Evaluation

My experience on the course has definitely been an interesting one. I started off on the course wanting to design the most, and this didn't change for the duration of the course. I was at first interested in storyboarding as well but I didn't enjoy it enough to teach myself it along with everything else on the course. I didn't enjoy animating that much but I think that was in part because of the way I learn; I think that a lot more smaller character animation tasks would have gel;per me learn and made me much more interested in animation. Also not having much time to spend on preproduction or many lessons on preproduction made me not enjoy what I was animating - if we spent a lot more time in first year learning basic skills than concentrating on creating finished animations I think that I personally would have carried on. I also found that I did not have time in second year to teach myself how to model/rig along with the rest of our work which is a shame because that would have been a good skill to have with character design. I felt like I was not learning enough design/idea based skills with the course to help me keep my interest, and the more it felt like creating was a chore, the less I wanted to do it. This has helped me realise that I do not want a career in this, and I would rather enjoy and create art for myself with possibly earning a little bit of money on the side for myself instead.

Social Networks

Live Brief Initial Sketches 3

I thought that SWAT gear could potentially be very useful against vampire, adding a tiny bit more shielding. You do have to ask where would the survivors get this from, but we don't yet know what kind of resources etc they have. It would be unlikely I think for multiple characters to have it if any.

I also thought that the 'hillbilly' stereotype could be fun in a game like this, especially as it is often associated with Christianity which is something that plays a large part in vampire mythology.

I ended up going a little more extreme with proportions as I looked into this - these kinds of shapes almost seem like they are there as comedic characters - which they could be, if there was a larger cast of characters in this game. I think that these designs could be a little to exaggerated though, as the game itself sounds fairly serious.

Life Brief Initial Sketches 2

I like the idea of having some kind of priest in this setting because they are perfect against vampires, although I don't know how much it would affect the characters in the game. Trying to design characters with limited detail was hard to do partially because I don't quite know how the models will come out - I know that they are low-poly, but I'm not sure how the texturing will be working and quite how low poly they will be.

I started drawing a little more stylised because not only am I a lot faster at it but I think it would actually work out better; using simpler shapes would be better for the modelers since they only have so much to work with on low poly models. 

Live Brief Initial Sketches

I started off sketching some bits and pieces from the notes that I made last time since both the environments and potentially characters may use these props.

I also quickly sketched down some of the things that happen to shops etc. in riots that might make up a fair bit of the environments in this world. It felt very weird starting off with backgrounds/environment design rather than characters, so I thought that I would switch back over for a while to help me get into the project.

The brief put a lot of emphasis on exploration, so I decided to get some characters down without worrying about them too much; thinking about the stereotypes/occupations first can make it easier to the figure out how to make these things fit in this world.

At this point it was still unclear whether or not there would only be one character and how much they may be involved with the story, or if they were mostly there for gameplay. This meant that I still had time to look at a lot of different character types without worrying about their place in the world. I wanted to make sure that I still got some ideas down for stereotypical characters like the 'tough guy' as above, because they are generally very popular characters.

Live Brief

I have included my main brief as a file for submission, but I won't be posting it as it is still part of a project undergoing development. I can however post my initial sketches etc so far.

I accepted this brief because it was fairly open, and gives me the opportunity to experiment a lot more with both environments and characters. I can focus predominantly with ideas instead of working towards something fully completed, which works well for me. As the project progresses I would likely be creating turnarounds for the 3D modelers as well as possible diagrams of environments which will work well in my portfolio.

Due to the nature of the brief and the stage in which the project is in, I will not have a finished piece before the deadline, but I will have initial ideas and some development to show.

For the exterior environments I am looking into riots as they often come hand in hand with supernatural rise ups. The state of the environment may depend on the type of vampires; plenty of media include vampires who would work like humans to get things back into pristine condition, but there are also some that thrive on violence and terrorising humans so both ideas would be worth looking into. I also asked about the location/architecture but so far the only decision is that it is based in somewhere like the UK or US.

Notes;

garlic

crosses (made of rowan?)

iron

holy water

mirrors

open windows - letting light through in case a vampire can invade

ringing bells

features of a safe house

not necessarily clean or used all that often

does not need to be spacious

function > form

may have been abandoned before

in the middle of nowhere?

stockpile; food, weaponry, bandages shelter etc - may need to stay a while

Injuries, war wounds? What may you do to protect yourself? Do chars have a tan b/c they go out into the sunlight so often to hide from vamps, do very many of the characters wear crosses, do some of the more eccentric ones wear garlic?

Sketches

Recently I've been doing some gesture drawing and anatomy practice to try to learn to draw both more loose and more accurately (not necessarily at the same time, although that would be nice!)

I tend to have a lot of trouble drawings shoulders/arms, so that has been something that I've been concentrating on recently.

Volunteering

I am looking into volunteering at galleries etc as I'm still unsure how involved I want to be with the practical side of art when I leave college, but working with/near art would still be very fun. Since I am intending to work part time anyway I should be able to manage volunteering every so often and this could even help me with networking.

Notes;
JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES

Castlefield Gallery doesn’t currently have any paid job opportunities, however we have a dedicated team of gallery volunteers and we are always interested to hear from people who are looking to gain volunteer experience in a professional gallery environment.


We currently have opportunities for Volunteer Photographers and Volunteer Gallery Assistants:


Volunteer Gallery Assistants at Castlefield Gallery can get involved and gain experience in; marketing & social media, gallery administration, event coordination, exhibition installation and art handling, front of house and visitor services, plus much more. Volunteering at Castlefield Gallery is valuable for both those wanting to develop a career in curation, gallery administration & management, as well as anyone wanting to develop their own artistic practice.


Requirements CG needs volunteer gallery assistants who are personable, hard working, punctual and reliable.

You should be available to volunteer for at least 1 day per month (6.5 hours) for a minimum of three months. However for volunteers to get the best experience 3-4 days per month over a longer period of time is recommended. As all of the staff at Castlefield Gallery are part time we do not offer work experience placements.


Payment Unfortunately we are unable to offer payment. We can however reimburse basic travel expenses and lunch.


Apply Anyone interested should email Matthew Pendergast, Programme Manager on matthew@castlefieldgallery.co.uk. Please include a short statement outlining how volunteering at Castlefield Gallery will help you in your career goals and attach your CV. Matthew will get back to all successful applicants as soon as possible and invite you for an induction at the gallery.

- See more at: http://www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk/about/jobs-opportunities/#sthash.KmrenHHN.dpuf




Manchester Art Gallery and the Gallery of Costume - volunteer roles include delivering tours, facilitate discussion sessions, support artists to deliver our workshop program and help out behind the scenes through research, cataloging and conservation work.

- Find more - Bury, Oldham, Rochdale

Thought Bubble 2015: Writers' Roundtable(2/2)

 MB - no formulaic way to break into comics. "Kelly Sue DeConnick - get your worst comics out of the way now so you're ready sooner". MB - Digital webcomics/building a fan base/awareness is very good for practice and meeting people. Fawkes - against more established comics' way of doing it. Less bias of people - i.e straight white males was most likely. If they know here's an audience for this person's books, hen more likely to hire. Kurtis didn't set out to be a girl power book, just wrote the characters. Thought it would fail horribly. Thought 'fantasy setting by two dudes' would receive eye rolls. No amount of marketing etc could do what the fans do - tumblr, cosplay, getting attention that way.

 Emi - patreon with reader support. A lot of stress but feels good to know people will support her but now has to put out work - more pressure. Has less time to do stuff with her own Plutona book now though. Charles - more diverse and niche markets b/c internet etc really helps. Will continue 'flowering of cool comics' in M/DC and creator owned comics. MB - new blood - stronger and better ---> how will tech change industry? Fawkes - large comp - telling stories over and over won't work so more diverse titles out there, more individual voices + higher reader responses.

 Emi - excited - plutona ignored 15 years ago. Everyone accepting and excited for new comics, more and more art style out there. Kurtis - digital landscape open things up a lot. Webcomics grew but hard to break in - now easier to find and read online. Instagram etc makes everything much more interactive. Fawkes - wide range of things comics can do that TV etc can't and comics can still be more widely explored yet. Emi - think in pictures. Kurtis - love collaborative spirit of i, another creative person takes it and makes it better. MB - form follows function - stories diminished in other forms of media. Charles - amazing seeing it done a few months later. Likes breaking story a lot - public place let ideas come, caught in flow of the place. MB - not a gig in which you get rich. Fawkes - thank god romance comics brought back. Sci-fi re surge recently, love to see more horror. Uzumaki tricks only work in comics.

Thought Bubble 2015: Writers' Roundtable (1/2)

Charles, Marguerite Bennett, Ray Fawkes, Emi Lennox, Kurtis Weibe

Who do you write for? Charles - write for myself - challenge self, say something about who he is. MG - catharsis, discover feelings/opinions etc. Fawkes - driving force that he can't identify. Hope his writing will connect, writes stuff mostly for himself. Kurtis - is there's something that he wants to read that isn't out there, he wants to write it. Women aren't well represented in fantasy, so wanted to do something outside the paradigm. MB - never a time while working in comics that social media didn't effect who she spoke to etc. - found people on twitter (from mad max fanart) to work on bombshells with. Social media - both good and bad. MM - 2 dif writers in comics - just put it out there, or 'stand in front and shout about it'.

Charles - like twitter, easy to write something wrong in 140 characters - career could be completely over from it. Good as an outreach tool rather than for interaction. Twitter lets put self out there in a way that feels relatable, but also letting work speak for self. Kurtis - set up 15 issues of Rat Queen - change a lot after fans so invested a lot of cosplay - don't want to mess with those most popular characters. Marvel/DC fans - can be nasty or supportive but better with creator owned comics - less intimidating. Charles - in a way, M/DC 'handing out pellets' - doing what the fans want? Emi - dif sort of audience from rest of panel - writes about life so doesn't take influence from readers/audience. Writing for self, documenting life so being honest, worried about being judged from auto-bio comic, with social media but 'gotta do what you gotta do'. Take most popular chars from comics - how to plot a course from what they're expecting.

Charles - killed Wolverine - so many ways the story could have been wrong. Needed to tell a story based on what he felt was right. His biggest book by far. Hoping fans would say he did it right. Fawkes - many fans liked the book but treated it like a puzzle - how is he coming back? Kurtis - came into comics a lot later on. Warren Ellis was one of his biggest influences. Emi - influenced by Craig Thompson. Fawkes - Alan Moore's superhero books made him want to write comics. Was a writer before a comic writer. Mentorwise - learned loads by working with a mentor. Margueritte - Scott Snyder was her professor - wanted to be a writer/comics writer. They kept in touch and he reach out and asked about writing a comic together before writing on own. Brian Michael Bendis message board had a lot of writers talking including BMB popping in himself and talking. 'Pluona' series Jeff Lemire - been a friend for a while - wanted to help her write stuff, not just auto-bio which is what she wanted.

Thought Bubble 2015: Creator Owned Comics

Sean Murphy, Matt Schol, Was Craig, Bengal, Jerome, Remender

Most on panel left jobs that pay more than comics b/c excitement of ideas, working with friends etc. Bengal - almost every comic in France is creator owned. Less rewarding there - harder to stand out. Wes worked in games, but just wanted to do comic books. Nice for name on cover, a real personal statement. Matt - less big studios in Italy - a lot of schools of comics - waiter etc while working on own stuff. Never had to pick between comics/anything better. Done some small anim concept stuff. Marvel = constant work, was asked by image to do comics instead. Murphy DC for 7 years - didn't 'fit in', did some Vertigo and some at Image with Remender too. Rememender - inspired by TMNT etc, realised 'oh, anyone can do this' and followed Robert Williams to Zapp comics.

Wrote own comics when very young. Jerome - 6 - Indonesia for a year, started to read comics. Made him want to make them.. Craig - French translations of American comics, B+T. Sort of started with Akira, Teen Titans. Teen Titans turned him into a collector but Eisner's Spirit made him want to do comics. Matt - started with American comics, Italian and manga at the same time. Parents didn't want him to read a lot. Anime Saint Seiya got him wanting to draw as well as Fist of the Northstar and Dragonball. Murphy - Chris Ware, Karl Baker, not gavitating to superhero comics but saw some B+W - tried to so smilar with m/DC style to pay the bills. Remender saw Murphy's Hellblazer comics and asked him to do a creator owned one - initially said no. Remender and Murphy wanted to do a book together, took 3 months of throwing ideas around. Probs a year after taking elements they liked and giving life to. Was 4 1 book b/c style and interests work for plot. Matteo for worlds and things coming together seamlessly. Remender - very little time to read other stuff etc. Looked at some when Matteo - working sometimes 18 hours a day before so couldn't read others, now has free weekends to read books - work is better for not constantly worrying 'what am I doing next?' Murphy - not always a burned bridge when swapping from dc/marvel to creator owned.

Thought Bubble 2015: Sketching Spotlight

Doug Braithwaite, Wes Craig, Isabel Greenberg, and Amy Reeder.

Isabel - doesn't typically have a commercial style, usually gets narrative-based illustrative jobs - much less effort in work only for money than stuff loved. Doug - absorb into life like drawing if you want to be a good artist, no longer any time to. DCA - hard to fill up SB - hard to find the time, airports etc easier to draw random people. Also aren't always inspired. MG - Hard to figure out what to draw/do once started, easier to find stuff to do with comics, learn to draw what the comic calls for. DCA Good once in a while to go back to studying/try something new, contributes ideas to stories if he has any that writer can add to script. Final script after art work. DB - read the script a few times, plays through head like a film, starts jotting down little panel compositions in margins then layout the pages.

2x3" atm then blow thumbs up. Can get composition right at that size.

MG - Hard time coming up with stuff, es to public places for ides - curiosity of people is motivating, keeps on topic. Only draw something right once. Draws images for separate panels first before actual panels, and figures out the panel shapes afterwards. Blows up thumbnails and prints bigger. Hand-draws everything. DB - comps a lot more now for adjusting layouts. MG - comp nice, edit endlessly + make it disappear. Colours + letters digitally. Wesley - paper. Roughs by hand - 4 thumbs per page of paper, print on blue line, bristol board, photoshop adjustments. Doesn't like drawing on glass (tablet), prefers the feel of paper.

DB - paint greyscale (time constraints) - nice compromise, more colour in photoshop + overlays. Bought old canvasses, don't end up using them. Wes - knows it's way faster to comp but ideas come faster when writing by hand. Could draw digital more if could swivel it like paper. DB - think people should learn more traditional art, use digital as a tool - learn better otherwise. MG - see big picture and be loose first - too much concentration on detail b/c so much zooming in/out. Digital looks too 'floaty' because of stroke, undo, stroke, undo. 

Wes - being comic art was more feasible than becoming an astronaut etc. Kept drawing, thought being a comic artist was probably not going to happen. Skills good enough that maybe he could do it. Isabel - was always going to be art. Can't make a living with illustration graphics, well, you kind of can. Happened slowly with making small comics & getting a book deal. Never made comics before - got into them because it's like stories + drawings. Doesn't do comics for the sake of being a comic artist.

MG - graduated college, comics weren't on radar at all. Got into manga, found a USA contest manga book. Never considered being an artist. If I treated this like school, could I learn? Made it into a contest book. Desire to tell stories. Minimum  amount of people messing with you ideas. Wes fave comics are from only one person making them (rather than a team). MG - doesn't like collaborators and editors etc. - likes more control. MG - if you're having trouble, sketch as loose as possible. Make happy mistakes. DB - spontaneity - flow, movement. Wes - drawings where too much attention is paid to one things isn't good and doesn't look focused enough. MG - hard pencil with a very small point. Shalvey - small layout easier to see whole picture - not deal with details. If comp doesn't work when super tiny, it doesn't work when bigger. Shalvey, life drawing - don't worry about what you're doing. Dif purposes to dif types of drawings. Wes - drawn from real life and work out kinks themselves. DB - find out who your influence's influences are. Look at everything for influences - pre-raphaelites, impressionists. Even stuff you dismiss as rubbish - still stuff left to learn from them. Develop own personal style, try not to replicate. That's how to grab editors' and readers' attention.

Wes does some writing on the side but art takes so much longer. Doesn't work on too much to keep ideas fresh - save money to take time out to do own comics. DB - some writers let him pace stories and panels how he wants. Sees self more as a storyteller than an artist. MG - goal to write and draw all own stuff - 'my art, more than just the pencils - story continued in colours and letters, synergy when everything's all coming from one brain. Write for self - immediately can make something  more unusual or not. Wes - play to strengths make images better work - writer might mean you're not playing to your strengths - but on own, might mostly know what's comfortable. MG - scripts often add too much , not enough to space to draw from. loves a lot of direction on the characters feelings  + expressions. Anime and Norman Rockwell Influences.

Thought Bubble 2015 Decompressed

WORLDBUILDING
Kate Leth, Kieron Gillen, Noelle Stevenson, Rick Remender, Scott Snyder
 Leth - did not intend  to be a writer. wrote very few comics before asked to do an adventure time comic. Taking someone else's sandbox and building on it - she originated with fanfiction. Remender -  subconsciously building on things that we could subconsciously be dealing with in the future. Why build a world? Rem - tricky with marvel, can't change world. boundaries already. LR/EW process feels dead if not working for fun. Nimona - jobs that fit based off her personal work. If you're telling a story in an established  world, still some world building sometimes? People like to live in lots of dif worlds. Snyder - suffusing world with everything you're passionate about. Creator owned - inherently your own - need to convince people it's accessible, can create a world that is a projection on how you feel in a certain place or situation. Make the audience care! Build worlds because it's fun. Emotional Resonance. What connects your own thing with everyone else? 3rd year of writing, only just feel like beginning to be a writer. Rem - find something you can put yourself into. Gillen - place as a character. Nimona - playful tone but still sets up for a darker tone. Noelle - read a lot as a kid. Made a lot of stories but didn't know where they were going?

 Nimona - knew the ending immediately, started as generic superhero story last moment changing to knights etc ----> world developed from that. Didn't spend a lot of sketching out - some chars designed on the panel in finalised drawing. Not all of it had so much thinking but knew the tone of the story, knew where it was going. Last minute changes allowed with a webcomic - less so with an editor. Leth - a lot is improvised. In other worlds, knew how it had to end. Power up - these or chars we want to explore. Not necessarily an ending. Will have 2 hour talks about their apartment, workplace etc - tells you so much about what a char is about. Gillen - done so well in video games. Leth - Gone Home - taught to pay attention. Snyder - chars conduits for him to explore himself. - as long as know the end game, he's good to go. General map = exploratory throughout the rest. Al - wanted to go all over the place at first. Likes to do prep and very tight outline - gladly deviate from it if it feels right. Explore how we create monsters in our head through gender, race etc. Likes not being precise if it doesn't surprise you, it doesn't surprise anyone else.

 Remender - no right or wrong way to do it. Do want to have an outline and know where you're going. At one point rewrote loads and had a checklist - the thing would be perfect - then has to write it for a year  - takes the jout out of it. Second guess or get bored it. Idea can live with me for so long  that they get bored of it. Still structure, intention, beats, landmarks,  pre-planning beginning, middle and end - can see what needs to be cut. Black science 12 issues was cut to 6 issues. Save the Cat structure - a lot of films based on it (based on Ripley saves the cat (name sake) Gillen - like if every song in the world using the same beat - boring and predictable. Remender - survey where people enjoyed not having an unpredictable ending ----> can make people enjoy it less, want what they are comfortable wih.

 Leth - why Saga works - you know where this is going; "someone I love is going to die". Ewing - BkV - writing in 5 act sructure instead - why it works so well? Unlikable chars are good - stretch our perceived limits of our empathy. Leth - get mad if you kind of empathise with them. Snyder - it's suffocating knowing/using a structure but start using your own and start making it about something important to you. Making sure the story takes you somewhere emotionally.  Chars can surprise you and take you to places that you don't want to go in. Emotional authenticity > well built plot.

Gillen - most people think contrived D&D when worldbuilding is mentioned - worldbuilding is actually a tool, not an end product. Would rather read smething that takes risks etc. Filling - story is a mirror and when everything else falls off, you're staring at yourself. Love to see more worldbulding more worlds that we wants than worlds than we fear. Potential in 'This is how the world could be'/ Noelle - darker worlds allow that element of Hope

Flower Bookmarks

I have been commissioned to make a few simple floral bookmarks, so I thought that I would have a little bit of fun with it and use Brusho inks. I think that they stop the bookmarks from looking too graphicy which doesn't always go with flowers, but I like the effect that it does have. This was extremely open and vague, but the client was already happy enough with the few initial ideas that I created. It would be interesting to think a little bit more about bookmarks since that isn't something I've ever really thought about making but could be good for a little more illustrationy practice.

Book Layout

I am creating a book of my development work for extended for the exhibition, so I have been thinking about my earlier research of art books. I came to the conclusion that I want to keep the layout as simple as possible in this case, as some of my ideas have a lot of small design, and most of it is just that, ideas, so it doesn't need to be overly fancy or anything. I will use different colours for different sections but here are a few simple example of the pages

Art Book Layout 5

One Punch Man fits a lot of information on one page to demonstrate the different outfits, angles and expressions for the anime. There is a lot of tiny annotations to talk about individual parts of the designs rather than a wall of test which makes the page a lot more interesting. Despite being similar colour to the main character's design, the page borders don't really take attention away from the designs - possibly because there are so many anyway but I think it helps that this isn't the kind of huge main character that demands attention - in fact, it may work for the character if he did blend a little into the background considering the context of him in the show.

Space Dandy has mostly line art which is separated into different boxes, making it seem a little less busy than it is. Again, there are some tiny annotations but the bulk of the text is in a box to the right. Using colour that isn't on the character and white text makes this much more interesting than just your standard black text wall. It also acts like a nice border and splits up the text and visuals allowing you to concentrate on each separately. The coloured box allows us to see the character's silhouette in white which keeps the page balanced - a black silhouette may stand out too much considering the fact that everything is lined in black, rather than coloured in black.

Different accessories and part of the outfit are separated again here to explain the smaller parts of the design. It also uses a dark background to make the character's lighter pastel colours stand out more. The borders are very faint but keep the page feeling neat and well put together. Parts of the text are highlighted in red to make it look more interesting.

What techniques I use will depend on what I show on the page, but I feel as though I now have a better understanding of how certain layouts complement certain designs and what to do to keep the page looking interesting.

Art Book Layout 3

ATLUS'S Persona Art Books are some of the most interesting and informative that I have seen. As Persona is very heavily character based, a lot of thought goes into every part of their outfit, Persona, and fighting style. Persona is predominantly 2D so a lot of attention is put on creating crisp, finished designs. A lot of annotation is used to demonstrate exactly how things work as there is a lot of fighting involved and not using 3D models makes it harder to animate without knowing the specifics.

The layout of the page is simple, but uses a few of the character's specific colours to make it a little more interesting and make everything feel more connected.

The attention to detail can really be seen when looking at their fighting moves - everything is carefully storyboarded and planned out to make sure that it is perfect for the character in question, and the boxes and sections used help to separate the images and make them easier to understand. I will not be going into this much detail because of the nature of my work, but this is a great example or a clear precise way of explaining a character's design and movement.

Art Book Layout 2

Borderlands 2 Shows some of the design stages before it is taken into 3D and rendered out. This does not apply to any of my projects but it is interesting to see exactly how a design started out compared to how it looks 100% finished. A lot of the sketches are in B&W to show values again, making sure that they are readable even without colour. The page clearly shows the game and the character's name without taking up too much space or distracting the viewer.

Borderlands has numbered and different images and used arrows to give the audience a clear understanding of the order in which these assets were created.

Fire Emblem Art Book shows a lot of the possible head and face designs that characters have. This is very important since a lot of Fire Emblem's art is 2D as it uses a visual novel style of storytelling for a great deal of the game - it is mostly the top half of the characters that get seen, so those are the most important parts. The layout of the page is minimal, because Fire Emblem has so much tiny detail in it's designs which may be ignore if the page has other things going on with it.

Art Book Layout 1

I've been looking into the design or Art Books recently - not only could it help me to create a book of development work for the exhibition but it could also help me in the layout of my portfolio. I need to keep it simple and keep the focus on my designs but I want the page to look a lot more interesting than last year. I have been looking at both game and animation art books, Western and Eastern to see what kind of layouts work and different ways of presentation.

Bioshock Infinite uses different page layouts depending on the contents of the page. In the first image, there is a lot of colour and value exploration - using grey backgrounds help to make some of the colours stand out, especially the white shirt that Elizabeth wears. As backgrounds are not always white/of the lightest value, the neutral gray helps emulate the natural environment. The second image shows images of various sizes as they went through the development stages, putting more emphasis on the later ideas that made it into the game. This makes the page easy to read as larger images tend to be the most important ones, letting the readers know the order and end result of this design process.

As the culture of each different place in Dragon Age is so important, so is the fashion. Separated images of each part of the outfit help to make it more understandable, and is also useful for the cosplay community, as a lot of effort goes into Dragon Age cosplays. The purple borders help to bring your attention further in, towards the center of the page while also allowing the further out elements such as the gloves stand out, rather than getting lost at the edges of the page. The text is limited, but gives the reader a good enough understanding of the important elements that make up this dress and the context that it would be seen in.

Christian Ward

Christian Ward is another artist who creates illustrations for comics that stands out well.




His work often involve different patterns, shapes and textures that aren't seen that often around comics. Defined black lines and bright colours set the atmosphere well it make the pieces even more interesting.


He also has a very good sense of composition to help lead the viewer's eye exactly where it is intended to go. Negative space is important in a lot of his work, helping to define the busier parts of the image and avoid distracting from the designs, patterns and colours. This kind of thinking outside the box is something that I could definitely work on.

Kevin Wada

Kevin Wada is an illustrator that I really admire. Work like his is not seen often in comics, as he uses water colour and puts more of a fashion illustration spin on things. He mostly does commissions and comic book covers, meaning that he gets to draw a wide range of characters, which sounds great.



Marvel reach out to work with him not long after he sold a print of a fashion piece that he created of the X-Men. His inspirations include Tom Ford, Alexander McQueen and Givenchy among others,



He often paints a lot more queer and non-white characters in Marvel which is one of the things that helps his work stand out, especially in the world of mostly straight white male comics.



Looking at fashion and fashion illustration would be a good way to further my skills, and creating things for a medium like comics in a way that hasn't been done before is definitely a good way to get noticed.

Printing

I wanted to have a look at some printing companies in Manchester that could be useful if I make prints to be sold online or at conventions. I am also considering the possibility of looking for employment at somewhere like this as it might help me to learn more about printing and quality.

The main things I am looking at from a printing service is first of all good quality - good colours and good paper. Things should be printed well, not wonky, and no scuffs or scratches on the product. They also need to be fast and fairly inexpensive. Ideally, it would be easy to get both small and large batches of images printed.

I plan to try out some of these places in the near future so that I know where would be best to get my art printed.

Manchester Printing
https://www.manchesterprinting.com/manchester-printing-services-about-us/

Appleyard Press
https://www.appleyardpress.com/

We Are Creation
http://www.wearecreation.co.uk/print/

Manchester Printers
http://www.manchesterprinters.com/

Claire Hummel

Claire Hummel is an artist that I have been following for years, after finding her through Harry Potter fanart. Her art always has a lot of character, despite often having simple lines and colouring. She is now a production designer, after creating concept art and illustrations for different companies, so I looked at her blog and some interviews to look at what she considers to be most important when thinking about design.

- Illustration at RISD (Rhode Island School of Design)
focusing on rendering, design, storytelling etc

Quote from interview - "My process always starts with an idea or a prompt I want to work with- sometimes it’s brought on by some amazing reference I’ve stumbled across, but I usually want some intent or purpose to motivate my character design process. Who is this character? What’s their role, social standing, personality, career, genre, and universe? What do I want to get out of this piece?"

- Trust your instincts, know the rules before you break them, get a LOT of research and reference images. Some quick studies from reference before designing to internalise it and learn about it. Integrates reference into loose thumbnails and ideas before tightening up and adding details, thinking about silhouette. B&W is less distracting and helps to get the design and value structure down - "an early character sketch for a pitch meeting is going to be much looser than a fully-painted turntable that I’m going to pass off to a modeler."

Bioshock Infinite designs, illustration and concept at Neopets, character and costume work for Sunset Overdrive.

Is currently a production designer at HBO Digital Products.

Printing Comics/Books

Print on Demand is a method of selling comics without the risk of spending a ton on the production of comics, and only creating them as and when they are needed.

This also saves the creator a lot of money since they do not have to put money into crating comics before there are even any sales. Printing on Demand can be good if you want to create just a few to give out, perhaps to show a publisher or to test how the comic actually works in print. This can also be a good idea for selling comics at conventions, as there is often not enough time or space to sell tonnes of comics.

Digital printing is similar to Print on Demand but usually prints 100 - 100ish books, you you would need to ensure that you can sell that many copies before considering this method.

Offset printing is mostly used to print comics in bulk. For a series expecting a LOT of sales, or to provide a bookshop with copies, this is a very good idea as it works out very cheap per book. It just isn't as profitable if you do not sell many comics, which means that it isn't necessarily a good option for self publishing.

Each of these methods depend on the audience and how many copies you can sell. If a Kickstarter was does to create and sell a comic, it would be easy this way to determine how to sell a comic from the number of donations and people already willing to buy it, making it much easier. A Kickstarter generally needs a decent sized fan base anyway to reach the monetary goal - comics without this kind of fan base have a harder time of determining how they may sell, but in that case printing on demand may be the best idea.

Self Publishing [Comics]

One thing I have discovered this year is, that s much as I love designing and drawing, it doesn't feel quite the same when done for someone else, or because I 'have' to. Through this realisation, I have decided that trying to work for a company or freelance would not be the best of options for me.

If I had to pursue some kind of career in art, I think that something that allows me to create me own work and so have more freedom would be best. Things like Redbubble, although not very profitable, do help with this but if I was to go bigger, Self Publishing is probably the best thing for me to look at.

Self Publishing means more freedom, and working on your own terms, which is great. This does mean a lot more responsibility and risk though, as I would have to spend a lot of time and effort in advertising/marketing and physically creating the product.

The actual physical creation of a product may not actually be as big a problem in current times, with the rise of digital publications and comics. Digital products can be much easier for some people to access, faster and more convenient and means that things don't have to be created and posted which means less risk and more instant sales. The problem with this, is that not everyone wants to pay for a tiny file; if there is nothing physical that the customer is receiving, many do not feel that it is worth it (which I think is part of why comics sales are not suffering too much with the introduction of digital comics).

Many webcomic artists create their comic and mostly generate income via adverts, and then move on to merchandising once they have a decent sized following. This can include producing a finished webcomic as a printed comic/graphic novel, which has worked great for Noelle Stevenson's webcomic Nimona, which was then nominated for an Eisner award. This method slowly builds up a following over the years creating an instant market for the comic, even if that isn't necessarily as large a following as regular comic books. Stevenson's comic was published by HarperCollins, which does most of the work that someone would have to do while self publishing, but this shows that putting your work out there and creating something that could be self published may garner the attention of bigger names and companies that could help take away some of the stress of self publishing.

Being published by someone else does mean that if the comic is already online, it would have to be taken down, which could lessen the traffic to your website. Self publishing means that you can essentially do what you want, and in fact you may need to keep a comic online to ensure that people are aware of it, and if they already know the content of the finished product, they may be more willing to take the risk and buy it than if they couldn't read it before hand. I think that if I was to consider this method of creating a comic and self publishing, I would want to have the whole comic finished and online to lessen the stress of scheduled posting for a webcomic. This also makes it easier to ensure that the whole comic flows well both storywise and visually, as it is often too late to change things in a webcomic when some pages are already uploaded.

An important thing that I would need to get sales either way would be a way of of being noticed and heard, which s best done by building up a following on social media. Producing art that is similar to the sort of things I would like to sell is a good idea to keep the audience's interest, even if this includes some fan art, since that is easy to find and shared very often on social media sites.

Research and Engagement Presentation

In PPP so far, I've mostly looked at the different options I have available to me, since I'm undecided with what exactly I'm going to do when we finish college.

I felt like freelancing was a big thing that I should look into, if only because of all of the options it gives me. I did keep finding more negatives about it though, which might be more because I am unsure about doing it. I like the idea of being able to try so many different things, especially if my portfolio contains illustration as well as design for games/animation, but with the financial side and the amount of networking you have to do to get jobs etc, it is a little bit daunting.

It's partially the constant job searches that I find off putting when it comes to freelance and being in charge of my own work, so I've been looking at agencies as an alternative. I was surprised to find agencies aimed towards gaming companies along with agencies for other areas involving art, and I thought that would be interesting to look into especially as it could allow me to specialise even more in the future. The benefits and limitations of working for an agency are as above. I'm not yet decided if working for an agency would be quite right for me yet, either.

I thought that it would be worth looking at the recurring requirements I've seen when looking at companies as well, just to know what would be needed if I did work for a company. A lot of companies I have found only hire people in for certain projects which means that their requirements might be completely different depending on the brief which does make it a bit harder to research some things that they want, but I found a few points that most if not all of the character design jobs had that I found (a fair few of which were on the animation jobs website). A lot of the jobs I looked at were from Nickelodeon as well just because they have a lot going at the moment, and it was interesting to see how little experience some of them actually asked for.

Even though it is a little less work based, I've also been looking into different art books. I want my portfolio to stand out and look good, so I'm investigating different ways to lay out my pages and make them look interesting. I'd have to be careful not to make them too busy and stop my designs from fading into the background which is why I want to look at quite a few. I like the Persona 4 Arena art book on this slide because not only does it have all of your usual design elements, but it also has diagrams of how the characters actually move, showing key frames of their fighting animations which give you a much clearer idea of how they act. 

Some work much better being simple, though. The page on the left which I think is from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs has a really nice contrast between the drawn designs and 3D models. The models show how they would look in the actual animation, whereas the drawings show personalities etc much more making it quite a balanced page. On the right, Morrigan from Dragon Age has the different parts of her outfit shown as more of a guide to her outfit than the design process, and since it's so finished the more decorative page looks a lot better. Despite the detail in the borders, the page is still nice and clear and the character does not get lost in the background, keeping the page nice and readable.

After researching these slides, I'm still not 100% sure what to take further and what sort of plan I should focus on, so I've made a simple list of the next things that I need to do. I'm definitely going to go to more events even though I'm still trying to plan it all out, and I want to have business cards made and ready by then. I need to decide on what companies to visit, if companies are in fact the best way to go; I'm not sure if talking to freelancers or conversing with agencies would be a better idea for me yet. I want to make more things for Redbubble since I've stopped and haven't had anything new on for ages just as something to keep designing for no matter what kind of job I go for. Last on my list for now is creating new portfolio pages, including editing older pages and experimenting with layouts for newer pages.

I think once I visit/decide where I'm visiting I'll have a clearer idea of which way to research and start working towards, since a lot of my portfolio depends on that and start making more connections.