Week 1
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Starting off the year with one of my favourite things ever: Comics!
this brief was something I could've jumped straight into and just get lost in the technique, work and all the usual zest, but what did I actually want to gain from this brief? Good work ethic, thats what! The best way to work towards that is by taking the brief seriously as a professional would, and any professional would research his source material first beofre making any work on it, which is why the first thing I did was sit down and figure out what to digest before actually putting pen on paper. Mine and my partner Claire's Rhyme for the brief was "Three Blind Mice", so after a good meeting, we read through the text, decided on a direction, then made a list of things we would need to research. Once that had been done with a quick goodle and a trip to the library, we began our dive into the subject matter. |
Research done! We ventured down many mice holes, including different foods, the monarchy, elizabethan clothing, gothic architecture, and much more!
Overall I'd say it was some of the most rewarding research I've ever done. Part likely because I had such a good counterbalance of a partner who came to the table with their own fresh ideas and unique points of research, but also because I researched with such clear direction and grasp of the scope of what I was trying to find.
The fact that we had the scope of the project first, not the idea became incredbily grounding, and made sure we didnt go tailing off looking into anything unnecessary.
I also managed to sketch down a tremendous amount of imagery and ideas, which helped get me to grips for when we did the final work.
from this stage, we then moved on to developing the ideas into usable blueprints for the comic...
Overall I'd say it was some of the most rewarding research I've ever done. Part likely because I had such a good counterbalance of a partner who came to the table with their own fresh ideas and unique points of research, but also because I researched with such clear direction and grasp of the scope of what I was trying to find.
The fact that we had the scope of the project first, not the idea became incredbily grounding, and made sure we didnt go tailing off looking into anything unnecessary.
I also managed to sketch down a tremendous amount of imagery and ideas, which helped get me to grips for when we did the final work.
from this stage, we then moved on to developing the ideas into usable blueprints for the comic...
Planning
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Moving on from the research, the next thing to do was... well make a comic. but you cant run before you can walk, so storyboarding became the main priority. We wanted to keep that focus we'd had since the start of the week, and a good storyboard would do that.
I started by doing some basic thumbnails, basic shapes, simple words to indicate the meaning behind a page or panel. From there I moved on to something that could be recognisable as an incredibly stripped down version of the strip, along with some indication of words, sound effects, and other meaningful tid-bits. all in all, very glad we tackled this one well, because it did indeed keep us on track! |
Week 2
The only thing we had left to do before going on to the final pages was make sure our characters were consistent and had clear designs. For this, me and Claire designed character sheets for the Mice and the Farmer's wife.
These design sheets were functional, showed the details of what we'd need to draw them, and also a little bit of personality so we could carry across the mood of the character too.
These design sheets were functional, showed the details of what we'd need to draw them, and also a little bit of personality so we could carry across the mood of the character too.
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Here we have the final article!
I know jumping from the prep work to a finished piece seems like a bit of a leap, but for me the actual drawings that were done on bristol board was the bit of the project I already felt comfortable with, as its something I do often already. On top of that, Claire took care of the colouring, covers and digital formatting, so all in all our organisation paid off for a smooth process. I certainly learned a thing or two about how prep can benefit the finished article, and not only that, I also had an absolute blast doing it all! Comics sure are my bread and butter! |
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