Hi, this is Dwayne Biddix, penciler of SUICIDE NOTE and I am going to pull back the curtains for a moment and show you how SUICIDE NOTE’S art came together.
First off I will read the story a few times to sort of get the feel of it. I will make notes of references I need, places and things the story calls for that I cannot, or just do not want to, draw from memory or imagination.
Sometimes I need to design a place that will appear a few times. I will do a simple overhead shot to make sure I know what is in the room every time and where it is. This is also helpful to play around with camera angles. Sometimes I need to plan out a certain shot’s setting, like the scene of Cassie’s office.
Next I set to doing thumbnails. These are very small sketches of what I think the page should look like. I usually do these on copies of the story I print out, but my printer was out of ink so I did these on regular notebook paper. What you do these on does not matter, this is just for you and the editor to make sure the story is unfolding correctly.
Here are two of the pages of thumbnails. If I am doing it on notebook paper, (by the way, I like notebook paper because the blue lines sort of act as guides to keep sizes the same.) I try to get 12 pages on a sheet.
Here we have a close-up of pages 31 and 32. I keep these loose because if I spend too much time on this step I will get burned out with the page and not want to draw the final version. You can see I put notes down about art direction, changes I need to make for the final version. And when I am done with the final I check the thumbnail off.
So that is a look at the creative process I go through. There is no one right way or wrong way. Even I change my approach to match the story. If it is less detailed I will do a more detailed thumbnail. Sometimes I may play with thumbnails for days before I find the right one. Sometimes I do no thumbnails at all, but that is VERY rare.
So just draw. If you want to do this, just draw. You will never know what is right for you without doing it enough to learn what is the wrong way for you.
Thanks for reading.
Dwayne Biddix
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