Assignment 3

Make a two – three page mini graphic novel.

Complete a cover including the story name, authors and own details.

Answer the questions:- What did I learn?

Have your illustrations developed to accommodate the demands of the narrative?

Approach

My Approach is to come up with some ideas, spider diagrams and keywords, and do some initial research to start with.

I started by researching short, simple graphic novels, and I came across Jan Thomas books.

Jan Thomas Lives and works in New Mexico, Jan creates short graphic novels for children, using bright simple cartoon visuals, with little writing. Her books usually are about animals and what fun things they get up too, other novels by Jan are What will fat cat sit on, A birthday for cow, The dog house, My friends make me happy and The chicken who couldn’t.

This gave me the idea to follow on from the Animal Farm exercise that I have just completed, So I went back to my spider diagram of animals I hadn’t drawn yet to see which one I could work with here!

I had narrowed the animals down to a Sheep, Alpaca or a Beaver, obviously I had used the Llama in that exercise, so thought I would choose one of the others now. I think I’m going to go for the Beaver, I would have liked the sheep, but I do not want it compared to Wallace and Gromit, so I think the Beaver is the best choice.

With that in mind I am now going to complete a spider diagram and take some keywords from this to move the story forward.

I found some fun facts about Beavers and added these to the diagram, now to pick a few key words to use.

So I chose:-

Orange teeth

Webbed feet

Paddle shaped tail

Social

Waddles

Eats wood

From this I think I can come up with a short story for the graphic novel.

My initial thought for the name of the Beaver was Brad, because Beavers come from Canada, Brad is quite a Canadian name, so I thought of Brad, then Beavers are really social creatures, so I thought Brad would have a party, then it’s Jubilee weekend here in the UK, so I thought he could have a Jubilee party.

Now to think of a fun thing that could happen or something exciting!

I used the story arc from Illustration sketchbooks to help me here, as I needed a beginning, middle and end to work with.

1, stasis – Brad Beaver is a social guy

2, Trigger – He wants to have a jubilee party

3, Quest – He’s made so much food to eat

4, A surprise – A tree has blown over into his home!

5, A critical choice – Brad needs to eat through the tree as quickly as possible

6, The climax – Will he do it in time!

7, The reversal – Brad has eaten too much before the party has even begun!

8, The resolution – Brad still had fun, dancing and socialising, and his friends loved the food.

I now need to make this into images and thumbnails for the panels.

After this I had a better idea of how the panels would be, so I sketched these out to see how they would fit with the sketches and thumbnails.

Next I wanted to start working on the character designs of Brad and two of his friends, I started with sketching on the IPad on Procreate, I have learnt to sketch roughly on the iPad, it was difficult to get the hang of it to begin with, but no I’m getting much better and found I can be more natural with it.

I then went on to start creating the panels from the thumbnail sketches, Panel one is Brad and his friends hanging out together being social.

Panel two is is Brad wants to have a Jubilee party.

Panel three is that he’s made too much food!

Panel four a tree has blown over into his house

Panel five Brad needs to eat through the tree as quickly as possible, before his friends arrive for the party.

Panel six will he do it in time!

Panel seven he’s eaten too much!

Panel eight Brad still had fun dancing with his friends, even though he was full up!

I went on to start the design for the cover, which I have taken from panel eight, with Brad dancing, and added the bunting from panel two, then added the balloons from panel eight also.

I thought this would be the best image for the front cover, as the title will be ‘Brad Beaver and the Jubilee party’.

Now I need to finalise the art work for the panels, and add more details and colour design. I am going to stick with bold block colour, as I have found that works well on children’s books.

I started with the scene’s of each panel to make them have more background, and things going on so the images help to develop the story.

This is panel one with Brad and his friends:-

This is panel two I added in the bunting, balloons and trees:-

Panel three, Brad getting all the food ready for the party:-

Panel four the tree that feel in to Brad home:-

Panel five Brad trying to munch through the tree:-

Panel six Brad munching super quick!:-

Panel seven Brad had eaten too much and was now full!:-

Panel eight Brad and his friends at the party dancing:-

Now to pick a colour palette:-

The colours on the left are for Brad and his friends, the colours down the middle are background colours, and the colours to the right are more accent and detail colours.

I decided to go for a graphic colour block style again, as I think this is good for kids and children to easily see and follow, it’s more simple, but I will add a few textures towards the end to add interest and depth.

I wanted the palette quite earthy and tonal, but with the pop of colour from the red, white and blue, so they would stand out.

Now to colour in each panel and page:-

panel one, Brad and his friends:-

Panel two, Brad wanting a jubilee party:-

Panel three, Brad setting out all the food for the party:-

Page one complete:-

Panel four, the tree that falls down into Brads house:-

Panel five, Brad eating through the wood from the tree:-

Page two complete:-

panel seven, Brad feeling totally full after eating so much wood!:-

Panel eight, Brad and his friends dancing, eating and having fun at the party:-

Page three complete:-

Now I need to finish off the front cover, colour it and add the title and author/ illustrator details. Add some textures to the art work to create depth and interest, and add some action speech bubbles to get the images to come alive, and help the story along.

So here is the cover coloured in:-

Then I added the title:-

I found the cover needed more on it, and also although I liked the font and the size of the title, I tried it in a few colours to see what would look best. I also added the written by and illustrator name, which I chose to be me.

I felt the blue looked best for the title colour, and moved the author and illustrator up to under the title, I thought this showed up better, and looked more like a graphic novel style cover.

I added a chalk texture detail for around Brad and his friends details, to add some depth and to make it look a bit more child friendly.

I also made a back cover for the graphic novel, which is just the front cover reversed.

Now to add the action noise speech bubbles to a few of the panels, to make the story come to life.

Just before I went back to the front cover and added some music notes and lines for movement, to make it look like Brad is dancing.

I added the word chomp to the panel where Brad is eating the tree:-

I added the word Ooof to the panel where Brad has eaten too much wood!:-

I added the word crack to the panel where the tree falls down:-

I added the word Hey to the first panel with Brad and his friends:-

I added the word quick to the panel where Brad has to be quick as his friends will arrive soon:-

So they are all completed now, and this is how the final art work looks for the 5 pages including the front and back covers:-

Questions from the brief:-

What did I learn

I learnt how to put together a graphic novel from all the exercises and research throughout this section, this final piece has put into practise all the individual things I have learnt along the way, into this one novel.

I have learnt more about visual images and which ones to use for the individual scenes and which ones are not needed.

I used the story arc from Illustration sketchbooks to help tell the story

I have become extremely confident drawing and sketching on the IPad and using digital mediums.

I have learnt a lot about Beavers and their habitats!

Working on the story before I even had any real idea, helped to pin down what I wanted to work on first.

Working in a less detailed way, making the images simple, bright and bold, so they would work for children, working in a more graphic way.

General drawing confidence has grown and become a lot better overall.

Have your illustrations developed to accommodate the demands of the narrative?

Yes I have used a more graphic style here, simplified for children, bold and bright colours without too much detail. This has changed from my usual style which is very fine detailed, painterly and usually in watercolours.

I have also changed the illustrations accordingly for the graphic novel so that they are more simple yet descriptive of what is going on, they are more condensed.

I also used Onomatopoeia words to describe the actions in the story

Summery

What went well

Using the story arc really helped me to condense the story down easily, so I could then draw the amount of panels needed.

Using the iPad is much quicker than traditional drawing, and it’s easier to manipulate and take things on and off quickly, or try things out, so I found this went really well.

Having been practising my drawing more, and becoming more confident, I find it a lot easier to do the art work parts, especially for this graphic novel.

I enjoyed the whole process of this assignment and am pleased with how it has turned out for my first graphic novel.

What would I do better/ different

I’m not sure about the lack of words, I know in the brief it states to use images to connect characters, but I still think it might need a few to help it along.

Assessment criteria

Technical and visual skills:-

I feel as though with this section I have really learnt a lot more about about drawing and sketching, I feel as though my skills have developed a lot and become more confident.

Quality of outcome:-

Using a checklist approach has really helped me all through this degree so far, and I still continue to do so, some of the checklist has changed as I have developed. using the story arc in this section, and using panels to break down stores has really helped.

Demonstration of creativity:-

I feel as though my technical skills have developed immensely over this unit, especially in digital medium, and sketching. I have enjoyed looking into animation and more comics and cartoons, and have learnt a lot more about these subjects, this has helped me to learn more about children and how they view images.

Context reflection:-

I enjoy all the research exercises on this unit, and like to learn new things and areas of illustration. I try to learn and develop as much as possible, and always look at books, TV programs on sketching and drawing, and following along with live events to practise.

Up-dated 13/09/2022

After feedback from my tutor she suggested I write about who the audience is for the book, the size and shape of the proposed book, and the format.

Add more texture to the flat shapes, add ground in the first image, and more background overall.

Change the white background to soften, and put the font research into the writing.

So my first starting point was the colour, texture and art work which I started by going back into my original work on Procreate.

I started by changing the background colour of brilliant white to a pale soft cream, which did make the artwork less stark and contrasting.

I also added in some foliage texture, so some grass, plants and leaves to add depth and interest to the green area. Also I added depth and texture to the balloons by highlighting and brush texture.

Now I didn’t want to add too much extra detail than what was already there, just because my aim for this graphic novel was for younger kids, so I wanted it kept simple for them to understand.

I added some brush texture to Brad and his body to add depth and differences, so it wasn’t a flat colour.

I went back and added some blue sky look in the background of the front cover, I thought this added difference and draw the eye to the title, it also made the cream look like light and also gave some atmosphere to the design.

I continued to add the same textures and brushes to the next page, by adding the grass, plant and leaf foliage. Changing the background colour from white to cream, and adding texture to the beavers body’ and depth and highlights to the balloons and accessories.

I did the same on the third page, but still kept the simple design of this page, just adding the grass, plant and foliage and the cream background, it didn’t need anything more.

I changed the back cover to reflect the front cover, including a bit of faint sky in the background.

You can see all the changes to the designs in this picture, I think all the pages work well together and carry the same textures and brushes to keep the consistency.

I agree that the texture and brushes have given the novel some depth and difference than the original, and the softness of the cream works well. It reads better now and looks less flat, but still keeps the simplicity I wanted as it’s aimed at younger readers.

The font’s I chose were based on the age range of the readers, and as they were young, the fonts needed to be clear and easy to read from. So on Procreate I chose the Marker Felt font for the title and the words underneath. Then for the pages of the novel I still used the Marker Felt font to keep the consistency. This font has a playful vibe and is very clear, bold and easy to read.

So the audience would be 3-7 years of age, I think three year old children would understand the jubilee if you explained it to them, and the artwork and design of this graphic novel would be colourful enough to keep their interest for the few pages. Not having many words would work for this age group and having some onomatopoeia words would make them laugh, and help to get them involved with reading with their parents.

The size of the novel would be A5, I think A4 would be too big for a 3 page novel, A5 is big enough to see the detail, but also handy enough for the kids to carry around with them.

Most graphic novels are on the smaller size, and I think a young Childs one should be big enough for them to see the detail, but small enough for the parents or kids to carry.

I think this novel would have been a good idea for a publication around the time of the jubilee and would have been something the kids to have kept as a souvenir.