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.

March 2021

Deconstructing Tara. A few finished panels, and a reverse chronology of the stages of making them. Chronologically we have: rough sketches, blue pencil drawings, background tracings (as the tree is based on a real tree I photographed), inked figures, and finally inked backgrounds. A change to the layout of the first panel can be seen, from pencils to inks.

Apr 21

Model cars make invaluable references for drawing. We have a wide selection in the studio…good job too, with car chases yet to draw!

It’s a lot of trouble to go to, to draw a car correctly…to then draw the wrong character sitting inside it! An easy fix though, with the help of our trusty tippex!

Time for your (very first) close up, Tara!
A half page, also shown with a backlight, so you can see the tippex corrections!

May 21

Model cars are invaluable!

September and October 2021

Anatomy of a bar of panels.

The first draft of the script for The Silence Of Unicorns was drawn as a very rough storyboard. The second draft was typed up as a normal script. When laying the foundations of a story, it can be a lot quicker to do it with doodles, opposed to typed descriptions and dialogue.

Here’s a first look at some finished sequential art. Half a page, as yet uncoloured and unlettered.

The next bar, ready for blue pencils and then final inks.

Tara leaps into action!

Inking Tara: the adventure continues…

This is how Tara deals with a bad guy!

Can you spot two film references in this panel? One is from a Ridley Scott movie and the other is from a Stanley Kubrick film.

Who lives at the Red House? A visitor will soon find out…

Meet Heggy, Tara’s partner in crime (fighting).
Can you spot three easter eggs, as they walk through the museum?

Dangerous times for Tara!

August 2022

Colourist extraordinaire Fin Cramb has joined the Tara Togs team. Here is the first colour test: this image is in CMYK, so may lose something in translation to RGB on some computers/phones…if the colours look flourescent, they have shifted!

When you have to draw the same view of something that is fiddley, and could easily duplicate an older image in Photoshop…but we don’t cut corners like that in the Tara Togs studio.

Feb 2023

I’m very happy to announce that Tara Togs: The Silence of Unicorns now has the backing of Creative Scotland!
With the black and white artwork almost complete, the colouring and lettering stages can begin, and thanks to the funding from Creative Scotland, the entire book will be completed in the next four months!

April 2023
I just finished drawing Tara Togs after three years and three weeks of drawing the book. The lettering and colouring are still in progress, but the hardest part is now finished. I drew this book at A2, so had to fill two A3 pages per printed page, which doubled the work, but I think has been worth it…you can see the four folders I’ve filled with artwork in the pics.

The Tara Togs script is 168 pages long, which translates into 66 pages of actual book. It took nine days to write this and three years to draw it all.

May 2023

Colouring continues on Tara Togs. Years finally reduced to months, and now months have reduced to a few weeks away from completing this project.

Jun 2023

I got a copy of Tara Togs printed out today, for final checks…and am very pleased with how it’s looking!

August 2023

I’m very happy to announce that Tara Togs will be making her debut in November! Not in the form of the graphic novel, but in a new short story that has been created especially for ComicScene. This nine page adventure will be her first footsteps into the world, and I’m very grateful to ComicScene for featuring her. You can find out more about ComicScene, and order a copy here

Dec 2023

I’m very happy to announce that ComicScene will be running a Kickstarter for the first full length graphic novel starring Tara Togs! The Silence of Unicorns is a 66 page adventure, that was created over the past three years. The Kickstarter will run in March 2024. Pledge here.Here’s a first look at the cover image and a page of interior art; more details will follow, including a free read of the first six page prologue.

Feb 2024

Launch Kickstarter pre launch page and start to proof the print copy.

March 2024

Kickstarter launches and book is funded in 6 hours – get your first print copy here before 18th April.