Observed Drawing Session

I really enjoyed this session because it was reassuring to know I can still do proper art school drawing and haven't destroyed my skills by drawing cartoons.

 I tried to make this drawing realistic but slightly stylised so used thick black shadows and one bright block colour to brighten it up. It was quite a battle figuring out a way to draw corduroy but I thought in its most basic form it's just lines, so I drew lines in the direction of the folds of the jacket. I did the lines in pencil so they wouldnt get confused with the outline and details. I think it turned out pretty well, but the purse is a bit disproportionate. 

I used a dip pen and black and yellow ink for this one. I like the quality of the lines and the scratchy texture but I was quite messy with it so the drawing is covered in splodges. I think it looks unfinished though because only the jacket is filled in, but using the nib pen I couldnt really fill in the other elements as they were block patternless colours and to make them yellow would've been confusing and unblanced.

I definitely want to do this more often because it was satisfying to hone my technical and obeservational drawing skills and I feel its something I've been neglecting.

Evaluation

Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION	Level	04
OUIL405 Visual Narratives	Credits	20
End of Module Self Evaluation

NAME	Hollie Smith

1.  What skills have you developed through this brief and how effectively do you think you have applied them? This is the first time I've made work following one complete narrative, which I think is a skill I very much want to refine and develop as I greatly enjoyed working in that way. I tend to make comic strips mostly as they're much quicker but being committed to a sustained narrative and then seeing it develop into a comprehensible story is very rewarding.  Also i think I've also developed my time management skills, possibly as a result of Fred's sessions. I've started to plan my time more effectively and follow the plan where before I would've neglected it and been in a rush before the deadline. I managed to plan the work I had to do in accordance with when I could use certain facilities like bookbinding and print, and I stuck to these mini deadlines meaning there were no real  problems in the production stage.
2. What approaches to/methods of image making have you developed and how have they informed your concept development process? i have developed my digital skills considerably during this module. I wanted to use analogue processes to make the line work and then digital to colour and finish it, which I haven't done since foundation. Since then I've improved at selecting colours and I have learnt new processes to make the work look crisper. I've become much quicker at working this way and I now use shortcuts instinctively. I think the end result of this new skill acquisition was successful. I received a lot of positive comments about the colouring and personally I think it works as the colours I chose are bright enough to be interesting but without clashing or appearing too busy or unconsidered. The placement of colour continued to develop my concept in that stage as I chose to make dramatic lighting using the colour, making my concept even more like a faux-dramatic horror film. Without the application of colour in this way many of the panels would have looked very bland and often objects looked like they were floating when they weren't connected to the ground by a shadow.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these? The strengths I've identified following comments in the final crit are apparently humour, the narrative and the colour scheme. I wanted people to be as involved in the story as possible so I chose a simple, not particularly stylised  way of drawing that aimed to communicate the image clearly. I get very annoyed when a comic is confusing because of unnecessarily decorative or superfluous illustrations that fail to communicate the story, so I tried to avoid this and I think I've succeeded, as the comments were about the story rather than the style.  I dont think I used text based jokes as heavily throughout the comic this time as I have done before because the initial concept was the basis for most of the humour used. I tried to start with a silly concept so it would set itself up for amusing spoofed visuals and comically expressive faces. I think it was an easy topic to make amusing though, as silly things like this are just quite funny to start with, it's much less of a struggle than making the holocaust funny would be.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future? I definitely didn't use my time effectively in the period between the start of this project and the end of christmas. Had I used this time better I think my book would've been much more developed, I'd have had time to redraft the story and make the panels flow, and I wouldn't have had such a busy three weeks at the end. Obviously I couldn't help the week I missed due to illness but had I been more organised at the beginning of the project and over christmas this would have been less of a problem. Next time I'm going to start immediately rather than leaving work until it absolutely must be done eg. starting my essay at 8pm Thursday night. I think I will improve at this if I continue to plan my time like I've been doing recently, as the main problem is that I just waste the time I have.  With regards to my comic making weaknesses I think there are two main ones; erratic panel arrangements that create a strange pacing, and sloppy line work. The next time I make a comic I will definitely allow time for a redrafting stage where I plan where the panels will fit on the page and how the story will flow so I don't just have to cram them all into the space at the last minute.  My linework may have suffered because I was rushing to finish, so perhaps I should've allowed yet more time to pay attention to this. I didn't realise how heavy handed it was until the images were scanned and magnified in Photoshop. It's mostly negligible but I think my finals would look much crisper and more professional if I put more care into my lines, maybe making them thinner, and directing the brush pen so as to make tapered line ends.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? 1. Plan my time evenly from the beginning of the project till the end. I hope in doing this I will be able to balance my life better between academic, social and domestic commitments, rather than having weeks of doing nothing, then three weeks of doing nothing but work. By the end I had pretty severe cabin fever and the sink was stacked miles high with my pots, a la Withnail and I.  2. Spend more time in the development stage. I think I managed to do a decent amount of development considering the time I had left myself, but there can always be more. I would have developed the flow of my panels so they weren't so cluttered and I would have tinkered with the story to make it the best paced possible, and I would have put more prior thought into the design of my characters  rather than just making them up on the spot. If I do this in future I think my comics will be more enjoyable to read and my characters will be more considered and believable, and I will have time to plan what they look like from different angles rather than, again, making it up on the spot.  3. I will use the colour proofing tool in Photoshop to check the colours I've used are available on the printer. This will mean I'm not initially disappointed when the prints come out slightly different to on screen, and I now know that using two different papers in one book can result in the print being two slightly different colours, only noticeable when next to each other. I will also know that the pages have to be printed onto one paper size bigger than what they will be in the end, meaning next time I will save money by designing my pages at dimensions slightly smaller than A. This was my first time using digital print so next time I will have a better idea what I'm doing and the end result will be more satisfying.  4. I want to use more reference in my drawings and improve at drawing the human form. I've signed up for the life drawing class so hopefully this will improve my understanding of how the body moves and falls. I think many of the poses and faces in my comic are stiff and unconvincing, so hopefully practise will remedy this. I need to start using reference images to draw details like computers, but by this stage didn't feel I had time so made things up. Something drawn from a reference photograph would have probably been more believable. As well as this I intend to improve my drawing of perspective and the falling of shadows. I've taken out a book on perspective and I want to try drawing objects in dramatic light so I can see where it falls, instead of just guessing until it looks right. I think all of this will help to make my comics look like they take place in an actual environment.  5. I will use better quality paper as the card I ended up with allowed a lot of bleeding. Next time I'll get Bristol Board of the right size in advance to avoid this. I also want to may more attention to the execution of my drawings, sketching out each panel more than once and spending more time on crafting my line work. Although I do think I rely too heavily on black line work, so for the next brief I would quite like to try something more shape-based, perhaps a screen print  This will hopefully save my work from becoming tired and repetitive  Brush pen is now my go-to tool so I don't want to wear it out before I've mastered it.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance			x
Punctuality			x
Motivation				x
Commitment					x
Quantity of work produced				x
Quality of work produced				x
Contribution to the group				x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self-evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

A copy of your end of module self evaluation should be posted to your studio practice blog. This should be the last post before the submission of work and will provide the starting point for the assessment process. Post a copy of your evaluation to your PPP blog as evidence of your own on going evaluation.

Notes

Final Crit

In this exercise people wrote comments pertaining to different aspects of the book in each box. I received a lot of positive feedback on my colour scheme and use of humour. My favourite comment is "great use of humour o tackle a very serious issue" as I'm glad someone else takes this epidemic as seriously as I do.

 Then we split into pairs and crit-ed eachothers work using these sheets as prompts. This feedback is from Paul.

In the battle for the mushy peas I recieved ten votes, a three way tied victory, but I don't like mushy peas so thats fine. I must question the frowny face I was given though, is that a vote deduction or..? 

I now have some successes to put into my evaluation, which is sometimes the part I struggle with, so that was useful. 

Finished book

I finished, hazaar. Nothing went drastically wrong and I now have my main book and mini books ready for the crit. Digital print is expensive though, £15 for the green a4 book. Although had I known making the book pages exactly a4, spread onto one a3 sheet, would require me to print onto a2 paper I would have definielty made each page just under a4. I thought I would be saving myself time as it wouldnt need trimming but this was far from the case.

It took me much longer to bind than I anticipated as I struggled to remember how to do it. I managed it in the end with some assistance, and learnt to use the scary guillotine. 

Because I used a thicker paper for the cover than for the pages the ink made a slightly different light green when printing. Apparently no one else could tell but it bugged me a little. I've learnt I have to register the colours... which i think is cmd + y? I'll definitely try this next time as even the thin paper pages printed out much darker than I expected

This is the inside of one of the smaller books. I quite like how it turned out in black and white, its much more muted. 

Front cover

Here's some plans and the resolution of my front and back covers.

Originally planned to do block 3d letters like in the image below by Jay Roeder

My favourite of the plans was to make the whole front and back cover one image of zombie creatures approaching, similar to a scene from night of the living dead I used as reference for visual language.

Sadly I didnt allow enough time to do this, so had to plan something simpler and quicker

This idea was visually confusing, split into uncomfortable sections, wheres the focus point

Too empty and boring

Again confusing, too many eyes and focuses

This is my favourite test as it was simple enough to execute in the remaining time while still looking presentable and reflective of an acceptable amount of effort.

I tried the text in a bubble shaped to it. This looked weird and confusing

I decided on a plain white rectangle to house the text, which was hand drawn. I tried to get something with a naive aesthetic which I think it has but I fear it too closely resembles comic sans.  

I put a wooden frame around the title for decoration and coloured in the hat stripy so it would stand out from the background and border. I wrote my name near the bottom in white to make it subtly highlighted. I think the swinging hat was a good idea as it sets a lighthearted silly tone for the comic, which I feel is both met and flouted.

I added this on last minute as a black page seemed wasteful and boring.  I had to make sure the hat was on the correct side in indesgin so the hat would print on the outer side of the page. I neglected however to do this with the zines.

I should have left more time for the cover but I think it's acceptable, clear and fitting of its purpose 

Reference

I used Rowena as a reference for some of my drawings. Here she is posing as the man in the library who is mauled by dappy hats. Very useful

Coloured finals

Here's most of my final coloured pages. I went with the two shades of green idea which I think has worked quite well. I tried to place all the colours evenly across the page and where two areas of the same colour met I often added a line of light or shadow to break them up. I decided to use quite dramatic and obvious lighting in the panels to mimic a horror movie and create more faux-drama. Much like the colouring equivalent of when you put a torch under your face when telling a scary story. I think a few panels were saved by the colour as before they looked bare and dull, but I could add interest with the colour, using patterns and shadows. 

In the first scene I tried to use the colours to create a nighttime feel. I used a lamppost to make dramatic lighting fall in one direction and cast shadows along the plan scenery. I added parts in white, the text creeping up on him and exclamation lines. These stood out more in white than black on a busy background would. 

 On this full page I struggled to fill up the white space of the floor so I added a shaded area at the top which the main characters are receding into, leaving the focus on this dramatic snippet into someone else's plot-line. I also changed some heads in the crowd, moved them and extended the swarm of crocs.

I made the books all one colour to make then recede into the background while still being quite busy with lines. I'm not all that fond of the white spaces around the onomatopoeia bubbles, they look a little out of place and too stark

 I made the hats all different colours with patterns so they would both stand out from the plain backgrounds and not all the same so they wouldnt blur into obscurity, I wanted them to be the focus of their panels.

The top panel is one of my favourites, Im glad I chose to break the colour scheme with the red eyes as otherwise they wouldnt have stood out and I wanted it to be immediately communicated that they have eyes now, like hissing demons. I chose to have block colours behind the two people to save time on making backgrounds but I like how it turned out as it makes them look more dramatic.

I managed to sort this panel out, redrawing some elements. The third figure is still too stiff but Ive improved the cartoon run and the head in the second panel.

A very questionable arm in the penultimate panel. Glad I chose to make the books overlap the panel border

Much of this page was copied from other parts of the page and comic. It cut down my workload a lot, making my time much easier to manage.

I find the bottom two panels to be too heavy on the light green, this seemed the best possible distribution, but I should have made the floor white in the penultimate panel. 

 I tried to help the suggestion of movement by making the background black in the last panel and adding lighter motion lines. I think its an improvement on the floor but it still looks a bit awkward, the lines arent quite there. Also I drew the head in the second panel quite poorly. Next time I make a character I should allow time to practice drawing them from angles and in poses, rather than just going straight into it.

This page is also a little bit heavy on the light green because of how the placement of elements worked out and I couldnt just change the colour of things in this panel, that would be very inconsistent. 

The background in the penultimate panel was a bit of an experiment, but I think it worked. I tried to make it ridiculously comic style, like Scott Pilgrim, and I think it worked well for emphasising the force of that punch. And it helped to break up the heavy light green theme that was going on.

I chose to colour the doorway black to make one wait for the big reveal of the crowd later. Whether its dark outside I'm not sure, because later it worked best for the sky to be green, but either way filling the door with the crowd wouldve ruined the simplicity of the panel and taken away from the communication of her panicked realisation. I wanted to show the whole crowd were chanting 'ONE OF US' so I thought this would be the best way, better than having lots or several individual balloons.

I copied the people in the background from the previous panel, to both keep it consistent and to save time. I used the plain green background again to make it more dramatic and to block out the busy background and draw focus onto the struggle. I used the same green in the last panel to wash over all the crowd members and draw focus onto the two in the middle. I added shines to be in keeping with the dramatic lighting.

 The top of this page is a little heavy on dark green. The big panel is better as I tried to balance it out more, including using the green and red on the hat in the corner.

Overall I think the colouring went well, and definitely brought something to the pages, rather than ruin it like I initially thought it might. I'm glad I opted for colour over grayscale like I originally planned, its much more engaging, but if there's time I would still like to print out some small black and white versions to hand out. 

I think I've improved slightly at photoshop, I'm getting much faster and more efficient with the shortcuts and procedures and I can create a finished page much quicker now than I could when I began. It was a nice change to use both traditional and digital media to create one result.