First, I think of an idea. In comics, no matter how good your illustration skills might be, your comic will still be a flop if your idea sucks. I carry around a Moleskine notebook for my ideas (whether illustration or writing).

For multi-panel strips like Will Write For Chocolate, I’ve created Corel Painter templates of 1-, 2-, 3- and 4-panel strips.
I’ll usually type in the text first, then create a new layer and sketch in the art using a variant of the Smooth Round Pen, using a light grey.

Then I do the b&w drawing on a separate layer, colors in other layers. I usually keep colors on different layers so they’re easier to work with. When I’m happy with the result, I’ll delete the “sketch” layer, flatten everything into one layer, shrink it to the required dimensions and convert to JPG before uploading.

I have several online cartoon strips. My style was pretty rough when I began a few years ago with http://www.waitingforfrodo.com, but I’m constantly working on improving my craft as well as reading lots of other online comics. My semi- autobiographical strip,
My Life In A Nutshell, is all over the place in terms of style. In Will Write For Chocolate, I’ve attempted to settle on a style throughout; I’ve actually (*gasp!) made some money with this strip.

In my last blog post, I’ll talk a bit about my own online comic creation process.

Some illustrators are paranoid about posting any images online in case their work is stolen or copied. While this fear is (sadly) not totally unfounded, so far I’ve found the risk well worth it. Nearly all my illustration clients have found me because of cartoons and illustrations I have posted online.

Here are some useful resources:

How to protect your online images

How to protect your digital photos from being copied

You can also apply a Creative Commons license to an image to give away specific rights with restrictions.

Flickr used to focus exclusively on photos, and even had a policy early on making non-photographic content unsearchable.

Flickr has since acknowledged the popularity of its service with illustrators, however, and recently introduced filters instead; users can mark their content type as non- photographic images.

This change will also make it easier for potential clients to come across an illustrator’s work. The cartoon above was one of my early cartoon sales; a publications company found it via Flickr.

I was delighted to be invited as a Guest Blogger on Notes on Design. I’ve been a freelance writer for quite a while, but doodled on the side. A few years ago, however, people started offering me money for my doodles, and I began to take illustration more seriously.

I experiment with a number of styles; I’m sure I’ll eventually settle on one longterm, but for now I’m having fun. Working with the digital drawing and painting tools in Corel Painter makes this possible.

Some illustrators sketch on paper then scan the drawings into the computer. My illustration and cartooning process is entirely digital from start to finish, using my Wacom tablet and pen.

I created today’s illustration with Corel Painter 9.5 using various digital brushes such as Sponge, Croquil Pen, Airbrush and Leaky Pen.