Draw action-packed panels

Steve Ellis reveals his process for injecting action and movement into his sequential artwork, helping to immerse the reader in his world

Discover how Steve Ellis injects action and movement into his sequential artwork.

I love seeing action pages in comics. When I draw action scenes I want the reader to feel the sense of urgency. I want the page to feel visceral: if a character gets punched in the gut, I want the reader to hurt. If a character falls, I want the page to reflect the sensation of falling. A well-done action scene can be an immersive event for the reader.

I take inspiration from some of my favourite TV shows and films. There are lots of similarities between films and comics, so I tend to use a lot of movie “tricks”. Yet unlike film you get to see every moment on each panel, and you can go back and look at panels out of order to examine what you like about a particular “shot.” Since there’s no actual movement, you need to create the illusion of movement with your drawings.

In this workshop, I’m going to show you how to think about setting up an action scene, how to choose the right moment to draw for the most impact, and how to take the character and the reader through a complex step-by-step sequence while establishing a sense of speed. I’ll lay out tips to maintain clarity and teach you about transitions between panels, and how to use movement to drive the viewer from panel to panel.

Pacing out the story 1

Sometimes the script gives me the plan, but usually it’s up to me to provide the pacing. First I consider how the action begins and ends. Then I sketch random ideas of angles, shots, panel movements and actions. They’re are usually out of order and messy because I just want to react emotionally to the script.

2 The rough layout

I think about moment-to moment action by lining up the angles and shots from my sketches to assemble a rough step-by-step layout that gets me from points A to B. Often each step becomes a panel. I’ll draw a lot of extra steps, then edit them down to the most important ones. Each story might require a different number of panels.

3 Sketching out the page

Now that I have the steps figured out as panels,

I can think about how they work together as a page. Here, how the action of one panel flows into the next panel will ensure the proper left-to-right or up-to-down reading movement. At this stage I frequently drop a few panels to streamline the action as much as possible.

4 Establishing the setting

I choose a distant shot for the first panel to both establish the scene and the environment, and the relationship between the characters. This is vital so that when in the second panel the character jumps, we already know where she is in the space. We follow this up in the third panel with the character having landed on the jeep and her bike in the foreground crashing.

5 Following the action

In the fourth panel, I jump forward a few seconds. I’m relying on the reader to understand that in the time between panels (the gutter time) she’s climbed up, gotten a purchase and is able to take a swing, knocking off the robot’s head. The head is positioned down to direct the reader’s eye toward the lower tier of panels.

6 Exiting the page

In the next panel, I draw the viewer’s eye towards the left with the action of the car, and I set up the shot so the driver’s body falls towards the right. Again, this should lead the eye to the next panel on the right. The next two panels are our character’s moments as she takes control of the car and we drive off the page in the final panel.

Generating grids and borders in Photoshop

I like to create the illusion of a grid on a page and use angled panels for exciting contrast. In Photoshop I cut up the page and rearrange and resize, and zoom into panels for the most impact. This gives me a chance to rethink the borders and overlapping elements.

8 Developing a bit of perspective and ramping up the action

I want there to be a lot of movement, so I’m using extreme angles on everything. However, I also want the reader to understand the space. Using Clip Studio Paint, I overlay one perspective grid for the fixed items to create a believable world and give the vehicles their own perspective grids. I want to make the vehicles look like they’re bouncing around without breaking the laws of physics too badly.

9 Pencilling and finalising ideas

I print the page out on to copy paper and lightbox the drawing on to Bristol paper, leaving out the messy or structural bits. I add details, finalise ideas and make sure everything’s on point from my original designs. I also analyse the acting/facial expressions of the characters and how that affects the story. While I thought about it before, it’s only now that the exact expressions and feelings start to come through.

10 Varying the weight of my ink lines

After scanning into Clip Studio Paint, I use the standard line marker with a single line weight on an Inks layer, tracing the pencils. Next, I differentiate objects from the background by using heavier line weights, looking for opportunities to let the varying line-weights of Clip’s G-pen Nib create some active exciting lines. Broken up lines and scratchy lines really make things move.

11 Adding textures and blacks

I use different textured lines (jagged, smooth, crosshatch, parallel line grids and hash marks) for hair, rocks, rust on a car, blasts from a gun, fishnet tights, combat boots and so on. Black areas are great for separating elements and giving objects weight. The jeep looks like it’s flying because of the scratchy lines behind and on it, and the black area under it showing it lifting into the air

12 Flatting in the colours

I create a layer under the ink layer and call it Flats. I change the ink layer mode to Multiply so I can see the layer below it. Next, I select areas from the ink line layer and fill them in on the Flats layer. Clip enables you to change the inks layer into a Reference layer, and you can select and fill in areas easily on the Flats layer.

13 Painting in the dark areas

I make sure the “flatted” colours are correct before adding the shadows. I use the Selection tool to grab areas, choose a colour that’s darker than the current colour and paint them in using the Marker tool. Here, I’m only looking to create one value darker than the base colour. I don’t need to get into deep rendering because I want the art to be dominated by the inks, and to flow quickly.

14 Highlights and finishing

I soften harsher colour edges with the Airbrush tool, then start to desaturate selected areas that need to recede to make important elements pop out. I “colour hold” the lines using a Lighten layer above them. I use a low Opacity layer on top to make action swooshes behind actions that I want to emphasise. As a finisher, I create a highlights layer on top and airbrush areas with bright whites for highlights, reflections and gunfire to really pump up the action!