KADENZE comics course 'Thumbnails'

The fifth and final week of the comic art course focussed on the use of thumbnails, the preparatory getting-ideas-on-paper. One of the initial steps to building a story within a six-part process. Outline, Thumbnails, Script, Rough Layouts, Editing and Inking and FInal Art. This process isn't set in stone but is a clear start to creating a comic art process of your own. 

The course went into details on each step, encouraging us to ask ourselves questions about the characters, the plot and the journey through the comic to the end. We were shown comic strips by postgraduate students each following the same script yet resulting in very different strips. 

Our final assignment was to create a 6-page comic which had to have:

• a child in a park
• a balloon that comes to life

We were instructed to download practice sheets and begin creating thumbnails. When I had made the single sheet comics the story evolved simply and quickly on the page. Six sheets is something more complicated and I realised I'd need to use the thumbnail process in order to get to the end.

At first I used each printed rectangle as representing a panel on a page before re-reading the instructions and realising that each rectangle represented an entire page. So I re-did the thumbnails and it worked better, giving me the room to design page layout as well as putting down everything I'd learnt during the 5 week course. 

If you're interested in trying comic art I highly recommend the Kadenze course - it covers the basics and has left me itching to do more. Link HERE. If you choose to complete the course free of charge you won't get feedback from the tutor/s or other students and you won't have a Certificate of Accomplishment. Whichever way you complete it you will have a very enjoyable five weeks and new skills to play with.

I think it may take me a while to post a completed inked and coloured comic. I have a beginning and an idea of the end but tying them together to create a fluid storyline will take a little longer. Watch this space...

KADENZE comics course 'Layout and Grid Design'

KADENZE comics course 'Time and Space'

KADENZE comics course 'Comics Relationships'

KADENZE comics course 'Defining Comics'

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Copyright © 2016 by Roisin O'Hagan/bloowabbit

All rights reserved. The artworks/illustrations or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the artist except for specific permission granted with a free downloadable.

KADENZE comics course 'Layout and Grid Design'

This week showed more variations on panel grids than I knew was possible: big with beats, cinematic, columns, halves, inset, mix and match, nine panels, quarters, shattered, six panel, six with modified gutters, sixteen panel, splash. Was interesting to learn which comic strip situations suited the different layouts.

As an assignment we had to select three different grid designs to fill with the script. A single page comic for each variation. There were four which I thought suited the script - Big with Beats, Splash, Shattered and Cinematic. 

Script:

The MONSTER crashes down the hallway towards our hero, DeeDee Danger, and her sidekick, Karl. She carries a laser blaster that looks like it would be useless against the hulking power of the Monster. Karl cowers behind DeeDee as the Monster's weight begins to collapse the concrete floor.

Karl: Get us out if here, DeeDee.

The floor is crumbling.

The whole place is going to come down!

Monster: AAUURGH!

Thumbnails are sketched roughly, getting initial ideas down on paper and changing to suit the overall layout.

Shattered reflects the craziness of the situation and having six panels gives the opportunity to show the weapon, 'useless against the hulking power of the Monster'. Cinematic was a layout I wanted to try though it might work better if the images were drawn from a distance rather than being so close to the action. I liked Big with Beats layout, an initial panel with the situation summarised, two panels showing close ups of the heros and the monster followed by a long column showing the dramatic ending. 

Splash was the layout that appealed most to me, a simple rectangular shape I'm used to drawing on as an artist. To include the three lines spoken by Karl I created a waterfall effect. There's a hint of the monster almost breaking out of the panel, his talons gripping the edge.

KADENZE comics course 'Time and Space'

KADENZE comics course ;Comics Relationships'

KADENZE comics course 'Defining Comics'

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Copyright © 2016 by Roisin O'Hagan/bloowabbit

All rights reserved. The artworks/illustrations or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the artist except for specific permission granted with a free downloadable.

KADENZE comics course 'Time and Space'

This week's course videos were interesting - the tutor spoke about how an artist can convey time and space within panels, outside panels and between panels. We also got to watch an interview with a comic artist, Chuck BB, while he worked, as he described on what and how he was working. This was more than learning theory on a course.

I'd once watched a conversation almost develop into a verbal fight between a writer and a comic artist as to which had the more impactive role. I sat at the workshop table, my glance moving from one to the other like the ball in Pong. I was guilty of asking the question, 'Does a comic artist think they're more important to the comic than the writer and vice versa?'. 

In the interview Chuck BB was asked if he prefered the writer sending him the storyline in full scripts or in Marvel style (paragraph or two about what's happening on each page). And he said somewhere in between was good. While the latter gives him more freedom to decide what visually goes into the comic, having a script writer can be okay as long as there's the opportunity to negotiate possible changes. I got the sense this comic artist was flexible and very sure of his worth which in turn made me think about the conversation that had got out of hand.

This week's assignment was to make three single page six-panel comics. The first had to portray the message happening within a second. The second page within an hour and the third page within a day. This was about exploring Compression and Decompression.

I had left the assignments until Sunday so the drawings are a bit rushed. I found 'A Second' page easiest as it was something that had actually happened. Sitting in a Chinese takeaway I heard a sharp sound. Turned out some lads driving past with a Bebe gun had shot at the window beside me leaving a tiny hole in the glass. The other two pages are more contrived, 'An Hour' is based on the saying 'a watched kettle never boils' and 'A Day' is based on how travelling is what fatigues me the most. The day begins and ends with me in my comfortable bed. I was happy with the alarm clock effect and using some colour in the panels helped diminish the busyness of the street.

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All rights reserved. The artworks/illustrations or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the artist except for specific permission granted with a free downloadable.

KADENZE comics course 'Comics Relationships'

This week's series of videos, ten in all, broke down the definitions of each relationship of image... 

• Moment to Moment
• Action to Action
• Subject to Subject
• Scene to Scene
• Aspect to Aspect
• Non Sequitur
• Symbolic

and text...

• Word Specific
• Picture Specific
• Duo Specific
• Intersecting
• Interdependent
• Parallel
• Pictorial

This assignment was to make a comic diary over five days using the downloadable resource of an A4 sheet with a single rectangle. We could choose to do a single panel or break the rectangle into separate panels. Needless to say when I'm given a box I like to break out of it. On each day we had to include one of the relationships as described in the videos and the content of our diaries had to reflect some aspect of our days that week.

My disability has featured heavily in my diary because of the knock-on effects from it having flared over the past couple of weeks. If it hadn't my comic diary might well have been about my overgrown garden or my dog or playing Pokemon Go (love it). 

My favourite has to be Non Sequitur in which there is an unclear relationship, a randomness of image. This reminds me of the comic book 'Trip to Tulum' by Milo Manara, inspired by the shamanic journeys of Carlos Casteneda and involving Frederico Fellini in the final stages. It's dreamlike in a bizarre way. The reader sometimes has to make their own connections from panel to panel. 

For me, the mannequin holding the sockwabbit and the dog timer are two of the things I see on my desk every day. For me it describes both my art full of escapism and creative satisfaction, and my everyday life where the timer reminds me to check on the dinner I've cooking in the oven. However I selected them each randomly. By attaching meaning to the images I change them from Non Sequitur to Symbolic.

Blogpost 'Other Comics and Graphic Novels'  

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KADENZE comics course 'Defining Comics'

I signed up for a course with Kadenze thinking it might spur me onto completing a comic strip I'd started 5 or 6 years ago. Unlike some courses all the videos are not presented at once. Instead 3 videos are released each Tuesday and assignments set each week based upon what was covered. As I'm doing the course free my assignments won't be discussed or graded. Covering the coursework done in my blog gives me a opportunity to self-critique and I welcome comments from readers.

The first few videos covered what the definitions of a comic were, and there were a few. Following this was the various relationships between art and text. Lots of food for thought.

1st assignment is to create a 2 page comic based on some aspect of ourself. Comic templates were provided. I drew thumbnails in pencil on the back of spare paper and then began to fill in the template boxes, first in pencil and then in ink.

I had wondered if I was one of the oldest students on the course so I based my comic on the issue of age. Recently I'd read the poem 'When I am an old woman I shall wear purple' written by Jenny Joseph in 1932 at the ripe young age of 29. I included myself holding/wearing a hat as in the poem is the line 'with a red hat which doesn't go' and I could visualise the colours in the comic as being mainly purple and indigo with touches of red.

I like breaking through the confines of boundaries so the first panel leads directly into the second. I'm not sure about the top two panels on the second page - I feel they could be more visually interesting. When I looked at the assignment script after I'd finished I saw that I was supposed to include two panels side by side without text. If I learn something from this task it's to read the instructions before I begin.

The second assignment was to look for comics in everyday life while understanding that a series of image and text might be described as a comic. The pictorial instructions on a Fiskars weed puller seemed to fall into that as did the step-by-step method of applying a tubular bandage from a first aid book. 

I suppose by recognising extremes of an artform we don't confine our imaginations by pre-set boundaries.

As in most online courses we're encouraged to join a forum on the site and discuss each week's topic. The final assignment is to look at each other's comics and photos of extreme comics and leave a comment. At this point I really wish I could read what the other students and the tutor thought of my work. 

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All rights reserved. The artworks/illustrations or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the artist except for specific permission granted with a free downloadable.