The Brief
For this exercise I was tasked with creating an illustrated strip for use in schools. I would help young teenagers cope with the onset of puberty. It had a constraint of having a maximum of 5 frames, and a recommendation not to trivialise the subject.
The title of the strip was to be "What’s happening to my body? It’s all going mad!". As it was going to be put into a leaflet, there also needed to be a single illustration for use on the front cover.
Going into this exercise I had a few things that I wanted to accomplish:
Make the most of the small number of frames
Be empathetic
Try to limit my colour palette to get better at using values and textures.
I started by focusing first on the text - I wanted the script to drive the visuals and not the other way round. I also wanted to be succinct, rather than put loads of text into it for the sake of it.
I did research into puberty from multiple perspectives. My medical training gave me good initial insight but I wanted to see what kind of advice existed out there already. Official sources [9] are very matter-of-fact but useful for categorical information. It was when I read an article giving personal advice [8] that it really hit me - most of the information out there concentrates on the outward physical manifestations brought on by hormones. But very few talk about the mental changes that happen from the very same hormonal changes. So I tried to focus my research on the mental aspects, and found useful information, even if it was focused more towards adults than teenagers [10].
I sat down with my sketchbook and started to write the script, imagining I was talking to a teenager one-to-one. I refined the words to make them as succinct as possible.
Once I was happy with the words I wanted to use, I needed to think about how they might relate to imagery. I created some thumbnails to start thinking about this relationship and laid down the frames organically. Part of the challenge was how to convey information with so few frames, so in doing the thumbnails I decided on using a full page frame.
The next step was to start laying out the roughs for the strip. This is when I remembered a technique that I say in the Posy Simmonds exhibition at the House of Illustration in London. In creating her comics she would print out the text, and glue it to her paper either before or after drawing the visuals. I thought this would be a really good idea to experiment with, so I typed up the script and printed it out, each line in a box. I then started to draw and place the text on layout paper. This allowed me to experiment with ideas. I went through a few iterations before gluing the text down, and even then I wasn't fully happy, so I made some notes for myself when taking the image onto visuals.
One of the challenges I faced was what to depict in the fourth frame (top of page 2), so I went back to my sketchbook to look as possible options:
Once I had decided which option (top) I wanted to use, I redrew it onto paper, then glued that onto the layout.
Colour and Tone
Before moving forward with the visuals, I wanted to get a feel for the kind of look that I was going to go with. Given my recent experiments with texture I wasn't sure I wanted to approach the comic in a very traditional way. So I did research to find examples of comics where the illustrator used limited palettes, lack of frame borders and non-typical speech bubbles. I selected seven images to uses as a base reference moving forward [1-7].
I thought about what combination of colours to use for the strip, using an electronic palette tool to come up with possible combinations.
I was trying to avoid combinations that relied on conventions like pink or blue - I wanted my leaflet to feel accessible for girls, boys and teens who might not even be sure how they identify themselves. I ended up opting for the all-yellow option.
I worked on the visuals, using the roughs underneath, and in creating the visuals used the roughs to inform any improvements that I could make.
I was really pleased with the visuals, I manged to get some useful imagery, I think I used texture well and I am pleased with my depiction of people. I tried to think a lot about balance. When it came to the artwork, I felt that I needed to divert away from the singular colour, so I selected a blue colour to contrast the yellow, and to try and show significance.
The Cover
I started the cover after the comic to try and tie it all together, and used thumbnails to explore different options.
I wanted to emphasise the mind aspect of the comic. I quite liked the second option (top right) but wasn't happy with the composition. It was nice and simple but the text placement focused more on the somatic aspects. So when I came to doing the visual for the cover I decided to emphasise simplicity, using a silhouette and letting the text be prominent.
I tried to vary the text. I decided on using computerised text for the top and 'Mad' text. For the top text I wanted a font that gave a sens of authority but also to feel accessible to teenagers.
The "mad" text I chose a font that was bold and expressive, I was trying to have something that was like the mind shouting, but not to be alarming. It needed to almost feel fun. I remembered to use the eraser tool in the hand-drawn text, and I especially like the effect it's given the letters in "gone" to have clean edging.
I placed all the images into my desktop publishing software to add the text and see the layout together in context. I experimented with the use of borders on the text boxes until I got an effect that I was happy with. I did a draft print of the leaflet, printing it back-to-back so I could see how it would all work. I realised I had printed the cover the wrong way around! Also the colours didn't seem to translate properly. I wasn't sure if this was down to the draft quality, or the colour profile settings. After a quick adjustment of the layout, and tweaking the colour profile settings I printed out the leaflet on better paper in high quality. I am really pleased with the result, the colours look great and I think it flows well.
References
Ganucheau, S. (2019). Sequential Art. [online] Srganuch.carbonmade.com. Available at: https://srganuch.carbonmade.com/projects/3155089 [Accessed 28 Jul. 2019].
Henry, W. (2017). Wallace the brave. Andrews McMeel Publishing.
Holm, J. and Holm, M. (2005). Babymouse: queen of the world! (Babymouse, vol. 1.). New York: Random House Children's Books.
Jacques, K. (2019). Band Vs Band Comix | by Kathleen Jacques. [online] Bvbcomix.com. Available at: https://bvbcomix.com/ [Accessed 28 Jul. 2019].
McCaig, D. (2018). How to colour comics. [online] Creative Bloq. Available at: https://www.creativebloq.com/advice/how-to-colour-comics [Accessed 28 Jul. 2019].
Weaver, E. (2018). Ellice Weaver twitter post. [online] Twitter.com. Available at: https://twitter.com/ElliceWeaver/status/1038771994077143041 [Accessed 28 Jul. 2019].
Fair, C. (2019). Digital Drawing. [online] https://www.candyfairstudio.com. Available at: https://www.candyfairstudio.com/blog/category/Digital+drawing [Accessed 28 Jul. 2019].
Avey, E. (2019). Advice to my 13-year-old self (and 6 tips for navigating puberty). [online] Helloclue.com. Available at: https://helloclue.com/articles/life-stages/advice-to-my-13-year-old-self-6-tips-for-navigating-puberty [Accessed 28 Jul. 2019].
nhs.uk. (2018). Stages of puberty: what happens to boys and girls. [online] Available at: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/sexual-health/stages-of-puberty-what-happens-to-boys-and-girls/ [Accessed 28 Jul. 2019].
RC PSYCH ROYAL COLLEGE OF PSYCHIATRISTS. (2019). Surviving adolescence: for parents and carers. [online] Available at: https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mental-health/parents-and-young-people/information-for-parents-and-carers/surviving-adolescence-for-parents-and-carers [Accessed 28 Jul. 2019].
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