Picky Penciling: The Anatomy of a Rough Layout!

Here is how I am working at the moment, from blank piece of paper to penciled drawing ready to ink (I explain my even more Byzantine inking process here).

1. First I lay out the lettering on Borden & Riley #37 Boris Layout Bond...

2. After determining where the word balloons will fall, I work out a thumbnail (1 3/4" inch wide).

3. Then I pencil with light blue Col-Erase and graphite pencils on the layout bond (note: I added an additional word balloon) ...

4a. I proceed to blue-pencil the other panels in the tier. I often use scrap pieces of tracing paper to cover completed panels, to avoid smearing.

4b. A closer shot of the blue pencil rough taking shape.

5. Pencil refinements continue. I usually take 3-4 passes over a figure to arrive at a tight pencil drawing. The tools of the trade are shown here.

6. Here's the final rough layout. Sometimes I will tighten up further with a Pilot fine line pen (as on page 1A, posted earlier), but not on this one. I will scan and ink on an overlay of Clearprint Design Vellum in the coming weeks.

7. I thought I was done, but Clarissa's head was angled too low and Stella's expression wasn't working, so I redrew the heads the next morning...

8. Here is the final composite with the fixed heads. I think this will work better.