{"id":1637,"date":"2023-06-21T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-21T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beaniebopdesigns.com\/caroline517443OCA-illustration2-responding-to-a-brief\/?p=1637"},"modified":"2023-09-01T08:09:47","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T08:09:47","slug":"exercise-girl-meets-boy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.beaniebopdesigns.com\/caroline517443OCA-illustration2-responding-to-a-brief\/part-3-narrative-illustration\/exercise-girl-meets-boy\/","title":{"rendered":"Exercise: Girl Meets Boy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Create a sequential illustration that creatively re-tells the story of girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl wins boy back, in whatever way you want. Make the re-telling entertaining. You’ll need to think about how you construct the different twists and turns of the story and decide on how you’re going to draw the characters and action, and how you’ll use your panels, speech bubbles and sound effects to make the story come alive.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This sequential illustration should be no more than one page but can be as short as a three panel cartoon if you can get the narrative to work in that format.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feel free to replace the boy with a girl or vice versa.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initial Thoughts<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I had been looking forward to this exercise ever since I read through the course materials prior to starting the unit. I did not have any idea what I was going to do though! After reading through the brief again, I was particularly drawn to the last line, ‘feel free to replace the boy with a girl or vice versa<\/em>‘, which I thought would make it even more interesting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was quite trepidatious about trying to keep the illustrations to one page and the idea of reducing it down further to three panels was slightly incomprehensible! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rough Ideas<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I started this exercise by noting down some vague concepts for storylines I had formed in my mind. However, it quickly became clear that the strongest idea involved a coffee shop, which may have been subconsciously influenced by the regular inclusion of these places in many rom-com films\/TV series. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Noting down some initial thoughts
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I then moved onto attempting to draft out a more comprehensive storyline. This where is my imagination started to get a bit carried away and dramatic, mainly because I could clearly see these situations occurring in film versions. I always feel a bit daft at this point and the thought of others reading it is quite embarrassing! <\/p>\n\n\n

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Writing out more concise story concepts
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The story evolved multiple times.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Writing out more concise story concepts
(click on image for larger version, opens in new tab)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

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Writing out more concise story concepts
(click on image for larger version, opens in new tab)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Once I had managed to extract these out of my mind, I was able to begin paring it down to a less dramatic, more simplified, 1-page friendly version, which was a relief. It certainly does appear, however, that I find it beneficial to take the time exploring narrative ideas in this way, rather than trying to think of something on the hop, as it provides a strong foundation to work from. I felt more familiar with characters and setting as these became embedded in my mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drafts<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In terms of relating my idea to the brief of girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl wins boy back<\/strong>, the very simple revised version was as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n