How do I draw my webcomic?

How I set up to draw my webcomic each day

When I draw my webcomic I think back on the day.

I think about:

what's something that happened?
What's something that I can make note of?

Somedays there'll be something that happens where I know for sure what I'm going to draw. It's like, Yes! That's what I'm drawing about today.

Other days I'll have to think back on the day and go:

what's a little thing or thought that I had?
Something just odd that I looked at?
Maybe an email I received

Things like that.

I'll start picturing it in my head

Usually, I'll start this thought process while I'm making dinner.

I'll just think about the comic while I'm cooking. Layout what I'm going to draw for each panel in my head.

When I'm done eating that's when I draw the comic. I'll sit down and start drawing the idea I came up with and see if it works.

Part of the process for me is learning how to tell a story in four panels. Telling it so people who weren't there can still understand it.

I never spend more than 15-20 minutes drawing my webcomic.

I set that time limit for myself because otherwise, I would just be drawing this comic all day. I wouldn't be able to do other projects that I have.

I don't sketch out the comic first. Like I said before, I picture it in my head and then I try and see if I can make that happen on the first try.

Here is a video of me drawing one of my comics to show you what I mean

What I use to draw the comic

I use a tablet with a pen to draw the comic. I got a Galaxy Tab A with an S pen a few years ago and have been using that to draw on. The S Pen on this model is a little skinnier than a normal pen but it draws great!

The app I use on the tablet is a free comics app called MediBang Paint. It has the ability to create the comic panels for me easily on the page so I don't need to make them myself. It's free but it does have ads.

Even though I just draw the comic freehand in one sitting, at least using the tablet I can undo a stroke of the pen drawing on there during my 15 min session.

Why I started making four-panel comics

One of the early interviews when I first started doing my art podcast was actually with the guy who inspired me to do these comics, Ivan Brunetti.

He had released a book I was reading about making comics and one of the chapters was about making an autobiographical four-panel comic and seeing if you could tell the story.

I had reached out to him and he said I could talk to him on the podcast and I actually got the chance to go to Chicago and meet him in person!

Before I met him I made a paper copy at home of the first month of my webcomic about when my wife found out she had breast cancer.

I wanted to give it to him and show him how he inspired me.

He read it and wrote me back later and he said that this was good and that other people might find this helpful too. Saying even though it doesn't have any answers, it's just nice to share this problem with people who are possibly going through the same rough time.

And that was why I started making a collection of books for each year. I wanted to see if anybody else might be interested in these stories like this.

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Tom Ray

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