Background

Garden background for the last four panels of the comic that don't really change. Except for in the last panel where "camera" has moved slightly to focus more on Brian and his one bit of dialogue.

Reference: My lovely background.



Rough: Working from the photo, just a rough layout of where everything is.

Draft: Makes the garden look quite clean.



More to come

That's better

Last night when I opened my blog at home I took another glance at the illustration I had done for one of the Northern characters. I didn't like it. It did not look a feel like the character that I was supposed to be drawing so I drew his facial features again and this time I'm much happier about it.

And now for Brian.

Gray Scale

Still not finished, there's a little tweaking to be done here and there. I'm going to make the comic in gray scale first before putting down the colour. I've found this is easier when it comes to shading and position of lighting.

Edit: Wow...I draw ugly faces.
Back to the drawing board.

Happy Marshmallows

Come on guys. Look happier. You're toasting marshmallows/your hands.



For my Northern comic. They're not going to be purple, it's just how I go about sketching.

Brian: Whose idea was this?
Leeland: *actually asleep with his eyes open.*

BANG!

Playing around with hand drawn type for the November Comic. It doesn't need to be over the top but I would rather it be something I've designed rather than just typed out. This goes for the tittle of the comic as well.

November: First Story Board

First mock up story board for the 6 panel comic I'm going to submit for the Northern Sequential Art competition. My Northern theme is the rusty building that I can see from my living room/back garden.

The two characters (Who I am aware do not yet have facial features) Are pleasantly minding their own business warming their hands over a small bonfire in their back garden (Which is part of the set up) A large bang happens which we ca only presume to be a fire work and one of the character promptly falls off back in his chair. (He has a nervous disposition.) In annoyance, his friend turns to the off panel neighbors and tells them "OI! Bonfire Night was last week!"

End comic.

The idea being that no matter what day it is in November, there will be a firework and/or bonfire somewhere about. The two boy's don't head their own words.

I'll be working on developing a tittle theme for the page (which will run through out the entire comic, only the actual months changing)


There's a lot of work to be done but this is roughly the idea I want to go for. It's all subject to change but I quite like the pace of it so far. I may scrap the 2nd panel along to make more on panel time for the boys but I'll see what I come up with.

YA: Cirlces Coloured

They're not perfect. They need work but it was just to get an idea for what they would look like. The girls need the most work but I really like Vision. Anyway, that idea was fun let's try something else.

Edit: Looking at this again an hour late....I really dislike the girls. But oh well.

YA: Cirlces

Yet another Idea but I think this one works more than the hair silhouettes. Need's a bit of work and they're just sketches for now. The only thing I'm worried about it them looking too "cute" However, they're a team that has the fan backing to work on t-shirt yet are obscure enough to not have yet invaded pop culture. (Like wonder woman and super girl. Or even Teen Titans.)

Young Avengers: Girls

This hasn't turned out as well as it could have done. Maybe it's just me. These two characters are highly forgettable to me (and maybe that's one of the problems with girl characters) Sometimes I forget that they're there.
I'll work on them. I have another idea for the YA team different to the New Mutants team.

Young Avengers: Boys

Why did you have to be bald Eli? Why? Patriot now looks like a teenage mutant ninja turtle. For that, I apologise. Another problem, the twins (Wiccan and Speed) aren't quite the same. I think it's the hair. Girls to come next. (I always have a hard time drawing girls. I think it's the copious amounts of hair.)

Cartoony 'Locke

And here's 'Locke (Warlock) and he hasn't turned out as bad as I thought he would. I came to the realisation that almost every artist that Marvel has working on it's books illustartes 'Locke different. (Except Greg Land. He just traces Bill Sienkiewicz's...) Some draw him more robotic and others more organic.

I actually like how he turned out.

Cartoony Girls

And here are the girls. I dislike Magma's hair, it makes her look as if she's stepped out of a shampoo advert. Anyway, I'm thinking of perhaps combing the two styles and seeing what I come up with. There's a few more teams and characters I want to look at, not to mention full body vectors and a couple of things going on with logo's but I'll delve into that tomorrow.

Tonight I tackle Warlock in this style...I'm really not sure it's going to work though.

Cartoony Boys

Wanted to see what the New Mutants would look like if I stepped away form the vector feel for half an hour and drew the team with a more cartoony style.

The outcomes are quite amusing and effective is some areas. (I really like Cyphers and Sunspots...but Cannonball needs work. I can't seem to draw long faced guys)

Girls to come next and then Warlock because I'm not sure how his design is going to work with this style. However, I have drawn him in other various styles and they seemed to have worked.

Fasion Hero! The New Mutants!

There's far too much writing on this blog. On with some designs.
I've been working on an idea for the t-shirt brief I created for myself centered around designs for comic book women. (People of my gender reading comic books who are sick of the same all old "I only date superhero" t-shirt's that they drag out for us.

My first idea was to have the silhouettes of selected superhero teams hair. I knew this would work quite well for the New Mutants. (This is based on their most recent team book.)

Currently just quick sketches to see if this idea would work. I then decided to look at really simple vectors for the team:


Blondes are popular you'll notice. I was unsure whether to just work on their hair or to combine it with aspects of their powers. For example, Karma can take possession of people and this is illustrated by a pink motif around her head. Or did I keep it simple like Cyphers and Cannonballs (Who went through a period of having the same hair style, switching hair styles and then no one really having a clue what their hair was like)

To know more about the New Mutants please read this context post.

Design Statement!

"Narrative based design with a focus on character concept and development with illustrative deliverable!" - Leigh!

A very job description.

Questions that came up during group sessions today regarding my statement and what it is that I want to get out of the 3rd year:

• Could I possibly collaborate with animators to focus on character design and story boards. This would be a useful application of my skill and I wouldn't actually have to animate anything myself.
• Children's books. I mentioned not wanting to make "Technical Typography" so would I collaborate with a typographer?
• Apparel: Do I want to know about production, how it's printed and what kind of inks to use and do I solely want to make the design and nothing else?
• Contacting small publishers in regards to my children's books and short comic books.
  

What I want to do!

What I WANT to do in the 3rd year and why?

• To create comic books.
  : Because it's the area of design I want to head into! It deals with character design, narrative and how composition working with a structured layout. It's also fun!

• Character Design (Toy design)
  :I really enjoy trying to push personality into my designs and bring illustrations to life. I'm also a story teller whose quick at coming up with characters and what they're about.

• Type as image
  : Though still quite structured in term of typography I feel there's ore freedom with type as image. I don't want to completely write of typography as it's something that is essential to the type of design I want to head into.

• Apparel (clothing)
  : A media that is appropriate for the design I create.

• Children's Books
  : Not everything I want to do is completely about comic books and that kind of structure. I find childrens books can be just as interesting and creative with the idea of using more space for illustrations and simpler (yet affective) story telling.
  

What I DON'T want to do in the 3rd year and why?

• Website Design/coding
  : I would happily illustrate or design something to be incorporated into a website but as far as layout and coding goes it doesn't interest me. It's not creative enough for me. It's also not something that would hold my attention for very long.

• Technical typography
  : As much as I appreciate a well structured piece of typography it's not what I am drawn toward. It's too fiddly and precise.

• Animation/motion graphic
  As much as I adore cartoons/watching them it's not something I'm interested in working with. I'll happily design the characters for animation but as far as the animating process goes (and working with such programs as flash and after effects) It's not my area of interest.

• Corporate design
  : I wasn't sure how to word this one. I would never be interested in making a branding or a logo for some big corporate business or a bank.
  

(I'll think of some more in the morning)

Practice/Progress/Context

Post to come~

Briefs!

These are some of the briefs that I want to work on this year. Four of them are going to be projects I work on this semester. (until Christmas) One of them WILL be a competition brief, I just haven't quite figured out what I want to do for that one.

Note: Not all of these are going to be done this time around. However, I'm quite set on the ones I want to do first. There also subject to change and I'm still not set on the ones I want to do for my final major project/haven't wrote them all yet.

Brief 1: Fashion Hero. (I've already started working on this one.)

Brief 2: There's No Pictures! (tittle needs changing on this one. Silly me.)

Brief 3: Comic Covers! (Bit of a misleading tittle. They're a set of in comic ad's for comic con that will serve as banners at the convention. )
Brief 4: I'm not to sure about this one anymore. I really don't want to do packaging but I liked the idea of actually making the characters.

Brief 5: Y: the Last man! (this one ties in with my theoretical practice for my dissertation with it's looking into gender studies...And it's also a GREAT comic.)

Edit:

Live Brief: Northern Sequential Art
I'll probbaly end up doing a DNAD or YCN one as well. But this page is due in less than a month, however I thought I'd make into a full brief and produce a 12 page comic (not including front and back cover)

3rd Year!

Hello there!

I've now entered the 3rd yer so everything you see from me from now on are projects I'm working on for my last year at university.