How to Plan a Comic Page, Step by Step

Of all the steps involved in making a comic, the one that most people skip and regret is planning. Planning is what makes your page clear, easy to follow, and free of confusion or mistakes you’ll need to fix later on.

Start With the Purpose of This Page

Before planning your page, it’s crucial to know what this page should do within your story. Every page in a comic should serve a purpose, whether it’s introducing a character, creating suspense, showing an action, or delivering information to the reader. Once you have this in mind, you can better decide how to divide the page into panels and include what moments are essential for the reader to know. Without that, your pages can feel like a disorganized collection of panels and moments.

Break Down the Scene Into Moments

Once you have your purpose, you need to break down the scene into moments that you can draw. Think about what happens in the scene and how to portray that in the panels. You can’t just include every second of the scene. Instead, find the moments you want to include. Each panel should represent an essential part of the scene.

Plan a Rough Layout

The next step is making a rough layout sketch of your page. In the comic industry, you may have heard the term thumbnail sketches, and that’s what you’re going to be drawing right now. At this point, don’t focus on details. Focus on panel size and placement as you try to understand what panels fit in which scene. Some scenes or panels may be more important than others, which means some panels will be larger than others. By focusing on a strong layout now, it will make the page readable and visually pleasing once you get to drawing it.

Plan the Reading Flow of the Page

One key element to consider when planning your page layout is your reader’s eye flow. While this can be a more advanced technique, understanding eye flow will help you guide your reader as they go through your page and ensure they understand the sequence of panels. While most comics will have panels that follow a reading flow, some artists like to change this flow and focus on directing their eye flow with panel size and spacing. While doing this is more complex, remember that some panels are more important than others, and these moments should stand out from the rest of the page in some way. Understanding these details will make the flow of your comic feel much more natural and professional.

Balance Text and Visuals

When planning, don’t forget that your text and visuals should work in concert with each other. Before drawing your final page layout, think about where all your text will go. You don’t want your panels to be cluttered with text, so try to arrange your text to fit in your panels without blocking out visual elements. Balancing out these details will make your pages easier to read and more visually pleasing.

Final Check and Refining

When planning your rough layout, take some time to look over the whole scene. Does it convey a clear story? Are the pacing and visual elements working for you? This is the time to make corrections to the layout, so if you’re struggling with the placement, panel size, or even the moments included, you can make adjustments and refine them until everything fits before you commit to the final layout. While it’s great to plan your layout well and make sure it fits before you start drawing, this extra planning will save you a lot of time later.

Conclusion

Planning your comic page is the first major step when you’re working to translate your story into visuals. By having a goal and purpose of each page, breaking that down into key moments and creating a layout, you’re making your pages easy to follow, which is essential in any comic. With enough practice and time, you will eventually be able to incorporate these techniques into your workflow without needing to plan every page in-depth.