Research - Short Form Diary Comic Creators

 

Julia Gootzeit often uses skewed panels in her work, which I think creates a feeling of confusion and disorientation. Find Julia's work here: instagram.com/ohmyghoulia

I love Kat Schneids use of panels to create real emotion in her work. A mix of full image and text only. Find Kats work here: instagram.com/katschneids

Anna Vaivare is another artist that uses a lot of texture in their work, and whilst not a sequential artist as such, I particularly loved this piece for its use of sketchy texture and the simple four panels that give it a lot of motion. Find Anna's work here: Instagram.com/annavaivare

Lesley Imgart uses very simple imagery within panels, along with hand-written words that make it feel very raw. Find Lesleys work here: instagram.com/lesleyimgart

The way J Marshall Smith  splits this one full image into separate panels is really intriguing. I also love the narrative corrections in pen. Find J.Marshall Smiths work here: instagram.com/jmarshallsmith

Hannah Hillam approaches diary comics in a much more self deprecating and humours way. I enjoy the simplicity. Find Hannahs work here: instagram.com/hannahhillman

Narrative and colour Experiment - A Walk to a Waterfall

Following on from my research into creators who use panels in an emotive way, and my own playing with panels and words, I decided to create the below piece; which is inspired by the images captured on the same trip for A Walk to a Waterfall, and the words are a summation of the overall story. I used a limited colour pallet which I really love the outcome of.

I also gave myself a time limit on each panel; 5 minutes, to ensure that it’s not overworked, and remains energetic. Although clearly not absolutely refined, this piece feels incredible authentic to me. And is the kind of work I want to aspire to continue to create.

Walk to a Waterfall - Dummy Book

I've been in limbo for a little while on how I picture the pages for A Walk to a Waterfall looking, I've experimented with landscapes, adding myself in as a character using collage, and also doing the work digitally and making it more "web-diary-comic" like, eg. a large focus on the character (me) themselves. 

Through this experimentation I always come back to the landscapes, which where particularly important to me on the day this actually happened, so this is the reason I'm bringing it back to focus on nature, the landscape and my surroundings. 

I want to take "me" as a character out of the images themselves, to emphasise the juxtaposition in my internal monologue and my surroundings, as previously mentioned using Matt Maddens 'Vouyer' idea as inspiration.

I still want to ensure there is a lot of emotion in the images, using timed drawings, carefully selected colour palettes, as well as having the text hand written underneath the image to really bring it back to diary type pages I always enjoyed making.

I put together a full dummy book; totalling 16 pages or content (plus covers and inside page)

Diary Comics - Playing with Panel Layouts + Words

After reading 99 Ways to Tell A Story by Matt Madden, I was drawn to the 'Vouyer' style he depicts, where (as the title probably shows) the writer/creator/artist illustrations from their point of view, eg. behind the camera.

I've recently been researching illustrations and comic creators who use this technique. Lesley Imgart is a great example of this.

I'm working towards being more vulnerable in my work, and feel like this is the direction that most authentically matches my intentions. 

I have now started a separate diary sketchbook to work on, and build on, similar pieces on a much more regular basis so I can develop my personal diary drawings.

 

Folktale Week - Final Zine

The final folktale week laid out unfolded; I painted the ground and tree as one continues piece. I then used pencil to add details, with collage for the final details, and characters. I intentionally left space in this to have an option to add text if I wanted to.

1. The full folded zine 2. Stars 3. Rebel & Costume 4. Potion

Folktale Week - Final Plan

After playing around with ideas for my Folktale Week story, I realised that I needed to simplify my plans;  I was working on making individual pieces, thinking too much about how I was going to present them (eg. for social media),

I decided to combine the idea into an 8 page zine making exercise I previously tried out (the exercise was part of Sarah Dyers Patreon), where you paint/draw the scene in its entirety on a full piece of paper before folding it into the zine. I mapped out my idea very roughly to give myself freedom:

I plan to combine a lot of things I have learnt recently into this zine; the zine itself, painting it as one piece and adding final detail, and the character, in using collage.

Photo Reference - Cropping for Interest

I use a lot of references photos in my work, I received feedback that I should consider cropping into these images to pick out details or interest, focus on what draws me in. Below is a quick exercise where I did this, I've since sketched from them.

Original Full Image

Original Full Image

Original Full Image