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Panel Layout Tutorial
by Damian Fox

Step 1: Establishing parameters

This is where you organize and edit your script. Your job is to translate the written word into an image. This is the most important step, because like the foundation of a building, if the basis of your plot doesn't make sense, everything you pile on top will crumble. The basic question you should ask yourself is 'What is relevant in this panel'. Focus on what needs to be present to tell the story, and after that is established, concentrate on details and camera angles etc.

Step 2: Dicing things up

This technique allows you to organize your comic page in two steps. Early on I would try and decide what was going on in the panels, and how the panels were arranged and shaped all at the same time. The result was a god awful mess. Seperating this process into two procedures allows you more freedom to think about what you are doing. Take a regular sheet of paper and draw a horizontal line through the middle and another verticle line down down the center. Now you have 4 empty rectangular panels. Don't worry about the even number, if you have 5 or more panels, you can just make more. The important thing is you can now fill in the contents of the panels in this free enviroment without worrying about the page as a whole.You will no doubt get ideas on panel layout while you sketch. Jot them down quickly and keep moving, without getting married to any details at this phase.

Step 3: The old switcharoo

Now that you have the contents of your panels the way you want them, you can begin to organize them in a manner that makes the page flow and is visually appealing. Back in the day Will Eisner used to cut things from his sketchbook and paste them to his artboard in this same manner. We have Photoshop for this sort of thing, which is great because it makes the process not only quicker, but you can experiment with infinite varieties of combinations. Cut and crop each thumbnail panel and make it a layer. Now you can shift these about till you find a nice arrangment that suits you.

Step 4: Cut, print

The panels are good (you left room for dialogue bubbles, right?). The layout is good (readable and dynamic with a good flow that leads the eye to the key components, and on to the next panel). It is now time to bring these sketches to life and add some refinement and detail. The way I do this is by printing a blue-line image of the final composition. Using Photoshop, Go to Image> Adjustments >Hue/Satutarion (or control-U) In this window you can colorize the image to make the entire thing print blue (or whatever color you like, many people prefer blue). Check the "colorize" box, and set Hue to around 215, Satutation to 100, and Lightness to about +80. It will appear very light and hardly visible on your monitor, dont worry. That means it will print just faint enough to be visible but not get in your way. At this point you can pencil over the blue thumbs or if you are particularly fiesty (or close to a deadline) ink right on top.

Thanks for reading my guide.