I can’t believe it’s already half way through the first semester of the comics certificate program! Times flies when you are having fun. Last night was our last class with Nicole (at least for this semester.) We turned in our inked memory comics and shared them with each other. My classmates’ comics turned out great. I really liked reading everyone’s comics after seeing them in production over the past couple of weeks.
For my comic, I wrote about getting my first tattoo when I was 18. I really liked this exercise, but it was challenging for me to recall details, decide what details were important and relevant, and to work with timing in the narrative. For instance, one of my pages that shows the process of me getting my first tattoo felt short, it was only one page when it should have been spread out into two or three to show the timing. It was also hard to recall certain moments and conversations and how they went, so sometimes I felt like I had to make up what happened. When inking the comic, I tried to only use a nib pen and brushes, which the exception of the text in the speech bubbles, where I used a monowidth pen. I really like the aesthetic that the nib and the brush added to my style. To give you an idea of the aesthetic those tools added, here is a splash page I did from that comic:
Anyways! For our last in class exercise with Nicole, we were given twelve cards and drew quick thumbnails of various scenarios and subjects on each of them. We then layed the twelve cards out in front of us and arranged them to create different sequential narratives. Mine involved hitting the snooze button, pilgrims, owls, and the world ending, just to give you an idea of the random images I drew.
Then we took a break, and it wasn’t Nicole who was teaching when we got back but it was Jesse Reklaw! It was interesting switching teachers half way through a class. Nicole and Jesse have really different teaching styles/focuses, so we all had to adjust quickly. With Jesse, we talked about text, including type faces, what kinds of type faces are appropriate in what parts of comics (for example: decorative text in a speech bubble is hard to read and takes away from what could be a good comic) We also did an exercise where we took a daily strip, cut it down the middle, and added three panels in the middle. Mine was about a teenager texting on his cell phone while hanging out with his parents. It was a pretty terrible strip. I’m not sure if my addition made it any better.
This week we’re working on lettering and text, so I’ll post what comes of that when it’s all done. And then, who knows?
Until next time,
Fiona