Okay. Hard Deadline Time!
For Thursday, April 24, bring in a finished page of your work for critique.
For Thursday, May 1, your first 8-page FINISHED comic is due. Make three copies, one of which will be turned in to me. Note: this is the first 8-pager that was originally due April 21. You'll continue working on your second 8-page dummy as well...
Okay, take a deep breath. You've actually done a decent amount of work!
Now, let's take some time to refine it...
Refinement might involve any combination of things...
Tightening up the story/script
Developing page layout
Improving panel compositions
Clarifying transitions
Cleaning up lettering
Developing Artwork
Some folks might be ready to add more pages
Base your refinements on self-assessment and group critique.
Take self-crit notes and take notes during group crit.
Write up what you'll be tacklin' on your blog.
Do it and post side-by-side comparisons and write about the process.
On Thursday, bring in 5 new copies of your improved work for an in progress critique. Make sure you show us the olde work as well.
John Choi, Six Types of Movie Shots, johnchoidesign.com
Research.
1. Read some comics.
2. Find some aspects of the comic you like. Page layout, gutters, transitions, designs, lettering, etc.
3. Incorporate them into your own work.
4. Post the sources and your own work side-by-side on your blog. Example by Miles.
Make a 4 page comic.
Fold it.
Staple it.
Make 5 copies.
Use the following devices at least once.
1. A wordless panel.
2. A caption.
3. An establishing shot.
4. An extreme close up.
Use the following transitions...
1. Aspect to aspect.
2. Action to action.
3. Keyframe to keyframe.
4. Change of hour.
5. Longer-term change of time.
I'm headed off to Wisconsin next week (November 8 - 12), so work your @sses off while I'm gone. I'll expect to see fresh new dummies, and at least 4 pages of finished work when I get back on Tuesday, November 16.
Banole is a cool web comic collaboration by S.O.U. alums Dave Marshall and Luke Kralik. Dig it! Dave will be coming to our class on Thursday, October 28. For all y'all Star Wars types, he's also one of the masterminds behind I.M.P.S. The Relentless.
Hey the links work now!
This week, we'll be critiquing your first page of finished art. The plan is for you to get some very specific feedback to help hone your individual approach to your work. For next week's critique, Tuesday, October 26, you'll do another page of finished work and bring in an updated dummy of your project.
Talking points for October 19 crit.
1. Clarity. Of action, story, setting, characters.
2. Consistency. Establishing the key visual forms and overall design.
3. Contour. Finishing and varying.
4. Story. Action and tension. Continuity.
5. Flow. Maintaining reader interest.
6. Graphic Power. Composition, composition, composition. Use of black/color. Visual hierarchy.
Here are Miles' videos on the basics of drawing in Flash.
On your web site, write a reflective essay about one or two of your influences. Describe the work. What drew you to their work? What do you know about their working methods? How do they use composition, line, shape? Is the work precise, sloppy, loose, detailed, free, tight, etc? Be sure to post examples of their work to back up your observations.
Pick a book or two to use as the design touchstone for your book. Discuss margins, gutters, bleeds, typography, lettering, height/width ratio, page measurements etc.
Work up a proposal for your book and post it to your blog. Include working title, short working description (2-3 sentences) and 5-10 images. The images can be thumbnails, character concepts, anything!
Your first project is to take the rough breakdowns you brought in on Thursday, September 30, and work them into a roughed out 8-page book by Tuesday, October 5. Make 5 copies of your book for your classmates to read and critique on Tuesday!
Finally, be sure to get your blog up and running today, post the URL with your full name as a comment to this post! I recommend blogger as it's easy and free and endorsed by Robert Conrad.
Leavin' a patch at the Art 450/496 Final Critique. Eat my fire, suckahs!
Final Crit for Art 450/496 is Thursday, June 3, 5:30.
Note! This is NOT the final for the Comic/Picture Book class. See the previous post for Art 349 final crit times.
Students get freak-ay at last year's Comics n' Picture Books final crit.
Final critique for Comics unt Picture Books is Wednesday, June 2 at 3:00 in MA 101. Bring 5 copies of your work, and we'll have a reading festival. Miles shall bring some snaks.
Catwoman, done by Jim Lee on an iPad using SketchBookPro.
Just got an iPad today, and it's groovy. Here's an interesting bit on Jim Lee of DC breaking his in as a drawing tool.
One of the most exciting things about the iPad is that the SketchBookPro software cost . . . $7.99
That's a difference-maker right there. Compare the costs of the following digital art start-up kits:
bottom-end iPad ($500-800) + SketchBookPro ($7.99) + some kind of stylus ($20.00-30.00) = $527.99
bottom-end Macbook Pro ($1199) + Photoshop (academic vers $200.00) + Wacom Intuos $309) = $1708
The iPad is not a ready replacement for laptop/wacom set up yet. Intuos pressure sensitive, high res, etc. . . But. . . it's looking real interesting, especially because. . .
I think the iPad is a bona fide publishing platform with significant advantages over olde-fashioned books. It's extra-spiffy. The comic-viewing capabilities are down-right spectacular. The main difference I felt was that the contemporary full-blast digital coloring techniques in today's comics look loads better on the screen (where they were created!) than they do in print! I wasn't expecting that, but it blew me away. The mac Book reader also comes with a sweet free ebook of Winnie the Pooh. It's splendid, though I still imagine good old kids BOOKS are here to stay. Anyhow, I will bring this new robot girlfriend in to class on Wednesday for y'all to check out. I think it'll be a major development in the way comics n' picture books are "consumed" and created in "the future."
Finished and preliminary drawings from Maurice Sendak's Higglety Pigglety Pop!
Monday, April 19, you'll present your final project idea to the class via your blog. Your presentation should include:
1. 3-5 images of your own work.
2. 5 images from your visual research.
3. A one paragraph written description of your project.
4. A one sentence description of your project.
5. Specific technical issues you'll need to figure out to get this project done.
6. A timeline for what you're going to have done on your project when.
7. What you will have done by Monday, April 26, which will be our next critique.
These Maurice Sendak images are reproduced from an article on a Sendak retrospective in the San Francisco Sentinel.
Early cover concept for Where The Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak.
Stealin' from the best. My shower scene on the left, Clowes' Ghost World on the right.
If the first blade misses yer beard, the second one does the job. . . yes. Here's the to do list for Wednesday, April 14.
1. Bring your FIVE copies.
2. Update your BLOG.
3. Write a one paragraph description of your final project idea.
4. Cite a specific piece of visual research you've used in making your latest and greatest work. Here's a link to a post I made discussing the example above!
I'm an un-methodical, un-organized person by nature, but I've been forced to get a little more systematic as I've grappled with making comics and animation. Here are some observations that have helped me to carry out a project like a picture book or comic book.
1. Start a folder. When I know that I'm working on a big project, I go through my scrappy drawings, notes and sketchbooks and pull out stuff that might be relevant to the project; Then I stick it in THE FOLDER. I label the folder with a nice working title, and I'm off and running. From now on, ANYTHING even remotely related to the project goes into this folder.
2. After I've started the analogue folder, I scan my stuff in and start a digital folder. I then back this folder up to another drive or disk. Regular back up is the key to survival when you work on a long-term project.
3. Git to work dealing with the nuts and bolts design of your book. Font/lettering ideas, logo designs, panel layouts, etc. Eventually, I work out a template that forms the basis for all of my pages. A key part of this process is settling on a page size.
4. Get on the phone/internet and talk to printers to get turn-around times and submission requirements. Err on the side of too much information. Revisit step 3 as necessary.
Image from Woman Wonder by Will Elder, Mad #5, 1952
Hey, here's your first project! You've got two weekends and all next week to cause some mayhem.
1. Create an 8 page comic!
2. Print, staple, and fold 5 copies!
3. Bring 'em to class on Monday, April 12!
Make sure to do yer visual research and post yer progress on yer blog!
I will be checking blogs every Friday morning, starting April 9.
Here's what I expect as a minimum.
1. A Visual Research post. This is a post that contains at least one image and some written analysis of some visual material relevant to your work.
2. A Work post. This post should contain at least one image and some writing about your own work. If you're working with analogue materials plan on at least one scanning session per week!
