What Sintel Taught Me About Pacing a Mini-Comic

I watched Sintel four times with a sketchbook open, pausing every time the camera cut, and drew the shot as a thumbnail panel.

Mini-comics are the best place to learn pacing because you cannot hide anything. Eight pages, four panels a page, and every panel has to earn its spot.

Inks and letters

Pencil loosely, ink tightly. Use a brush pen for figures and a technical pen for panel borders, and letter before you ink so the words never get squeezed.

If something here doesn't work for you, write in. Half of our how-tos have been corrected by readers, and the corrections are always better than the original.

If you are reading this at the collective, the good scissors are in the drawer marked "do not take the good scissors". Please do not take the good scissors.

A note on paper: we buy recycled 80gsm by the box and it runs through every machine we own. Heavier stock is lovely for covers, but it will jam the old copier if you try to feed it more than ten sheets at a time.