Dan Woodward

Sep 22, 20218 min read

Graphic Fiction - Assignment 5: Your Graphic Fiction

So, another stressful piece of work, which I will try my best to interrogate and unpack as part of this write-up. Having finished the exercises for the section, and reflecting on all of the sections across this unit, I went into this assignment feeling like I was in a good place. I had learned a lot about the core skills of sequential work, I have added new skills as well as developed a much deeper understanding of the medium.

Most importantly, across this unit, I have learned a lot more about how I work at my best and at my worst. What drives me, and particularly what can trip me up. Being aware of these things doesn't necessarily mean that one has fixed them, however. All of these aspects have been massively exacerbated by having to complete this unit whilst in the middle of a global pandemic, which as completely disrupted my work/life/study balance and completely destroyed any sense of schedule and rhythm from my life.

This unit came with its own baggage - the multiple delays in my submissions meant that I needed to complete this section in a much shorter window than I had planned so that my work could be reviewed by my tutor with enough time to get ready for the November assessment deadline, which was on September 30. I managed to get through the exercises at a good pace and was soon starting the assignment proper.

My biggest issue, again was actually at the start - having too much freedom and flexibility was triggering all the worst parts of my ADHD. I eventually narrowed down the direction to complete a single fictional story. I had the idea to treat it like a comic competition, much like the Future Shocks of 2000AD. In looking for references for competitions I actually managed to find a 5-page reference script. In the end, I chose not to use it. I reasoned that if I used that script I would not have as much control over the panels and composition, which at the time I thought would limit my opportunity to demonstrate the different aspects that I had learned over the unit. (I really wish I had ignored myself, in retrospect).

So this was the first big timesink as I struggled to come up with my own idea. In the end, I resorted to using a plot generator for short stories. This ended up actually being a good thing, as it gave me the constraint I needed - and with constraint comes creativity.

Using this as a basis, I was able to work in my sketchbook to flesh out the ideas more.

From the points of the generator, I then created a Dan Harmon story wheel on the other page to flesh out and tinker with a story, using the prompts to come up with the world, characters, details etc. I then laid out how I might complete that story over a short 5-page span.

From this point, I then went to Microsoft Word to create a script. I was able to use the template I had created in Section Two to give myself a nicely formatted script layout that made writing a lot easier - I was very glad that I had made it.

I was happy with the script, and developing it had given me lots of visual ideas to explore. I set about finding visual references to draw upon for the story. Given that I had started to imagine the scenes as I wrote them, it gave me specific areas to target. (What I found when I started drawing the comic, however, was that there were so many other things I needed to think about to set a scene!)

I printed out all my small reference images onto paper so that I could always have them near me as I went. I tried to get images that covered the machines and attire I would need first. I then realised how white-centric my reference had been. So I spent a day doing visual research into people of colour in the 1920s and 1930s. It was enlightening and really enjoyable. It also called out to me how much our mental reference is based on popular culture that has sanitised out a wealth of historical references because they don't feature white people. I still have a lot to learn and appreciate in this regard.

Now I had a small reference library, I used my sketchbook to start fleshing out ideas for the vehicles and characters of the comic. I found some of these really fun, but others really difficult. I tried for pages and pages to design my heroine, but couldn't find her. This took out many days from the schedule - and destroyed my sense of fun and interest in the project. I felt despondent.

After wasting days on this, I moved on to think about the robot character as a way of keeping momentum. The robot was a lot harder for me, as they are not something I usually draw. I started to panic looking at my sketchbook, but I had the idea to use a technique that I had seen concept artists use. Using a library of tech-looking vector shapes, I assembled them into different configurations, sizes and orientations to create four distinct silhouettes of bipedal robots.

I printed this sheet out at about 40% opacity so that they were a light grey, This allowed me to then draw on top of them, seeking to give them form and character. I found this approach invigorating and I started to get my sense of flow back a little. I was also pleased with the results that I came out with. I showed other students and my family the sketches to get their feedback and to see which one people liked the most. The results were all pretty balanced, so I ended up going with the robot I had jokingly put in a kilt, which I thought best fit the character's name of "Muldoon." I personally liked the Art Deco robot the best but thought that his details would be difficult to draw at different angles.

With my mojo back a little, and more pressed for time than ever, I went straight to thumbnails. Using the script, I planned out each page at the size of a credit card. This was important to me to try and understand the flow across the pages, as well as anticipate where the text would need to fit.

The next parts are not very dramatic in their own right - they are a pretty standard (to my knowledge) workflow. The time it took to do them, however, was extremely dramatic and upsetting. As I started the roughs I realised that laying things down on the paper actually needed me to do a lot of problem-solving for this story. Perspective was particularly tricky, and even my roughs took a lot of time to adjust and sometimes re-draw the compositions and panel layouts to get it to work well. I also had to start to make deviations from the script in order to balance the overall flow with what I thought I was capable of depicting. the roughs ended up being more like scaffolding than anything else.

I moved onto the pencils stage, which I also did digitally to allow for quick editing (I could only imagine what my paper would have looked like if I had tried to do this physically!) It was at this stage when I realised how much work I had made for myself. All of my choices meant I huge amount of detail, which was slow and laborious to do right - even with taking liberties with some choices to make them more efficient. I was only on the second page when I realised that I had a few days to finish. I emailed my tutor, who kindly extended the deadline to the end of that week.

The deadline came and went. For the past week I had been doing 12-14 hour days, whilst juggling my business, family (who mostly left me be to do the work - they are very kind) as well as starting a course which I now couldn't concentrate on as I had to finish the work. By this stage, I had managed to digitally ink all the pages - which again meant more accuracy was needed (so more time) and it highlighted where I had made mistakes in my pencils which I then needed to fix or even re-render the pencils to solve the problem a different way. I was physically and mentally broken. My back was spasming, I barely eat and was surviving on a tiny amount of sleep. Just working normally was now difficult which compounded my speed. I was panicking.

I thankfully pulled my head up long enough to email my tutor - and laid everything out for him. He was incredibly understanding and sought to help me - the important part was to get his useful feedback in time for me to include his thoughts in my preparations for assessment only a week away. He needed to see where I was at so that he could judge if it would be sufficient for feedback. I had one page fully rendered, and the second almost finished the flat colours. But I had no lettering. Together we agreed that I would finish the flats for that page, and then move on to letter the story. I did just that and was able to send him over the story from end-to-end along with a representation of my flat colours and an example of the finished rendering quality. My tutor was happy that this would be enough to move forward, and so I collated all my work and set to writing this learning log entry.

And that's where I currently reside, writing this. Usually, my log entries are after the fact, and it feels odd to be writing something so 'present'. I will shortly be submitting this assignment, and will then be using the rest of my time this week to finish the comic properly, as I am proud of my work and hopefully it will be a good representation of my technical and personal growth during this unit. It sums up my whole experience in a lot of ways. The stuff I love and have gotten a lot out of, and the extreme pain.

What I still don't understand is why it took so long to pencil and ink the pages, when I have done similarly sized work before that has not been nearly as difficult. I feel that I need to investigate this when everything's settled. I clearly have made a lot of choices that required a lot of detail, challenge and scope, and maybe set the bar too high for myself. Likewise, I am uncovering part of my artistic voice which really enjoys an irreverent and silly sense of humour. A sense of rebelliousness if you like. In playing with that humour I can afford to be looser, but my brain seems to try and fight it.

I need to take some no-pressure time with my sketchbook to, as Brett Parson advised me, "get a little bit weird." But I am excited about how much sequential work feel like it 'fits' me, and to explore that more as I go into Stage Two of my degree.