Brief This assignment will bring together some of the experiments you have undertaken in the course’s exercises so far, where you have looked at comic structures and conventions like: The opening scene Character design Point-of-view Text styles of word balloons and text captions The silent comic Visual style The nine-panel grid is most famously used […]
Category: Part 3: Structures and Stories
Research the following comic artists who are highly unconventional and extreme in their style; that is, they have a super-stylised and almost unique way if drawing that cannot be compared to anyone else in the comics’ field: Jim Steranko Aline Kominsky-Crumb Alex Niño Dave McKean Mary Fleener Frank Miller Basil Wolverton Choose two artists form […]
Brief Find a photograph you like or are interested in drawing from. Try to choose one with figures, buildings and a lot of detail. The source or context is not as important as the richness of imagery and potential it offers you for visual interpretation. Photocopy or print your chosen image so that it is […]
The two wordless graphic novels I chose for this research task were: My Book of Hours by Frans Masereel (1919) The Arrival by Shaun Tan (2006) Frans Masereel used woodcut prints to illustrate his black and white, graphic novel, My Book of Hours (1919), which creates very bold, definitive lines. I was impressed by how […]
Brief Similar to the last exercise, you will be starting with a set text. This time you should pick a favourite song. Try not to choose anything too epic and it’s best if the lyrics have an interesting range of action or colourful description. First, listen to the song and answer the following: What mood […]
Brief Select a sequence of about three pages from a book you like. Try to think of a story you find visuallly interesting rather than something philosophical. Ideally it will include all different types of storytelling, so a story that includes dialogue, interesting characters as well as descriptions of places and objects. Try not to […]
Brief For this exercise you will need a small sketchbook (A5), each page will be a single panel of your P.O.V. narrative. Make your own P.O.V. record of an event. This can be something as everyday as as making a cup of tea, or waiting at a bus stop, or it could be more a […]
Brief Draw an opening scene frame into the top third of an A3 piece of paper or card. Look back at your favourite opening scene that you sketched from the previous exercise. Perhaps the visual elements of it inspire you, the place you drew looks visually interesting and has potential for narrative development. As it […]
I studied the supplied page of artwork from Will Eisner’s “The Spirit” and considered the following questions: What does the first panel establish in terms of place and atmosphere? The use of black for the sky and the street light establish that the story is taking place at night. The weather is clearly very turbulent, […]
Brief Every time you watch a TV programme, draw a sketch of the opening scene. This could be any type of programme. You will have to be very quick as usually this first shot only lasts for a couple of seconds, but this is all part of the exercise – you will need to work […]