Hello & Welcome!
I have been working on thumbnails for issue 1 of my comic, Dark Time, a dark fantasy time travel epic, and thought I would share the template I made to do so!
What are comic thumbnails and why should you use them?
A thumbnail is a small, simplified sketch that provides a quick overview of a comic book page, allowing the artist to see how the layout and composition will look before diving into the details. Thumbnails essentially are a helpful brainstorming tool for how the story could be designed across the comic pages. However, creating thumbnails in a notebook can get messy and unorganized, so that's why using a comic template can be helpful.
Benefits of thumbnailing a comic:
Better ideas through rapid experimentation: By thumbnailing, you can quickly experiment with different layouts. Thumbnails are meant to be messy and not perfect!
Saves time: You can quickly go through several ideas and scrap those that aren't working. If you just jump into detailed art, then you may waste a lot of time later down the road when you realize the layout has issues.
Ensures consistency: Designing comic pages with thumbnails first ensures that your comic book pages have a consistent look and feel. This is especially important if you're working on a series or collaborating with other creators.
Helps with pacing: A good comic thumbnail template will provide you with enough space to plan out your story's pacing and ensure that each page flows smoothly.
How to use the comic thumbnail template?
For your use, I have a thumbnail template I created below that you can either download and print out multiple copies of or you can pull the PDF / PNG / JPG into digital drawing applications like Procreate, Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint, or Krita.
I like having an organized section for notes for each page, but I may add another template later without the note section to allow for more thumbnails per page. Let me know if you want that and I can make it happen!
Get the free printable or digital version of the comic template at the link below:
Stay tuned for more comic templates!
Follow me on my journey to creating my dark fantasy comic book / graphic novel, Dark Time.
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