Marve Chapter 1 storyboards

Here are the layout sketches I did for chapter 1 of Marve: A Life Consumed! Here you can see how I planned out each page, including some drafts that were dropped or altered.

I always line up my comic sketches in this two-page format, to simulate the layout of a book, just in case I ever want to print it. This way, I know which side of the page would be caught in the bleeds in the middle, and I can make certain panels "page-turners". I also really enjoy double-page spreads, and I want to make sure that they land on the appropriate page numbers.
Sometimes, this way of doing things causes some pages to be out of order whenever I make new drafts of single pages, because it's more important that I remember which side of the hypothetical book the page would be on, than what page it actually pairs up with.

Nowadays I typically number my sketches like this example: 010101. First two digits are the chapter, next two digits are the page number, and last two digits are the draft/iteration number. For example, 021302 would be chapter 2, page 13, draft 2.

I knew I wanted Marve's face to be obscured until he'd fully swallowed Iver, but wasn't really sure how to acheive it on all pages. So, sometimes you'll see me just scribble over it, basically telling myself "use this layout, but move it around so his face is out of bounds".

Regarding the armadillo guy watching the stream, I didn't have a design or species in mind for him until drawing the actual pages, so instead I just drew a generic furry guy. You can see a sketch of his armadillo design on sketch page 13, which I did after eventually deciding on his look as a note to self about how he'd be listening to the stream.

010801 - I thought about doing an internal shot showing Marve's ribs and organs and stuff, but it didn't feel right for this story. I would love to implement shots like that in future works though!

011002 + 011102 - I considered adding more panel to this double-page spread, showing the viewer's and chat's reactions, but didn't like how it looked.

012301 - At this point in drafting chapter 1, I hadn't actually made a lot of progress in writing chapter 2. So, I knew Marve was gonna get a text from his friend, Espen, which he would ultimately not reply to, but didn't actually know yet what the texts would say. In fact, I didn't have that totally figured out until after I had already started posting chapter 1 publicly lol

012202 + 012302 - I sort of wanted another double-page spread to end the chapter, especially to make the final shot larger, but couldn't get it to look good. So, opted for the first draft of these pages instead.