Page 21

Excuse me as I pick the tar out from between my toes (see the end of the last post). Obviously out later than planned though hopefully better for the extra spit and polish here’s page 21!

There a few things of note here, mostly in relation to the change of scene as we return to the spaceport lobby. For one it should be evident to anyone who flicks back to page 11 or earlier how much the rendering of the art has changed; linework and colours are far cleaner and less murky creating what I hope are clearer, stronger images. It’s annoying that the stylistic continuity has taken a hit in the process but it’s better that the larger changes are made now than later, in an ideal world I’d redraw the backlog but time isn’t on my side so for the immediate present I shall be pressing on…

The colours themselves aren’t as striking as with the previous scenes, moving back to a less restricted more subtle palette of oranges and browns off blues and greys. Besides the practical change of location and consequent lighting I felt that it was time to turn down the intensity for a little while and wind up the tension again for the next major beat of the story – in relation to this, I’d like to draw attention  to the use of repetition on this page.

Pauses and reoccurring elements if used heavy handedly are liable to simply create tedium, but they can also help garner a sense of unease between events, creating a rising rhythm and suggestion that we are waiting for something to happen. Emphasising an awkward pause in a comic is an odd affair as sense of time is often determined by reading speed; a dramatic moment the author intends to be held may well be skipped over in an instant by an impatient reader given that they are ‘in control of the acquisition’ (Eisner, 1996, page 52).

What I’ve done here in effort to create the impression of an uncomfortable pause is use three panels that are almost the same but with varying details; I didn’t want to just repeat the same image three times with gratuitous copy and paste – it tends to derail my immersion in a comic when I see recycled art – so I reused the composition for each but gave the characters slightly different expressions and poses, thus holding the moment while hopefully avoiding tedium or literally appearing to stop the comic.

An additional area of pseudo repetition I’d like to point out is the first panel; an entirely new drawing but with composition which echoes a panel from page 11 (looking past the security guard over the desk) and to a degree the first panel from the previous page. Whether these touches register with reader subconsciously or knowingly it should in theory dial things back a few notches while maintaining the feeling of impending danger I’ve been developing along the way.

One last minor mention I should make is that I changed the colour of Scratch’s trench coat now that it’s in neutral (i.e. not green) lighting. In early concept art it was greenish-grey but it struck me that brown-beige was a better fit for both the character and comic’s colour schemes, it also pushes it closer to the kind of 1940′s trench coats I based it’s look off in the first place.

That’s all for now folks!

Digital Love?

Argh, this is awkward.

First I settled on digital linework praising its speed and precision over pen and paper, before pining for ink once again under the oppressive glare of my monitor. Big surprise, I’ve changed my mind yet again. I hate being so fickle all the time but I’m increasingly finding it’s better to go with  the project’s flow than continue in ill-suited vein out of sheer embarrassment.

My issues with Corel and Photoshop haven’t vanished but almost as soon as I began drawing up the current page with my former methods I felt something was wrong.

When I say ‘wrong’ I don’t mean in terms of my enjoyment of drawing by hand – that’s unlikely to fade anytime soon – rather how the work fitted with its predecessors; I couldn’t shake the sense that I was wrenching open a chasm in the midst of the comic. While its been a cumbersome improvised evolution, there has been a progression of style throughout the twenty current pages which I think has been for the better.

The art’s become crisper and more cohesive in appearance, with a far greater consistency than the initial pages too. The specifically hand drawn touches I used to apply such as heavy hatching weren’t bad in and of themselves but they seemed an increasingly poor fit given Branch’s tone. Cyberpunk is a typically cold genre and while the warmth of traditional art might benefit a different story or look, here it seemed to be working against what I’ve been trying to establish.

As I’ve explained extensively before, I may have some issues with making art digitally but the end results are far more satisfactory to me than their hand drawn equivalent and in the end that seems to be a greater priority. There’s nothing stopping me from drawing for recreational purposes outside of the project and I’ll still be sketching the rough pages no matter what; occasionally digital methods can be a drag but no one ever said this would be easy (least of all me).

More than anything else though, the sensation which plagued me reverting back to my fineliners was of taking a step backwards, losing progress and a danger of alienating readers. I’m hoping most will be able to overlook the slight tweaks to the art style early on as the quirks of an artist in development, however, if I begin jumping back and forth between methods I’m worried the effect created will be a great deal more irritating; fracturing the comic’s sense of continuity and the credibility of its story world.

Digital love? Not quite, there are still areas of  production which have me tearing my hair out but overall it seems my initial hunches were right; digital colour AND linework is the way to go and in the long run I feel certain Branch will be bettered by it.

And yes, to back up all that ranting the next page is almost done. If it isn’t finished before the weekend I then I personally give you permission to tar, feather and run me out of town!*

*_{Please don’t}

Final Life Drawing Class

‘Final’ probably makes it sound too extreme – like I’m going to the moon – either way, today’s session will be my last at the college.

I couldn’t say exactly what kind of impact these classes have had on the quality of my work, but it seems a fair bet they’ve been a positive influence on some level. If nothing else I thoroughly enjoyed them and it seems only fair that I thank our tutor Melodie for keeping them varied and challenging along with our model Cherie for being so incredibly patient with those poses.

I’d definitely like to keep doing life drawing in future if at all possible but with the MCM Expo bearing down upon me at terrifying speed and the end of MA within sight it seems likely the it won’t be happening for a good few months…

Pick Me Up Graphic Arts Fair

A couple of weeks ago I visited London for two things; the possibility of a job interview and Somerset House’s Pick Me Up graphic arts fair. With the former opportunity falling through at the last minute – special thanks to those guys – I can’t deny being more than a little disheartened, fortunately though the fair proved to be more than worthwhile.

Before even entering the exhibition space I caught an informative talk by Derek Brazell – an illustrator perhaps best known for his children’s book covers – covering practical matters those looking to enter the business should take into account. Some of this overlapped with what I’d heard from or been told by other professionals but a great deal of it was fresh advice which I’d do well to heed as I begin looking for work.

In particular, he emphasised the importance of running an illustration career like a business even if you’re freelance, taking finance, image and work resources as seriously as possible. In line with this I need to start organising both a physical and online portfolio of my work before I graduate, considering exactly who my work might appeal to and how best to interest them. Covering legal matters as well – always something I struggle to get my head around – he managed to explain in a surprisingly headache free way the distinctions between copyright and licensing, common pitfalls with commissions and plagiarism grey areas. Forewarned is forearmed as they say.

Moving onto the fair itself, the main exhibition consisted of 20 international artists; all distinct and impressive with a notable lean towards psychedelic imagery, with a few in particular bearing noteworthy relevance to my own work and themes:

Appearing under the title ‘Back to Basics’ the colourful selection of papercraft oddities pictured above from French studio Zim & Zou (Lucie Thomas and Thibault Zimmermann) was the first thing to catch my eye. Beyond a general affection for retro and redundant technologies, I was frankly gobsmacked at the level of detail and care which had gone into the paper renderings of walkmans, gameboys and old camera’s.

Maybe I’m digging too deep looking for a commentary on outdated technologies, but I felt like the medium and choice of bright, unexpected colours said something of the charm that these items take on in retrospect. Alternatively though, it could be that their fragile paper construction speaks of the fragility in the cutting edge; all these things were at one time the best money could buy, a few decades on their simply left in the dust, relics of a bygone age with more value as curiosities than functional tools.

The work of Dutch artist Tim Enthoven caught my attention because of its bizarre balance between humour and perversity, with etchings such as the one above picturing suits of armour in inappropriate poses. The sight of a metal behemoth pole dancing is funny enough in its own right, but what really struck a chord with me was how it tapped into one of my core themes regarding technology being humanised through human applications. If you’ll forgive the pun, I liked how the normally intimidating presence such armour would have was disarmed by the ridiculous context.

More than anyone else though, it was the work of Paul X Johnson which really stole the show for me:

As illustrated by Behold a Pale Horse (above) there’s an immediately evident Noir feel to his work. Here, between the sunglasses, era haircut and muted chrome palette I automatically find myself thinking femme fatale. Of even greater relevance are the little hints of Sci-fi embedded in the prints; the chimneys add an intriguing industrial touch but what are the crystal like objects in the middle ground? And that horse is a bit familiar eh? Reminds me of a certain neo-noir/SF movie scene… speaking of which:

If that isn’t the ‘Rachael’ and synthetic owl from Blade Runner then I’m a replicant. Besides making a clear point of his inspirations, there’s more to this piece than straight up homage; the face and haircut aspire towards photo realism and yet we have a completely angular, hard-edged body bellow with what I’ll take a guess are strings rising from the shoulders – perhaps suggesting marionette like control from a certain someone…

Intentional or otherwise the prints exude a distinctly cyberpunk vibe, while having a gorgeous aesthetic to boot. Being apparently made through a mixture of traditional and contemporary media it also seems fitting I should write about them now in light of my decision to do the same with Branch.

So yeah; another nice turn around for what could have been a botched trip to London and a fine opportunity to recharge my inspiration batteries!

Page 20

Since I already covered my recent production troubles and new course of action last post, I’ll keep this nice and simple by weighing up the finished page on its own merits/problems so I can get on with things and try to make up for my poor output.

The third panel is pretty much the most notable feature of this page, working as a background and being a more ambitious effort than my usual. Besides wanting to break up the monotony of flat closeups, as I’m bringing this scene to a close I thought a longshot would make a striking conclusion displaying full figures and emphasising the bizarre meeting location. I also thought that the raised angle looking down would make for a nice echo of the first panel in the toilets from page 12, while giving the atmosphere a warped edge in the buildup to the next major beat in the story.

On the downside even with a photographic reference and preliminary sketch to work from it was a small nightmare to draw,  forming a large bulk of the delay. It’s close but I’m not sure it quite pulls it off, the perspective on Curt feels on the money but I’m not so sure about Scratch. The fact it looks a bit fisheyed isn’t all bad given the intended tone but I definitely have a long way to go drawing this sort of viewpoint.

My favourite panels are the first and second, an odd thing given how bad they looked in the sketch but somehow they worked out as more than the sum of their parts. Scratch’s ‘don’t give a damn’ expression feels spot on and I was especially pleased with the way the light catches the edge of Curt’s face in the first image. The third and last panels meanwhile feel functional at least but at the same time didn’t quite capture what I wanted; Curt’s expression seems too understated while conversely Scratch’s brooding irritation is a little too overt maybe.

The colours are a continuation of the last two pages so there shouldn’t be any surprises there, however they emphasise my biggest issue with the overall page: wasted space. The top row is fine in this regard but the bottom panels have some embarrassingly barren spots I really should have filled. I coasted on abstraction for the last image but the left corner could have done with some extra clutter or a shift in focus maybe.

One final point; I deviated from my script’s dialogue someway here as it seemed a heavy-handed on review. Scratch said a lot more than she needed to at this stage while Curt’s behaviour seemed unrealistically bold under the circumstances, questioning her ‘name’ and getting a snarky response. It was kind of interesting in some respects but felt forced and unnecessary – a case of what’s left unsaid being more effective I suppose.

The bottom line? An adequate page but still a disappointing one, not so much because of the end result as the time invested. One way or another I must get faster at how I go about this. Hopefully my new approach between traditional and digital mediums will improve matters, I just hope the quality doesn’t suffer as a result.