To be honest, my process is a lot of humming and hawing about how to specifically draw one thing, then drawing 3 pages at 2 am, followed by not touching my iPad for 2 weeks. But in terms of actually drawing out panels and characters, my process is usually the same for each page.
I have a google document with all of my major over arching plot points, and then I have smaller bullet points that detail out exactly what’s supposed to happen in each update. Usually I have a vague idea in my head of how I want things to look, and I write my notes based on that. I think I have at this point, at least 10 or so major arcs that I want to get through (who’s to say if I actually get that far) but I’m also trying to allow myself to have some flexibility. If I think of something that might work better, I usually go for that option, rather than what I have written. I also have a couple of people who proof each page, before I move onto the next one, for things like spacing and pacing, and even dialogue options.
Because I based Bardic Inspiration on part of a D&D campaign I played in college, I like to consult with my friends who played with me on how their characters think and would react to the scenarios, as well as to help refresh my memory of the events.
When I get down to the actual drawing stage, I usually space out my panels first.
As a general rule, I try to stick to 3 large panels per page, but sometimes I decide, eh, why not, and I put a lot of panels in the picture because I hate myself. I also try to break up the space, either with speech bubbles or smaller panels to give a close up of something I find relevant
Then I place all of my figures. The program I use is called Clip Studio Paint, and it has a very useful tool of these 3D models I can use to place and position my characters however I want. This helps me see them in the space, as well as know proportionally what everything should look like when I move onto the sketching phase.
Sketching!! Sometimes if I know what something needs to look like, or if it tends to be easier shapes to draw, I will skip over the sketching stage, and straight into my outline (don’t do this)
Line art: As a general rule, I move panel by panel when drawing, so all of the stages with the exception of panel placement, usually happen one panel at a time.
Next is character color. For all of my main characters, I have palettes saved of their flat colors and typical lighting shading colors. I color all at once, moving from panel to panel. Sometimes I take way too long with my coloring and shading, I’ll just get really into a cool lighting trick that I think is just really neat, and I’ll spend two days on a tiny panel where the detail isn’t really necessary.
Backgrounds are next. This is usually the last thing I do. Sometimes I will place foreground objects so I know how much of the characters I need to color. Clip Studio also has a very nice rock tool that I use very frequently, because I am sick of drawing caves.
After all is said and done, I will add speech bubbles, or little effects if I think it will help tie everything together.
I’m still learning, and I hope to improve with every update of my comic. I’m probably doing a lot of things other artists would say is crazy, and there may be better ways to do it, but this is how I draw my comics, and I enjoy what I’m doing.