Some Sketches and Thoughts on the Story Process

My stories usually starts out with a plot idea. Sometimes just in my head, watching a movie, talking to friends or just walking down the road, but maybe more often sitting down writing anything that comes to my head until something interesting arrives. Other stories take shape writing about a character until something happens.

Sometimes I make a sketch first, but I’m usually more satisfied with the stories based on a written idea, or an idea process of both sketches and text.

When the idea is decided, I write the first draft. Sometimes some sketches are already made at this point, but they are usually made to help the story rather than the final illustration.

The sketches for the illustration starts when I have the draft done, when I know how the story goes.

The first draft is the fun part, just as the as the sketches are. I write down whatever comes to mind, and I often get carried away by stories about the characters and other world building kind of things. When I have it done, I keep working on the biographies of the characters, the setting, and the monster or what ever the story is about.

I also start on the pencil drawing, where I get all the details of the illustration set. Then I write it all again.

On my earlier stories on this blog I usually just edited the first draft, but it’s just not the same. Writing it again gives me an a lot better view on how I want to do things. I’ve been rewriting a couple of my older stories lately, and I might do that again, to get it right. I learn a lot from it as well.

When the second draft is finished, I make the Illustration. It’s better to have the story written before I start inking, because it’s a lot easier to change the written part if new ideas come up. Sometimes I have finished the illustration first, and working on the story I realize that some of the visual details would be better in some other way, because the story has changed.

When it’s done, I edit again, and publish.

These sketches are made for these stories:

The Old Dress

Schrödinger’s Dog

Pandora’s Box

Letters