December 2013

The first time using the ability of digital output to trace off of photo reference. The first two panels use a highly stylised representation to show the excitement felt, the third panel uses realistic imagery to backup the idea that I have ‘come back to reality’.

Once again using photo reference on top of freehand drawing.

And again…

The idea for this page was to show the way in which intense hunger can sneak up on you. I think I should have used a few more panels to make this clear to the reader.

The open last panel works to convey information freely. I used an open panel border to keep in compliance with the third panel where text is also without panel borders.

The first diary comic on a slightly less than A5 Moleskin I had laying around. This was used as I was away from my usual drawing space and the Moleskin was the only thing suitable. Although at this stage the layout is still messy and the text rough, the use of traditional pen on paper made the process much faster than usual. 

Once again, the Moleskin used by necessity proved to by advantageous. The use of black in the last panel helps to enforce the feeling of ‘togetherness’ while providing an anchor for the page. 

This page used an open form for the final three panels- because of the landscape layout it works. The black silhouette in the middle of the page provides a focal point of interest for the eye, while the low word count hopefully makes the image easy to read.

The absence of thoughtful design in text placement makes this page a bit of a mess. More thought needs to be given to the depiction of objects such as in panel one to avoid reader confusion.

The use of a symbolic representation here enforces the text, however more design in the text would make this image stronger. 

Pushing the boundaries of how much information can be conveyed in a single page. The graphic depiction of the coastline seems to work, however I should make use of Photoshop’s capacity for clean word balloons if I am to use a digital means of production.

This image was made while on the plane and uploaded via a  phone camera. This has helped me ease up a little in worries about a ‘clean’ reproduction- what matters most is the content. 

A clustered panel layout. Hopefully the areas of high contrast help to break up the monotony and encourage reading. 

Although the text is messy I feel this page is a success. The jet lagged state seemed to help in the lateral thought process of imagery. The segmented head played on representation of my mental state at the time- incoherent and bisected. The bottom panel aimed to depict a feeling I get sometimes, where I am sitting at a raised level, almost floating. It usual comes with extreme tiredness, when I am stuck in one place without being able to move around, as in boring meetings or in this case, at the dinner table trying to make a good impression and immensely tired.

An attempt at some symbol/icon play.

The first use of a pseudo hieroglyph to represent the unintelligible (to me) German language.

The first double page spread. Proud of this one on a number of levels. The car to train device on the top works somewhat well, with the aim of leading the eye across the page. The use of an artwork frame as a panel border in panel 6, the pig representation in panel 8, and the use of blacks to break up the page. It hangs together well.

A failure as far as I’m concerned, primarily attempting to use narration shapes to add to the meaning of the words. The figures were added as an afterthought to give a bit of extra life.

Here I have taken extra time to place the text in a bit more neatly. 

This page uses a more line intensive approach which I decided works well without tonal marker work. The aim was to show body language to convey information. 

Here I have used a bastardised version of the Japanese Haiku for the script. This added a nice constraint for storytelling and gave a nice addition to the poetic mood of the mountains.

Once again with the haiku. Happy with the sequence at the bottom, aiming to convey a sense of movement and freedom in the lack of panel gutters.

This one was not inked or toned purely due to lack of time. Happy New Year!