Page Notes: When we began this chapter of Dystopia, I had shared (see page three) the challenges of returning to comic art after a long absence. This week, let's talk about how things are going...

Jackwraith and I have developed a process that works well for us - I create the page layouts and thumbnails based on the script. We review the thumbnails and make revisions to fit Jackwraith's vision and my sense of storytelling. The word dialogue and sound effects are added to each of the pages. And finally, I start on the finished artwork. Due to the nature of how we share the story, I don't have enough time to pencil the entire story, so I tend to work in 5 page "bundles" of pages... penciling those pages, then inking, coloring, and finally adjusting the dialogue. Prior to publishing, we proof-read each page. After four months, the creating the artwork digitally is feeling more "natural", and I can see a noted difference in the confidence of the linework between pages from November 2024 and now. And as we prepare the second chapter of the webcomic, I expect to evolve the look by experimenting with linework and color. 

The most frequent questions I receive concern the time required. Today, for each page, I spend an hour on the layout and thumbnails, four hours on the pencils and three hours on the inks. Colors require another three hours. It's a manageable workload that allows us to maintain the weekly schedule that we've established. I continue to enjoy creating art and am happy with the results... I'll check back in another four months and we'll chat again.