Planning
Gantt chart
I created a Gantt chart at the beginning of my project to block out time so I have a visual of when things need to be completed.
Story Ideas
This is my initial idea for a story about climate change and the weather, although the concept is thought out and it would make a good short comic book (around 24 pages) I feel this is an unrealistic goal given the time I have until the deadline. A more realistic goal is to adapt the story and create a 1 page comic sample this will give an idea of what a 24 page comic will look like and a more achievable goal to hit with the deadline so close.
Reflecting forward
I feel like a non dialogue comic page will be a more achievable goal so I'm going to adapt my story idea into a poem and illustrate each verse into a panel.
Adaptation of story, Poem
Our planet is angry
our planet is sad
our planet doesn't like it
when we make it mad
with bangs and crashes
winds so strong
the sky lights up
now the sun has gone
our planet is changing
our planet not calm
we did this to ourselves
with a lack of concern
with greenhouse gasses
and car emissions too
we are killing our planet
and its affecting us too
we need to fix this
and we need to start now
before its to late
and the worlds gone down.
I thought that adapting my original story idea into a poem would be the best way to get my story across and raise awareness of the effects of climate change and the weather without using dialogue to keep my comic within the one page I had set myself. By using one verse to inspire the illustration for each panel, I was able to create a five panel, one page comic that makes sense.
Character Design
Here I did some observational drawings of my son from life and from the reference photos I have attached next to my sketches, I have found that having a reference person to work from a helpful method of creating characters as you can see your reference from many angles. Additionally it is easer to give them emotions and mannerisms as the face is very expressive. The great thing about this method is that you are already familiar with the shapes of the face you are drawing as you see it all the time this helps a lot, rather than going in and creating from scratch with no reference.
Reflection
I am happy with the overall form of the faces I have sketch and the likeness I achieved. Although I wish that I had made more observational drawings including tone this would have helped me create a more 3D and realistic face, Additionally some more observational drawing of the whole form would have been helpful as the proportions of the body in my sketches are way off.
Reflecting forward
Moving forward with these observational drawings I want to recreate these in a more stylistic way to appeal more to my target audience.
I tried to figure out the the character in a more animated way her by simplifying the shape language. However I do not like the way these have turned out. I am really unhappy with the proportions of the figure and how static he looks.
Reflection
Reflecting forward
I think moving forward I need to concentrate on stylising the form and figure out the best proportions to use to create my character, by creating a character pose turn around sheet.
Character Poses
After taking away the features and concentrating on the form of the body I was able to find the proportions that I liked and create movement and gesture within my sketches using simple shapes and guides to help me achieve the same proportions again and again. I could improve these drawings by adding town and shadow to give my forms a more 3D feel.
Reflecting forward
Now that I have the form of my body I want to work on stylising the face of my character.
Character Expressions
Reflection
I took the simple shape of the head and stared playing around with different expressions and I really like the way that they have turned out.
Reflecting forward
All I have to do now is add all the elements together.
Final Character Design
Archie
Red Panda
Reflection
These are my drawings from reference photos to get a feel of the anatomy of the red panda so I have an idea what elements I could exaggerate and simplify when it comes to stylising for my character design.
I am happy with the overall look of the form of the red pandas I have drawn.
Would have been even better if I had explored tone within these drawings.
Stylising
Reflection
I really like how I have simplified the shame for the red panda and adding the shape to the markings above the eyes really helps it become recognisable if being in my style, it is almost heart shaped witch add so the the likability of the character.
Archie and Forest final character design
Reflection
I really like the colour combinations I have used in the design of these character I thin that the greens of Archie's jumper and Forest's reds in his fur really compliment each other.
Spirit Dragon
I stared this character design by researching mythical creatures and was inspired by Studio Ghibli's dragon characters. These dragon characters are based on the Japanese dragons that don't have wings instead the kind of swim through the air witch I really liked as earlier in this project I created an illustration of a whale swimming through the clouds.
Reflection
I think the colour choices I used really enhance the feel of the Globe the dragon as blue represents power.
Story Background
This story is about a boy named Archie, A for short. Who rescued his companion named Forest, the red panda as he was in danger of extinction from climate change and deforestation. They are shocked about how the world is changing and wish to try and help make it better place.
The dragon in my story is our planets spirit named globe, who is upset about how we are treating the world and is punishing us by coursing extreme weather.
Final Work
I practiced composition and perspective before designing my final solution, as I'm not as confident with these elements.
Reflection
I think I could have come up with more dynamic and interesting buildings if I had explored more urban and dystopian landscapes.
Comic Book Panel Layout
Above is my initial ideas for a comic page layout, the one on the left is 9 different thumb nails grouped together. I feel these layout wasn't engaging enough so i came up with the plan underneath.
This is the design I chose to go with I am happy with the over lapping panels and the interesting shapes I have used instead of just having a boring layout.
This is my final art work that I created
The Adventures of Archie
Taming Globe
Feedback I have received
3D model
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I thought it would be fun to bring this panel to life so i built a box out of mdf and my plan was to chreate it within this so that i could add more interesting elements like lights
I recreated the building structure using card and made the wire skeletons for my characters, and started fleshing out the body using aluminium foil to create the under armour. Unfortunately I ran out of time to execute this the way I would have liked. I am thinking about continuing to work on it in my own time as I think it would make an great art piece and will bring my characters and the panel to life. I think I'm also going to keep working with the characters I made here as I love them so much and would make really good original characters for the future projects I may have.
Presenting my work
I have created a 2D illustration that I would like to be framed on the wall central to concept art surrounds it, that is black and white so that it doesn't detract from my main piece. I think this will give my final solution more context and show how I got to the solution I did and A4 print outs that people can take home if they would like to. Additionally I would like to display a fact sheet next to my artwork about some interesting facts I found while researching. This is something children said they would be interested in at the end of a comic book.
If I had time to finish a cover for my comic book and some character models my presentation of my work would be slightly different with my cover next to the comic page and the concept art still surrounding it with a plinth in front where I would display my models.
This idea comes from the Pixar exhibition in Japan as I feel this showcases a body of work showing the process illustrators, animators and concept artists go through.
Looking back now there are a few things I think I would like to add I would have loved to add some digital illustrations and animation along with finished 3D models I think this would have took my work to the next level but unfortunately I fan out of time.