My drawing stencils

I wanted to share this project I have been working on. For the past few months, I had these ideas in my head. Why? Well often when I plot things on the page it uses brain power. These stencils are not an excuse for border panels layout that an comic artist would use. Rather these are for specific drawing practice. If you were to follow this for a comic book, you would hurt the reader due to the rigid structure. These are for times of getting the ideas out of your head fast and on paper. I had been thinking of Z-styled comic book layouts. Layouts in comic books should guide the reader so well that the reader doesn't recognize them. Why? Because they are an important part of the whole. These stencils are for exercises and getting the ideas how. I just don't want anyone saying that this is the only structure you should use for anything and everything.

Who doesn't love photos!? I took some of my initial drawings. I started with four drawings. Surprising how I made ten stencils overall. Sometimes one idea spawns other ideas in my head. Ideas are a dime a dozen. What matters is how useful they are after rigorous testing. I would never force someone to use these. It is just a useful tool. In my opinion. My ideas always start with a drawing. Whether freehanded or in this case using rules in a rough way.

After the drawing phase it was time for me to set some time to learn how to make the proper cad models. I first tried using freecad program, but struggled greatly. If you try that, I suggest a computer mouse. Laptop touch mouse is not good to use for those programs. I struggled with the GUI. If I was an industrial designer, I would probably be a lot better. I ended up scrapping my ideas. It is a great program don't get me wrong. Instead I tried Opencad program instead. It was more specific. Considering I am a programming centric person, I believe this was right for me. For the most part, I prefer using code to do tasks over gui. Don't get me wrong, I love the internet. It is just faster for certain tasks.

I wanted to share the models. I learned quickly that once you have one, you can tweak to create other examples. In my case, the stencils are 3D but I kept thinking of them as 2D things. My tasks was a lot less complex than say making 3D objects. I think that is where freecad reigns supreme. Or some other GUI based program. See these screenshots of the models and code below.

I made this one to practice storytelling through 4koma. Also known as Yonkoma, you can read more about Yonkoma/4koma by clicking here The purpose is to summarize storytelling. I believe specifically for graphic storytelling through Manga aka Japanese comics. You will also see below that I also adapted versions for A4 paper and B4 paper. The 5.5"x8" size I made is for my practice with Strathmore Bristol series 300 smooth visual journal. This is for practice, not for how to structure every layout the same way. Panel layout is an art itself. Much like a good tool, it should become seamless so that it becomes invisible to the reader. Or perhaps exceptions exist as they often do.

These 4 panel comic strip stencils are for how western comics are structured. Think of a newspaper or an editorial. You may see these online as well. I made a 4x1 version to be read from left to right. I also made an 2x2 version in which you read left to right starting at the top. You most likely have seen both versions before. Once again I must say these could be good practice for storytelling in comics. I do not recommend this be the way you structure a comic, comix, graphic novel, webtoon, webcomic, zine, etc. Or whatever they call it these days. Yes I read Scott McClouds book about comics. All of them actually. Panelling evolves all the time. I wanted to help offer the thing I found most difficult. That being the starting point. Where to start tends to be the most complicated thing to do. No one knows where to start. I have been there before. For example: programming having an extremely sharp learning curve that relies on mathematical concepts. I learned more about mathematical concepts from programming than I did from actual math classes. Perhaps that is because of the hands on nature of programming and the feedback, or lackof feedback aka unix feedback. Haha.

The 11"x17" with 10"x15" live area comic strip stencil I made to save time having to draw a border around where I would develop further panelling for a comic page. Panel layout is an art itself. Have you ever read a comic and thought this is painful. It seems more like a book, I have no ideas where my eyes should go on the page. I felt the pain points myself. I made this stencil so you can quickly make this border so you can do your panelling within the actual drawable area. So you don't draw beyond the page to prevent cutoff. When the comic gets scanned down for placement in the physical or digital print of your comic.

The ellipse practice stencil I made was so I can easily do a layout for an warmup exercise. I tend to do this everyday as a practice for drawing ellipses within the boundaries. I learned to do this from drawabox exercises.

The ellipse stencil and oval stencil I made because the 3D printing service I used had a 20$ order minimum. So I thought I might as well print another stencil or two.

Thumbnail 3"x"2" stencil was made for practicing compositions to storyboards. It just provides a border. You would then do panel planning within to quickly storyboard/name a comic on a single page. Vertical for portrait and horizontal for landscape view. I think keeping it vertical for a comic book page storyboard would be best. Originally I did these using a 3x2 small metal ruler. I found that annoying taking time to measure it out to connect two lines.

I made these stencils to help myself and I hope they can help you. If they don't, then maybe they are not right for you. I realized that when every line is important, try to have tools to help handle the boring stuff. Without taking out the creative work an artist would want to focus on. I.E. Panel layout, characters, background, word balloons, lettering, etc.

I can't explain how important it is to mention empty space when planning stencils. Cutouts are empty spaces where you draw the border around using the plastic stencil. Being able to translate your ideas into cad models can be complicated if you don't get granular with the explanations. I always struggled with math word problems when I was in school. But I worked it out over time. On a side note, in my workplace I have gotten word problems that would ask sixteen pieces of information in a sentence. Math never prepared me for that. Haha. Perhaps it did. Anyone else recall when a word problem is actually a multi-part question. Pain.

I made these over the course of time with some failed attempts. Probably more failed attempts. I tried making them in freecad but I scrapped them. Openscad was better for me. Granted I did scrap a few initial examples. I started with paper drawings. But a few of the models I had are resized dimensions. Some of them are variations as well. Once you have the basis, you can tweak to get what you are looking for. I was going to pay money for cad models to be made, but it was going to cost me 150$ an hour. Sadly this wasn’t feasible for me. You also run into the issue of having to pay for both the cad file and getting it printed. In the future I want to open source the models so anyone can have them. I would like to make some money that I fancy put towards my drawing time. I hate closed source file formats. That is why I choose openscad. Subscriptions are too expensive these days. It is ridiculous. I have friends who pay for subscriptions, but I just won’t.

Why did I make so many stencils? I made ones to test them out in different sizes. I thought about use cases and exercises I would test. Also the 3D printing service that I used had a 20$ order minimum. So I had to make something to print. And I thought I would be creative. I thought each stencil would cost a little over 2$ to print so I made 10 to reach this minimum order limit.

At one point in time in 2021 I considered going back to school for industrial design. I couldn’t find any jobs in it. It also appears the industry has changed. In the past it appears industrial designers were more sought after. Just my opinion. I like to make stuff hence why I program, make inventions, and draw. I did some 3D printing when I was in university using autocad, but it was free education account when I was in school. To expensive for my blood.

I designed a camera monitor that had camera on all sides. This was to ensure recording if the camera falls or shifts. I got a good grade on the group project. Fuck everyone in that group. No one did anything but me.

I was the only one that made the 3D model on my slow windows computer at the time. I also had to pay to get it printed. It costs me a lot at the time. Seriously fuck everyone in that group. They did nothing and we all got the same grade. I even typed the paper and made the power point for the presentation. I even did the class presentation.

I have other ideas, but not every idea I have is good. I have many scrapped ideas. Sometimes in the moment it is a good idea but then you realize it doesn’t have a good use case or it was already invented or someone made something similar that sells. Or you can’t get a utility patent on it. I almost decided on getting into patent drawing at one point.

I think my exploration experiences are good. Being creative feels like a treat. In the workplace I just have to follow orders. Whenever I would recommend something it often gets shot down. Ironically years later someone decides my idea was good. But they make it seem like it was their idea.

Drawing can feel so free. You can express yourself and do anything. I must admit I do struggle. Don’t get me wrong. I have a lot to learn. I hope the tools I make and my writings and videos help others save years. Experience is the best teacher. Knowing when to take the words of others when they see your work can be hit or miss. It can feel you with doubt.

About Lars Barnabee 🐝 hey that's me