Third Floor page 8 process

Here’s a bit about my current process, for those of you who are interested in such things.

I first drew thumbnails of the first seventeen pages of The Third Floor back in June and July. So when it came time to do the final page, the first step was to look back at the thumbnails and recreate the page in rough pencils.

From there, I worked the pencils to a more finished stage.

I realized that I was having trouble drawing Alice sitting in her chair. So I did some photo reference.

Then, I used my light box to transfer the pencils onto the inking paper (I use these nice Blackwing blue pencils to do that now). I adjusted layouts a bit, moving elements around. From there, I inked the borders, then the letters, using a Brause 361 nib (the blue pumpkin). Then I inked the figures using a Brause 511. As is normal for me, I used Speedball Super Black ink.

Then I scanned the page. I have to scan it in two pieces, because the page is 11×14 and my scanner is 8.5×11. I also paint gouache for the characters on the back of the inked page and scan that (I haven’t done this for page 8 yet). Then I clean it up and bring it all together in Affinity Photo 2, adding a gray wash texture and color. You’ll see the completed product in about two weeks, probably.