___________ IMAGES 6-10 ___________
the process...
PHOTOGRAPHS - HIGH-SCHOOL, GRADE 12, LAST DAY
7 November 2013, the last day of high-school, was celebrated with a south african piggy-tails tradition, many selfies and a final cohort courtyard count down
TOOLS
pens: thickness: 0.1, 0.3, 0.5
PEN TECHNIQUES
lines/hatching | cross-hatching| stippling | dots | directional
SKETCHES - BRAINSTORMING
The top row are the five initial sketches of the five panel comic strip, and following rows below are each panels' progression, with an exception on the third row, which the second comic panel was redesigned. Additionally, different comic boarders were drawn up in consideration of each panels desired emotive value. For example, the first panel, the calendar, it is a exciting moment, so the daggered lines bring attention and urgency to the panel. Making an effort to include traditional comic styling, I browsed online and drew up various options. Keeping to the frames' desired mood, the second frame, a soft edged border encouraged a friendly tone as it as about giving notice to family and friends that day was the last of grade 12 for me, for frame 3, the typical polaroid camera photograph expressed that milestone moment, frames 4 and 5, they held big statements, so amplifying a persons words were the main focus and achieved through speech bubbles.
image 1 | image 2 | image 3 | image 4 | image 5
SKETCH DEVELOPMENT - FIRST COMIC PANEL
Frame 1 I explored the hatching technique. Starting with the base lines, shown in image 1, then outlining the details in image 2 and image 3. image 4 and 5 was where I can challenged this technique, as I did not want to mix another technique to achieve this frame, so strictly keeping to the straight line style, not crossing over lines to create shading but pressing harder or using the thicker 0.5 pen, also, curved shapes, like the confetti ribbon, being careful to not contour with its form.
image 1 | image 2 | image 3 | image 4 | image 5
SKETCH DEVELOPMENT - SECOND COMIC PANEL
As this frame had many details, I trace the basic shapes and forms with pencil first. In pen, using the cross-hatching technique developed up this frame, playing with some elements like the 'like' facebook icon to create movement and energy in the frame.
image 1 | image 2 | image 3 | image 4 | image 5
SKETCH DEVELOPMENT - THIRD COMIC PANEL
Starting with what I knew, I drew the polaroid photograph first, and from a photo taken with a good friend on the day, begin to dot outline ours features. With constant review of the dark and light parts to the photo the dots slowly brought the frame to life.
image 1 | image 2 | image 3 | image 4 | image 5
SKETCH DEVELOPMENT - FORTH COMIC PANEL
Wanting to use something traditional, I played with this concept. I almost changed it because it was very different to how I envisioned it. However, understanding this is part of the task, to experiment and comment on our experiences, I kept it. I was satisfied with how the text came out, as I feel it expressed that loud and "get ready" mood, having sharp, straight and weighted lines. Creating the grid made it easier to have even and balanced circles, which would make it more effective for the audience to follow the structures in the frame.
image 1 | image 2 | image 3 | image 4 | image 5
SKETCH DEVELOPMENT - FIFTH COMIC PANEL
After many speech bubble sketches, this final one I felt ticked the elements this frame needed, like, urgency, loud, voices of many and enough space for the count down. How I would express the crowd of students was I difficult task for me, because my skills are limited and everytime I did sketch out something I found I was putting more detail than needed which made the figures too dark or disfigured. The next best thing I thought was the above, very simple, not much detail at all, just keeping to the basic shapes of people and showing the excitement by raising their arms. I used a directional pen technique, where diagonal lines are alternated. This felt appropriate because I could show depth in a fun and rhythmic manner.
first dot | pasting copy beside first dot | copying dots | pasting copy beside dots | repeating process for final image
OTHER - BACKGROUND
inspired by the pulp comic books of the 1950s and 1960s, I created the Ben-Day dots theme for this week's project using the 'Paint' computer application
