Sketch Dump

As Juan is giving me more info about the series bible I am sketching up initial ideas for elements of the story. 

We were playing around with giving a couple of the other characters animal companions. I like the idea of giving them mythological or fictional animals such as the Foo Dog for one of the Japanese warriors and the "Hare Tailed Haggis" Scottish fighter.
I have also started writing the script. Aiming for around 3-4 pages which can be used as a preview issue for the series.
That's me for the holidays so I will get back on this in a coupla weeks. Merry Christmas!

White Skull "El Temible"

The Project Proposal, Progress Presentation and Pre Production Portfolio handins have slowed the progress of the practical work over the past couple of weeks but I am continuing to develop concepts for characters at the moment. 

Capitan Benezuela's nemesis is the last of the original mask bearers, the one who turned on fellow warriors and tried to claim the power of the masks for himself.

 Juan is making progress through the series bible and as he goes we are making modifications to the story, ensureing that as bonkers as the story is, it makes sense. He provided me with his character description for the character to work from when designing him.

"A warrior of Inca heritage whose name “White Skull” was given to him after a skull developed on his mask.

In modern day his outfit is a customised suit that share traits with traditional mariachi suit. A combination of elegance and authority surrounds his style.

Despise his average height his presence still inspires fear and intimidates the weak-willed."

Influences for the character such as traditional mariachi outfits as well as day of the dead sugar skulls were researched when formulating the idea for the character’s “modern day” design. One of the things the description made me think of was “El” from Robert Rodreguez’ “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” films…… and “The 3 Amigos” XD

Initially I was considering giving the character’s mask a design influenced by Day of the Dead sugar skulls but based on feedback this made the design a bit too busy so a more simple skull emblem. 

Juan said last minute that he wanted a rose symbol incorporated into the character’s outfit…… I don’t know why yet but its been worked into his backstory. Ill find out when that’s worked out.

The design received positive feedback from peers. There are a couple of details that might change a bit as the story develops but overall as things stands we are happy to move forward with this design.

Research Proposal – Effective Visual Storytelling

Abstract

Understanding the art of visual storytelling is vital for any artist, especially illustrators and designers. The ability to convey ideas and the stories behind them visually is essential for any artist, whether communicating the events of a narrative on the wall of a monastery or within the panels of a comic book.

Any artwork produced should be in service of the narrative which it is trying to convey and should aim to portray the events in the most dynamic, visually engaging way possible. It is necessary therefore to strike a balance between the artistic vision of an image and the story it tells.

The more proficient an artist becomes at conveying narrative through their work the more subtext can be inferred, making the work become an event rather than just an image. This is a desirable skill within the world of illustration and visual narrative.

Given the world’s love for visual media and entertainment the ability to convey narrative through visual media effectively is now more vital than ever. When it comes to developing the visuals for the film and games industries it falls to concept artists and illustrators to visualise these worlds that are being created for audiences’ entertainment.

By exploring past and present artists working within the world of visual narrative an artist should develop their knowledge and understanding of how to tell a story through their work.

Introduction

The ability to tell stories through visuals has been part of human culture throughout the millennia, since Neolithic man began to recount events in their lives on cave walls. Today visual storytelling has evolved into numerous different means of conveying a narrative through imagery.

Today, the ability for an artist to visualise their and other’s ideas as well as convey a narrative is sought after skillset. Translating ideas and descriptions to visuals, whether communicated in writing or verbally is highly important in all fields of art whether working independently or collaboratively.

With all fields of visual storytelling the aim “is to convey to the audience a visual description of an event that occurred in the story” (Sherline Pimenta, Ravi Poovaiah(2010)) whether this is a panel or cover of a comic, a piece of character design for the latest film or an environment design for the games. The artist’s goal is to give as much information visually on their subject and begin to build their story visually.

This project aims to show that better understanding of the art of traditional and contemporary visual storytelling can result more appealing, rich and dynamic work. By exploring past and present artists working within the world of visual narrative an artist should develop their knowledge and understanding of how to tell a story through their work. Taking the lessons learned from case studies on these artists and putting them into practice in practical work will aid in developing further and a more in depth knowledge of the theory and practical application of visual narrative.

“All design decisions should be made to support the story and reinforce the believability of the characters.” (Khang Le, Mike Yamada, Felix Yoon) This is true in each medium as the visuals are used as a vessel through which a story is told. However each medium has considerations which the artist must take into account. This can make it challenging for an artist to visualise the details of their subject. With comics one of the main considerations is reproducibility as the subject must be drawn many times, consistently, sometimes in dynamic poses and from complex angles. As a result of this, often designs are simplified in comics in order to make the artwork as consistent as possible. With the advent of Digital Art  and 3D modelling there are more tools than ever before to aid the artist in producing more detailed and consistent art.

Scott McCloud predicted that “illustrators would employ 3D modelling software to comic art to achieve artwork that is not attainable with pencil and ink.” (Scott Macleod.(2000)) This prediction was based on the western comic book industry’s aim for realism. While this is commonplace among concept artists and designers, there are few illustrators who have applied this to comic art. Artists such as Stjepan Sejic has utilised 3D modelling and matt painting to produce “Ravine”, in which the sequential art truly bridges the uncanny valley.

While there are a number of visual storytelling mediums that require a variation of approaches when developing ideas, the storytelling aspect can follow similar principles. When it comes to conveying a story in a comic or graphic novel format, principles of cinematography such as type of shots and the 180 degree rule are applied. This aids in composing more dynamic and easier to follow page layouts. These principles are also applied in animation to the same effect.

This project will explore transmutation of stories from ideas and written word into the visual medium. Exploring how ideas and narrative can be conveyed visually; whether it is through single images like religious murals in monasteries around the world or a series of images such as book illustrations or sequential images like comics and graphic novels. The project will include the exploration of methods developed by artists in different fields as well as the tools that can be utilised while producing narrative visuals.

Literature Review

Joe Lambert described a story as “a narrative account of an incident, person, event, or position” (Lambert, J. (2002)). As a starting point any artist may draw on this as initial inspiration for beginning the process of transmuting prose to visuals. Sandra Rietz elaborates saying “Stories vary in nature - they may be biographical, familial, ethnic, commercial, or instructional. A story is a restructured everyday experience through which we come to know, remember and understand” (Livo, N. J., & Rietz, S. A. (1986).

Conveying story visually is the driving force behind comic books, film as well as many games. Taking someone’s writings or ideas and transmuting them into visual media is common practice within the visual entertainment industry. “The grammar of visual storytelling requires that the graphic novelist think critically about how he/she wants to tell the story” (McCloud, 1993). Whether depicting a scene through a single image or through a sequence of image panels an artist must think carefully about composition and design in order to work out how best to convey the narrative within the images they produce.

In his book “Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn’t Exist”, James Gurney explains that when developing the idea for a single image or a page of sequential panels an artist must take into account that while “a painting can suggest the full scope of the narrative. The challenge is choosing the moment and the angle that tells the tale in the most memorable and engaging way.” Gurney, J). This is of utmost importance in all illustrative roles, especially when dealing with pivotal scenes in any story.

In DC Comic’s “Batman: Knightfall” (Batman vol 1 #497.(July 1993)  story arc, Batman is taken down by the monstrous Bane. A combination of well scripted dialogue, dynamic art work and layouts that build the pace of the scene resulted in one of the most gripping and memorable scenes in its time.

Stjepan Sejic and Dan Luvisi are currently two of the most successful comic artists today. Both have extensive experience for some of the comic book industry’s biggest names. Currently both are working on producing graphic novels of their self-created I.P’s “Ravine” (Sejic.s 2012) and “Last Man Standing – Killbook of a Bounty Hunter” (Luvisi, D.2013) . While the two are working in the same field, their products offer drastically different experiences for the reader.

The main events of “Ravine” are told through a classic comic/graphic novel format but using the latest technologies in digital arts such as 3D sculptures which are painted into the panels. This results in a rich and highly realistic style which along with Sejic’s traditional and digital painting skills becomes a cinematic experience which rivals the visuals of most fantasy epics. In depth, back story of the world is told through written text with illustrated elements, such as character portraits and scenes to highlight important moments. This is reminiscent of the method used by Games Workshop to convey back stories to their table top games within rulebooks and other companions.

Lu Visi’s approach to “LMS” is a complete break of tradition. His book is presented as a scrap book made by the main protagonist Gabriel and is included in the character’s design as one of his props. The book’s pages have the appearance of a combination of a police case file and an artist’s sketch book. Littered with clues, leads, character art and other information this format gives the reader insight into the world Lu Visi has created, conveying the story.

Project Methodology

The methodology of the project will be comprised of mostly practical based research.

Studying the work methods and practices of both past and present illustrators, designers and classical painters will aid in developing further understanding of principles and processes as well as develop pipelines for individual and sequential narrative art.

Case studies will be carried out on artists and their art. The case studies will be based around the art of illustrators who work in the fields of book illustration and comic books/graphic novels. A look back at how baroque painting produced hugely detailed murals depicting scenes and narratives transmuted from text.

From here the project will split in two, where the lessons learned from carrying out case studies will be put in to practice.

The first part of the project will involve a collaborative effort, working with a peer on the production of a story bible, development work as well as a series of finalised pages and covers for a co-created graphic novel currently entitled “Captain Benezuela” (spelled with a B).

The second part of the project will involve the production of book illustrations that are transmuted from text. This part of the assignment will either be based on text and passages from existing, or self-written literature.

Ultimately the focus with each side of the project is the same: to successfully convey narrative visually. By structuring the project in this way, it allows for the side by side comparison of the two types of visual storytelling.

Project Aim

The aim of the project is to explore visual narrative through comic books and illustration.

Project Objective

1 - Conduct a series of case studies of classic and contemporary painters and illustrators to develop a better understanding of the principles, methods and techniques which will aid in successfully convey narrative visually.

2 - Visualise and produce a series bible, development work, a series of final pages and covers for a Graphic Novel.

3 - Transmute a passage of text into a series of images intended as book illustrations. Text will either be from existing literature or from a self-written narrative

Conclusion

The project and its findings will hopefully prove beneficial within the professional fields of illustration and comic book/graphic novel production. Carrying out the project will highlight the similarities, differences, strengths and weaknesses between the two fields of illustration. Conducting case studies into successful artists, who produced classic and contemporary narrative art, will not only provide more insight into the history and development of visual storytelling. This will also prove invaluable learning lessons that can be applied in producing narrative art within the project and in future works. Hopefully illustrators and concept artists alike will be able to see that conveying story through art not only gives context to the work they create. Also the project aims to show that telling a story through a piece of art can give the viewer a much more rich and memorable visual experience.

The cultural impact of the project could include the development of more consistent and detailed art pipelines. There are a variety of powerful tools and processes that are available for an artist. For example, adopting 3D modelling and matt painting as part of a pipeline might help overcome inconsistency in illustrative art.

The need to visualise ideas or stories and pass them on visually seems ingrained in cultures throughout the world. As wide and varied as the methods are in the modern day, the goal is still the same: to produce artwork that best illustrates the events, characters, locations and the stories that bring them together.

References

• Gurney, J. Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn’t Exist. James Gurney
• Khang Le, Mike Yamada, Felix Yoon. The Skillful Huntsman. Design Studio Press.
• Lambert, J. (2002). Digital Storytelling: Capturing lives, creating community. Berkeley, CA: Center for Digital Storytelling.
• Livo, N. J., & Rietz, S. A. (1986). Storytelling: Process and practice. Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited.
• Luvisi, D.2013. Last Man Standing – Killbook of a Bounty Hunter. Dark Horse.
• McCloud, S. (1994) Understanding Comics: The invisible art. New York: Harper Collins.
• Scott Macleod. (2000). Reinventing the comic. HarperCollins
• Sejic, S. Ravine. 2012. Top cow Productions
• Sherline Pimenta, Ravi Poovaiah. (2010). On Defining Visual Narratives.Design Thoughts.
• DC Comics, Batman vol 1 #497. (July 1993). DC Comics

Bibliography

• Ellis Waterhouse. (1962) Italian Baroque Painting. Phaidon Press Ltd.
• Gurney, J. (2010). Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter. Andrews McMeel Publishing 
• Nicholas.T.Profares.(2005). Film Directing Fundamentals: See Your Film Before Shooting. Focal Press
• Titus Burckhardt. (2006). The Foundations of Christian Art(Sacred Art in tradition Series).World Wisdom

Further Reading List

• Art Fundamentals. 3d total .[online]. available from: http://vk.com/doc15891431_198327969?hash=81a9b8250235d32d98&dl=9a610e1735be74be62[accessed [Accessed 12 October 2014].
• Iain McCaig. Visual Storytelling with Iain McCaig. [Online DVD]. Gnomon Workshop
• Neil Cohn. (2014). The Architecture of Visual Narrative Comprehension.Frontiers in Psychology
• Will Eisner. 1985. Theory of Comics and Sequential Art. Poorhouse Press

Progress Presentation 2

My second progress presentation held yesterday. Explaining where I stand with the project, the decision of producing a collaborative effort with Juan on the comic as well as producing illustrations based on text.

The main concern raised was that there needs to be defined roles in the collaborative project so that it is clearly stated who is doing what. As it stands right now; The story of Capitan Benezuela is based on my original story which Juan is taking to develop into a series bible which we can work with to produce the comic. Juan is producing the series bible at the minute and as we the series bible is being written we are both working out further story elements and plugging up plot holes as he goes. The script will be a joint effort and I will be producing the development and sequential art of the comic sample as well as covers. This seemed to be acceptable for our lecturer so we will move forward.
In the mean time I will push forward with developing initial ideas for visual elements of the story as well as begin gathering research for case studies. After the Christmas break I will finish my case studies which will benefit the production phase of the project. 

Other aspects of the project that were brought up were methods of consistency and methods of art production. 

Principles of Cinematography

Certain elements of cinematography can be applied to comic art in order to enhance the visual narrative and make the sequential art read or flow better for the reader. Principles such as the 180 degree rule can be used as they are in film to make sure the viewer is not disorientated during conversations or action scenes.

The 180 Degree Rule is a basic guideline for the visual/spatial relationship between characters and/or objects within a scene. An imaginary line called the "Axis" connects the subjects and by only shooting a scene from either side of the line the relative position of each subject remains the same (i.e. the one on the left stays on the left and the one on the right stays on the right according to the viewer). This allows the viewer to orientate themselves in relation to the subjects, making the scene easier to view.

When looking at comic layouts you can pretty much think of them as more dynamic and in depth storyboards. The panels can all be broken down to different camera shots such as establishing shots, close ups, long shots etc. 

These can be used to enhance the drama in an image as they are used within film to enhance the portrayals of scenes. 

Empire magazine posted an article on their website describing 30 of the most important shot types and examples within film of where they are used.

 THE 30 CAMERA SHOTS EVERY FILM FAN NEEDS TO KNOW

Within the article it describes a number of shots such as the tilt shot which involves physical movement of the camera. Initially I wondered if these would be relevant or even translatable to sequential art then I remembered Jim Lee's work on Batman: Hush (an example from researching layouts). 

When depicting Catwoman and Harley Quin's acrobatic movements Lee pulls the camera/viewfinder out to a wider shot and draws the characters at multiple stages of their movements. This helps to emphasise the action in the scene as well as give the impression of a more dynamic camera shot such as the tracking shot. 

A knowledge of these techniques as well as how they can be manipulated will aid in visualising scenes in a more comprehensive way. This will make the end result a more enjoyable experience for the reader.

Further Reading

Cinematic Storytelling: The 100 Most Powerful Film Conventions Every Filmmaker Must Know

                                      

Capitan Benezuela (Spelled with a 'B') XD

The original doodle of Captain Venezuela was done while waiting for a bus in a coffee shop in Edinburgh after my partner in crime Juan Carlos De Abreu asked me to sketch a Venezuelan version of Captain America.

In complete ignorance and with only a couple of reference images on a phone this was sketched. 

The idea of the character stuck with Juan and after he recounted a couple of dozen ideas he had for the character we decided to take it forward as part of our Honours Projects. Our projects allow for this as Juan is looking into cultural differences in storytelling and mine is about transmuting writings etc to visual media.

The story is being written at the minute and will be fully fleshed out over the Christmas break. Once it is all worked out I will elaborated on it. 

In the new story Capitan Venezuela is one of the most renowned Luchador in Latin America, wearing the colours of his home country on his outfit. Juan and I agreed that we didn't want a ridiculously ripped, roid case. Juan wanted CV to be a "naturally big guy" like Roy "Big Country" Nelson or Mark Hunt of the UFC's Heavyweight division but with a bit more definition. So the initial consideration was his build.

Big Country (upper right) Mark Hunt (lower right).

With this in mind I began to produce silhouettes, figuring out the character's build, what kind of outfit he will wear and how to tie in the colours and iconography of Venezuela. 

Juan explained that the most important elements for him were the colours and stars from the flag as well as incorporating the horse into the uniform. On the current Venezuelan flag there are 8 stars, one was added by order of Venezuela's current president Hugo Chavez. This among other changes to the Venezuelan coat of arms such as changing the direction of the horse were not received well by Venezuela in general Juan told me so he requested that it only has 7. 

Capitan has a tattoo across his chest reading "MUCHO GUSTO" meaning "much pleasure", a response to old style wrestler rants from the old WWF wrestlers of the 80's and 90's. The other element is the horse graphic on the side of his mask. 

These will come in handy when redrawing Capitan for panels as the edit tools such as Warp and Distort tools can be used to apply them to him and blend them in as part of the art. This will help with the overall consistency of the art.

I feel that this is a design that is both pretty striking thanks to the bold pattern of his outfit and should prove to be easily reproduced from panel to panel in the comic. 

Project Proposal and Project Direction

Just a quick wee update. Getting the project proposal written has helped me narrow down exactly where I am headed with the project (about time too).

The project now is split into 2 main objectives. The first is a collaborative effort producing a comic entitled "Capitan Benezuela" (spelled with a 'B') with one of my peers, Juan Carlos De Abreu. The idea for this has been simmering away in the back of my mind for a while now since one fateful day last year Juan asked for a quick sketch of a "Venezuelan version of Captain America". The idea has completely changed, nothing to do with super soldiers. 

The second part of the project will revolve around the transmutation of written text or stories into images, depicting scenes from the text. Whether the text is self-written or based on existing text will be decided over the Christmas break.

Consistency

Consistency in the art is crucial when producing a comic. When it comes to drawing just about every comic book artist advises to just draw the characters over and over, familiarizing yourself with the design and build up a reference archive to refer back to.

Manuel Gutierrez developmental work for Marvel's "Blade" miniseries.

Mark Silvestri's development work for the reboot of "Cyberforce".

Like in the games and movie industries all aspects of the character be considered including expressions, weapons, clothing, colours etc. which will aid in the process of reproducing the character or object repeatedly.

A comparison of Stjepan Sejic's Development and final pages for "Twitch".

Perhaps more than the games or movie industry the comic artist's knowledge of the design of elements of within their story is of the utmost importance. In the movies and games elements are designed, made and put to use by animators. Producing comic art is more comparable to 2D animation where the character is reproduced repeatedly for each frame they feature in.

Stjepan Sejic's 3D character sculpts utilised in final pages for "Ravine".

3D illustration has becoming more prevalent over the past few years and this is slowly filtering into comic art. Stjepan Sejic used a combination of 3D modelling and digital painting with great success while making his graphic novel "Ravine". The 3D helped to keep high levels of consistency throughout the 2 current volumes as well as produce an art style that was easily recognisable as Sejic's. As a result of combining high level 2D illustration with detailed 3D models, at points the imagery in the books bridges the uncanny valley with its realism.

While there are no quick solutions to producing consistent, high level comic art understanding the subject matter is key. The issue I have been having with the consistency of the art in the 2 test strips will hopefully be (at least in part) by doing more in depth character designs as opposed to the quickfire ones I have been undertaking.
Employing design practices from 2D animation and the employment of 3D into the art pipeline are ways to aid in this matter.

Hungarian Horntail Strip

With this strip I focused on trying to speed up my work flow by spending less time on the drawings of these panels and going for a more painterly approach. Though these pages are really only rough layouts they are revealing aspects of my work that I need to improve on or learn.

One of the first problems I came across with this strip was composing it so it made sense and flowed. 

During research will be looking into some of the principles of cinematography. While I was aware of the different kind of camera angles (bird's eye, worm's eye, long shot, close up etc.) I had not considered that film making principles such as the 180 degree rule are so important when producing cohesive pages in comics and graphic novels.

One of the biggest issues I have found is consistency in the art is lacking. Though I have looked into this, the best advice and methods involve more in depth character design processes than I am undertaking with these tests.

Learning to compose more suitable and interesting layouts is another, Though I understand the theory behind formal and informal layouts I feel that I need to work a lot more on this aspect of production. 

This and the previous strip I have produced have not featured any dialogue. I will be looking into scripts and their formats next before continuing on with the next character design/strip exercise.

Visual Narrative

The desire to tell and pass down stories has been part of human culture since the early days of our species. Paintings on cave walls depicting events from the lives of early humans have provide a glimpse into their lives. Today the desire to tell stories is still as deep routed in human culture as it was for early man.  

The term “Visual Narrative” is derived from the two words Visual and Narrative (surprisingly) and describes the telling of stories through visual means.

Throughout history each culture has developed their own unique method of conveying stories to their audience. Ancient Greek and Chinese ceramics depicting important events from their culture, sculptural reliefs and paintings within religious temples of most cultures are all examples of visual narrative. Over the centuries this has evolved into various different art forms such as films, animation and historical painting.

Comic books and graphic novels are also part of this group. Will Eisner published the book Graphic Storytelling and Narrative in which he defined comics as “the printed arrangement of art and balloons in sequence”.

Comics and Graphic Novels are considered Static Visual Narratives. Like Murals, sculptural reliefs and paintings comics are part of a medium that occupy surface area. The viewer discovers the story by exploring the area covered by the visual elements. As the viewer progresses the story is revealed. The stories in this type of visual narrative are revealed at the viewer’s discretion, leaving it up to them how much time is spent on the different elements of the visual and what order it is viewed. This is opposed to Dynamic Visual Narrative such as film or animation where the viewer is presented the visuals in a predetermined pace and sequence or Interactive Visual Narrative where the story progresses through the participation of the viewer.

These methods of telling stories have been developed over decades and centuries. They allow us to communicate where, when, how, why and what happened when an event occurred. Whatever the story it can be told through Visual Narrative, the visual element gives the story teller the ability to not only describe the characters, locations and events but also show them to the viewer.

Character Design challenge 3

This is the character produced for Callum MacDougall based on the description of the Hungarian Horntail dragon from the Harry Potter series.

I tried having a look at eagles and their anatomy to influence the design rather than just looking at lizards like I have in the past when drawing/painting dragons.
Overall I think the design, while fairly successful at communicating the description of the creature the overall design is pretty generic.
More importantly though, Callum was pretty happy with the effort.

Alien MMA Fighter Strip

Rather than going for a character design then taking it into a final painting it was suggested that I put them into situations and depict them through comic book pages.

This was the strip produced for the Alien MMA fighter. 

While creating the page I wanted to keep it traditional, working within conventional page dimensions and layout A). to see how restrictive it can be and B). so I could focus on composing the art within the panels as I feel that composition isn't one of my stronger areas.

One thing I have been curious about with modern comic/graphic novel production is utilizing 3D as a tool to aid in production so for the 3rd, 4th and 5th panel a small block out of the arena was made. This aided in speeding up the process of painting each panel as well as keeping the perspective in each shot correct. This type of process is used by environmental artists like Baron Tieri in the games industry as well as a few comic book artists such as Stjepan Sejic. This is a method that I will explore further as I produce future designs and strips this semester.

For this strip a my classmate Juan Carlos De Abreu was kind enough to donate his weekly character design to take on the green meanie.

Comic Book Layouts

The comic book layout is the order and composition of individual panels which hold the art, dialogue, narration and effects. When read in sequence the panels tell the story of the comic.

This aspect of comic book production is as important as script and art as without an engaging and more importantly an understandable flow to the pages, reading the pages can become confusing and break the concentration of the reader.

Traditionally Comic panels were laid out in a grid pattern, the reader 2x2, 3x2, 3x3 etc. The reader would read each row, left to right before moving to the next row. An example of this can be seen below in the fight between Captain American and Batroc the Brawler.

As comics grew, their layouts began to variations on this. Differing panel sizes to emphasize important moments within scenes, differing the number of panels on the page to allow for larger, more impactful images or letterbox style panels which can help to give a more cinematic feel to a scene. Below is an example of this from “Batman: Hush.” Jim Lee has used a combination of letterbox and more square traditional panels to differentiate between the faster pace part of the scene from the panels with important dialogue and events.

When producing the art for “Batman: Arkham Asylum” Dave McKean took traditional convention another way. By using letterbox style panels and laying them out on their end gave the graphic novel a looming, oppressive feel which fit with the mood and atmosphere of the story.

Alex Ross developed a style that uses both traditional and more radical techniques to create his work on Batman: Black & White as well as “Batman: War on Crime”. Ross is known for his layouts that defy many conventions when laying out pages, often forgoing margins or even separation lines between panels. Choosing to instead blend the panels artwork together, creating pages that are seamless works of art which often resembled large splash pages. With the addition of narration and dialogue to his art Ross’ work becomes a unique and visually appealing experience.

When it comes to the placement of speech bubbles in comic art consideration first is given to the size as well as the amount of dialogue in each bubble or box. Large speech bubbles and large amounts of dialogue are usually nessessary to propel the story forward in character driven stories. When laying out a comic the artist must be careful to give enough space for dialogue while not allowing it to dominate the panels. Often larger bubbles are broken up over a couple of panels. This also allows the flow of the conversations between characters to be broken up, giving the characters a chance to “breath” and for the conversations to flow more naturally. Often to aid the reader and make the flow of the dialogue easier to follow by the reader visual cues can be put into a series of panels. In the below example the reader is directed by the eye line of the characters. Even though dialogue is placed throughout the page, thanks to this visual cue it is easier to interpret the intended order of the speech bubbles.

Character Design Challenge 3

This weeks challenge is a request from one of my peers. He has asked a number of people to produce their interpretation of the Hungarian Horntail Dragon from the Harry Potter books.
This is the description he has provided: "Supposedly the most dangerous of all the dragon breeds, the Hungarian Horntail has black scales and is lizard-like in appearance. It has yellow eyes, bronze horns and similarly coloured spikes that protrude from its long tail. The Horntail has one of the longesr fire-breathing ranges (up to fifty feet). Its eggs are cement-coloured and particularly hard-shelled; the young club their way out using their tails, whose spikes are well developed at birth. The Hungarian Horntail feeds on goats, sheep and, whenever possible, humans."

Character Design Challenge 2 - Development

This design challenge was to produce a design for a Sci Fi MMA fighter that would fight in the galactic version of the UFC. 

The idea was to create a character that would pose a different challenge to an MMA fighter while still being familiar enough anatomically to take on humans.
I was trying to play around with a style half way between the realistic style and the more cartoony, characature style i used to favor. The reason for this is for speed of production when reproducing the character(s) for sequential pages.
The other part of this challenge is to take one of these forward and produce a short 1 or 2 page strip depicting a fight scene featuring one of the characters, giving me an exercise to explore layouts.

Comic Book Production

A comic book is a story that is told through a series of sequential images featuring dialogue and sounds which propel the story forward. The stories can be humorous or dramatic and can consist of any story genre.

Comics are printed in issues on a regular basis. Each issue may contain a series of, a part of a longer story which will be told over a series of issues or a whole story.  Graphic novels are an extension of this, forgoing single issues and telling a whole story in one book.

The process of creating a comic book begins with a story. Once details of the plot, characters, locations etc have been produced it is all compiled into a series bible similar to TV, film or animated series.

From this visuals can be designed, story arches can be plotted and refined into scripts.

Using the script and designs thumbnails rough drafts of page layouts can be drafted. This phase is where the panel art, sequencing, dialogue and overall layout of the page are worked out.

Once this is finalized art begins. Traditionally comic art was drawn in pencil, the line art is inked and then coloured also using ink. Now a great deal of comics are coloured digitally, however penciling and line art inking practices vary from artist to artist.

Lettering typically is done digitally as it gives a far more consistent finish to the page but there are some who prefer to produce lettering by hand or using stencils.

In the production of modern comics, digital practices like photo manipulation, 3D modelling and Matte Painting are becoming more widely used as part of artists’ pipelines. More varied art styles are being achieved through digital drawing and painting, offering far wider artistic expression than at any time in the history of the industry.

Character Design Challenge 2 - Moodboard

The second character design challenge is to design a sci fi MMA fighter.

For this challenge I will be aiming to design an alien who competes in the galactic equivalent of the UFC.
The next topic I will be looking into is page layouts so I will use this as the basis for a short 1 or 2 page strip where I will look at formal and informal comic page layouts.

Character Design Challenge 2

The second challenge is #74: Design an Sci fi MMA fighter.

Progress Presentation 1

We had the first set of progress presentations for the Honours Project. The idea was to show our peers and lecturers what we have planned for our projects and how we have started going about achieving our goals.

I spoke about my initial ideas for the project, how it had been a number of separate ideas that were all part of a whole so they were all put into one.

Until yesterday I was thinking about this project the wrong way. I was planning an art project that I wanted to do and trying to find a way to justify it for the academic side. Comparing the way comics and graphic novels are produced pre digital art vs post digital art was starting to emerge as a way to take research. 

The focus of the project should be taking a series bible through to a completed set of sequential pages and covers, the technology is just a set of tools that I can use along the way. 

Another thing that was suggested was a slight modification to the character design challenge. When designing the characters I will start considering the situations the characters might get into. When it comes to the painting every 4th week, rather than being just a character design standing there I will start to try painting them within short one page strips every second week. 

Overall the feedback was really helpful with moving the not only moving the project forward but also finally defining the goals of the project.

This week I will finish my general research and get cracking on to the practical arty goodness.

Character Design Challenge 1 - Final Painting

As this was the first of the design challenges I felt that I should do the first challenge to the end and do a final painting of the character.

The biggest challenge I found with this painting was making the character's suit look black..... without painting it black. This was weirdly the first time I have had that issue with work. Adding the hues of orange and purple from the background helped to tie the painting together while giving more depth to the image. This also worked to tie in the white markings on the character's suit.

Another challenge was getting the metal elements of the character's gear to look reflective. About half way through the painting I realised I was being far too reserved, jacked up the opacity on my brush and went for it, raising the light tones, making them contrast more sharply to the darks. 

When it came to the shield I incorporated the "Spawn" logo. The image seemed unbalanced with the glow from the spear and the large dark area on the right so the decidion was made to give the shield the glowing eyes also. I feel this helped to better balance the image. 

Overall the image was too dark, the diffuse lighting from the spear was punched up across the characters chest, head and the edge of the shield which helped to brighten it up. 

Ultimately while the image has a few issues I am fairly pleased with the outcome of the first challenge. The character's design speaks very much spawn and spartan, I feel that the original character is done justice and if used as a basis for a comic book character would not be difficult to reproduce for sequential images.
I have learned a lot from this piece as far as technique as well as about the way I work. I am too reserved and overly cautious when painting. Maybe coming from a more traditional background where if you really muck up, you really muck up. When painting in the future I must get out of this mind set and try to be more confident when working.

Comic Book History

“a comic book is a series of words and pictures that are presented in a sequential manner to form a narrative that may or may not be humorous” (McCloud 1993).

What is considered as the first “real” comic strip was Richard Felton Outcault’s The Yellow Kid which was published in 1895 in Joseph Pulitzer’s The New York World. The strip was most notable for it was the first strip to use balloons as a space to put character dialogue. Publishers started to realize that comic strips made their papers appeal to a wider audience and strips became more widespread and gave birth to other early strips and characters that are still well known to this day such as Popeye. The first comic books were collections of reprints of these early strips.
As the comic industry expanded during the 1930’s, it developed a cultural and economic identity very different from newspaper syndicates of the time.
Though this is regarded as the birth of the modern comics, the format of the modern comic can be compared with narrative imagery of cave paintings. The format has also been compared to medieval broadsheets that were strips carved into sections of wood which were then used for printing. The authors would regularly produce stylized narrative images of public executions and caricatures which were then circulated. Other comparisons have been drawn to historic artifacts such as the Bayeux Tapestry which features a graphic narrative of the events leading to the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
Many of the thematic elements of comics can be followed back to ancient legends and mythology, for example, Achilles’ weakness was his heel can be compared to the weaknesses that afflict the modern superhero such as Superman’s weakness Kryptonite. In fact DC comics Justice League’s main members have been compared to the pantheon of gods from Greek Mythology, The Watch Tower serving as their Mount Olympus. Even the way that Superheroes are depicted with their Adonis like physiques can be compared to the way the ancient Greeks depicted their gods in their sculpture (though some artists took it a bit too far, giving Adonis a heavy course of steroids and Human Growth Hormone). The epic trials and adventures the characters in comics hark back to the ancient myths and legends such as the 12 Labours of Superman mirroring the Labours of Hercules.
When comics began they were initially considered a form of entertainment for children and mostly had their place on the fringes of pop culture, however they evolved into a sophisticated art form that was used to not only convey narrative but also ideologies and a social commentary of their times. During World War II Captain America was conceived by Marvel comics as a way to promote patriotism and boost morale. At the time DC Comics were more focused on more governmental and social welfare issues.
After WWII the industry declined, losing a percentage of its audience to Television and questions about the Social impact of comics were raised after the emergence and popularity of Horror comics. In the USA a Senate investigation was launched. One of the industry’s biggest blows came when Dr Fredric Wertham’s The Seduction of the Innocent accused some comic books of corrupting the young, inciting them to violence.
The industry responded by setting up the Comics Code Authority as a way of self-policing the industry and win back readers.
Over the years further examples of this kind of commentary can be seen. As the Vietnam War raged, the public opinion was not that of patriotism and pride but more one questioning the government’s intentions. With all this change, the superhero was reinvented and as a result more conflicted, flawed and complicated heroes were introduced. They battled against virtuous villains and took part in story lines that made the reader think more about both sides. The “Secret Empire” story line saw Steve Rogers abandon his alter ego Captain America as a reaction to Marvel’s fictionalized depiction of the Watergate Scandal.
As other forms of entertainment became more prevelant in the 70’s and 80’s reader numbers declined the focus for the major comic book companies became licensing their characters for film, TV shows and cartoons. Film such as Superman starring Christopher Reeves, TV shows such as The Incredible Hulk and Cartoons such as Fantastic 4 all gave the companies the resources to keep producing comics and keep their place in the industry.
Through the 80’s the industry went through a further transition towards bringing their characters into the real world, giving them personal issues to deal with, crisis of faith, and even bring into question their mortality. Characters such as Frank Millar’s Daredevil began to question his own motives as a superhero and at points his own sanity.
Darker story lines were introduced such as Batman: Knightfall which told the story of the defeat of Batman at the hands of Bane and Superman: Doomsday which followed the events leading up and the events after Superman dies in Lois Lane’s arms in front of the Daily Planet building.
During this time the industry saw one of its biggest booms. By making their characters not only more in depth but mortal gave rise to more intense story lines and rekindled the public’s interest in the medium and the stories it had to tell.
Through the 90’s to today the comic book industry has gone from strength to strength. More publishing houses can be found than ever before, comic book art (though it had a wobble in the mid 90’s) has evolved exponentially and now embraces not only digital colouring techniques but also 3D imaging as part of its production. The characters who were envisioned so long ago are now fully realized as part of multimillion dollar motion pictures, computer games, animated series and movies.
The industry has endured for decades, telling fans stories of their favorite characters facing off against the most diabolical villains. Hopefully if the industry continues to evolve with the times, keeps bringing in fresh writers, artists and dynamic new ideas it will endure well into the future.

Series Bible

As part of my third year project I produced a series bible for a story called "Hunters." The story centered around a team of intergalactic bounty hunters struggling to find their place in a galaxy set against them. Along with this I produced a potential design for a couple of the characters but that project was not about taking a story through to completed sequential pages.
This semester I plan to research and practice everything I need to take this series bible forward and produce the final artwork and covers for a comic book.

Character Design Challenge 1 - Development

When thinking of a Spartan version of spawn I wanted to keep the iconic shield, helmet and spear. These will help to keep the character's silhouette recognisable as a spartan warrior.

In the original Spawn design the green glow is a prodominant feature, often the character is in shadow and the glow the only visable element. In the past I have not really used specular and bounce light. In the final painting working this element in will be a big focus.
The White markings needed to be retained to be more true to the character. Initially I considered making the helmet part of the character rather than an traditional helmet but after trying this I found it looked more striking to keep it bronze with high contrast flat white painted on over the metallic. It also helped to retain a heroic look rather than going demonic. In the final painting this will be carried on across the shield but with the "Spawn" logo.

Character Design Challenge 1 - Moodboard

The first character design challenge is to design a Hellspawn from Todd McFarlane's "Spawn".

In Spawn, the Hellspawn's are the soldiers of Hell's army in its war against Heaven. Fallen warriors who sell their souls to the devil in return for their chance at vengeance.

Spawn centres arond one such Hellspawn, Al Simmons who sells his soul to the devil Malebolgia in hope of seeing his family again. Simmons is sent back to earth a monster who has no hope of rekindling the relationships he once had. 

A number of my peers have expressed interest in taking part in the weekly challenge so to add an extra dimension to the challenges each week another person taking part will give input on each week's brief. This will make sure there is always an unexpected, extra element to take into account.
This week Chris Dickson has given me the challenge of creating a Hellspawn from ancient Sparta.
In the design of spawn there are certain visual cues I want to carry over to my character. The black symbiotic suit with the white markings red cape as well as the green glow. One other element I would like to incorporate is the Spawn logo, shown on the axe "Agony" (lower central image), it is also a familiar sight from the "Spawn" comic series.

Character Design Challenge 1

The first character design challenge is #88: Design a Hellspawn character from Todd McFarlane's "Spawn" using a specific time period and culture as inspiration.
Since this is the first week I will do a more polished painting as well as the development board on this challenge.

Character Design Challenges

As I work through my honors year I will be undertaking a series of character design challenges. Each challenge will be selected randomly from a list of around 100 varying character design challenges, using a random number selector http://andrew.hedges.name/experiments/random/. Spending a bit of time each week to produce a moodboard and a development board for designs that will be taken further into finished paintings.
The goal of using this challenge is to start generating ideas that can possibly be taken further in semester 2 for my final project.
This will give me a constantly changing challenge that will provide me with varied subject matter to work on. This will also provide me with an opportunity to critically evaluate my work.  I feel that it will be a useful practice to develop my skills.

Project Ideas - Post Feedback

Having spoke to my lecturer about my ideas for the project it has become evident that my 3 project ideas could potentially be separate elements of a whole.
Rather than looking at what I am doing, figuring out what I want to achieve by the end of the project myself is key.
SO... Ultimately I want to improve my digital painting and develop my own style/voice in illustration which will allow me to tell stories better through visual media.
The idea of taking source material such as my "Hunters" story bible from 3rd year Creative Research and using it as a foundation for my project to be based on. The first project idea 3D as part of the pipeline would be one thing to explore for consistency when depicting scenes mainly hardware, revisited locations, blocking out scenes etc. The second project, taking a series bible through to sequential panels and covers would be the ultimate goal of the project and the idea of designing the universe would be done in preproduction.
Getting some feedback on my ideas and realizing that all of the ideas were roughly going in the right direction is a relief.
Another idea as a smaller scale side project was to develop some sort of weekly challenge which would give me a constantly varying challenge. This challenge would also give me an element of the project that will serve as a basis for self critique and provide fresh subject matter separate to the bulk of the project.

4th Year Begins

Starting to figure out where I am aiming with my Honors project I am looking to base a project in 2D Illustration or Concept Design for games and movies.

3D modelling and animation have been used in 2D animated cartoons and movies such as the Batman: Sub Zero and the Iron Giant. In recent times 3D along with Matte Painting has been making its way into illustration. 1 possible way to go with this might be to explore how 3D can be used for comic books and graphic novels.

Another direction for the project in the field of illustration could be to look into the process of  taking a series bible through to a finalized comic/graphic novel. Using source material to design visual elements and take these into final covers and sequential pages ready for publishing.

The third idea for the project is to  do a large design project. Taking a series bible and designing as much of the characters, locations, vehicles, creatures and props in universe. This would give the opportunity to research and discover new ways to design visual elements of any story and start to build the universe.

Next I will do some initial research in order to develop these 3 ideas before speaking to my lecturers for feedback.

Finalised Comic Book Covers

The 2 complete comic book covers with logos.

Company and Title Logos

To finalise the comic covers I have produced a couple of logos. The first is the title of the comic "Hunters".

I chose use the carbon fibre texture from Kara's armour as this is a material I want to feature on the gear of the members of the team of bounty hunters. The font was made square and bold and embossed to give the impression that it was made of a strong substance. The outer glow was added as the logo is fairly dark and this would help it pop against darker covers.

The other logo that was created for the final covers is a mock company logo called "Big Moose Comics". The reason behind the name is a long story but as it features Moose I wanted to make the logo look like a Canadian road sign, the likes seen warning of Moose crossing roads.

Originally I thought about mounting a moose head on a road sign to look like a hunting trophy though by the time the logo was shrunk down any detail would be lost and the "Big" part of the name would be not be illustrated. When shrunk down this logo is bold enough to read and see the image so I feel is more suitable than the original idea.

The 2 logos will be arranged on the covers for final submissions to give more of a complete look.