After selecting my chosen sketch in Exercise 3.1 I got started with this exercise. My sketch was not really good enough to simply copy into the first panel. So I decided to re-draw it properly.
Given it was going onto A3, I used a sheet of A3 layout paper to pencil in a better version of the scene. I then decided to use that opportunity to sketch in the four subsequent panels too.
I normally sketch through ideas in my sketchbook first, so it was a bit strange to mentally improvise as I was drawing on the layout paper. I ended up rubbing out and re-drawing some of the panes as I played with things like perspective and point of view. I wanted to get the story to flow well, so tried to alter the composition to focus the reader on what I wanted. Taking inspiration from Will Eisner in the Spirit research exercise, I thought about what I might need to get the reader to think and see what was most important.
My idea was to go from the runner, notice the birds, then a top-down (bird-like) view of the runner winding his way through the forest. I angled the road to direct the reader to the next pane below and angled the radio so that there is almost a link to the road in the previous pane.
I positioned the runner at such an angle that we'd hopefully see the figure he's running towards. As he's far away, silhouette seemed important and I wanted to convey that the figure was doing some kind of personal martial art practice.
I finished with my character (not the runner at all) and showed the tech armour he is wearing. I didn't want him to turn round to create a sense of aloofness - that he was focused on the end of his training. Trying to get the angle right to suggest he's almost talking from his peripheral vision was really tough!
I chose to go with a high technology feel to juxtapose the forest. I wanted the reader to make assumptions and be interested until I could dispel them and reveal the truth.
I had planned in my head that we'd then reveal that the forest was in fact an arboretum on a generational colony spaceship. It was also trying to tell our reader that my character was a capable, strong but also spiritual person.
When I had my sketches in a good place, I used Bristol paper and my lightbox to add ink. I knew I was not meant to worry about stylistic choices, but I couldn't help get carried away with the detail of the opening scene. To avoid worrying about style choices, I decided to choose a Tombow fudenosuke brush pen, which has a flexible tip but is very forgiving. I didn't think about style, I just inked, and just used line weight to help me define the planes of the composition. For the following panes, I was not so fastidious in rendering the same kind of detail, so I inked quickly with the same pen, only using a pentel brush pen when I had a lot of blacks to put in.
I'm pretty pleased with the overall result given it was created fairly spontaneously.
Following the inking, I proceeded to complete the reading point.
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