Comic Book Editorial project - Live Brief
Duration of Project: 2 Weeks
Role In Project: Illustrator, Co-designer
As a pair, we were tasked with created and editing a page spread for a comic book written by a Nottingham based education charity. Melanie Wheeler and Liam Mills, the lead artist, has given us their developed gothic novel script, and divided among us we needed to edit and create a comic book styled spread.
In my pair, we had decided to divide the category of work between us, we divided the it into two roles, one being an editor and one being a visual artist/ illustrator.
I took on the jobs of character creation and drawing each scene and matching the movement of what I envisioned the characters would look and create in that way.
Finding it challenging to cut down and simplify each scene to one simple movement depicted in the drawing. The editor found that she had to simplify and use the drawings closest to what is needed to tell the story in correct frame work. I would draw the character using references with online models in a similar movement, or take photos of my self imitating the movement to try and get a better understand of how the cloths would sit and behave in that scene.
Yet, despite the refences, I find this project to be considerably quite awkward in movement expression. I couldn't help but compare it to one of my favourite manga artist, Tatsuki Fujimoto, one of the leading manga artists with his most popular work being 'Chainsaw man'.
He is fantastic at depicting the awkwardness in human nature and is still able to inflict an emotional response in pages that require it. A lot of them themes in his stories follow along the lines of how human nature is, and his use of columns and camera angles is admirable in establishing how the characters are viewing/leading the scene.
Another one of this projects that holds more personal to him is the manga called 'Look Back', saying how the story depicted how he thought about art at one point in his life and how he felt powerless when he's talent couldn't help any real life tragedy (Japan had experienced the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake. The moral behind the story was 'finding the meaning in art, as well as the reason for creating it'.
One of the less greater drawings in Chainsaw Man found by this author on Chainsaw Man's 6 Ugliest Manga Panels Prove Tatsuki Fujimoto's Artstyle Can Never Beat Gege Akutami's J
He has said before that he wanted to find his own art style in drawing, and does regret not learning more about real life body postures and stuff, but found his own style everything seem much more impressionable to the reader.
One of the less greater drawings in Chainsaw Man found by this author on Chainsaw Man's 6 Ugliest Manga Panels Prove Tatsuki Fujimoto's Artstyle Can Never Beat Gege Akutami's JJK
Although maybe can be considered less 'glamourise as opposed to 'prettier' manga's on the market. My point is that the 'awkwardness' that Mr Fujimoto draws is done in a way where it still looks more intentional, and is able to convey more use of feeling in his workings. Which what I felt like is missing from my own work, the 'awkward' movement and irregular drawings can't be used as an excuse, I could have still experimented from different perfective points (like Fujimoto has drawn below). It gives a whole different dimension to the page and scene.
Tatsuki's camera angles in pages from ''Look Back''
Most of my scenes are drawn 'head on', which limits the space awareness in the spread.
First page of the edited comic box
The second page of the comic book spread
My sketch up of the beginning scene
My sketch up
My Procreate final draft
My Procreate final draft
My Sketch Up
The Process of drawing it onto Procreate
Un-used Concepts
The first final Scene Sketch Up
Reference List
Zamora, Z. (2024). ‘Drawing Felt Meaningless’: Chainsaw Man’s Creator Already Explained The Real Reason For Making Look Back, & It’s Heartbreaking. [online] ScreenRant. Available at: https://screenrant.com/look-back-fujimoto-reason-heartbreaking/.
