Making a 4-panel comic

A fun exercise and a great learning experience!

Early last year, I took on the challenge of making a 4-panel comic - an exercise prompted by Kids Comics Unite. If you're a member (you can join for free), they have a great post outlining the challenge and explaining the structure of 4-panel comics (both in Western and Japanese conventions).

I wanted to make a gag comic in the Solaa's Order universe and tie it thematically to my main story. I thumbnailed an initial concept…

I wanted to make a mini-Solaa story in the spirit of Calvin & Hobbes.

I refined the art, paying special attention to Solaa's expressions and the Quha (the life energy she summons):

I wanted to ensure Solaa's emotional state was mirrored in the Quha.

These first steps took most of my time - after that, finishing the line art and colors went quickly. For the sake of time, I dispensed with inking and left the line art in pencils:

This version of the Quha was looser and more abstract than what I normally draw…. a lesson for the future?

Pay no mind to Solaa’s body in panel 3; I didn’t draw her legs because a speech balloon was going over them.

Here’s the final product:

A lesson in the duality of the Quha - and Solaa :)

This was a fun exercise! It pushed me to draw more quickly and loosely than I normally do, and I'm trying to incorporate more of that style into my current work. It got me thinking about efficient story structure: setting up your premise quickly, building it up, and paying it off without over-explaining.

This exercise also made me think about humor: how to play with the reader's expectations and then subvert them in a surprising but organic way. (I’ll share more of what I discovered in a future post.) Although humor is a key ingredient in my favorite comics, it’s not something I’ve actively incorporated in my work. But I’m going to work on it and the other lessons I learned from this challenge!