OUIL 505 APPLIED ILLUSTRATION JACK NEWBERT
i propose to create a a selection of characters that will then be applied into the chosen context ( game, movie, comic, tv) the body of work that i will create based on this will be then used to pitch that. with in that pitch will be the context and the promotions of that and the merchandise of it. my target audience is followers of the game, film and comic book industry. the context will have a theme and that theme will be researched in depth to get the best translation of the theme. the theme will be based with in a time period of history. the body of work that i will be developing will include sketch book development - visual journey and visual research. connect sheets of the characters. the characters in there chosen context. i will present using a project report and a selection of presentation boards that outline the key points in my journey. key points that made the next step towards my final result.
Research was the key for me in this project. I kicked this project off by researching concept art. Concept art is where I want some of my practice to exist. Getting a better understanding of how a concept artists works and what is expected of that artist. Know knowing all this and understanding how a concept artist should present and pitch his ideas will help me forward with this project. In my research I found out were I would pitch this project if I was to propose this idea to publishers. There are many different ways to get your concepts and novels published for this kind of comic. The best way would be to send my work to publishers. Publishers such as nobrow press. They Work with indie comics and have a great reputation for publishing none professional comics. Researching all this is such detail has given me so much more knowledge on the publishing of Comics and novels. I have a larger understanding of concept artists and that industry. I have a Clear goal as what I have to do to get my work into that industry I know know what work I have to create To make a strong portfolio.
Above- some of the concept art that has infulanced the work in my project
When I decided to make a comic book I knew I didnt have the time to make a story. So I had to Find the conetnt of my comic book some were. I was reminded of song that was inspiring a Song that my tutor from level 4 had showed us. Chad VanGaalen - Molten Light is a song about Two brrothers who murder a woman and she rises from the dead to get her revenge. At first the idea Was to create the song as a comic but as I got more Nad more into the project I was coming up with Ideasthat lead the content of the comic to be inspiredAnd loosely based on the song molten light.
I also had to find a theme for this Comic book, a theme from a time With in our history. At the same Time that I was looking for a Theme I was been influenced by The tv program the vikings. As Firstly an artist and secondly an illustrator iv been wanting to draw Viking things but havnt had the time Or opportunity so I took the chance Put both needs together. Needing To draw vikings and needing a theme
The content of the song is a scary one, I wanted to take this opportunity and create a horror comic book that was up there with the best. so i went on a movie marathon taking mental notes of directress used there jump scares and there power of suggestion. i learned a lot from watching these. these films influenced the direction i want to go with this horror comic. i want this book to be seen as one that peotple remember by the shocking images and things they wouldn't expect to see in comics. out of all the films i watched i was most pleased with gullermo del toro direction. his use of colour and atmosphere with detail realy nailed horror for me. his creature creation was fantastic.Ă‚ Above films I watched. Below sketch book
Del toro's sketch book really did help my practice. His sketch book helped me with the creature Development.
i rented his book out from the library. in it he states how illustrators and film directors are one and the same. and that fascinated me because hes right..they both direct whats going on in the frame so that it can be translated well for the viewer. his sketch books was most impressive full of notes and dodles of what he wanted to be concepted. high detailed notes of the characters personality...every inch of the character was in them sketch book
My sketch books have been the strengh in my project. Its here that powered through and got downLots of ideas that helped my development through out. All of my visual questions was answered in My sketch books. I had a pretty solid look in mind that I wanted to create. It took a few pages but I Finally got it down on paper that what I had in mind. A lot of drawings I had created in my sketch books that was intentianlly going to be used for my creature was too much like other creatures all ready created. I noticed that I was making sketchs of a organism that like from the thing 1980 movie. So I hit the books harder and moved away from that as much as possible with out loosing what I had in mind.
t
The final concepts that I created that I have to chose one from that I will applie into the comic book
This was a huge step in my personal practice The question weather or not I have the ability to be a concept artist as been in my head for years forever asking can I actually do it and is my work clear enough and good enough to achieve it. Well it was at this stage in my project that I was happy with what I had made and felt that I could have what it takes to be a concept artist...happy little jack right there.
Now that I felt I was able to make god concept art. Ideas of my own and at a good quality I didn’t want to stop. I gave my self one more task of stripping back the creature and making it more human like.
t
I didnt intend to use this concpet in the comic but at a peer review and group crit I found that it had a much better reaction from the other concepts I had made. People said that there was more to it that people can relate to (I.e a human) and seeing that made it all more scary than the others. Yeas the others was scary but there wasnt anything to relate to, and new it would be fake if you saw it.
T
There are many things that I could trip up over with this viking theme. So many myths and legends That arnt true like the one that vikings had horned Helmets. I made sure that I was as close as reality With it. I did a lot of research. I researched the art Of the vikings. How they lived. What they wear. What Weapons they used. I researched there gods and Even there myths. I spent around 7 solid days r researching vikings contextually and visually. Using the body of work that I had collected I was Ready to create a viking character that will be applied Into context of its comic. Researching viking thoroughly Helped me have a better understanding what a viking Would look like and help me create a personality For a character. I enjoyed the research because it Helped my development in creating the character... Thorough research is something I will take with me from this Project and apply to my practice in future
t
Know that I had both characters it was time to apply them into there content. The next step was the to create the comic book pages that the characetrs would exist. This was the most dornting step. The step that I wasnt looking forward to creating at all. I knew this was the part were I would be super picky and when I finished a page I would compare it to marvel comics and hate it. I would notice that I hadn’t been consistent enough and then that would result in me remaking the comic pages over and over until I nailed it. I spoke about my concern to a tutor and he gave me a talk that gave me encouragement that every illustrator in the beginning of there careerer compare there work to others and that its normal and basicly gave me a pep talk about how good my work is for the industry that im targeting. Im documenting this because this was again another step forward for my practice. Another confident boost I suppose
These was the first pages that I had created I wanted to try something different I wanted to push my practice far away from what it usually is. I was happy that I did I enjoyed letting go from my chocolate box drawing stuff...i was that happy I was going to use it for my final pages. At a group crit every one loved it. The feed back said it gave it drama and tension. After I got it out of my system I started to notice why I dont draw in this style. It did see consistent enough it was hard to follow. And it looked messy to me. But with another group crit around the corner I decided to draw some more pages as I normally would and ask my peers to compare the both and there verdict would be my final pages.
The style that I normaly draw in was said to be the more succesful because it was more like the comics on the shelfs the other was said to be the best because it was different but im not aiming to be different im aiming my comic at the comic book fans and my research tells me the majority like clear sharp drawings.
These pages are the content of the creature. The right hand side pannel shows one of my other concepts rising from the creature on the right, one of my ideas favoured from my peers. I left this black and white to show the variations of the comic in the pitch. Leaving it black and white was inspired by the walking dead comics.
Thumbnails for covers
The covers have been the hardest part of this project. I couldnt make the covers work I had put so much pressure on my self. Pressure to make the covers powerfull and dramatic. I had researched comic covers, game covers, and movie covers. Doing so made my expectations of my self so high and the slightest thing that didnt work on the cover I started again blaming it on the media. Im a strong painter and I tried to paint the cover and failed. Im a strong drawer and expected to nail it first go but didnt. I gave it ago in digital and failed again I was at a low,
A low point with this project. My tutor helped me a lot as she has experience in book illustration. She suggested that I make it more simple and dont give the reader too much on the cover. After that talk I gave it one more try and it worked. I learnt that even the simple things can be just as strong as the detailed complicated things.
The comics in content – comic book shop – itunes – and downloads
When it came to the promotions I visited my locol comic book store and took note of how they promoted there comics in store. Here created my own standee using the character I developed for the comic. I used photoshop to create this. I uploaded a photo of the comic book store and digitally added my concept I used airbrush and distorting tools to make it look fitting to the environment This was a huge step in my practice! My photoshop skills aren’t that great but I was happy that I did this from scratch and that I did use some graphic burger template.
Right- lables out lining were to find the comics was all over the shop but it wasnt to help you find them it was to lure youto them. Again I did the same as I did before and made the refelctions look real using airebrush tool... ill be doing dgital paintings before 2025 you watch!!!!
When it came to the merchandise I didn’t just want to through my cover work on every stationary item and every gadget case known to man, I wanted to target my audience and I got a good under standing of what to create for that audience.
This project has developed my research skills by far, I dont tend to go so much into detail when it comes to researching. I researched the art of vikings, the living, everything I could to get a grasp of how the vikings was so my comic was strong, was as accurate as it can be to vikings. I researched concept artists and how they worked and how the concept artists was expected to work in the industry. I researched the comic book industry so I had a better knowledge of how to apply that to this project. My photoshop skills was developed in this project also. I didnâ₏™t know how to use graphic burger or anything like that so I was left with my low level of photoshop skills to upload images and distort them and paint edit them to look like they belong on the applied object. This was very testing but the results are strong and I feel that bit more confident with applying things into objects using photoshop and in doing so my skill level has grown. This was also the firs time I created a successful digital colouring so super happy about that.
My method of image making was pushed further in this project. When I was creating my concepts for the characters I was using different tools for different things such as a Japanese ink brush for the out line (tiny) and I used tooth brush to create the flicks for texture and I used the side of a blade to create that scrapping look that I use toe create shadow. I always use this tools in my practice but this time I had taken more time and was more careful when it came to applying these methods. I used cut outs from pieces of paper to control the tooth brush flicks and I used the top range ink for the Japanese ink pen. I could have developed the images in digital, and got the same affect and in half the time but with in my research I fell in love with the artists that created there pages analog. I did realise that I have to practice like hell on drawing sequential
My strengths have been the same through out the year, my ability to work fast and at a good quality. This has come in handy due to the fact that when I was drawing the finals images for the characters I was getting the perporstion wrong and the drawings of the creatures was coming out all wrong and been able to work fast aloud me to be able to make 10s of mistakes and then been bale still create the final image in the same time that I planned to have the concept finished. I planned to spend 3 hours on each concept and sometimes I redrew the characters over 15 times and still end with a happy, strong result with in that 3 hours. Id like to say that the way I use my sketch book is a stregnth. In this project I pushed the ideas far and drew and drew and drew until I ended up with the actuil thing that I had in my head. And as a inspired concept artist I think thats a good skill to have. But my drawing skills have been the key strength in this project. Expression, depth, perspective and proportion. Creating the mood all these have been applied in the images and thats what has made these illustrations work best. Thats not me blowing my own trumpet but thats the based on the feed back from peers. Even though Iv just boasted how good my drawing ability have been in this project its also been my weakness. In 503 my work was land scape themed and in 504 there wasnt any anatomy drawings needed. None serious anyway. So when it came to drawing the characters in this project I was out of practise. The drawings was out of scale and each time I drew a character it took me multiple times to nail the proportion of the body. Even now the project is over im still out of practice my summer goal is to get to the level that I was before about an author project. This project has left me with a better knowledge of the industry that I want my work to exist in. its left me with more questions of my own practice, such as style and how should I apply my concept work. How does my work exist with in the industry. Is my work strong enough to be the in the comic industry. Iv also been left with the feeling a more clear vision to what I need to do to get into this industry.