- Thank you Daylight Savings Time for allowing this post to still be officially on time and not a day late.

- I talk a lot about my process here and usually it’s about how I’m changing it. I once again switched things up starting with this page and I’m pretty happy with the results. Previously, I would start with penciling a page on paper pretty roughly. Then scan it in to adjust mistakes, fix perspective, wonky anatomy, and move things around to make for better panel compositions. Also, this is where I would start laying in word balloons to make sure there was room for them and that the story was reading properly and art and words were meshing together. Then I’d print out the adjusted sketches and ink over them with a lightbox. After that I’d scan the inks in and inevitably there would be a lot of stuff I’d still want to adjust in Photoshop. This final adjustment stage has been the longest part of my process and the part that seems most eligible for a change.

So that was my old process. What I realized was that #1, I was wasting time sketching initially in pencil. And #2, I wasn’t taking enough care with getting the drawing right in the beginning.

I’ve resisted going too far in the digital direction with this comic because I spend enough time in front of the computer as is it. But I get more and more digital as I go to the point where I may now no longer be using a pencil. The inks are the only non-digital portion and even that has about 20% digital correction to it.

Below I’ve attached some of the various stages of this page for anyone interested in looking at them.

I always enjoy looking at cartoonist’s drawings that use multiple colored non-repro pencils to layer up their under-drawing before putting inks over them. That’s basically what I’m doing in Photoshop now. Two layers of “pencils” to get the drawing right (though still somewhat rough in order to keep as much life and energy in the inks as possible). Then, print it out and ink over it. I don’t have a printer large enough to print on the paper size I use so I’m actually printing these colors in black and white, taping it together and inking over it with a lightbox. So I don’t really need to use the red and blue but I just like the way it looks. After inking I scan it, clean it up, finalize my word balloons and add the tones.

Still takes a damn long time so I’m sure I’ll continue to optimize this whole process.

Click on these thumbnails to view them full size.

- Oh, I almost forgot. If you’re on Google+ there is now a Nathan Sorry page that you can circle. I just created this today and am not completely sure what I’m going to do with it that I’m not already doing with my regular G+ account but at the very least I will post page updates here. So if you spend a lot of time on G+ this could be a good way to keep up with the comic. I’ll also entertain any suggestions for interesting things I can do with the page or with my Facebook page for that matter.