DVB102 Image Design and Production

Week 3, Images 6-10: Comic Strip

This week I thought back to my school days and thought I would draw a light-hearted memory from my math class- after every class my teacher would dismiss us with a Chuck Norris joke. His voice is so loud it would make me jump every time!

Mediums used: 0.4mm and 0.6mm fine liner pens, 2B pencil, eraser, watercolour paint

Medium/techniques used: hatching

Process: I first drew up a practice sketch of roughly what I imagined my comic strip would look like and then divided it into panels. Once I was happy with the resulting sketched, I traced over it with pen (going in on the shading with the 0.4mm and the rest with the 0.6mm). The practice sketch can be seen below. I then reevaluated, got some feedback and redid my sketch and repeated with fine liner. I decided to then add some pops of colour using watercolour paint.

Reflection: I am proud of my evolution from my first work to my second and can see some improvements, but there's room for much more. From my first work, I didn't like the sharp corners and harsh lines I had used to sketch the students and the teacher, and I felt that overall the images were boring. I added the lines in the panels of the teacher yelling to draw focus and add emphasis on his words and how loud he is. I tried a more relaxed sketching technique and, although I sacrificed a bit of detail in the process, I'm much happier with this final product. I also added some colour to give a bit of structure to the settings and to make the whole thing a bit more interesting. 

I think there are still a few ways I can make this comic strip better- I can reposition the panels to make them more linear and cohesive, as it does appear to be a bit unclear where the eyes should travel from the start of the comic to the end. I can also definitely go into more detail with faces and facial expressions (I have a lot of room for improvement here!). I think because some of the panels feature the same angle it can get a bit boring so I think I can also mix up the angles and add one or two closeups (as Jacque suggested- I ran out of time for this one).

Going into this week I knew I wouldn't produce any crazy amazing pieces of work. I have limited freehand drawing experience and just am not confident in my capabilities, particularly when it comes to drawing people. I also really dislike the boldness and permanence of pen drawing (and thus started with pencil), as I tend to use very broken lines in my sketches and am afraid of messing up. Lots of room for improvement with my penwork!