Anyway, enough of the Comics Experience sales pitch. I thought I'd post some of the work I created for our first assignment. The end result of the course will be to have a few pages of sequential art prepared for adding to a portfolio. However, the first assignment was an exercise in creating sequential pages from a non-comic script. Robert provided samples from three novels (the Iliad, Fight Club, and 2001) and asked us to create three "breakdown" pages of sequential art based on one of these samples. I chose the Iliad. I haven't read any of the selected novels but immediately thought the Iliad might be fun since I knew I was going to have to do some research on ancient Greece.
I really questioned how big I should actually make the final image for the class. I really thought I may end up using some of my 11 x 17 pre lined comic boards but eventually (thankfully) thought that would be too big for this assignment. I wound up using the template Robert provided but "blew it up" and fit it on 9 x 12 bristol board. The actual drawing size is about 6.5 x 9.75. Still larger than I needed probably but I had a tough time convincing myself to work on anything smaller.
I've "talked" enough. Here's some art:
Page 1
If anyone is watching Game of Thrones you may notice that the view of the gates of Troy in panel is based on Qarth. I was watching the show on one of the nights I was putting together references and thought it would be a great stand in for Troy in this instance.
I thought I'd take some time showing some of the sketches that were produced before this page was made and provide some insight into just what the fuck I was thinking!
This is the most complete thumbnail I produced before beginning work on the final page. As you can see the panel layout was a bit different. I really wanted to do the three wide panels to begin but I was afraid I couldn't get a good view of Troy in the background of the first panel. Plus, it was a bit time consuming to draw all those charging soldiers the way it was and I'm kind of glad I didn't wind up drawing even more in these wide panels.
Although the "leaping man" in panel 5 looks pretty similar to the finished product there was some work to be done. I really wanted something dynamic but felt confined by the number of panels on the page. Before my final page was started I sketched out some different ideas that I hoped would work.
This shot is actually behind the character (Menelaos) as he's leaping from his chariot. The left side is the chariot (bottom) and horses (top).
This sketch shows him from the front but I was never really happy with how he would fit in the dimensions I had set for this panel. I tried some various angles but was never really happy.
Since I was running out of time I started on the page and then went looking for some references on the internet to help me. The above image is the primary image I used to finally create this image. (I have no idea who this image is credited to. But thanks for the inspiration.)
Page 2
There are four "main" characters in this particular section of the story. Alexandros (Paris), Menelaos, Hektor, and Agamemnon. These four have to look different than the soldiers and the soldiers on each side have to look different than each other. The soldiers biggest differences are in the helmets and shields since I figured that would be the most obvious. The story mentioned something about Hektor having a "shiny helm" so I thought I'd give him one. Plus it gave me an opportunity to draw a kick ass Greek helmet.
Here are a couple of thumbnails for page 2. Even though I know this will never be "complete" and lettered I did take into consideration where some of the word balloons would go since this would be a pretty conversation heavy page. I choose the panel layout of the last thumbnail as my final. As you can see that presents a problem since the first page is a bit too similar. Robert pointed this out during the class critique. I did notice it as well but I was way too far into it to change things. The biggest problem is that I had chosen my page layouts for all three pages but called an audible before starting the first page. The panel layouts would have been different enough (I think, at least) if I hadn't changed things up at the last minute. But once I did I wasn't thinking about what the next page looked like. I guess a lesson can be learned here; the thumbnail and page planning stage is very, very important.
Page 3
Third page. Agamemnon is shown for the first time in panel one (Agamemnon wasn't even flagged by blogspot's spell check? Really!?). Since he's a king I tried to make him appear to be in some sort of grand chariot thing but I don't think I did a good enough job of establishing him in the background of the previous panels to just throw him on the page here. He does look important though. A couple of the more noticeable issues are panels that are too similar to ones on previous panels. The most egregious being the last panel on this page with last panel on page 2.
This is a fairly faithful representation of the final page. Things went pretty well from the get go but I did have to work out that first panel a bit:
I was trying to work in the horses for the chariot initially but I thought I was a bit limited by the number of panels on the page. Seven is quite a bit and I wanted to make Agamemnon as large as I could since this was the first time anyone is seeing him and he is a fairly important character. The last sketch here actually has him flanked by guards, which would make this chariot-thing really big. Again, I got rid of them because of panel size issues.
Well, there you go. Art post no. 1 out of the way. I'll try to keep this updated as possible during the duration of the course. I think it would be fun to share some of this as the class progresses. But of course, is anybody actually listening?
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