels.

I wish I'd taken a better photo of this one. The next step is to finalize my sketches and get rid of stray lines.

The final real media step is to ink all of my pencil lines, using an 05 Micron for the main work and an 01 Micron for details.

Having scanned the comic, I'll load it into a template I've created in Photoshop, changing the date and the comic number. Most of my comics use a basic six panel layout, but for those that deviate, I'll make new panels using the shape tool and guides.

Next I'll create a new layer for my lining. I use a calligraphy brush included in Photoshop, and will usually ink at 10 points, going smaller for details. This is the part that usually takes the longest, because I'll realize that aspects that looked fine on paper don't translate as well in the computer version, so I'll have to end up redrawing them.

At this point I'm done with the original scanning, so that gets discarded. I do the text on a new layer so that I can move it around if need be. I also decided that the third panel looked a little empty, so I added a new layer for the background.

Next I'll create a new layer for coloring. I use a solid round brush at varying sizes. I have a template for all of Sophie's colors, but for everything else I generally just use my imagination. Spaz is a new character so I was able to make his coloring up, but in the future I'll probably reference this comic, or create a new template for him.

Finally a new layer is created for shading. Again, I have a template I use for Sophie's shading, but for everything else, I'll usually sample the original color then choose a color a few shades darker.

The last step is to update the webpage. I do all my coding by hand, so every time I add a new comic, I'll change the "next" link for the previous comic's page, change the index page, create a new page for the new comic, and also change the archive page. Then I'll post updates on the blog, twitter, myspace and a few other forums. The finished version of this comic can be found here.

Making a new comic usually takes three to four days, depending on my schedule for the week. I've found the need to space the computer work out, because if I try to work continuously for more than a few hours, it tends to cause pain in my eyes, wrists and fingers. Hence why I'm on a weekly update schedule!