I had had some experience creating educational comics before, having created one for a client as part of my day job. However, creating something biographical was going to be a new experience for me. I pondered for a good time about who to select for the subject of the exercise. I don't do well with having too much choice.
I knew that I didn't want to do someone very famous - no Winston Churchills etc. What I really wanted to do is tell a story of someone who might not be famous for the right reasons, or someone who didn't get the credit they deserved and had a story that needed to be told. By the nature of this criteria, I knew I was likely to choose someone from a minority, so I wanted to make sure I told the story respectfully and be mindful of any biases I had.
I was watching an episode of "Horrible Histories" with my son that was focused on inventors. They told the story of Hedy Lamarr in the second world war, and her amazing invention to help the war effort. After doing some initial research reading I was hooked and I knew this was the story I wanted to try and tell. I started by doing research from as many sources that I could find and tried to extract the key points in her life into some notes.
When I was working out what story to tell, it was a juggle to decide what to choose. The main theme that I got from her life was that her value was set (mostly by men) based on her looks rather than her amazing intellect. It was a tragedy that this notion was so ingrained - after her movie career ended in the 1950s, she became a recluse. So I decided that the narrative I wanted to tell was to push back against the prejudice that women are treated by their looks over their abilities and character.
Looking at the example given in the coursebook, I decided that I didn't want to do a normal panel-driven comic, but instead do it as a more fluid sequential illustration.
I remembered seeing one of the winning entries to the 2019 World Illustration Awards by Kathryn Martin:
I liked the way that this flowed through the space and wanted to see if I could try something similar. I decided to omit the more controversial or salacious parts of Lamarr's life, and concentrate on the inventor narrative. Following the instructions, I did a lot of visual research to build up a wide and varied selection of visual reference of Lamarr (I won't link them all here to save on a massive amount of references!). Given her early years were formative, I wanted to include something of that in the exercise. So using reference images, I experimented in my sketchbook with the first of my spot illustrations.
It felt like I had suddenly forgotten how to draw! I hated everything. No matter how I tried to alter my approach, nothing felt natural. I started to get very frustrated, so decided to channel my efforts into just doodling faces.
This was just what I needed. I had recently purchased "The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage" (Padua, 2016). I loved the educational content done in a fun and light-hearted way. I also really enjoyed the style of comics, I could see his background in animation with the expressive body language and gestures but the inking had a strong feeling of being influence by European comics like Asterix. I poured over the book; my mind taking in ideas and recharging its creativity. I had given myself permission to loosen up and have some fun with things.
I went back to the illustration at hand and still couldn't get a young Hedy down as I wanted. So I decided that perhaps I needed more structure and constraint to focus. I changed my approach and moved to layout sketches. I was quickly able to do a few variations and came to a general layout that I thought could work. It also helped me target the written content and associated illustrations that I needed to focus on.
So next I went on to sketch the illustrations I needed. Having this constraint really helped, as I was aware of the space I needed and how each illustration would need to help move the reader through the page.
I scanned the illustrations into my computer and placed them on an A3 sheet based on the layout in my sketchbook.
Next, I digitally pencilled in the other parts of the piece. In my head, I was going for something that could be used as a poster in my son's school. Overall, given her background, I leant into the feel of a 40's movie. This allowed me to experiment with hand-drawn typography as well as using my vector skills to manipulate type. I also use my design skills to add in the descriptive text.
I created digital film strips to be the backbone of the flow, first creating vector shapes and then rasterising them to manipulate and warp them into the shape I wanted. I tried to emulate the MGM logo to mirror the content of the story at that point, and then transposed the film strip into the underwater cavitation trail of a torpedo - again, matching the change in narrative.
I used the image of Lamarr riding a torpedo to be a little bit of commentary of Pinup aeroplane nose art of the time. Instead of her phallically riding the ordinance, I put her side-saddle. Instead of making her overtly sexual, I put her into every hot-weather clothes I had seen her wear in the photos. I also didn't make her smile, trying instead to give her a placid but resigned expression which I felt supported the narrative. Whilst seeking overall feedback from other fellow OCA students, I carried on tweaking the roughs - adding in more detail here and there and clearing bits up. Some of the text was moved slightly to help with the natural movement of reading.
I have a clear idea in my head about how I would like to ink and colour this piece, and I think in general it's successful. However, I have decided to stop at the roughs stage so I can move on and make progress. It will also give me an opportunity to get feedback and make tweaks - then I plan on taking this to a finished status, maybe even as a potential item for assessment.
References
Biography. 2020. Hedy Lamarr. [online] Available at: https://www.biography.com/actor/hedy-lamarr [Accessed 4 June 2021].
Brady, D., 2011. A Beautiful Mind. Bloomberg Businessweek, pp.102-103.
Cheslak, C., 2018. Hedy Lamarr. [online] National Women's History Museum. Available at: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/hedy-lamarr [Accessed 4 June 2021].
En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Hedy Lamarr - Wikipedia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr [Accessed 4 June 2021].
Hedylamarr.com. n.d. Biography – Hedy Lamarr. [online] Available at: https://www.hedylamarr.com/about/biography/ [Accessed 4 June 2021].
Hong, P., 1999. A starlet's secret life as inventor. Microwave Journal, [online] (Vol. 42 Issue 2). Available at: https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A54195209/AONE?u=ucca&sid=summon&xid=133d2df9 [Accessed 3 June 2021].
Karwatka, D., 2005. Hedy Lamarr: Hollywood Actress and Electronics Inventor. Tech Directions, (6), p.10.
Martin, K., 2021. Isadora Duncan. [online] Kathrynmartinillustration.co.uk. Available at: https://kathrynmartinillustration.co.uk/portfolio/isadora-duncan/ [Accessed 13 June 2021].
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