Behind the Scenes: Paper to Screen

MMM...Monsters! is all hand-drawn, either on paper with pencil, or using my Wacom tablet on my computer.

I first sketched out thumbnails, quick miniature drawings, that helped me capture the gesture, or feeling, I was looking for on each page. These are purposely messy; it is a lot easier to scribble things out, move things around, and not feel bad about erasing things at this stage.

Red and purple monsters "Gusset" and "Rhomb"

After I am happy with the layout, I set up my thumbnail sketch onto the proper size digital canvas and get to work. At this stage, I am not only creating the final lines of the characters, but all the background details as well. If my planning worked out correctly, I should also have proper room for all the text that needs to be on the page without crowding the illustrations.