Comic Book Work

The True Believer's Comic Festival will also provide a platform for me to sell and show my work as well as providing work experience and an insight into the industry.
The work I intend to produce is part of  a greater body of work from a personal comic book project. I wanted to create an image that let me express some of the themes of the comic as well as looking appealing enough that people would want to buy it without knowing the overall story. The process of producing as illustration for personal work also helps me to develop my personal practice and develop my working methods.

First rough

I knew that I wanted my main character central with the other non-human faces fading away around the side of her as this would produce a visually striking image aswell as relating to my overall story. For this I decided a central almost circular composition would provide the best effect.

Second rough (left) and inked version

I then changed the head position of my character to emphasise her expression and add a greater intensity of light and dark which I then experimented with in my inked version. I knew i wanted to use a high contrast black and white technique so used Quink ink as well as indian drawing ink in my brush pen.

Final composition drawn up

The next stage was to draw up my final compsition on A3 paper. I took plenty of time over this making sure to include all the detail I wanted and to get a good sense of light and dark so I could ink it sucessfully later. I also tilted the head slightly more forward to create darker shadows that related my character's face to the faces of the un dead faces surrounding her.

Traced ready for inking

I took the lines I wanted from the drawn image and copied the onto new A3 with tracing paper. This was a laborious process and eventually I would like to get a light box to cut this time down.

Inking

I began inking using Quink ink and an angled brush starting strong in the centre and fading out with water to create the desired effect.

Final Image

I am happy with my final image. I aim to create prints of the image and to sell them at the Comic Book Festival. Hopefully I will have time to create other things to go along with it.

Work to sell for Pittville Press

Digital Prints

I decided to produce a series of digital prints to sell on the Pittville Press stall at the True Believers Festival. I considered using the Risograph but liked the colours and inky effects in the original image so wanted to reproduce this as closely as possible. Using the Risograph would mean halftoning the image and losing some of the details so I used the laser printer instead. The images were still high quality and printed on A3, I produced a set of 15 but signed them as an issue of 50 so that I can make more in the future if necessary.




I also compiled some original imagery into a booklet as a teaser for my wider comic book project. I called this a 'Preview' so that anyone who buys it will know that there will be more from the series in the future. When I am at the Comic Festival I will show this 'Preview' book to practising comic book artists to get some feedback from them and see where I can take it.

I managed to make 19 booklets, making an InDesign document digitally printing it then hand stitching them and trimming them. I found this process difficult as I had left it quite late because I wasn't sure I would have time to make anything. Also the trimmer at the studio was broken so I used a hand guillotine which didn't produce clean edges consistently. I will reflect the quality of the booklets in the price.

Booklets and prints ready to sell

I put my prints in separate A3 wallets individually signed and editioned and pressed my books so that my work looked as good as possible. I decided to sell the prints for £7 and the books for £4 with the option of buying both for £10. I feel this is a reasonable price which reflects the quality of the work and the time and effort put in to making them.

Group book project

After talking to my lecturer it was decided that my previous image did not greatly reflect my best illustrative skills. This is because I was focusing on clearly communicating the idea of using tools so I did not think to add elements such as figures that I would use in my other illustrative works.

I went back to drawing roughs and added an artistic character. I wanted him to be bringing the tools towards himself to fuel and produce his ideas and was influenced by Inspector Gadget's hands in his hat. I used a wider variety of media including ink wash and marker pens that I had not used in the first attempt that helped produce a more successful outcome.

'Tools' final version

It is important to have an image that reflects my style and skills as this is a publication so is a way of getting my work seen.

True Believers- Work Experience

As part of the work experience I helped to promote the event by handing out leaflets on Saturday 17th January. This involved us splitting into pairs and working mainly on Cheltenham High Street.
I found it quite challenging to hand leaflets directly to people as you have to have an air of confidence to assure people it is worth listening to you. We tried to stand near the entrances of the Regent Shopping centre and the Beechwood Shopping centre as we knew there would be a steady flow of people. After some practice I managed to hand out a good amount of leaflets.

Official True Believers badge

As well as handing them to people directly we approached shops and gave them some to put in windows or by the counters for people to take. We approached local newspaper sellers so they could have one in their papers to increase circulation and went to the Town Hall where there was a Record Fair and handed them out there as well as adding them to the stands advertising local events. I feel we managed to widely spread the news about the festival using a variety of methods in a few short hours and this should hopefully increase attendance on the day itself.

I have also spread the leaflets around campus especially studios of Art and Design courses as I feel these places provide an ideal audience for the Festival. Our next event is a group photo shoot on Thursday 29th which will help us to become a greater part of the team in preparation for the day itself.

True Believers

Panel #5 - CROWD-FUNDING YOUR COMIC       

One of the panels at the Festival will be giving advice on how to turn your comic book idea into the actual thing. The panellists are artists who have experience and will be sharing pros and cons of making their ideas happen. I think this will be beneficial to me and help me plan for my future projects.

True Believers Comic Festival

"The True Believers Comic Festival, a new UK based event that celebrates comics, their creators and the fans who love them"

http://oktruebelievers.com/

As part of my work experience I am volunteering at the True Believers Comic Festival on the 7th February at the Cheltenham Racecourse. I think the event will be a good opportunity for me to find out more about  the comic book industry and hopefully meet some artists and get advice for my future projects.

My work includes promoting the event by distributing flyers. I aim to do this on the weekend before the event for a few hours a day in Cheltenham town centre. I will also hand out leaflets around the University Campus.

On the day of the Festival itself I will be helping out at the racecourse wherever I am needed this can include roles such as checking tickets helping exhibitors set up their stalls patrolling the floors to check all the tables are happy seeing if they need refreshments and helping guests. I will be given more information nearer the time. 

Image Ideas

After exploring the 'Processes' aspect of Illustration Practise I decided to focus on the tools Illustrators use. This obviously varies from Illustrator to Illustrator but I wanted to create an image that reflected my experience of creating imagery and the 'tools' I would use.

      I was thinking of laying the objects out like a table top starting from the left with normal drawing objects e.g. pens and getting more obscure e.g. a potato or your body parts towards the right.

I changed the design to a grid as then there could be a wider range of objects and I could have connections and comments between objects, this would help the eye move both vertically and horizontally making the most of the layout. I could put my spot colour in the bottom right corner to maximise the space.

This is how I would like the finished image to look like this with annotations and simple illustrations, I would probably use a thick pen line and possibly solid shading so that it will work well as a risograph printed image.


Final Image


I worked my rough up into a final piece that aimed to echo the process of using tools and the thought process of illustration.

Group book project

As a way to practise responding to briefs we started the group book project. The theme of the book is the practise of Illustrators, in order to explore the different areas of the practise we were split into groups and given different topics i.e. careers, promotion,processes,social media.
In my group which was 'Everything else' I decided to research the 'processes' theme as we could pick from any of the themes.


Illustration Processes

The process of actually creating an image  can be more complicated then just the way you draw and the medium you use because factors such as idea generation and the way you motivate yourself to work are all part of the Process.

- Creating an image from drawings:
     Drawing from observation
     From found images
     From imagination
     Rough sketches
     Thumbnails
     Experimenting with colour/ technique

-Techniques
      Medium- pencil,pen,paint, watercolour acrylic oils, inks, colour pencil,washes, digital, 3D, collage
      Print techniques: etching,softroller,risograph,lithograph,woodcut, sttencil print,screenprint
Tools- basic drawing tools, scraps, bits you find and collect, the location, angle, perspective, everyday objects.
   
-Preparation
Work environment, how you prepare to start work
Motivation, want to achieve from creating the work

Idea Generation
- Real life, observing people places ideas from conversations
-Other works books fantasy religion music films