How to draw comics on iPad with comic panel paper

Comics are a way of controlling time with a page. Each panel is a moment, the space between panels is where the reader fills in what happened, and the size and order of panels decide how fast the story moves. That makes them useful far beyond art class: a comic strip is one of the clearest ways to explain a sequence of anything.

This guide covers the basics of laying out and lettering a comic page, then how to use comic panels as a study tool, by drawing a process you need to learn as a strip. If you're planning shots for film or animation instead, see storyboarding on iPad.

How a comic page reads

In English, readers move through a page left to right and top to bottom, row by row, the same way they read text. Everything about layout builds on that.

• Panel order should never be a puzzle. If a reader has to stop and work out which panel comes next, the layout has failed. Keep rows clear.
• Panel size sets the pace. A wide panel feels like a pause or a big moment. A row of small panels feels quick, like a rapid exchange or a fast action.
• The gutter is the jump. The gap between panels is where time passes. A character raises a fist in one panel and the other character is on the ground in the next: the reader supplies the punch. Comics theory calls this closure.
• The last panel on a page is a beat. Many artists end a page on a small cliffhanger or a question, so turning the page pays off.

Plan the page before you draw it

1. Write the beats. List what happens on the page in short lines, one line per moment. That's your panel list.
2. Match beats to panels. Decide which moment deserves the biggest panel. Usually it's the most important action or the emotional peak.
3. Thumbnail. Sketch the whole page small and rough: stick figures, where the balloons go, which way characters face.
4. Pencil, then ink. Draw loose construction lines, then go over the final lines in a darker, cleaner pen.

Drawing panels that work

• Open with an establishing shot. Show where we are before cutting in close.
• Vary the distance. Wide, medium and close-up panels keep a page from feeling static, the same as in film.
• Keep characters facing consistently across a conversation, so it's clear who's talking to whom.
• Leave room for words. Plan balloon space before you draw the art, or the text ends up covering a face.

Lettering that people can read

Lettering is where a lot of student comics fall apart. A few rules help:

• Letter first, or at least plan it first. Text needs space, and art can work around it more easily than the other way round.
• Place balloons in reading order. The first speaker's balloon goes higher and further left.
• Keep balloon tails pointing at the speaker's mouth, not just their general direction.
• Use all caps in a consistent size. It's the comics convention, and it reads clearly at small sizes.
• Edit ruthlessly. If a balloon has more than a couple of short sentences, split it across panels or cut words.

Comic panel paper in Scribba

Scribba's Comic Panels paper is one of its 39 paper types: a page of panels laid out in three rows, with a different layout in each row. That variety gives you wide and narrow panels on the same page, so you can practice pacing without ruling out boxes by hand.

You can change any page's paper from the page sidebar, so a notebook can hold a ruled page for your script, then comic pages for the art. Orientation and page size are chosen when you create the notebook.

Tools that help with comics:

• Pencil for roughs, fineliner or brush for inks. Scribba has six pen types, and many people like the brush for inking.
• Snapped shapes. Hold the Apple Pencil still at the end of a stroke to snap an ellipse for a speech balloon, or a line for a building edge. See drawing straight lines and shapes on iPad.
• Zoom Window for lettering. Write large in the magnified strip and it lands small and neat on the page, which keeps balloon text even.
• Text boxes if you'd rather type dialogue, especially for a draft you'll revise. Add one from the + menu in the notebook's top bar.
• Whole-stroke eraser to remove a whole construction line at once without nicking the ink around it.

Draw a process as a comic strip to study it

Here's the less obvious use. Many things you study are sequences: stages of mitosis, the steps of a court case, the causes leading up to a war, a chemical reaction mechanism, the path of a bill through a legislature. Turning one into a strip makes you decide what each step is and what changes between steps.

1. List the steps from your notes or textbook. If you have more steps than panels, combine the minor ones.
2. One step per panel. Draw the state of things at that moment: the chromosomes lined up at the middle, the jury deliberating.
3. Use the gutter. Ask yourself what happens between this panel and the next. If you can't say, you've found a gap in your understanding.
4. Caption each panel with the term and a few words. Captions go in a box at the top or bottom of the panel, not in a balloon.
5. Give characters jobs. A sodium ion with a suitcase, an enzyme with scissors. Silly characters are easy to remember.

Then turn the strip into a quiz. Scribba's study tape lets you drag tape over the captions and tap to peek. Look at each panel, say the term and what's happening, then check. That's active recall, one of the most reliable ways to make something stick. See the active recall study method and study tape on iPad.

Tip: draw the strip from memory first, then check it against your notes. The panels you couldn't draw are the ones to study.

Sharing your pages

To turn in a comic or show it to your class, select pages in the page sidebar and export them as a PDF, or share a single page as an image.

Frequently asked questions

What paper is best for drawing comics on iPad?

Paper with panel borders already drawn saves time and helps you practice layout. Scribba's Comic Panels paper gives you three rows of panels in different layouts. For a custom layout, start on blank or dot grid paper and draw your own borders.

Can I add speech balloons in Scribba?

Draw them by hand. Hold the Apple Pencil still at the end of a stroke to snap a clean ellipse, then add the tail and letter inside it.

Do comic strips actually help with studying?

Drawing a process forces you to put the steps in order and explain each one, which shows you what you don't understand yet. Covering the captions and quizzing yourself adds active recall.