I realised when submitting the second assignment that I hadn't done my usual process of reflecting on my assignments. So I've waited for my second tutor feedback report and will go through both together to reflect on my progress so far.
Part One
I loved that the start of the course begins with history. Having been a fan of the medium since a child, I have connected my love for research and understanding with comics so felt that I had a relatively good foundation. The opportunity to deepen this understanding was great, and I learned so much from this exercise. I had managed to find a copy of one of the reading list books ("Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels" Sabin, 1996) that covers other elements of the history of sequential art. I have found the subject fascinating.
For the next exercise, I was surprised by my Tutor's feedback that my "McCay thumbnail was quite Schulz-like in its absent melancholy". No the feedback itself, more that I hadn't really considered that aspect to it. I just really like that phrase 'absent melancholy' it really resonates with me for some reason! I appreciate the feedback on the image I created. I understood that the subject matter didn't immediately fit the artist's typical content, but I am glad that I was able to adapt to that. I also appreciated the feedback that the image was well-composed and well developed from the reference image. That helped me remember that I have come a long way in my skills in this area, and will continue to develop them as I go.
My tutor remarked that the image for my second exercise "is not entirely clear whether the silhouette in the doorway is coming into or leaving the room." Looking at the image again I can see this is true. I can also see how the pencils were drawn to avoid this. In inking, I did not factor in any variation of contrast in just using block black and white to represent the 'film noir' aesthetic. This meant the feet merged into the cast shadow. I think in this case using a white line at the outside contours of the shoes would have made it obvious which way the figure was facing. Other aspects of these images worked pretty well, but I appreciated the feedback my tutor gave me, especially around intended (or not intended) relationships between objects. Also on the perspective aspects. I took the feedback and used it in Part Two, when drawing my characters, to try top-down perspective again and see how I could improve.
There was a phrase that my tutor used in his feedback to the Before & After research exercise: "An economy of information". I think that this lies at the heart of good visual storytelling. It's is the real skill of the best comics. I think that I need to take more time to stop and think about what I am going to draw. I need to think about what I want the reader to notice, take away, and feel. Conversely, there is an opportunity to think about how to hide things in plain sight or foreshadow by drawing attention away from things too.
When drawing my images for 'fill a page', I am pleased that my perspective work is improving the more I do. One bit of feedback that made me curious was "Pencilling
rather than moving straight to working with ink means it’s possible to see you thinking through the spaces really well." This feels like a direct contradiction to my experiences through doing the Illustration Sketchbooks module. In that module, I ended up preferring using my fountain pen straight away. It made me commit to lines, and stop worrying about mistakes. Essentially it helped me be less tentative with my sketching.
However, in this exercise, there was utility in being able to iterate and refine the work in pencil. With my brain focusing on the memory, the tentativeness was lessened in a different way. Is there a space for both approaches? What are the conditions on when to use each method? That's something for me to ponder as I do more work through this module.
For the assignment itself, I am really pleased that my skills in research and experimentation are paying dividends. My previous modules have taught me a lot, and it's nice to see my growth here. I am very pleased with my tutor's overall comments. I am also pleased that I was able to put my technical skills into good use and achieve something that feels like one of the most authentically 'Me' pieces I have created to date. I appreciated my Tutor's observation that it felt like Terry Moore's work. He is not an artist I had been familiar with in the past, so I did some personal artist research. I really like a number of aspects of his draughtsmanship and his ability to draw humans in a stylistically realistic way is amazing. So much so that I found that he had created a tutorial book, which I bought the electronic Kindle version ("How to Draw" Moore, 2012). I have been learning from all of its content since and I have been completing a whole series of expression studies in my sketchbook based on the "K.I.S.S." section of the book.
I was reassured by my tutor noting that there is less expected sketching at this stage of the module. Having come from an exclusively sketchbook orientated module this was a big change of pace. I am also pleased that I seemed to have used my sketchbook intelligently to tackle the exercises and assignment of Section One. I do wonder how I can make the most out of my sketchbook, so I intend to build on some of the studies that I am currently doing. Anything I can do to practice my observational drawing will help in my mental reference for drawing people and places.
Part Two
The first part I am pleased about in my feedback for Part Two was my tutor's acknowledgement regarding paper use for exercises. I am really pleased that this has been considered and future amendments to the courseware will encourage approaches that require less paper to be used (and ultimately wasted).
I think the amount of 'air space' in my balloons for the first task results in my trying to work quickly using a stock speech bubble shape in Affinity Designer. It limited was I was able to do. I would have been able to take a more specific approach in another program like Clip Studio Paint which is more specific to this task but would have taken longer.
I think it might be an interesting project to consider different ways that artists have tackled how to represent speech bubbles. I don't want to be limited by a limited perception of what is considered to be 'standard' or 'conventional'. These expectations are self-made and ultimately limiting in finding my own path on how I want to effectively communicate with readers. The same goes for use of captions.
I think the amount of research in exercise two meant that I was able to apply my strengths in both aspects of this work. It was also a massive factor in how I approached research exercise six. I think that exercise was my most deeply-researched to date. It was mentally gruelling but I appreciate the end result. Whilst I clarified with my tutor's feedback that there isn't a critical review for this module I do think that this sort of work stands me in good stead for HE5 when I will have to create longer passages of academic writing.
Doing all of the character sketched in exercise three was great fun and I am pleased that overall my tutor was happy with the outcome of the work. I really wasn't sure myself. The other aspect I find really useful is the way that my tutor gives me very specific examples in his feedback. This makes them not just useful for my understanding, but also actionable in improvement. Looking at his examples, I can see that in places I am able to create the kind of "simple, direct and confident line" that I aspire to.
The useful feedback continued into exercise four, where my tutor gave me some context as to the choices in setting the exercise. Whilst it is similar to the KSI exercise, my tutor showed me an image that they had in mind as a possible outcome:
Having this kind of image in the courseware would have been really helpful to set the kind of expectation. However, it makes me think that if it were in the text, would it have influenced my final approach too much? I am really pleased with my approach to this exercise and I am proud of the image I created. I definitely want to take it further and attempt to colour the image again. I will look for opportunities as I go, but I think that this image is a good candidate for assessment, so there is an opportunity for me to refine and improve this image going into the pre-assessment preparation.
Moving onto exercise five I was pleasantly surprised that my tutor thought that I had completed the colour sketch very well as I felt this was my weakest image. He pointed out that the images evoked aspects of the work of Carl Larsson and Peter Doig. Doing visual research into those artists helped me understand what my tutor was referring to, and I can see how it fits the work I created. However, I am unsure of how that made me feel. Both of those artists are a bit 'chocolate box' in their approach. I am not sure if that's something I want my own work to evoke.
My tutor pointed out that there was an "obvious and ideal combination" in rendering some aspects in pen and others with a brush. I really would like to improve my skills in rendering people more with the brush, but it did make me wonder if there might be a happy medium somewhere? I used fineliner pens for this exercise, but perhaps looking into different dip pen nibs could be a good idea? If I could find a pen with enough flex to give me the line variation I want, then I might be able to get the style and control I want.
In the final assignment itself, I am still pleased with the outcome generally and my tutor's feedback was useful and positive. I still feel uneasy with it as a piece. Some aspects, like my Autumn scene, work really well and I manage to render things best here. It that because I prefer that kind of light? My experimentation with watercolour was useful, but also not as successful as I wanted it to be. What seems an easy medium turns into something very difficult as soon as you get past simple block colours and basic shading. I think that it might be useful to increase my proficiency of this medium on a parallel track, and think about other ways I can experiment with colour in my comic work. Both digitally and through physical media.
I have purchased a number of Domestika courses on these subjects, so there an opportunity to see what they bring to my practice. Likewise taking on board feedback around rendering cliffs and stones gives me a lot of opportunity for practice in my sketchbooks.
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