TheVioletShadow Illustration : January 2016

BAIL201 - Sequential Images - Finished Pages & Printed Zines

The final pages took me quite a long time to do, however I was really pleased with what I manged in the amount of time I had left. I've always wanted to branch into comics or things that tell stories, so I was really excited to see this come together. I think I managed to tell a clear enough story without text, however if I was to do this again, I would either make a shorter, simpler story or hope to have more time to makes more panels and/or pages.

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 8

Page 7

Page 8

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The last thing before the zine was finished was to make the cover! I wanted something simple and mostly dark, to fit the tone of the zine. My best idea was to have the ghost girl appear behind Joey and have them fade into black, so I used the blur tools to blend the cover into black.

I decided to go with the name "Lost & Found" as it was a simple title that became clear what it means when looking through the zine, The lost bear being found again being the main plot point. The text was written with my tablet for ease, copied and faded out to allow it to stand out and look quite old fashioned but contemporary as well. Adding the bow into the back cover broke up the blank space of the backing, but also seemed a cute way to end the whole zine with as that too is the final panel.

As a final little touch, I also wanted to add a break between the cover and start of the zine, So I made a repeat pattern with the two most meaningful images in the zine, the teddy bear and the bow.

It felt like a cute extra to make the zine different and not just start straight away, but also becomes more meaningful after reading, because you then understand why a bear and a bow was used.

I did two versions, one with the text and one without, because I wanted to see if one with text would look more professional, although in the end I liked the simplistic use of just the repeat pattern to start with. A thought that did cross my mind was what if I used the version with the text as a cover itself? As it reminded me of repeat pattern Penguin Classics books that have been made. If I was to do this project again, it might be a nice idea to do two different covers, one printed simply on card and another as a special edition that could be on cloth, hard board or even clear acetate.

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PRINTED & STITCHED ~

I used a thicker paper for the cover, 150gsm, just so it's sturdy enough to stand up if need be, but also have a more professional finish of having a tougher cover and thinner, normal pages.

The inner cover (Bears and Bows pattern) was printed onto 100gsm glitter woven paper, that had a slightly rough texture to it, this seemed much more unique to use as a inner cover and to break up the types of paper.

Evaluation

This has been the first time I have drawn any kind of comic, so I was really pleased with the fact I managed to get one made and even printed out! I think I did really well in learning how to use digital tools to create the effects I wanted, piecing it together and creating something different.

It's something I was certainly really like to do again in the future, however I know that I would want more time to fully plan out and try a few different things. Having to figure out what kind of backgrounds go well against characters was something new, and I do believe this has been ever-so-slightly too dark (or at least just in the backgrounds) so I'd want to work on getting more tests with landscapes and backgrounds, even though it might not be my favourate part of comics/zines to do.

Printing out the zine ended up being stressful too, as when printed, alot of the pages were almost too dark to see, so there was alot of readjusting the brightness and saturation to try and get it to come out clear. I think my final version was still just a bit too dark, but at least I know now that when working digitally, I will have to brighten up darker themed works before taking them to print! On the other hand, thinking differently, If I was to publish this as a digital comic, I think it would be OK.

All in all, I did enjoy finally doing something I've wanted to do for so long, and I am quite pleased with the outcome. I would have liked to have re-done a few panels that I personally don't think are the strongest, and I still need to keep practicing proportion, but I know that I'm a step closer to doing what I've always hope to do, more comics!

BAIL201 - Sequential Images - Stage 2 - Shading and Final Touches

With the outlines cleaned up and inked, it was time to do the background colours. I wanted to have the shading be fairly simple and almost like a cel shaded animation. with only limited colours with a touch of a highlight with a darker colour to give my character more depth.

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For Joey's shading, I did it in 3 stages. One was a simple base layer with no shading or differences in colours, asides from his eyes which I added the extra detailing on at the stage also, so that they would be ready when the highlights would be added. The highlights give him extra depth and allow him to look more real, Taking a darker shade of each area I was colouring, I followed the line art to where shadowing would be.

Joey's hair was done last, As I personally found it easiest to colour in the red section of his hair with a screen print effect layer, so that I can trace over the highlights with a dark red and the rest a lighter shade of red, so make it fit with the rest of his shading.

Even though only 2 colours where used for the shading, I like the comic/manga-ish style and felt it looked fitting with my own style. The Cel shading style was also effective enough to look professional but while also not being overly time consuming also.

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As for my ghost girl character, I didn't add any highlights for depth as I felt she seemed more ghost-like without it. Instead I used a light but dull blue to fill in her hair, clothes and skin with an added "Screen print" effect on the layer so that you can just about see through her.

Also adding the outer glow to her, when it went under the lineart and effected the colour of her, It seemed to give her a ghostly depth that was much more fitting. The glow effect was made by drawing a rough line all around the outline with a very pale blue, almost white, and using a blur tool to fade out the edges.

^ I also added a dark toned background with some lines to test the transparency of the coloured layer. I was really happy with how this came out!

As the comic goes on, I changed the background colour to a lighter blue, so make the effect of her glowing brighter and then later fading away more visible and easy to see without text explaining what was happening. I do think it translated well and can be seen when read. The final panel when she is vanishing was created by turning down the saturation and opacity, as well as using the blurring tool to it's maximum effect. A few more glow-like layers were added so give off a epic feeling, fitting for a final page.

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When it came to backgrounds, I also wanted them to have a similar way of shading as it would fit in with the characters and overall look of the Zine, but also I didn't feel overly confident with colouring the backgrounds, so this made the task a little easier for me to handle. I think it still worked, as the depth of the buildings are there, looking comic-y while also looking slightly realistic.

The finishing touches for most of the pieces was a simple glow on street lamps, the moon and some windows, that were created the same was the ghost girl's glow was done. I ended up being really pleased with the outcomes, seeing as I usually really dislike doing any backgrounds or landscape type work!

I was also inspired by Dave McKeen as mention in my last post but also this youtube video I found when looking for more building colouring inspiration : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddALJ0S3ycg

BAIL201 - Sequential Images - Stage 2 - Sketches for the Zine

I've decided to write yp the last half of my evaluation/book work for my Sequential Image's stage 2 project, as I did go ahead with my idea of making the zine completely digital. This make it much easier to share any work I did in a high quality and also have the write up alongside it easy to find!

*added note! -
Images are viewable at a bigger size, Just click to view and to have them laid out as a slideshow *
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When I finally had my thumbnail sketches complete in my book, I then took to my drawing tablet to start my final panels.

This was a digital sketch of my first panel, just to get to grips with how I could go about drawing it up.

I used the program FireAlpaca for all my work, as I found it had a real smooth outcome and was crisper line art than I could get in photoshop.

From here I then got together a grid that was an edited version of what was provided. This way I knew how my final pages would end up and it would also be easy to move around the panels, if need be.

With the grid pattern being just smaller than A5, this would give some room for a black outer page layout, which I wanted to add as I felt it would fit the theme and mood of my zine overall more than a white boarder or just framed with black lines. My first page (being also the only full page) would be placed within the 6 squares.

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For the backgrounds, I didn't like or feel my observational drawings were strong enough to carry on to use in this final piece, So I used images I had taken from from my trips to the Plymouth Baribcan when I was drawing to use instead. I sketched over them in a way that Dave McKeen did for his comic, 'Cages'. I was also inspired by the way he coloured the backgrounds with simple colours, that I will use as inspiration when inking.

These images I took from within two different shops, The first two were from one end of a Military store just off from new street and the other from a store just under it. Both places were full of really old items that inspired by story being themed around a ghost looking for a lost and treasured item.

I spliced the images together so that I could create some place new but also have enough detail in there to look like a real place. This drawing will be used through out most of my pages, so adding in the extra details felt important as this would be the key location, drawing enough of the room that I could easier move it around to have my two characters appear to be at different ends of the room.

Other location-based photos I used where streets and doorways, That I sketched over in the same way. I felt much happier with this as I could get the perspectives I wanted while making sure the backgrounds looked like places! Also, I like to focus more on character design and story, so the backgrounds would have taken me much longer to get just right if I didn't do them this way.

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Next was onto sketching my thumbnails, but digitally. I sketched each panel up inside the grid patterns, so give me an allowance of room and to make sure my characters would fit in the finished product. It was an easier way to work than just drawing each panel and pasting them in after they were done. To make sure I knew what layers were my sketches, I decided to draw them in a light blue, so that if I needed to add more to the sketches, I could go over in a darker blue to see where my new line out will be or to make tracing for the finished outlines much easier. Below are the full sketches before drawing them as the finished line arts ready for colour :