Process for The Middle Age webcomic – for Webtoons, Tapas & GoComics

Here’s a look at my process for the latest episode of The Middle Age. I draw and color the comic on an iPad Pro using the Procreate app. This was a fun episode to plan for each platform.

In the image below you can see:

1. The original rough sketch
2. Tighter ‘Pencils’
3. ‘Inks’
4. Color flats
5. Initial coloring
6. Final colors and word balloons

Below is a the final episode as seen on the The Middle Age web site and social media (A larger version is available to my Patreon supporters here). As you can see in the process image above, there was a lot of extra drawing done at the tops of panels one and two. I was happy with those bits, but in the end, I didn’t feel like the page needed all that and it didn’t really help the storytelling – so I left it out.

And here’s a look at the horizontal version seen on GoComics.com In panel two, our hero extends out of the panel to the right. This was designed to fit like a puzzle piece into panel three in the horizontal version of the strip below. I also had to make sure the word balloons were created on separate layers so I could reconfigure them for each layout. And the background in panel three needed to be moved around for each format as well.

And here’s the vertical version which I upload to Webtoon and Tapas. You can see I needed to really adjust the layout of the wide third panel for the vertical format. I made extra room by placing Maledicta’s word balloon by itself below the art. It seems to suit the scrolling format.

So much work for a single episode but I’m really happy with how it turned out across the various platforms.

— Steve

You can read The Middle Age webcomic on my site here
You can see higher-resolution episodes, more behind-the-scenes art, and more shop talk by becoming a Patreon supporter here.