The space between the panels is called the gutter.

One character foreground, one character background.

A silhouette shot gives an opportunity for drama.

A distant shot for establishing scenes or showing wide action.

Using progressions such as a “zoom in” can create excitement or tension when telling a story. Adding multiple panels to an action can draw out time, show detail, or show the steps of the action, otherwise unseen. They are pretty standard but they can be used in different ways and combinations to create drama in your story.

There are different panel types which are useful tools to know for storytelling. Leading the reader through the page line through page image. The final page should read something like this: All the action within the panels leads you across the page or down to the next tier of panels. I make sure that the panels lead the reader from left to right and down to mimic the usual reading pattern of a western-style comic book.

This allows me to see which ones should be bigger or smaller or insets, where I can get rid of the border, and decide what kinds of frames I want. I will often layout each panel as an individual so things that will later be insets or big panels will all be the same size. I begin with thumbnails that move me through the story of a page. How does the last panel lead to the next page?.How do I expect the reader to move from one panel to the next?.Translate those steps to panels/ frames.How many steps will tell that progression best and what needs to be included in each step?.What needs to happen between those two points to tell the progress from beginning to end?.What are the beginning and endpoints of the page?.It’s literally a wall that says to the reader “here is a complete idea, read it and move onto the next.” When I lay out a page, I will think about: By containing that idea, it is separating that idea from the one previous and the one before. Beyond the contents of a panel, it is a storytelling tool by itself. The contents of each panel should be a complete thought, but sometimes the thought you need for a panel can fill a paragraph or be as short as a single word. Its job is to contain an illustration that puts forth an idea. The panel is the border that wraps around a single moment in a comic. We achieve this through character movement, character acting, and how and where we choose to begin or end scenes and sequences but one of the overlooked tools of storytelling is the panel or frame, and it’s silent partner, the gutter. A good story needs pacing, flow, and balance.

Other ways panels can be used to tell a storyĪs a comic artist, I have come across many different ways to tell a story.

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