Useful Expressions!

For your characters, a useful exercise is to determine the range of expressions you will need in your story and pin down those expressions for consistency.

Draw their expressions, and keep it on hand to refer to when drawing your comics. It sure helps when you are under a deadline. It also has the added benefit of making you figure out these important facial features of your characters so they don’t look lifeless on the page.

Nancey Lorenz (an artist at deviantArt) has come up with this useful set of "25 Essential Expressions".



Now, some of your characters might not reasonably express being drunk or flirty, but simply replace those with the closest similar idea that makes sense. A little kid might not be drunk, but they do fall under the influence of sugar, etc.

Similarly, think about the critical plot points in your story, where do they take place? What does that location look like under different lighting conditions, from different angles? Which point of view and setting will best support the emotion at that moment in the story? It's sort of like doing the expression set for your characters, just applying it to location.

Design Stuff

I've bumped into a few of you already on campus now and have spoken about expectations for next class, but I want to put it down here for folks to refer to before Tuesday.

Don't worry so much about expanding your script into a full storyboard. We will be going over that in-class. Pacing issues and some practical considerations of bookbuilding will be important (stuff like front matter, which is handled differently for traditional storybooks and graphic novels).

Instead, use this time to fully develop your character designs and settings. By next time you should have detailed color references for each each character and location. This should come after doing the research and trying out difference ideas. Don't commit too soon to any particular design, play with it and think about WHY stuff will look the way it does. Use reference for any details! Along with using the internet, which I know is easy, find stuff with your own eyes that you can use. A tour of the MFA can help you with this, because there are good examples of how to to render different materials, lighting situations, settings, etc. Also this might give you some ideas for costuming. If you are setting your narrative in a more modern era, go window shopping and see how fashions and such actually hang on the body.

You will have had two weeks to do all this kind of process by next class. There should be evidence of this work informing your design choices. Ideally, when you finish this stage, you should be able to hand your designs to any other artist who could create your look using what you came up with. It should be that complete.

A really good example of this kind of process work is looking at any of the "Art of..." books for the Star Wars franchise. Check them out in any bookstore.

Plots in the Box! and One Fine Day info

Tomorrow during Registration Day, you should be able to pick up your submitted scripts in the main office on the 6th floor. They are in a box right when you come in marked NARRATIVE ILLUSTRATION for pick-up.

I will either be helping with registration or I will be in my office all day if you need to see me about anything class related.

Additionally, I have graded the "One Fine Day" assignments that are on the wall, unfortunately, during the one-on-one meetings I didn't get a chance to really look anybody's process work. So do bring that stuff with you next time. It won't take long and it's the only part missing from the grade. I'll be able to return the project to you with your grade on the spot.

There are some of you who were late, or even beyond late, in finishing up. I strongly urge you to see me about this; even a late penalty is better than a zero in grading.

No Class Next Week!

There is apparently no class next week because it will be Registration Day.

This should not affect your process work, however. You definitely need to get going on your book, particularly seeking out other works that look similar, are about the same story, or are otherwise examples to help guide you on what is being published and selling.

You should also use the time to sketch out your settings, any interior and exterior locations, and characters.

By the next time we meet, you should have a clear grasp of how things will look. Worked up from thumbnails to color sketches and any needed detailing. Your process should reflect the consideration for why things look the way they do in your story.

We will still be doing the half-size working book dummy in class in two weeks, so don't worry about pacing your story just yet, I want to go over that in class with you then. For now, just do the foundation research. The more you chew on it at this stage, the easier it will be later to use these pieces together in telling the story.

I will be happy to meet with you before next class if you feel you need it, just email me to let me know. When you are added to the blog list, you can also put up your work here to get and give your feedback as well.

One Fine Day and Script Feedback

So I looked through all the One Fine Day assessments, both of each other and the self-assessments. You folks are really sharp and have good eyes about each other's work. I think there may be some personal skewing as far as your own work goes. It can be easy to be your own worst critic, while at the same time overlooking issues that other people are more likely to see. I'll leave the reviews in a box in the main office on the 6th floor for you to pick up along with my own graded review, that way you can see the feedback others gave you.

I still need to grade the work on the wall, however, but this will happen before next Tuesday certainly.

I also looked through your scripts and added notes and comments, these I will leave out for you to pick up as well. Since you need to get going on this, and hopefully you already are, I'll set these out tomorrow. I will label the pile for pick-up in the main office (6th floor) but you can also ask Velma, the department secretary if you don't see them.

Overall, good work and good ideas, I think the set of proposed stories could be awesome illustrated pieces. Some few of you still need to pin down the plotted sequence of events. The next step is to do your visual research. What look are you going for? What settings? What time period? What is the character design? Try as many different ideas as possible, brainstorm this stuff and don't settle on anything too soon.

Stay tuned and good luck.

Welcome!

Alright, so for the second half of the course, now that we're all going to be working on our book, I want to make use of the blog to help share information. Check here before class to keep up on any developments. I will add your email addresses to the blog so that you can post yourself. This should not at all be considered a substitute for coming to class, but additional information will appear here from time to time.