Chiarello, M, (2007), DC Comics Guide to Coloring and Lettering, University of Michigan, USA
Cooney, D, (2011), Writing and Illustrating the Graphc Novel, Barrons Educational Series Inc, UK
Combermale, Leslie (2007) Artwork of John Alvin. Available from <http://www.johnalvinart.com/Default.aspx > [Accessed 05 Nov 2011].
Cortina, F, (2005), D'artiste Character Modelling, Ballistic Media Pty, USA
Del Toro & Hogan, C, (2010), The Strain, Harper Collins, USA
Gabriel, Paulo (2010) Interview with Legendary Drew Struzan. Available from <http://abduzeedo.com/interview-legendary-drew-struzan > [Accessed 05 Nov 2011].
Gurney J, (2009), Imaginative Realism: How to paint what doesn't exist, Andrews McMeel Publishing, UK
Gurney, J, (2010), Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter, Andrews McMeel Publishing, UK
Hitch, B, (2010), Bryan Hitch's Ultimate Comic Studio, Impact, UK
Hughes, Adam, (2011), Draw and Paint a Sexy Cat Burglar, ImagineFX, 67, pp 72-75.
King, S, (2001), On Writing, Hachette, UK
Lauther, H, (2004) Creating Characters: A Writer's Reference to the Personality Traits That Bring Fictional People to Life, McFarland Press, New York
Mateu-Mestre, M, (2011), Framed Ink, Titan Books, UK
McCutcheon, M, (2001), Building believable characters, Writer's Digest Books, USA
Millar, M, (2011), Nemesis, Titan Books, UK
No Author (2011) Digital Motion Comics. Available from:
<http://digitalmotioncomics.com/news >[Accessed 24 Oct 2011].
No Author (2011) Marvel Motion Comics. Available from:
<http://marvel.com/motion_comics > [Accessed 02 Nov 2011].
No Author (2011), SoundDogs. Available from http://www.sounddogs.com [Accessed 21 Oct 2011]
Oldham, A, (2010), A writers guide to character creation, Pen Press, Brighton
Parks, C, (2008), Secrets to Drawing Realistic Children, North Light Books, UK
Seger, L, (1990), Creating Unforgettable Characters, Holt Press, New York
Sneddon, Laura (2011) Comic Studies. Available from:
<http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=35132 >[Accessed 26 Oct 2011].
Snoswell, M, (2004), D'artiste : digital painting, Ballistic Media Pty, USA
Swain, D, (2008), Creating Characters: How to Build Story People, University of Oklahoma Press, USA
Taylor, A, (2010), Design Essentials for the Motion Media Artist, Focal Press , UK
Thompson, T, (2008), Adventures in Graphica, Stenhouse Publishers, USA
Tilson, Cody (2009) Last Man Standing. Available from:
<http://www.lastmanart.com/interviews/jason-chan/004 >[Accessed 06 Oct 2011].
Whitlatch, T, (2011), Animals Real and Imagined, Titan Books, UK
Withrow, S, (2007), Character Design for Graphic Novels, Elsevier, USA
Wright, B, (2003) Comic book nation: the transformation of youth culture in America, JHU Press, UK
Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Saturday, 19 November 2011
Violence in comics
Graphic violence is something that has only in the last 20 years seen fruition in the comics industry, this was unheard of during comics early years as there was no comics code to regulate it so children of all ages could read them. In recent years this has become more and more frequent and stylised with artists such as Frank Miller (2011) and Mark Millar (2011) making a name for themselves with it's use. The use is often for it's own sake but the artists have managed to make it as stylised and contextualised as possible with Millar especially, only using it when it has meaning.
Wednesday, 16 November 2011
Conclusions
This brief has given me a great deal of insight into how comics and graphic novels are constructed artistically as well as a better insight into their writing.
I now know exactly how the look and feel of my graphic novel/motion comic will be and know that it will be a far from easy task to complete. The brief has made me aware of all of the stages of conception from writing down to aspects that I had not given a lot of thought to such as lettering.
Although the brief was at many times a challenge, particularly with regards to attempting to push and develop my own artistsic style, I feel that this brief has given me a large amount of knowledge on the subject ans has definitely made me a better artist. I can now work with an amount of realism and style and am now able to deliver character and personality to my drawings which was something I had always wanted to accomplish.
I now look forward to beginning my final piece and putting everything I've learned and developed over the last two years together. I will incorporate all of the skills I have acquired and been taught such as composition and lighting into my final piece.
I now know exactly how the look and feel of my graphic novel/motion comic will be and know that it will be a far from easy task to complete. The brief has made me aware of all of the stages of conception from writing down to aspects that I had not given a lot of thought to such as lettering.
Although the brief was at many times a challenge, particularly with regards to attempting to push and develop my own artistsic style, I feel that this brief has given me a large amount of knowledge on the subject ans has definitely made me a better artist. I can now work with an amount of realism and style and am now able to deliver character and personality to my drawings which was something I had always wanted to accomplish.
I now look forward to beginning my final piece and putting everything I've learned and developed over the last two years together. I will incorporate all of the skills I have acquired and been taught such as composition and lighting into my final piece.
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
Posters
To 'sell' the concept of my graphic novel I created two posters which would advertise it. I wanted the focus of the posters to be on the dual worlds. So I created designs which I thought would capture this. As with the large majority of my work for this brief I wanted to show the scope and tone of the graphic novel/motion comic.
For inspiration I looked at poster work by Struzan, an artist who did many of the movie posters in the 80's and early 90's such as this iconic poster...
Alvin explains that a poster has to be more than an impressive image, it has to "Create the promise of a great experience" (Alvin, 2006).
This was what I wanted to capture in my posters, a sense of story and scope...
For inspiration I looked at poster work by Struzan, an artist who did many of the movie posters in the 80's and early 90's such as this iconic poster...
I didn't want to create just an image, I wanted to be able to portray the story. I looked at the way Struzan and others such as Alvin, (2008) the astonishingly prolific poster artist who created this piece for Jurassic Park...
Alvin explains that a poster has to be more than an impressive image, it has to "Create the promise of a great experience" (Alvin, 2006).
This was what I wanted to capture in my posters, a sense of story and scope...
Poster 1...
Poster 2...
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
Reference photos
For many of the environments, I wanted to base them as much as possible on real environments, therefore I began taking reference photos whenever I could both for colour schemes and for actual environments that I could base my structures on. I was able to take photos of different places including photos at Coventry Cathedral which had a distinct gothic look I could incorporate into the design. Many of the photos inspired my environment designs such as the large arches I photographed in Coventry.
Snoswell, (2004) describes the use of reference photos as an important step when designing environments as every artist needs to know how structures and landscapes relate to each other in the real world before they can be created from the imagination (p62).
Snoswell, (2004) describes the use of reference photos as an important step when designing environments as every artist needs to know how structures and landscapes relate to each other in the real world before they can be created from the imagination (p62).
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
Motion Vs Traditional
My work in the last brief along with several releases from Marvel and others in the 'motion comic' field convinced me that I wanted to do my graphic novel as a motion comic.
Motion comics such as 2010's 'Spider-Woman' by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev are en excellent example of motion comics which are created and executed successfully.
Although I had to be wary that I was not animating for animation's sake. Scalera (2011) explains that since the processes for creating a motion comic are a fairly simple process then many comic/game/film companies are producing them just to have another branded product out on the market (p11). Often-times they are conceived well such as the 'Halo' tie-ins but there are many that simply jump on the band-wagon as they see an opportunity to extend the franchise. Companies such as Marvel, have spent large amounts of money investing in motion comics. The aforementioned 'Spider-Woman' and 2010's 'Iron Man: Extremis' are good examples but more money doesn't necessarily mean a better product. Their 'Astonishing X-men' motion comics pushed the boundaries too far and attempted to integrate 3D into the 2D animation as well as a surplus of lip-synch's that seemed unnecessary.
The successful ones seem to work by making the animation subtle and unobtrusive to the scene. Simple lighting changes or backgrounds in motion seem to work well but full figures in motion only seem to accentuate the fact that it is a 2D image.
I wanted my graphic novel to be in two forms, the traditional comic book printed version and a motion comic version. I would do both at the same time. Realising that I needed to convert many images to After Effects scenes before-hand meant I could tailor them so they would be better suited. For instance creating larger backgrounds than needed.
Motion comics such as 2010's 'Spider-Woman' by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev are en excellent example of motion comics which are created and executed successfully.
Although I had to be wary that I was not animating for animation's sake. Scalera (2011) explains that since the processes for creating a motion comic are a fairly simple process then many comic/game/film companies are producing them just to have another branded product out on the market (p11). Often-times they are conceived well such as the 'Halo' tie-ins but there are many that simply jump on the band-wagon as they see an opportunity to extend the franchise. Companies such as Marvel, have spent large amounts of money investing in motion comics. The aforementioned 'Spider-Woman' and 2010's 'Iron Man: Extremis' are good examples but more money doesn't necessarily mean a better product. Their 'Astonishing X-men' motion comics pushed the boundaries too far and attempted to integrate 3D into the 2D animation as well as a surplus of lip-synch's that seemed unnecessary.
The successful ones seem to work by making the animation subtle and unobtrusive to the scene. Simple lighting changes or backgrounds in motion seem to work well but full figures in motion only seem to accentuate the fact that it is a 2D image.
I wanted my graphic novel to be in two forms, the traditional comic book printed version and a motion comic version. I would do both at the same time. Realising that I needed to convert many images to After Effects scenes before-hand meant I could tailor them so they would be better suited. For instance creating larger backgrounds than needed.
Sunday, 30 October 2011
Creature Design
One of the more enjoyable parts of the brief was creating who would inhabit the Animorum. However this didn't mean that they would be designed with any less depth. Rickitt, (2006) explains that any creature must be designed so that it looks and feels like it inhabits it's surroundings, both in physicality and in tone (p44).
With the above in mind, I concepted my creatures bearing in mind that the world of the Animorum is not that much different from our own. I couldn't create creatures too outlandish as though I was creating them for an alien world, they had to resemble actual creatures in our world. I also created them using hues that I used in the environments so that they integrated better and felt more a part of the world.
Although the creatures had to resemble real-world animals, I also wanted them to look unique and have their own physiology. Whitlatch (2010) agrees with this and explains that creating creatures which look as though they could exist is completely dependant on understanding the physiology that exists in our own world (p8). Therefore I looked at animals such as dogs and spiders and how their musculoskeletal systems and exo-skeletons worked. I didn't want to design something that looked imaginative and original but that could not exist physically.
With the above in mind, I concepted my creatures bearing in mind that the world of the Animorum is not that much different from our own. I couldn't create creatures too outlandish as though I was creating them for an alien world, they had to resemble actual creatures in our world. I also created them using hues that I used in the environments so that they integrated better and felt more a part of the world.
Although the creatures had to resemble real-world animals, I also wanted them to look unique and have their own physiology. Whitlatch (2010) agrees with this and explains that creating creatures which look as though they could exist is completely dependant on understanding the physiology that exists in our own world (p8). Therefore I looked at animals such as dogs and spiders and how their musculoskeletal systems and exo-skeletons worked. I didn't want to design something that looked imaginative and original but that could not exist physically.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)