Okay—I hand draw all my Stick Trek, so sometimes a person’s head will fluctuate in size or shape. This makes no difference for the funny-ness, so I don’t want any belly-aching! LOL

**exception to these guidelines—Ralphie the Rulebreaker is very rough, and usually drawn directly with the fine point pen.

1. As with anything creative, you have to start with an idea. For me, these can suddenly come to me in the middle of watching Star Trek…or while talking to my sisters (LOL)…or when my minds wandering. Not that that ever happens…*ahem*

a. Okay, here’s the very rough sketch I drew for my latest Stick Trek: DS9, called “O-do!”. This was done with a regular ball-point pen.

2. Next, I re-draw the comic in pencil. If it’s complicated, I do one panel at a time.

a. So, here’s panel #1 from “O-do!” at that stage.

3. Then I go back and carefully trace over the sketches with a fine point (0.5 mm) pen. I do this slowly, making sure that it comes out just right. It’s not always perfect, but I’m not a machine! LOL

a. Here’s that same image again, with the fine-point pen.

b. After the pen, I go back with a big, fat eraser and erase all the pencil marks.

4. Once the pencil marks are all erased, and the pen lines are correct, I go in and color it with colored pencils, and occasionally a marker or two.

a. Here’s that scene once more, all colored in.

i. I use the scanning program to add the words, then post it on the site!

ii. Once it’s scanned and posted, I then go back to the hand-drawn copy and write in the words.

Well, I hope you found that interesting enough, considering it took so long to stop and scan at each step. I can usually crank one of these out in an hour—once I have the idea—but this one took nearly two hours. You better appreciate me! LOL

Go to the DS9 site to see this complete comic.