Thursday 13 January 2011

Developing Cartoons (Or, More Ramblings)



Today I totes had a tutorial.

He said that the main points to work on were to actually do some work. He also said that I needed to develop (simplify?) my drawings into a manner more suited to a comic strip. So far my strips haven't been developed enough for this to be a problem but for something that'll live outside of my sketchbook it's sort of essential. I think I already knew this which was why I was putting off drawing the strips. Can't draw a comic if you don't know how to draw it. You know?

He also suggested thinking about trying to reproduce the kind of paper and print quality of the era which sounds a good idea but at the same time I don't really know how to go about it. I figure the actually strips are my priority anyhow. Still, if I get time I should look into it.

Anyway! Back to the development of my drawings. Well, I've done a bit of that now. It was surprisingly simple? They remind me of something but I'm not sure what it is. I think maybe Herge? The combination of realism and cartoonism (this is definitely a word) seems sort of similar? Essentially I'm using this as an excuse to buy some Tintin! Yes good plan. I want to look at how he composes panels because I'm a little lost in that regard and also I feel kind of like I'm not an actual human person until I read Tintin.

ALSO, I think maybe I should work to get these posts slightly more concise? Not that anyone but me reads them, but still.

Wednesday 12 January 2011

Musings (Or, Ramblings)

Today David Fulford came in to talk about his work. He pretty much caught my attention when he mentioned Winsor McCay and Chris Ware as influences. Didn't really see that coming, being primarily a painter and all. But basically he was saying that he doesn't read them (what??) but looks at them (is he mad??). This idea shocked me rather a bit for some reason.

Anyhow, I'm thinking if I should take this approach. My comics don't tend too look very interesting at all. Maybe if I took more interest in the design of a page then it would be more interesting to people who don't really have any interest in reading comics.

Although my comics are kind of too short to do much of that. How many ways can you arrange four panels? (okay probably there are a gazillion ways but whatevs). Possibly my world has been turned upside down a bit. Just a tiny bit. My world is pretty much just slightly wonky now.

Also I was thinking of Watchmen. I suddenly remembered how amazing that book is and I should read it again but then I was thinking 'hmph I don't like the new cover art' and so I don't really want to buy a copy...

This was actually all the thoughts I had today.

Friday 7 January 2011

Maybe A Slight Improvement!

Yes that's right! 2 posts in 2 days! A veritable landslide of blogging!

So, thoughts on illustration? Where do I start? From the end? The end of Jeff Smith's rather incredible 'Bone' series? Yeah I just finished it the other day. I had to read the last bulk all at once because I didn't want to have to haul the hefty single volume all the way to London with me.

The downside is that I can't look back through it all right now. And there is a lot to look through.


This page right here, for one, is amazing! (Thanks google images!) There's a whole lot going on here in terms of comic writing. More than I have the time (or energy (or insight)) to get into. But basically what I'm mostly thinking I need to take from it is the visual dynamism. The energy that Smith gets into these panels is astonishing and kind of the complete opposite to the way my comics come out.

On the one hand, the subject does determine these things to some extent and mine are never really exciting events. The essential point is to compose comics in a way that best highlight the emotions that are appropriate. Okay, that's not terribly enlightening. It's just something I think I need to keep in mind.

Anyway, that's all for today.

Thursday 6 January 2011

Oh Goodness What A Slacker

Yeah, okay maybe I completely forgot about this blog after one post. That's in the past now though! It's a new year and I'm back in the smoke and it is time to fire this baby up again.

So what's the haps? I think basically December was not a productive month! I blame Mr Christmas. Work on my (previously unmentioned) Profumo strip continues with this theme. Too much reading about it and not enough drawing about it seems to be the problem. Must get a move on work that is actually somewhat presentable for next week.

Also nervous for assessmenting. I always am.