Birth of a comic strip explained by Fralus

Thinking up a comic strip is a creative process that starts with inspiration, goes through message development and ends up with final delivery; a similar process is used in advertising.
It can take up to 2 hours to deliver a well made comic strip, depending on a series of aspects that we’ll see later on.

INSPIRATION

Inspiration can come from different sources: mass media, memories, people…
For me most of it comes from personal experience. I never draw mere clichés ’cause I find them boring and old-fashioned.
My inspiration is often followed up by a quick message development which is basically the way I choose to build up my sketches.

MESSAGE DEVELOPMENT

The message development involves a couple of levels:

• the look
• the tone

The choice about the look is between a single panel and multiple panels (the strips); colours and black & white; headers, footers, balloons…etc.

A single panel is better when you want it to be eye-catching and convey your message fast. Multiple panels are supposed to be a little bit more engaging and tell a short story.
If you draw regularly, you might have your own cartoon style(s), too.
Mine is pretty naive and childish and I don’t have a recurring character at the moment. Building a character is a complicated process where you need to think of a bigger picture and create continuity.

The tone is crucial for your comic strip. This normally goes from hilarious to sarcastic and no matters which topic you’re dealing with.
I like my comic strips to have a gentle humour, which means they’re not supposed to offend anyone.

FINAL DELIVERY

This is the practical part of the process where unexpected things can come up. Although you’ve got all your previous elements set up (idea, look, tone) you might bump into last minute corrections.
Depending on your purpose, you might want to “go digital” like me or to draw on paper – I sometimes do in a sketchbook before drawing on my tablet.

I like drawing on a very simple app called Fresh Paint. It’s quite user friendly and cool for beginners.
I draw on a Microsoft Surface Pro 7, Core i5, RAM 8 GB, SSD 128 GB, Platinum and I’m really enjoying it. Initially I used a graphic tablet – INTUOS Draw by Wacom – but I definitely prefer drawing on the Surface. I then use Photoshop to colour or refine my drawing.
When the comic strip is done I check it up one more time and then I schedule it in my social media agenda for publication (not the other way around). Alternatively I store it in a folder for future projects or collections.