‘Developing Tara Togs Diary’ by comic creator Stref – the five year process

The Tara Togs original all ages Graphic Novel is on kickstarter now here



It took five years to develop, write and draw Tara Togs The Silence of Unicorns. Below is the complete process of creating the character and the book by the creator Stref. Some of these items, sketches and pages of art will be available as part of the kickstarter.































Developing name of character and script. Thanks to Eli Winter as editor.






First sketch of Tara Togs.






March 2020



First pencil roughs go up on the wall.







Pencil roughs.



May 2020






Script, with pencil roughs on wall.






Tara Togs, taking over the studio walls.






First stage pencils layouts.






Rough pencils are given a rough ink pass on tracing paper, before going to finished pencils.






October 2020



The pages are drawn up at A2, as A3 two bar half pages.






Two A3 sheets give you an idea of what a full page will look like.












Working the traditional way, in a clear-line style can be tricky. Shining the light on this panel, shows the amount of tippex that has been used!









Feb 2021



Three stages are shown here: rough pencils (sometimes with rough inks), finished pencils (figures only), and finished inks.











Feb 2021



The sun is beaming into the Tara Togs studio; a good day to lay down some blue pencils. These will be tightened up, before being inked.



Mar 2021























Inks (and tippex!) are applied. Characters first, then backgrounds.











March 2021



Here’s the first look at a couple of finished panels featuring our heroine! Taken from her first adventure: The Silence Of Unicorns. Included is a colour test also.











Mar 2021



Research is important! An altered panel, that originally had a stone wall, not found in the area the action is set, now replaced by an appropriate wooden fence. The same panel, with colours added by Jeemutbahan Roy.






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