For this exercise, I had to create a one-page comic that followed the general premise of
girl meets boy,
girl loses boy,
girl wins the boy back
With the additional freedom that the gender roles of the story could be changed in whatever combination I chose. I started this exercise with two factors very much are the forefront of my decisions: that I was way off my pace for my studies, and that I had completed similar exercises for my Graphic Fiction module. The anxiety of being behind was useful to keep me focused, however, the feeling my brain had of repetition made it hard for my brain to see any interest or novelty in the exercise. This made activation difficult.
Rather than my usual approach of writing out a script, I took the "Stan Lee" approach and chose to explore the general premise and beats of the story. That would allow me to tell the story visually and then add the lettering last. It reduced some of the activation barriers, which was what I needed at that moment. I tried to think about alternative takes on the stereotypical romance, and that also helped add some novelty.
I selected the story option that used a play on words (Girl meets Bouy). I chose to go with a traditional 9-panel comic layout as that allowed space for all of the plot beats, was predictable for pacing, and removed any worries I might have about frame layout.
With a nine-panel grid in place, I sketched out the story I had in my head into roughs and then followed that up with tighter pencils.
I completed the pencils on my iPad as a way to keep my pace going while my mental health suffered and I did not have the best structure or routine to help me study and practise my creativity. I experimented with trying to ink the comic in a watercolour fashion, but I couldn't get the kind of effect I wanted. So I switched to a more traditional approach, and did the line inking, also on the iPad. This made it relatively straightforward and enjoyable enough to keep my pace.
Inking is quite meditative, and I enjoyed trying to keep everything reading well in black and white. I then had a gap before I could pick the exercise back up. When I did, I was in my new creative space in the garden. Just over two years to the day after my conservatory was crushed in Storm Eunice with me inside of it, I finally had a place to do my work and art that I could call my own. The difference was immediate, and I wanted to create for the first time in weeks. Using my drawing tablet and PC, I set about colouring the comic, and then adding in the lettering digitally.
I chose a pretty basic rendering style so that I could make swift progress. It's not the kind of work that I'd like to do in the long run, and it certainly didn't push any boundaries for me. However, perfection is the enemy of done - and I needed to be done as soon as possible to claw back some semblance of progress in my studies. I made some specific choices with the colour, like choosing muted colours to start, and gradually adding more chroma as the main character started to find and reinvent herself with the aid of her new-found love.
All in all, I think it's a fairly successful little comic. Yes, there is a big leap between the second and third panels, but it works well enough. I'm certainly not going to lose sleep over that plot hole and I am glad to be able to move on and start enjoying my creativity again. You can see the finished comic below:
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