Okay, I'm finally off to a good start with the first Chastity Towers story, "The Appearance of Respectability".
Here's how my work process usually breaks down:
1. Birth of an idea. 
Usually a story is inspired by some specific idea or concept which is the kernel from which the rest of it grows. In this case, this wasn't the first story we'd developed but it seemed the best choice for the first to appear because the basic idea is this:
"A new potential student comes to Chastity Towers and Mina and the girls give her the FULL taste of what life is like at the school."
Stephen and I came up with this concept ages ago when first developing Chastity Towers and from there it was just a matter of specifics.
2. Brainstorm the plot. 
We had a short plot synopsis so all I had to do was flesh it out a bit and break it down into events. I used Google Docs for that, since it's an easy-to-use word processor and it can keep my documents together in an easy-to-reach place. For some reason I don't like keeping scripts in folders on my computer, I just don't like organizing them that way. I prefer being able to tag them and sort them that way.
3. Script. 
I wrote up a simple script in Google Docs based on the breakdown. I had the basic idea of how long the story would be, how much space I wanted to allocate for the sex scenes and how much for the plot. I had the first draft finished in January or so and recently changed it a bit, adding a few more pages of sex and tightening up the point of view on the first few pages.
4. Sketches. 
Once the script is done (sometimes before the actual dialogue is complete, but once I have the story broken down into discrete events) I rough out the pages for the whole story. I like sketching the entire thing before I start, it's good fun to get it all down in rough lines so I can read through the layouts and see how it flows. I had these roughs done in January or so too but changed up the first few pages and added some pages to the middle as well.
5. Set design. 
As part of my new working method, I'm using SketchUp to design the sets for the comic, so before I begin I make sure I have the sets I need designed. They don't have to be perfect, but they're a big help and at this point I can also edit the layouts if necessary.
6. Lettering. 
After the rough layouts and before the proper pencilling, I like to letter the whole comic. I get a good groove going doing the lettering and it's a good feeling to get it all out of the way. It also means I can make sure there's enough room in the layouts for all the words I need before it's too late. At this point I can edit the dialogue or the page layouts to make everything fit.
7. Inking/toning. 
When I have everything lettered, it's time to start at page one and do all the inking and toning, adding speed lines, grey tones, textures, etc. Depending on how I'm feeling, I may mix it up and ink a few pages, then do the tones, or I may just drive through and completely finish one page at a time.
And then it's done! Since my comics are webcomics there's also the question of exporting them to PNG at the right size and resolution for the web, but that's a simple task in Manga Studio. Then I just upload them to the webcomics host and celebrate!
Labels: chastity-towers, comics
